tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post5787368894654987178..comments2023-10-18T16:25:13.593+01:00Comments on Famous for 15 megapixels: FuckwitsStefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-79861913453947946242009-01-27T23:07:00.000+00:002009-01-27T23:07:00.000+00:00You're welcome! :-)You're welcome! :-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-30976234826030530172009-01-27T22:57:00.000+00:002009-01-27T22:57:00.000+00:00First we deflate the tires in China a bit, then we...<I>First we deflate the tires in China a bit, then we deplete our industrial base, then some of the head of states climb out and fill the front of our bus with worthless paper and now the bankers can carry out anything of worth. Voila! Banks saved!</I><BR/><BR/>lol<BR/><BR/>I'll be stealing that idea laterStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-19764988133327602372009-01-25T10:13:00.000+00:002009-01-25T10:13:00.000+00:00Richard Dawkins argues that what we call moral beh...<I>Richard Dawkins argues that what we call moral behaviour is the result of competing individuals benefiting more from being part of a group than working alone - selfishness leads to apparent unselfishness</I><BR/>that is pretty much the kernel of all 'modern' thinking to me. Anything good is but a 'side effect' of the workings of a cruel but more ultimately virtuous natural order.<BR/>As well as being totally ahistorical, it's fucking stupid.paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608591025225519578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-53420671000257176532009-01-25T00:19:00.000+00:002009-01-25T00:19:00.000+00:00Indeed, benevolent governance is a rare exception....Indeed, benevolent governance is a rare exception. Doesn't mean it has to stay that way though :pAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-88145509990084327652009-01-25T00:09:00.000+00:002009-01-25T00:09:00.000+00:00Equitable taxation, the dangers of a professional ...Equitable taxation, the dangers of a professional political class, the cancer of usury, it's all been covered and done to death centuries ago<BR/><BR/>We may be learning lots of fun new stuff about planets and atoms but we're being positively encouraged to forget all sorts of lessons about the way we run our own lives<BR/><BR/>It's been said many times but the comforts and freedoms a few of us enjoyed over the last century or so are a small aberration in relation to the way most people have lived around the world over the centuries<BR/><BR/>It wouldn't take very much at all, just a little bit of complacence, for us to revert to the historical normStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-49861162589910299532009-01-24T23:53:00.000+00:002009-01-24T23:53:00.000+00:00Interesting idea with the land tax.As for the latt...Interesting idea with the land tax.<BR/><BR/>As for the latter point, indeed that happens... but as this very blog argues, less people are buying that crap now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-87940160924005417572009-01-24T23:38:00.001+00:002009-01-24T23:38:00.001+00:00As for certain individuals\groups accumulating cap...<I>As for certain individuals\groups accumulating capital, that requires people to go along with it in some form. Either directly by their labour or indirectly.</I><BR/><BR/>That's assuming those people know what's going on.<BR/><BR/>Rather a large amount of effort is expended on ensuring that they don't, or are too whacked out or stressed out to do anything about itStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-57913770127508470602009-01-24T23:35:00.000+00:002009-01-24T23:35:00.000+00:00oh, and an easy way to nail down potential tax eva...oh, and an easy way to nail down potential tax evaders and raise tax equitably would be to implement some kind of <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax" REL="nofollow">Land Tax</A>Stefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-10055985503596654752009-01-24T23:33:00.000+00:002009-01-24T23:33:00.000+00:00Yes. An honest government would go some way toward...Yes. An honest government would go some way towards dealing with those influences (globalists\corporations etc). Ideally I'd ban those kind of additives.<BR/><BR/>As for certain individuals\groups accumulating capital, that requires people to go along with it in some form. Either directly by their labour or indirectly.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-11062869735796569082009-01-24T23:30:00.000+00:002009-01-24T23:30:00.000+00:00People sometimes say that Death is nature's way of...People sometimes say that Death is nature's way of ensuring that any tyrant's reign comes to an end<BR/><BR/>Unfortunately, Nature hasn't figured out how to limit the reign of dynasties or companies which are, to all intents and purposes, potentially immortalStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-91792348884213455252009-01-24T23:22:00.000+00:002009-01-24T23:22:00.000+00:00Since you mention water companies, it is interesti...<I>Since you mention water companies, it is interesting that they only started adding sodium fluoride to the water when government requested they do so...