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Politics.143 |
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Remember The Poor |
{Politics.143.282}: Richard Clark {cardo} Tue, 22 May 2012 14:10:35 EDT (1 line)
Please explain why you think it is absurd.
{Politics.143.283}: Senator Lampoon {yesdeer} Tue, 22 May 2012 14:37:03 EDT (3 lines)
1. 20 hour work week @ $50k per year is abusrd. 2. The greatest crime by the powers that be is abusrd. 3. "Because the only way the rich can keep wages down..." is absurd.
{Politics.143.284}: The operative word is 'why'? {cardo} Tue, 22 May 2012 17:15:34 EDT (HTML)
1. A 20 hour work week @ $50k per year is absurd.
2. The greatest crime by the powers that be is absurd.
3. "Because the only way the rich can keep wages down..." is absurd.
And here’s my rejoinder to each of these three objections:
1. The French successfully cut their workweek back to 35 hours, and their per-capita GDP is a whole lot less than ours. And some German companies have cut their workweek similarly, leading to measurable increases in productivity (i.e. work output per hour). So if the French can cut to 35, on a much lower p-c GDP, surely we can cut to, well let’s say 25, given our much larger p-c GDP. Besides, many studies have shown that people get the vast majority of their daily work done in just 6 hours of every day. The other two are largely fuckoff hours.
2. Stealing the benefits of growing productivity from 90% of the country’s workers is of course the greatest crime in history – if measured by the trillions of dollars in wages and benefits that have been siphoned from workers over the past 30 years or more (into the pockets of the financial elite) – which is exactly what happened after Reagan took the White House and a) started the union busting that has continued ever since, and b) began shipping US jobs overseas to US companies building factories over there and shipping the goods manufactured there (under slave-like conditions), virtually tariff free, into the USA.
3. If you haven’t heard of Marx’s theory of the “Reserve Army of the
Unemployed,” I suggest you do some reading. You see, it has to do
with the law of supply and demand, which I know you must have heard
about. Try to understand that labor is a commodity in any capitalist
system, and that when there are far many more workers offering to sell
that commodity (i.e. their labor), and the supply of buyers of that
labor (i.e. employers) is much smaller than is needed by the workers,
that’s obviously going to drive the cost of labor down. Therefore it
behooves all employers to make sure that no government programs arise
that put too many workers to work at decent wages (rebuilding
infrastructure for instance), lest the available supply of workers
(for the private sector) shrinks too much. For if that happens,
workers won’t be competing for scarce private sector jobs. Instead,
employers will be competing for scarce workers, and that of course
will drive the cost of labor up.
{Politics.143.285}: Senator Lampoon {yesdeer} Tue, 22 May 2012 18:58:37 EDT (HTML)
The French are broke. They have one of the highest unemployment rates in the universe. And their social system has made everyone lazy and unemployable. They don't make anything but cheese and bread.
The rest of your items are just absurd.
{Politics.143.286}: Tom Austin {taustin} Tue, 22 May 2012 20:07:38 EDT (32 lines)
1. The French successfully cut their workweek back to 35 hours, and their per-capita GDP is a whole lot less than ours. And some German companies have cut their workweek similarly, leading to measurable increases in productivity (i.e. work output per hour). So if the French can cut to 35, on a much lower p-c GDP, surely we can cut to, well let’s say 25, given our much larger p-c GDP. Besides, many studies have shown that people get the vast majority of their daily work done in just 6 hours of every day. The other two are largely fuckoff hours. >>> there are a couple of issues with this. I'm pretty sure productivity is measured in work output per dollar of employee compensation. Therefore, getting salaried employees (the majority of professional office workers are salaried) to work longer hours drives up productivity. second, the phenomenon of "fuck-off hours" is generally driven by poor organization and decision-making in a business. Employees can safely fuck off only when they don't have enough work to do (usually because they are waiting for a decision on a part of their project, or they are waiting for someone else to complete a task before they can proceed with theirs. we'd all love to work in that well-organized office where there is always something productive that can be done. the hours FLY by in the rare cases where that is all true. Sadly, it isn't true very much. Unless that were addressed, the *percentage* of fuck-off hours would stay the same, meaning the person with a six-hour workday would only be productive for four and half hours.
{Politics.143.287}: Richard Clark {cardo} Wed, 23 May 2012 06:21:23 EDT (HTML)
If a dum remark like this is any indication of what else you might
have said, if you'd actually taken the time to respond to the other 2
of my 3 rejoinders, it's just as well that you didn't bother.
{Politics.143.288}: IncreaseProductivity --StayHome {cardo} Wed, 23 May 2012 06:29:44 EDT (HTML)
•American Express telecommuters handle 26% more calls and produce 43% more business than their office-based counterparts.
•Compaq Computer Corporation documented productivity increases ranging from 15 to 45%.
Telecommuting offers fewer interruptions and gives employees the flexibility to catch up on their work. It also reduces their stress, burnout risk, going-to-work costs and commuting time.
When telecommuters become ill, they can often perform at least some of their normal work. Studies show that telecommuting also can cut absenteeism by 20%.
