Looking for Business

Out driving today, I passed one of those places that does $29.99 oil changes.

There was a guy at the corner, waving a sign (we've all seen those signs, about 2 foot by 3 foot wide they use to attract the attention of people driving by) which said that one of their bays was free right now to do an oil change.

It got me thinking about the current bad economy we're going through.

First thought. I wondered if the manager of the shop told the mechanic to go out there with the sign and generate some business so he could get work and continue to get paid.

Second thought. Portland is somewhat of a slow growth/save the environment sort of city. In that context, I would suspect that they city is OK with less driving happening, and thus less car oil changes. However, that is counterbalanced with the idea of people being out of work as a result.

The overall quandry of economics being consumption driven -- growth uses resources like oil and fills landfills, but, it keeps people employed...