>The businesses will take care of the workers if they are successful. That is no longer the case. The business model that prevails in America right now is that labor costs are the best place to gain on the profit vs costs equation. The more successful a business becomes the more likely it will be that they will reduce payroll to further inflate profits for the executive management and shareholders. Not everyone is equipped to become an MBA, nor should they need be in such a vast economic system as the United States. We need burger flippers as well as CEO's and they should and can be paid a wage that is sufficient to live on without derailing the company growth. Most companies only need a single CEO but they always need vastly more labor consistent with the size of the company. If our destiny truly lies in automated personal service delivery and outsourced skilled trades manufacturing then unwed mothers should not be pressured to have children they don't want. Republicans make most of the pro-life arguments but then argue just as fervently for Globalization. Huh? I don't think effective methods of birth control should be blackballed with trumped up allegations of danger. In fact it probably isn't out of line to suggest that if things are really so bad that ones country cannot guarantee its citizens employment consistent with their availability then maybe couples should be limited to one child only! The U.S. displays a shocking lack of ability to learn from history. After decades of a direct correlation between production and profit the U.S. began experimenting with a stock market economy which crashed badly in 1929 and the same dynamic is working again less than 100 years later. The U.S. also experimented with a free labor economy which indirectly led to a Civil War. This Red State/Blue State division is tearing our country apart and when it isn't doing that it definitely inhibits forward progress. The rest of the world is racing by with quality of life improvements for its citizens and we watch as China ascends to the place that we once held as a mover and shaker on the international stage. H

As jimtnc says, I'd research the particular plant you are dealing with to determine the best pruning method (time of year, how to prune, how much you can prune reliably prune, etc.). Alot of plants are best pruned in late winter/very early spring before their juice start to flow. But check on your variety. You may find that these plants will not take a hard prune and might be better off removed. Removal is something you could do if you have a landscape bar, nursery shovel, pick axe with adze (optional), chain or strap, pulling vehicle and a way to haul. It is hard work but I would guess maybe ~1 hour per plant. With a hedge, my guess is that a chainsaw would not be useful because of all the small stuff and how dense it likely is to get to the main leaders that are big enough to take a chainsaw too. You might be better off with a sawzall and a pruning saw and loppers to get the job done. All of those tools would have great reuse value. I'm not sure how these plants are going to look after loosing 60% or more. Try to do the pruning so that they will have a chance to reform in the coming years into something that is healthy and looks decent.

On Saturday I went to the public library booksale, and got 7 books, $1 apiece, among them: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers, An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor and The New Yorkers by Cathleen Schine. Cece, Did you finish The September Society? Did you like it? I read recently the first book by this author, A Beautiful Blue Death, and liked it. Lemonhead, I read Moon Tiger years ago. I didn't like it. I'd be interested in hearing how you feel about it. Kren, They did a movie of The French Lieutenant's Woman years ago, with Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons. I haven't read the book, but the movie was pretty good. Kath, I'm with Vee, you have to tell us about your trip when you reach to your final destination. It would be interesting if you add which books you read in each leg of the trip.

I've finally gotten around to Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel and it is very easy book to read. I'm glad I'm listening rather than reading because the margins would be covered with arguments and I'm sure my blood pressure would be through the roof. Listening moves me along to quickly to get too invested in counterpoints. He cherry picks the data that supports his theory and ignoring what doesn't. I was willing to believe his biological arguments because, well, I'm no biologist. But when he started the discussion of the domestication of animals, I thought of all the recent research on the expression of genes that makes his entire premise wrong. I hate it when people get interesting ideas about the way the world happened and "feel" that the idea is just too great to rigorously verify.