tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post2971708981236659984..comments2023-10-18T16:25:13.593+01:00Comments on Famous for 15 megapixels: "No. The real Black Swan Event is that people are not rioting against the banks in London and New York..."Stefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-31404690654355032662011-06-25T20:49:58.880+01:002011-06-25T20:49:58.880+01:00Why rely on one's powers of imagination when e...Why rely on one's powers of imagination when entities such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capita_Group" rel="nofollow">Crapita</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serco_Group" rel="nofollow">Serco</a> already exist<br /><br />To paraphrase another Loon, if that ain't proper fascism it'll do for nowStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-12688138174772333392011-06-25T20:33:53.580+01:002011-06-25T20:33:53.580+01:00"Public sector workers such as policemen, sol...<i>"Public sector workers such as policemen, soldiers, intelligence operatives and tax collectors don't have to make a profit "</i><br /><br />The analysis of profit in the public sector is a very interesting question. Lots of people would say that there isn't such a thing as profit in the public sector; indeed, that it wasn't possible.<br /><br />Nonsense.<br /><br />Remember Paul Klebnikov's, Treating with Barbarians, where he described Berezovski's ascent to wealth and power. In the early days Berezovski took over state enterprises that were profitable. Their profits weren't obvious because either they ended up going on wages, plant or back to the State. In other words, just because these profits didn't show up on the balance sheet that doesn't mean that they weren't profitable: they were, in some cases massively so.<br /><br />Compare that with the UK's NHS. Here the profits go to the employees, particularly those who are high up in the heirarchy. Unison and such will trot out how poorly paid NHS cleaners and porters are but they don't say how well paid those are who are higher in the hierarchy.<br /><br />To re-iterate, a cooperative may share its profits with its workers but that doesn't mean that it isn't profitable.<br /><br />Just imagine if every company could simply extract money from its customers with the threat of jail, like the BBC does and just imagine how profitable they would be.gyg3shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08295092807711672726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-24742407356160860442011-06-25T18:23:05.053+01:002011-06-25T18:23:05.053+01:00Antagonist said:
"You might have missed it,...Antagonist said: <br /><br />"You might have missed it, but there's been a whole ten years of "public service" warmongering and mass-murder, raping, looting and pillaging that has consumed rather a lot "the wealth of the nation" in several 'nations'."<br /><br />True, but surprisingly, the mass of public servants drawing non-functional income in government offices spread over the length and breadth of the land consume far more than the military. <br /><br />In 2010, UK "defense" spending totaled 36 billion pounds, whereas total UK government spending last year was 519 billion. <br /><br />Look, if you never worked for government you simply can't have any conception of what real waste is. <br /><br />I spent a total of four years of my one and only life employed by large units of three different governments. If it would not bore you, I could explain how virtually every dollar spent by each of those units was money entirely down the drain. <br /><br />And I was not employed in departments concerned with administration, which is the off budget way that governments waste money by wasting citizens time with BS forms and regulations and licenses and reviews that for the most part serve merely to provide more jobs for more useless bureaucrats.<br /><br />But don't take this as an attack on people who work for government. They are, for the most part, simpleminded, decent people, who do their best in a hopeless situation. <br /><br />In addition, of course, they mostly believe that no one but the government will provide them with a better income for life. It is this last fact that makes the bureaucracy of such value to the elite. <br /><br />When it comes to the crunch, very few civil servants will refuse to feel up your crotch as commanded by the US Government, for example, or do whatever else is required, if it means giving up their pension rights.CanSpeccyhttp://canspeccy.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-34642803332427790222011-06-24T14:22:28.712+01:002011-06-24T14:22:28.712+01:00"The state, therefore, has not existed from a...<i>"The state, therefore, has not existed from all eternity. There have been societies which have managed without it, which had no notion of the state or state power. At a definite stage of economic development, which necessarily involved the cleavage of society into classes, the state became a necessity because of this cleavage. We are now rapidly approaching a stage in the development of production at which the existence of these classes has not only ceased to be a necessity, but becomes a positive hindrance to production. They will fall as inevitably as they once arose. The state inevitably falls with them."</i><br /><br />Engels' da man!The Antagonisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01459201402366077472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-50619492192547897142011-06-24T14:20:40.802+01:002011-06-24T14:20:40.802+01:00"But couldn't you apply the same reasonin...<i>"But couldn't you apply the same reasoning, say, to schools and school teachers (private or public)? As someone has already hinted by way of a link above, our existing education system has roots in the Prussian System which was designed to produce obedient canon and factory fodder that knew its place, took orders and turned up on time"</i><br /><br />Yes, you could. That's where ideology enters the equation. <br /><br />When the dominant ideologies are those of inherited wealth, aristocracy and privilege maintained by force, all combined to protect and service their own nefarious interests -- backed by the divine authority of the big invisible beardy man in the sky -- you end up with what we've got.The Antagonisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01459201402366077472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-86251725037765674472011-06-24T10:49:26.291+01:002011-06-24T10:49:26.291+01:00and:
