akdom  +  687476 Mon, 16 Mar 09 11:15 PM "Churn is the American way.  Companies are born, rise, fall and die. Others come along to replace them.  The country's remarkable capacity for innovation, for reinvention, is tied to its acceptance to failure.  Or always has been.  Without failure, the culture of risk fades.  Without risk, creativity withers.  Save the zombies and you sabotage the vital. " What does the last sentence mean? What the metaphor "zombie" implies? What about "vital"? akdom Joined on Wed, Jun 4 2008 Full Member 148 Metaphors, Sentences, Countries, United States, American

	Clive  +  687480 Mon, 16 Mar 09 11:31 PM Hi, here' the idea, simply put. A 'zombie' is a dead person walking around. Some companies are like zombies, because they are dead in the sense that they have lost their success and vitality, but they are still walking around in the sense that they are still in business. If you save such companies, you are making it more difficult for newer and more vital, more lively and energetic companies, to achieve success. Clive Clive Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004 Canada Veteran Member 29,657 El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo Careers, Business

	RayH  +  687482 Mon, 16 Mar 09 11:32 PM akdom “What does the last sentence mean? What the metaphor "zombie" implies? What about "vital"? ” In this context the author is using "zombies" to refer to companies that would fail or declare bankruptcy except for taxpayer bailouts. If you "save the zombies" you keep those companies alive. This costs healthy companies in several ways, 1) at least some of the tax money paid by healthy companies is used to keep zombie competitors alive, 2) the zombie companies take away customers from healthy companies, and 3) the zombies keep good employees off the job market and thus not available for healthy companies to hire. So, keeping zombie companies alive sabotages the healthy (vital) companies. RayH Joined on Sat, Mar 22 2008 Contributing Member 1,555 Native speaker of U. S. English. Not a grammar expert. Metaphors, Sentences, Context