I was reading some of the NYTimes articles today, and this ad/a caught my eye. Not for its content, but for that “the new black” at the top. Likely intentional. What really caught my attention though was something that I sincerely doubt Cisco intended. Consider that one of the big problems in the Far East is sweat shops and other forms of mistreating workers. Puts a different spin on that ad, doesn’t it? Even though I would tend to bet that they were referring to the clothing style (who in the world would want to wear that?), it struck me as rather ironic that the use of Asian weavers (Milanese would refer to where? Milan? that would be Italy I think), would be accompanied with that slogan. Mr. Belloc predicted that unrestricted capitalism would lead to the re-emergence of slavery. I think we have mostly/em avoided this, though in some areas, the prices of housing and the pattern of debt makes that somewhat debatable, but there is surely little difference between slavery and existence for a person in a sweat shop./p