YouTube - Education Cuts Protests On the 30t...and:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7vZ1WxjpSw&feature=player_embedded#at=111" rel="nofollow">YouTube - Education Cuts Protests On the 30th June 2011(National Anthem)</a>Bridgethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04220942517267393608noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-81545884886635148692011-06-24T10:45:58.615+01:002011-06-24T10:45:58.615+01:00and:
On June 30, up to a million workers across t...and:<br /><br />On June 30, up to a million workers across the country will be striking in defense of their pensions. The Education Activist Network is calling upon all students, teachers and educationalists to strike the streets together, and turn J30 into a day of rage and anger against the Tory-led coalition.<br /><br />Pensions are not some add-on benefit. They are a hard-won right that everyone should be entitled to. In France, the dispute over pensions saw thousands of school, FE and University students blockade their institutions, and raise the slogan ‘Today’s students are tomorrow’s pensioners’. Here, we need to make sure that June 30 is a step of escalation leading on from March 26 when half a million trade unionists, pensioners, unemployed and disabled activists took it to the streets.<br /><br />The events in Spain and Greece show that this could be a year of European revolt. Play your part and strike the streets of London on June 30!<br /><br /><a href="http://educationactivistnetwork.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/strike-the-streets-of-london-on-june-30/" rel="nofollow">TOWN BY TOWN, CITY BY CITY – STRIKE THE STREETS ON JUNE 30 « Education Activist Network</a>Bridgethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04220942517267393608noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-35273671214264820262011-06-24T10:08:05.466+01:002011-06-24T10:08:05.466+01:00I'll leave my last words on this to Engels who...I'll leave my last words on this to <a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-family/ch09.htm" rel="nofollow">Engels</a> who prior to the previous quote wrote:<br /><br />The state, therefore, has not existed from all eternity. There have been societies which have managed without it, which had no notion of the state or state power. At a definite stage of economic development, which necessarily involved the cleavage of society into classes, the state became a necessity because of this cleavage. We are now rapidly approaching a stage in the development of production at which the existence of these classes has not only ceased to be a necessity, but becomes a positive hindrance to production. They will fall as inevitably as they once arose. The state inevitably falls with them.Bridgethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04220942517267393608noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-67848898742429993542011-06-24T02:40:12.662+01:002011-06-24T02:40:12.662+01:00"Yes they do, but it's a little more obsc..."Yes they do, but it's a little more obscure than a glance at the immediate Profit & Loss sheets of each individual policeman would suggest."<br /><br />But couldn't you apply the same reasoning, say, to schools and school teachers (private or public)? As someone has already hinted by way of a link above, our existing education system has roots in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_education_system" rel="nofollow">Prussian System</a> which was designed to produce obedient canon and factory fodder that knew its place, took orders and turned up on timeStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-7883829854023035942011-06-24T02:18:32.768+01:002011-06-24T02:18:32.768+01:00Tax collectors are the fuckers that secure all the...<i>Tax collectors are the fuckers that secure all the initial funding to support and sustain the activities of agencies 1 and 2.</i><br /><br />I'd be very suprised if that was their primary motivation.paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608591025225519578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-13440988439039653512011-06-24T02:15:28.498+01:002011-06-24T02:15:28.498+01:00Public sector workers such as policemen, soldiers,...<i>Public sector workers such as policemen, soldiers, intelligence operatives and tax collectors don't have to make a profit</i><br />Why should they?paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608591025225519578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-25267527872072748332011-06-24T02:13:34.190+01:002011-06-24T02:13:34.190+01:00"Public sector workers such as policemen, sol...<i>"Public sector workers such as policemen, soldiers, intelligence operatives and tax collectors don't have to make a profit"</i><br /><br />Yes they do, but it's a little more obscure than a glance at the immediate Profit & Loss sheets of each individual policeman would suggest. <br /><br />Those specific groups, collectively, are like the fluffers of the profit world and are on hand to keep things warmed up and the constant churn of capital circulation rolling along unchallenged.