Santa Exploits Elves! The early Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam (now New York) revived the memory of a (perhaps mythical) Saint Nicholas from the 4th or 5th century AD, and transformed him into Santa Claus. He supposedly supervised Elves in the production of toys for children, and personally delivered them all over the world using a reindeer pulled flying sled. This was seen as being a GOOD thing at the time: the children got the toys and it didn't cost anything. But today, if he were to do that, Santa would find that attitudes had changed, and he would be in trouble on several fronts. The toy manufacturers would protest that he was providing unfair competition, and organized labor would agree, and demand that he pay union wages to his elves. The US government would insist on minimum wages for the elves, and want to verify their green cards, if the toy factory was in Alaska. There would likely be some concern expressed over his relationship with the little elves, and rumors that he must be some sort of a pervert. And he is the wrong race. Now US law does not permit anyone but certified "Native Americans" to own reindeer. Times have changed. Santa is Exploiting Elves AGAIN! Recently I posted the letter above to several political/economic newsgroups. One reply pointed out that since Santa KNOWS who is naughty and who is nice, and distributes his favors based on that knowledge, children who don't get gifts for Christmas may assume that they are not "nice" and suffer from a loss of self esteem. A good point, and one I had not considered. The other reply recognized that "Santa" was intended as a metaphor. But for what? Dlj took Santa's elves as a metaphor for child labor. And while I didn't intend it that way, the reference to Santa as a pervert certainly does suggest the elf/child connection. But since the elves produce the toys around the clock and without pay, I see them (and Santa) as a metaphor for robots; the logical extension of automation. Is it GOOD or BAD that technology permits the production of ever more and better goods using ever less human input? See my review of "The End of Work" for a discussion of this. The ORIGIN of the Elves The lastest theory on the origin of those North Pole elves: there were a group of dyslexic devil worshipers who, in exchange for immortality, sold their souls to Santa. And a final note: one of my favorite cartoons from the 1980's was printed shortly after Presidential advisor Martin Feldstein was sacked. It shows Reagan as Santa supervising the elves in toy production. Little elf Feldstein had just been kicked out, and was sitting in the snow with a startled and hurt look on his face as he says: "All I said was, Who is paying for all of this?" ,,,,,,, _______________ooo___( O O )___ooo_______________ (_) jim blair (jeblair@facstaff.wisc.edu) for a good time, call http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/4834 And two added notes: It was pointed out by Edward Flaherty that when (if?) the Byrd Amendment taked effect in October 2001, if Santa continues to "dump" toys on US kids at Christmas or any other time, he can be fined by the US government and the money collected paid to US toymaking corporations. AND: >From: Karen Nielsen >Subject: Fwd: Reindeer Games > > > > >According to the Alaska Department of Fish and game, > >while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in > >the summer each year (the only members of the deer > >family, Ceridae, to have females do so), male reindeer > >drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually > >late November to mid December. Female reindeer retain > >their antlers till after they give birth in the > >spring. Therefore, according to every historical > >rendition depicting Santa's reindeer, every single one > >of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen........had to be a > >girl. > > > >We should've known. Only women would be able to drag a > >fat man in a red velvet suit all around the world in > >one night, and not get lost.