I came for the castles in the air. I enjoy watching them fall in slow motion. Well, it is slow motion to me. To others it is calamitous and sudden. I am definitely one of those realist / pragmatic types, that approaches a great deal (Well, almost everything) with cynicism and a "where is the exploitation happening?"

Because to me, that is what I have always seen business, finance, and economics as - in order for someone to make money, they are taking value from somebody else and collecting it for themselves.

Learning even the tiniest bit about industrial design, manufacturing or how business inefficiencies allow them to be profitable (so long as their margins are wide enough) has made me approach every single market offering, every single product, and every single price tag with incredible levels of caution and interrogation.

It is rife at "local markets" - "hand made" cutting boards being sold without the disclaimer that they were not made by the hands of the merchant selling them - but they're still correct in the claim that it is was hand made. Perhaps even made at the "hands of a machine".

Deception and business walk down the same corridor, and a cat would be wise to return to the food and water bowl again and again, just as I return to the fridge again and again, hoping that its contents have magically changed since the last time I opened its doors.

It would be a fantastically entertaining world if the things in the fringe re-arranged themselves in my moments of absence from it, for me to be met by a new surprise each time I opened it.