<br /><br />1. Police do it on a petty cash, small-scale, national street level.<br /><br />2. Intelligence operatives do it on an international level, 'securing' through expropriation major land, natural and labour resources from which huge profits can then be extorted by other, mostly private, agencies.<br /><br />3. Tax collectors are the fuckers that secure all the initial funding to support and sustain the activities of agencies 1 and 2.<br /><br />Repeat <em>ad nauseam</em>....The Antagonisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01459201402366077472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-89036348854100484412011-06-24T00:23:21.021+01:002011-06-24T00:23:21.021+01:00^ State workers rather than Public Sector workers ...^ State workers rather than Public Sector workers afaic.Bridgethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04220942517267393608noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-53024345504331421182011-06-24T00:05:22.646+01:002011-06-24T00:05:22.646+01:00Bridget
Public sector workers such as policemen, ...Bridget<br /><br />Public sector workers such as policemen, soldiers, intelligence operatives and tax collectors don't have to make a profitAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-89471189458514054642011-06-23T23:46:26.574+01:002011-06-23T23:46:26.574+01:00...there's also the question of how we deal wi......there's also the question of how we deal with the issues associated with the productivity increases that new technologies have delivered. The private sector does not require as many people making stuff as it did in the past<br /><br />What happens to the people 'liberated' from their jobs by new technology and who gets to pocket the surpluses generated by that new technology?<br /><br />If the state doesn't act as a mechanism for spreading the increased yields around what would?<br /><br />As discussed before, I currently favour some kind of land/ asset tax funding a citizen's income. I suspect that such as system could deliver something a little less Puritan than bare subsistenceStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-16151825065881889372011-06-23T23:43:29.624+01:002011-06-23T23:43:29.624+01:00/ tiptoes back for a second
"But you don'.../ tiptoes back for a second<br /><br />"But you don't have to be a shit to see that the public service is a black hole that consumes far too much of the wealth of the nation"<br /><br />I think it's more complicated than that. The people of ordinary means working in public service or in receipt of welfare don't sit on that money and generally pass it straight back into the system as soon as they receive it<br /><br />The big 'wealth' sinks in our society are the money system and land<br /><br />Without money or land reform it wouldn't matter if the public sector were pared down to a fraction of its existing size, wealth would continue to accumulate in the hands of the money printers and land ownersStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-46616170789227577222011-06-23T21:22:21.279+01:002011-06-23T21:22:21.279+01:00What leftists tend to overlook is that the state a...<i>What leftists tend to overlook is that the state also uses its revenue to employ policemen, soldiers, intelligence operatives and tax collectors</i><br /><br />I think a mistake is being made here of conflating the State with public sector workers.<br /><br />Thatcher privatised all the nationalised industries, Blair dumped <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clause_IV" rel="nofollow">Clause IV</a> and the 'Big Society ConDems' will do their best to privatise all further State functions.<br /><br />For me the difference between Public sector and Private sector is that the Private has to make a profit. <br /><br />None of which requires supporting the Capitalist State - as Engels said:<br /><br />The society which organizes production anew on the basis of free and equal association of the producers will put the whole state machinery where it will then belong — into the museum of antiquities, next to the spinning wheel and the bronze ax.Bridgethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04220942517267393608noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-81311688056038335322011-06-23T19:48:45.923+01:002011-06-23T19:48:45.923+01:00Although on paper we have the same rights, if our ...<i>Although on paper we have the same rights, if our employers cannot afford to give us generous sick/maternity/paternity/redundancy measures, we don't have those rights.</i><br /><br />Well, according to price auction equilibrium and the fact that these conditions are universal, they should raise their prices or lower their profits.<br /><br />The workplace has changed quite a lot over the last thirty years, more two earner households for instance.<br /><br />Finding time and money for the exhausting and unremunerated process of replenishing the livestock must be done somehow.<br /><br />The liberal demands for flexibility ought to apply to both sides of the contract.<br /><br />The conservative yearning for a contented and ruly family unit must be addressed somehow.<br /><br />Until we educate the population to do a full cost benefit analysis of their biological urges, this seems a reasonable stopgap.paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608591025225519578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-7483045016704520022011-06-23T19:31:42.842+01:002011-06-23T19:31:42.842+01:00"There's something deeply immoral about s...<i>"There's something deeply immoral about state employees getting better pay and conditions compared to the rest of us."