</I><BR/><BR/>as a result of lobbying by the aluminium industry and maybe, just maybe, other characters with an interest in poisoning people as opposed to just wanting to dump their crapStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-78004029266506847152009-01-24T23:20:00.000+00:002009-01-24T23:20:00.000+00:00Trying to put things more succinctly...IMHO the mo...Trying to put things more succinctly...<BR/><BR/>IMHO the most malevolent factor in our system is that is allows for certain individuals/ families/ corporations to accumulate capital endlessly<BR/><BR/>Once an individual/ family/ corporation has accumulated a certain amount of capital it has enough power to ensure that it never has to give any of it back<BR/><BR/>They essentially get to control everything they consider to be of any importance<BR/><BR/>What redistribution of wealth that does take place in our system is between the middle and lower economic groups who are encouraged to gouge each other's eyes out for scrapsStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-87640733799422904012009-01-24T23:13:00.000+00:002009-01-24T23:13:00.000+00:00I didn't suggest we should have competing police f...I didn't suggest we should have competing police forces :p<BR/><BR/>Since you mention water companies, it is interesting that they only started adding sodium fluoride to the water when government requested they do so..<BR/><BR/>As for the rest of what you said Stef, I agree. In fact, I'd go as far as saying that income tax would be unnecessary - after all, it was only brought in to finance war which in turn was the banksters trying to get the govt in debt to have them over a barrel.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-43320960394815808252009-01-24T23:05:00.000+00:002009-01-24T23:05:00.000+00:00Individual taxation is higher than corporate taxat...<I>Individual taxation is higher than corporate taxation both as a relative percentage and absolute amounts, which I also don't like. What would you do with both the public and private sector to make them honest and transparent again then?</I><BR/><BR/>Lots of things, big and small<BR/><BR/>- scrap usury<BR/>- place limits on money creation<BR/>- ensure the rich pay <I>at least equal</I> tax as everyone else and put a commission-based price on evaders' heads<BR/>- offer 'none of the above' as an option on voting forms<BR/>- limit political careers to a couple of terms<BR/>- ensure that any elected official who votes for a war gets to participate in the front line of that war<BR/>- put a link in place between the lowest and highest paid people in any organisation<BR/><BR/>I could go on all night...Stefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-91657967933441268052009-01-24T22:53:00.000+00:002009-01-24T22:53:00.000+00:00You're right that we're seeing a lot of monopolies...<I>You're right that we're seeing a lot of monopolies, but at least the private corporations can't pretend to have everyone's support. Heard of the term consumer resistance? Then of course there's things like lobbying.</I><BR/><BR/>I think what we're seeing is an unholy merger of private and public<BR/><BR/>There are some powers we traditionally only delegated to elected officials because we believed we had the mechanisms in place to hold those people to account - making war, dispensing of justice, provision of essential infrastructure<BR/><BR/>We're now in a situation where our elected officials are turning more and more over to private monopolies, often signing contracts which far exceed their elected terms<BR/><BR/>The end result is the worst of both worlds<BR/><BR/>IMHO there are some services which work best as a publicly accountable monopoly - either because, by their nature, they shouldn't be expected to make a cash profit or because any element of competition would be a nonsense<BR/><BR/>Do we, for example, think operating two directly competing armies or police forces would have a happy ending?<BR/><BR/>Does it make sense to build and maintain two competing water supply infrastructures? Would they really work out cheaper than one decently run one?Stefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-54442974120454943162009-01-24T22:40:00.000+00:002009-01-24T22:40:00.000+00:00A couple of chums of mine are heavily involved in ...A couple of chums of mine are heavily involved in the <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility" REL="nofollow">Corporate Social Responsibility</A> racket and whilst they have convinced themselves of the sincerity and good business sense of what they are doing, the guys who run their companies remain absolutely ruthless fuckers who'd evict their own grannies to turn a profit<BR/><BR/>Companies exist for one reason, and one reason alone, and that is to gouge as much as possible off other companies and people<BR/><BR/>Richard Dawkins argues that what we call moral behaviour is the result of competing individuals benefiting more from being part of a group than working alone - selfishness leads to apparent unselfishness<BR/><BR/>Virtually the same argument is used to explain why the private sector will naturally work in a benevolent way<BR/><BR/>All of which assumes, of course, that the people running the companies, especially the really big ones, think they're part of the same species as the rest of us<BR/><BR/>When was the last time you saw a pack of jackals co-operating harmoniously with their lunch?Stefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-45538189869204605232009-01-24T22:38:00.000+00:002009-01-24T22:38:00.000+00:00They shouldn't have been a public monopoly to begi...They shouldn't have been a public monopoly to begin with either. But do you not agree that the bloated size of the government corresponds with the police state crap it is involved in? Perhaps I should replace "government" with civil service though.