{Politics.143.289}: Glen Marks {wotan} Thu, 07 Feb 2013 17:36:04 EST (33 lines)
- The manner in which the great multitude of the poor is treated by society today is revolting. They are drawn into the large cities where they breathe a poorer atmosphere than in the country; they are relegated to districts which, by reason of the method of construction, are worse ventilated than any others; they are deprived of all means of cleanliness, of water itself, since pipes are laid only when paid for, and the rivers so polluted that they are useless for such purposes; they are obliged to throw all offal and garbage, all dirty water, often all disgusting drainage and excrement into the streets, being without other means of disposing of them; they are thus compelled to infect the region of their own dwellings. Nor is this enough. All conceivable evils are heaped upon the heads of the poor. If the population of great cities is too dense in general, it is they in particular who are packed into the least space. As though the vitiated atmosphere of the streets were not enough, they are penned in dozens into single rooms, so that the air which they breathe at night is enough in itself to stifle them. They are given damp dwellings, cellar dens that are not waterproof from below or garrets that leak from above. Their houses are so built that the clammy air cannot escape. They are supplied bad, tattered, or rotten clothing, adulterated and indigestible food. They are exposed to the most exciting changes of mental condition, the most violent vibrations between hope and fear; they are hunted like game, and not permitted to attain peace of mind and quiet enjoyment of life. They are deprived of all enjoyments except that of sexual indulgence and drunkenness, are worked every day to the point of complete exhaustion of their mental and physical energies, and are thus constantly spurred on to the maddest excess in the only two enjoyments at their command. And if they surmount all this, they fall victims to want of work in a crisis when all the little is taken from them that had hitherto been vouchsafed them. "Das Kapital" (Marx)
{Politics.143.290}: Richard Clark {cardo} Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:20:57 EST (HTML)
{Politics.143.291}: Senator Lampoon {yesdeer} Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:23:24 EST (HTML)
{Politics.143.292}: Glen Marks {wotan} Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:23:04 EST (5 lines)
Isn't Marx's relevance being reaffirmed?: "http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Capitalism-Global-Crisis- Relevance/dp/1459608771/ref=sr_1_35? s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360347562&sr=1-35&keywords=marx+2013"
{Politics.143.293}: Glen Marks {wotan} Sat, 09 Feb 2013 05:09:39 EST (7 lines)
The lives of the working poor--nothing to joke about: - Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that. George Carlin
{Politics.143.294}: Richard Clark {cardo} Sat, 09 Feb 2013 10:24:10 EST (HTML)
He gave them a means to understanding the means and methods by which they were being systematically screwed.
He also suggested to them what they might do about it, but these
suggestions proved to be somewhat flawed, to say the least.
{Politics.143.295}: Senator Lampoon {yesdeer} Sat, 09 Feb 2013 11:32:40 EST (HTML)
I doubt that. He gave intellectuals the means to systematically
screw the poor while making the poor think they were their friends.
It continues to this day.
{Politics.143.296}: Richard Clark {cardo} Sat, 09 Feb 2013 11:39:24 EST (HTML)
{Politics.143.297}: Richard Clark {cardo} Sat, 09 Feb 2013 11:40:54 EST (HTML)
{Politics.143.298}: Richard Clark {cardo} Sat, 09 Feb 2013 11:41:54 EST (1 line)
Greatest and **most influential** thinkers I should have said.
{Politics.143.299}: Senator Lampoon {yesdeer} Sat, 09 Feb 2013 13:51:01 EST (HTML)
{Politics.143.300}: Richard Clark {cardo} Sat, 09 Feb 2013 14:00:32 EST (1 line)
Please elaborate and explain.
{Politics.143.301}: Bloviation T. Cornpone {oldman} Sat, 09 Feb 2013 16:32:03 EST (1 line)
Marx???? according to who?
{Politics.143.302}: Richard Clark {cardo} Sat, 09 Feb 2013 22:55:54 EST (HTML)
{Politics.143.303}: Glen Marks {wotan} Sun, 10 Feb 2013 05:49:22 EST (3 lines)
"Why Marx Was Right" (review of 2011 book): www.peoplesworld.org/why-marx-was-right-lively-challenge-to-10-myths/
{Politics.143.304}: Bloviation T. Cornpone {oldman} Sun, 10 Feb 2013 06:59:05 EST (20 lines)
ah, I see. One of the 10 greatest economists, not 'thinker'. cute. One of many who just don't understand "The Damned Thing." From "Never Whistle While You're Pissing" by Hagbard Celine: "The most thoroughly and relentlessly Damned, banned, excluded, condemned, forbidden, ostracized, ignore, suppressed, repressed, robbed, brutalized and defamed of all Damned Things is the individual human being. The social engineers, statistician, psychologist, sociologists, market researchers, landlords, bureaucrats, captains of industry, bankers, governors, commissars, kings and presidents are perpetually forcing this Damned Thing into carefully prepared blueprints and perpetually irritated that the Damned Thing will not fit into the slot assigned it. The theologians call it a sinner and try to reform it. The governor calls it a criminal and tries to punish it. the psychologist calls it a neurotic and tries to cure it. Still, the Damned Thing will not fit into their slots." http://www.rawilson.com/illuminatus.html#whistle
{Politics.143.305}: Glen Marks {wotan} Fri, 29 Mar 2013 20:00:27 EDT (3 lines)
Tonight on MOYERS AND COMPANY: http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-and-justice-for-some/
{Politics.143.306}: Glen Marks {wotan} Sun, 07 Apr 2013 17:52:20 EDT (3 lines)
"Homeless in High Tech’s Shadow": http://billmoyers.com/content/homeless-in-high-techs-shadow/
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