</i><br /><br />That's as may be, but that is very much the product of a system that can only thrive when such inequalities exist. <br /><br />As for solutions, should envy or a sense of inequality mean we drag everyone down to rock bottom, or that we aspire and organise to create a more equitable and fair society for all?The Antagonisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01459201402366077472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-64858616318790869832011-06-23T19:22:12.332+01:002011-06-23T19:22:12.332+01:00CanSpeccy writ: "But you don't have to be...<i>CanSpeccy writ: "But you don't have to be a shit to see that the <b>public service</b> is a <b>black hole</b> that <b>consumes far too much of the wealth of the nation.</b>."</i><br /><br />You might have missed it, but there's been a whole ten years of "public service" warmongering and mass-murder, raping, looting and pillaging that has consumed rather a lot "the wealth of the nation" in several 'nations'.<br /><br />What, precisely, do you define as "the wealth of the nation" in the context of a fictional 'economy' that is based on fictional 'money' by which "the wealth of the nation" is traditionally defined?The Antagonisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01459201402366077472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-9464127832771501572011-06-23T19:14:21.987+01:002011-06-23T19:14:21.987+01:00"What leftists tend to overlook is that the s...<i>"What leftists tend to overlook is that the state also uses its revenue to employ policemen, soldiers, intelligence operatives and tax collectors"</i><br /><br />Where to begin with a blanket nonsense statement like that...?<br /><br />Who exactly do your 'leftist' friends think pays the wages of <a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/staterev/ch01.htm#s2" rel="nofollow">soldiers, intelligence operatives and tax collectors</a> (who only collect taxes from those unable to afford to avoid paying them), if not the State?The Antagonisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01459201402366077472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-73459938046977676162011-06-23T19:06:26.292+01:002011-06-23T19:06:26.292+01:00What leftists tend to overlook is that the state a...<i>What leftists tend to overlook is that the state also uses its revenue to employ policemen, soldiers, intelligence operatives and tax collectors</i><br /><br />Dang! I must have missed thatpaulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608591025225519578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-84460462967018411722011-06-23T13:18:40.769+01:002011-06-23T13:18:40.769+01:00Sure, the state applies some of its revenue to emp...Sure, the state applies some of its revenue to employ teachers and nurses<br /><br />What leftists tend to overlook is that the state also uses its revenue to employ policemen, soldiers, intelligence operatives and tax collectorsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-64931025723231860432011-06-22T22:49:58.820+01:002011-06-22T22:49:58.820+01:00Absolutely agree about right wing libertarians. Mo...Absolutely agree about right wing libertarians. Mostly, self-serving bastards, buying gold expecting it to go to a million dollars an ounce while they wait for the second great crash/depression after which they expect to buy up everything for pennies on the dollar. <br /><br />But you don't have to be a shit to see that the public service is a black hole that consumes far too much of the wealth of the nation. <br /><br />As currently constituted, welfare programs primarily create jobs for bureaucrats, while teaching people how to scam the system and avoid work indefinitely. <br /><br />But I am sure an intelligent libertarian with a social conscience could devise a system that provided everyone the opportunity to earn a living. <br /><br />A reverse income tax, with the elimination of minimum wage laws would probably do it. This would bring everyone's income up to the subsistence level, however low their wage, at a cost that would be a small fraction of current welfare programs. <br /><br />The only people who'd be out of work then would be former civil servants reluctant to accept the free market wage to which their talents entitle them.CShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03399620869685840906noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-31522071146655467892011-06-22T22:44:59.655+01:002011-06-22T22:44:59.655+01:00"public sector unions and they have a poor tr...<i>"public sector unions and they have a poor track record of giving a toss about where their members' pay comes from"</i><br /><br />There's something deeply immoral about state employees getting better pay and conditions compared to the rest of us.<br /><br />I remember being in a lecture where finer points of EU law were being discussed. The case of Marshall v Southampton and South West Hampshire Health Authority came up. The upshot of the case was that for 18-months or so, state employees were given more rights than the rest of us simply because they were state employees. I and the rest of the lecture theatre were shocked; we couldn't believe that this situation could arise. After a short hiatus the lecture moved on, we were told that the law was adjusted such that now everyone had the same rights irrespective of nature of employer.<br /><br />But that's not true. Although on paper we have the same rights, if our employers cannot afford to give us generous sick/maternity/paternity/redundancy measures, we don't have those rights.<br /><br />Yet we see, time and time again the public sector enjoying those rights.<br /><br />I'm not advocating a race to the bottom or some equality of misery ... but ... the current situation is wrong.gyg3shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08295092807711672726noreply@blogger.com