<BR/><BR/>Smaller government = less chance of it causing damage when it inevitably becomes corrupted.<BR/><BR/>Instead of welfare, I'd rather just be paid fairly and have no more private banking influence over the economy. No more of this artificial scarcity bullshit either.<BR/><BR/>You're right that we're seeing a lot of monopolies, but at least the private corporations can't pretend to have everyone's support. Heard of the term consumer resistance? Then of course there's things like lobbying.<BR/><BR/>Individual taxation is higher than corporate taxation both as a relative percentage and absolute amounts, which I also don't like. What would you do with both the public and private sector to make them honest and transparent again then?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-40375229105500939772009-01-24T22:18:00.000+00:002009-01-24T22:18:00.000+00:00In theory, the public sector worker isn't being su...In theory, the public sector worker isn't being subsidised at all and is occupied providing services for the private sector worker<BR/><BR/>And what if we hadn't allowed utilities such as provision of water supply or rail transportation to be turned over to private monopoly? Are they not part of the productive infrastructure?<BR/><BR/>Personally, I don't give a toss how big or small government is, provided it is run decently<BR/><BR/>Ditto for the private sector<BR/><BR/>Their relative size is a distraction from much more significant factors such as honesty, decency, competence, transparency and accountability<BR/><BR/>The argument used to run that the private sector should manage as much as possible because it is allegedly more efficient at allocating scarce working capital<BR/><BR/>Even if that's the case, and the economic fuck up which is enveloping us all suggests otherwise, the private sector hates competition and has this annoying habit of engaging in whatever practices it takes to achieve monopoly and oligopoly - at which point the Fun really beginsStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-34327627284897233372009-01-24T22:03:00.000+00:002009-01-24T22:03:00.000+00:00Yes, but the government worker is wholly subsidise...Yes, but the government worker is wholly subsidised by the private workforce. Besides, don't you agree with having a smaller government? If everyone was on a decent wage we wouldn't need the benefits officer or the welfare system in the first place.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-70735863141159788412009-01-24T20:32:00.001+00:002009-01-24T20:32:00.001+00:00look at the Chinesethe very model of a cost-effect...look at the Chinese<BR/><BR/>the very model of a cost-effective labour force<BR/><BR/>which is why they have to export almost everything they makeStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-23926552061236828882009-01-24T20:30:00.000+00:002009-01-24T20:30:00.000+00:00not too far off now eithernot too far off now eitherStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-7664311597175620802009-01-24T20:29:00.000+00:002009-01-24T20:29:00.000+00:00Low paying companies are arguably the worst benefi...Low paying companies are arguably the worst benefit scroungers out there<BR/><BR/>Of, course sooner or later, you get to a point where so many employers have screwed their staff down so tight and outsourced so much work overseas that no-one can afford their fucking productsStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-56547116114072814512009-01-24T20:19:00.000+00:002009-01-24T20:19:00.000+00:00Plus the person on 7 quid an hour will likely have...Plus the person on 7 quid an hour will likely have their income supplemented by the various benefits administered by the well paid government worker, who will be paying more taxes and drawing no benefits.<BR/>The private sector employer is the winner here.paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608591025225519578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-27975006780388395622009-01-24T20:12:00.000+00:002009-01-24T20:12:00.000+00:00well, not quite everyone, obviouslywell, not quite <I>everyone</I>, obviouslyStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8225855.post-30646474459290717732009-01-24T20:11:00.000+00:002009-01-24T20:11:00.000+00:00In fairness, I have to hold my hand up and admit t...In fairness, I have to hold my hand up and admit that I was still falling for this trick until only a few years ago<BR/><BR/>During the firemen's strike I remember thinking, because the newspapers had instructed me to think that way, <I>'yes, they do have a better pay and conditions than the soldiers who are covering for them, why shouldn't they have a shit deal like everyone else'</I><BR/><BR/>yup, the sooner everyone is screwed down to the lowest common denominator the sooner we can all bask in the resulting prosperityStefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01467757421113856218noreply@blogger.com