{"id":1151,"date":"2015-12-31T11:52:00","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T11:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2015\/12\/could-the-modern-christmas-bonus-be-to-blame.html"},"modified":"2015-12-31T11:52:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-31T11:52:00","slug":"could-the-modern-christmas-bonus-be-to-blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2015\/12\/could-the-modern-christmas-bonus-be-to-blame.html","title":{"rendered":"Could the modern Christmas bonus be to blame?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2015-12-31\/jobless-claims-in-u-s-jump-to-highest-level-since-july\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Looks like unemployment benefits went up in the week before Christmas<\/a>. \u00a0Could this be the result of what I call the modern Christmas bonus? \u00a0That is, lay offs? \u00a0Because that has long replaced the Christmas Eve party or the Christmas bonus. \u00a0Remember the movie <i>National Lampoon\u2019s Christmas Vacation<\/i>? \u00a0The underlying story line \u2013 such as it is \u2013 involves Chevy Chase awaiting his Christmas bonus in order to build a new swimming pool. \u00a0Brian Doyle Murray plays his boss. \u00a0At one point Chase and his family confront Murray about the idea of not getting a good bonus for Christmas. \u00a0They got a bonus. \u00a0Just not a very good one.<\/div>\n<div>But by today\u2019s standards, where December is now known as the time when corporations and companies lay off their employees due to tax reasons and fiscal year considerations, Griswold\u2019s bonus comes off as quite heart warming. \u00a0My kids actually have asked if that\u2019s real. \u00a0Did companies really do that in the day? \u00a0<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Yes sons, I say. \u00a0There was actually a time when it wasn\u2019t assumed that December would see endless lines of laid off people as a bonus for their years of service. \u00a0But this is now. \u00a0The post-modern era. \u00a0I don\u2019t think it\u2019s Capitalism. \u00a0I think it\u2019s the generation at hand. \u00a0Like the difference between a good driver and a reckless driver. \u00a0The car is the car. \u00a0But driven by a maniac, it can be a killing machine. \u00a0Capitalism, without Christ, is no better than Communism. \u00a0And a generation at the helm of what is left of the Capitalist ideal, that has embraced the evils and ignorance of the post-Christian West, will likely do more harm than good with either Capitalism, or any economic ideal it has inherited.\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Looks like unemployment benefits went up in the week before Christmas. \u00a0Could this be the result of what I call the modern Christmas bonus? \u00a0That is, lay offs? \u00a0Because that has long replaced the Christmas Eve party or the Christmas bonus. \u00a0Remember the movie National Lampoon\u2019s Christmas Vacation? \u00a0The underlying story line \u2013 such as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Could the modern Christmas bonus be to blame?<\/title>\n<meta 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