.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Somewhere birds are singing, and people are happily signing up for long careers with Whirlpool Corp., where they’ll build appliances bearing the Maytag label.

Fine. But to tell the truth, our love for our fellow human beings has its geographic limits. It’s not a battery-powered kind of compassion that goes everywhere. It has to be plugged in, and the extension cord must be around here somewhere, but it’s hard to find.

When an old, familiar company like Maytag backs out of the Central Iowa driveway and heads off to make new friends, we don’t even feel like waving. That’s just the way we are. Human.

By the same token, when good news shines here, we don’t scan the horizon looking for stormy weather over other cities. When Aviva plc thought highly enough of AmerUs to buy it, and then decided to build its American headquarters here, we were delighted. New jobs. Good jobs. Since then, we haven’t spent much time worrying about what Aviva is up to elsewhere.

It’s reassuring to know that Central Iowa is on a roll, and our image is getting brighter. It’s less comforting to wonder if, in the long run, all we’re doing is taking our turn. As companies continue to scour the world for better deals, like a desperate gambler looking for a lucky blackjack table, cities, states and whole countries tend to move up and down the list.

Big companies have been scrambling madly from dealer to dealer in recent years. For example, Whirlpool announced last fall that it would create 1,100 jobs in Ohio, but also was wrapping up the transfer of 940 jobs from Fort Smith, Ark., to Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, in something called a “voluntary layoff.” The company also was talking about the pending layoff of 500 people in Evansville, Ind., and announcing that about 700 more Fort Smith employees should expect to be out of work in 2008.

Two Tennessee towns are losing 700 Whirlpool jobs, but Plainfield, Ind., is gaining 150. The roulette wheel just keeps spinning, and if you’re betting, you’d better place your chips soon.

Our newest romantic interest, Aviva, hasn’t been standing pat either. The world’s fifth-largest insurance group is ecstatic about its new cash pipeline from the United States, but not so happy with things back home in the United Kingdom.

Last month, new group chief executive Andrew Moss an-nounced a plan to lop 300 million British pounds (more than $600 million) from the budget at Norwich Union, Aviva’s U.K. arm. “It would be naïve to say there will not be any further job reductions,” Moss said, according to the London Times, and the paper said such cuts would come “on top of previously an-nounced plans to shed 4,000 staff.”

Their bad news and our good news are taking place in separate casinos, and there’s no shuttle service between them.

Aviva isn’t urging laid-off U.K. employees to check out Des Moines, Iowa, and it’s not likely many would transplant their families across the Atlantic and then halfway to the Pacific just to stay with the company. Instead, Aviva USA is finding employees here and across the U.S.A., according to Executive Vice President Chris Littlefield. People will arrive from places such as Topeka, Kan., and Quincy, Mass., and Fort Worth, Texas.

The Aviva Life Insurance operation in Quincy cut 113 jobs last summer. The Topeka office gained 60 jobs during the past year. A Fort Worth subsidiary lost 80. As they say about the stock market, we only know one thing for sure about any local economy – over time, it will fluctuate.

In our little corner of the world, things look good all the way to the horizon.

But perhaps that gloom in London could stir up some rain here eventually. Bloomberg recently reported: “JPMorgan Chase & Co. said in a note … shareholders may look for ‘aggressive strategic options,’ including a breakup of the company, unless Aviva shares begin to keep up with peers.”

I was always taught that there are three sides to every story: my side, your side and the truth. In the world of big corporate moves, there’s the winner’s side, the loser’s side and all those working stiffs wondering what will happen next.