tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9424895.post8670729074033168375..comments2024-03-03T17:50:06.110+00:00Comments on Inner Diablog: So, this is where we find ourselves...Inner Diabloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00455371690283484250noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9424895.post-108368177521481072016-07-17T17:22:31.740+00:002016-07-17T17:22:31.740+00:00http://www.strangehistory.net/2016/07/16/intellige...http://www.strangehistory.net/2016/07/16/intelligence-vs-wisdom-public-debate/normhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04651902762232427335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9424895.post-79882694975616520662016-07-17T14:33:28.565+00:002016-07-17T14:33:28.565+00:00I'm no better at solutions than the average p...I'm no better at solutions than the average politician, seeing the problems and the causes is an easy game. My friend Beach wrote an essay the other day about knowledge and intelligence being so very different. His point was that intelligent people are too fast with solutions and not cogent of consequence. Universal franchise is not going away, populism is always going to be a major factor, we need to tweak our system before it implodes under popular mandate. normhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04651902762232427335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9424895.post-7138996184743785512016-07-11T01:23:35.122+00:002016-07-11T01:23:35.122+00:00Thanks as ever for your thoughts Norman. I think y...Thanks as ever for your thoughts Norman. I think you are right - that the Reagan/Thatcher rhetoric that worked in the earlier phases of neoliberal globalisation has been exposed by Trump and in Britain's case by an ill-conceived plebiscite that was essentialy became a grand poll on the status quo. It is said that the countries with more equitable systems are less torn now by the issues thrown up by globalisation. My worry is that the road back to fairness may not be entirely affordable for many societies that were run by boomers burning up their children's futures through the 70s and 80s. And in some ways it may also be too late for the sort of redistribution required as globalised wealth has escaped the confines of the nation state. Inner Diabloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00455371690283484250noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9424895.post-22332716175274050752016-07-07T18:18:27.750+00:002016-07-07T18:18:27.750+00:00And I go on: The idea that someone can be called a...And I go on: The idea that someone can be called a temporary worker for years on end and the state is good with it, is just too much of a wink and a nod. Part time work, when three fourths of a firm's workers are kept under 40 hours to cheat them out of benefits. We just had a tussle here in the states over calling grunt workers , management and chiseling those people out of their legal overtime. The legislature failed to step up, they left it to the outgoing executive to put a stop to that dodge. Just making employers treat their employees in a manner that common understanding of words mean. A temporary worker is just that, I've family that spent years working at firms that classified them as temporary. The government in too many cases is co-oped by business. We wonder why so many voters are ready to run the whole gang out of town. <br />In my union leadership days, we had a warning to miscreants, We would tell the hard case that if they did not straighten up, we would "Turn our head" . Let the company do what they would. The government seems to think that is the first action rather than the last, hence the advance of populism. The manual labor people have no one to argue their case. Sanders wants that job, Trump would have us believe he wants to fight for the average worker. <br />The idea that less than 1% of the voters can control better than half a nation's wealth is not going to sit well with at least half the voters. We are looking at an era when the 1% had better bend a little or they will end up being done to rather than done with. normhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04651902762232427335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9424895.post-90986152707811243612016-07-05T19:02:56.231+00:002016-07-05T19:02:56.231+00:00The enfranchisement of the masses means that the e...The enfranchisement of the masses means that the elitists have to take the vote of the masses into consideration. The free market, low tariff economic system has left at least a third of the masses, the voters, with less than they had before and little improvement in sight . That 30% is told to suck it up, retool, get smarter but let's face it, there is always going to be that bottom third on the Bell Curve. Our elites have basicly told a third of the population to suck eggs. The last US GOP presidential candidate got caught saying something snarky about the bottom 47% being parasites in a meeting of elites that he was hitting up for funds for his campaign. It was arguably the difference in the election. <br /><br />We have put Thatcher and Reagan on some kind of pedestal, yet they are both best known for ripping the unions to bits. What other big organizations do we have that speak for the clock punchers? We end up with the likes of Trump and Boris leading the clock punchers , a plan that is sure to not go well. <br /><br />What is next? My guess is a whole lot of sandbagging. The Tories will put up some ambitious person who will do their best to stall the exit and Labor will be doing the same. The fly in the ointment may be the rest of the EU deciding to give the Brits more than just a gentle push. Not too likely. <br /><br />What Clinton and whoever rises to the top in the Labor party must do is address the damage free trade and globalization has done to the living standards of those people who make their living making things one can drop on their toe. My suggestion would be to install an import tax equal to whatever those metal bashers have to pay in employment tax. Someone wants to bring something across the border and sell it, they need to pay at least what the clock puncher has to pay to make the same thing . Start there. normhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04651902762232427335noreply@blogger.com