What Do You Think Today?

[Avatar]

One of the most shamefull things I ever did was to go on a 'tour' of the Cape-Town 'townships' while on holiday in S.A. As soon as it started I knew I was guilty of the most awful prurient voyeurism and I hated every minute of it. I couldn't leave the tour because I was afraid to be alone in that environment - but I knew it was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, now there is apparently a "theme camp/thing" where you can actually stay in (an approximation of) one.

On the one hand, god damn. On the other, local employment etc. Pick your poison.

--A

[peter]

On Sarurday we were treated to headlines in a number of the large circulation daily's bemoaning the fact that David Cameron was on holiday in Cornwall while the rest of the world was burning. He was however insisting that he 'was still in charge'. How pathetic I remarked to my work-mate. Every year we get the same old headline every time our premier takes a few days of r&r; what do these fools expect - him never to leave no 10! [Aside from that, communications technology these days means that few of us are ever truly 'out of the saddle'.] But worst of all this is just lazy jounalism, filling space by firing criticism at the the PM for just being human [whatever shade he may be].

I've just read a weekly synopsis of world news in a periodical I take and lo and behold what have the American press been centering on this week - The fact that Barrak Obama has seen fit to take a holiday while the rest of the world burns. Small world eh?

[aliantha]

Yup. Happens every year. Happened when the Shrub was in office, too. Some things never change.

[peter]

Richard Dawkin is nothing if not entrpenurial;

For $85 a month you can [via his web site] join his 'Circle of Reason', getting discount on such items as his "Religion - Together we can beat it" T-shirt. Increasing monthly payments will get you through "The Science Circle" and "The Darwin Circle" right to the heart of the inner sanctum, "The Magic of Reality Circle". Once you have achieved this exhaulted level a mere $100,000 donation will get you dinner with the God....er....Man himself. I do believe the fellow has cracked it - Religion without the Bullshit!

[aliantha]

Richard Dawkin is nothing if not entrpenurial;

For $85 a month you can [via his web site] join his 'Circle of Reason', getting discount on such items as his "Religion - Together we can beat it" T-shirt. Increasing monthly payments will get you through "The Science Circle" and "The Darwin Circle" right to the heart of the inner sanctum, "The Magic of Reality Circle". Once you have achieved this exhaulted level a mere $100,000 donation will get you dinner with the God....er....Man himself. I do believe the fellow has cracked it - Religion without the Bullshit!

OMG, seriously? Doesn't the church call that tithing?

[Orlion]

Richard Dawkin is nothing if not entrpenurial;

For $85 a month you can [via his web site] join his 'Circle of Reason', getting discount on such items as his "Religion - Together we can beat it" T-shirt. Increasing monthly payments will get you through "The Science Circle" and "The Darwin Circle" right to the heart of the inner sanctum, "The Magic of Reality Circle". Once you have achieved this exhaulted level a mere $100,000 donation will get you dinner with the God....er....Man himself. I do believe the fellow has cracked it - Religion without the Bullshit!

OMG, seriously? Doesn't the church call that tithing?

It's been done before, I think it's called Scientology.

[Vraith]

Richard Dawkin is nothing if not entrpenurial;

For $85 a month you can [via his web site] join his 'Circle of Reason', getting discount on such items as his "Religion - Together we can beat it" T-shirt. Increasing monthly payments will get you through "The Science Circle" and "The Darwin Circle" right to the heart of the inner sanctum, "The Magic of Reality Circle". Once you have achieved this exhaulted level a mere $100,000 donation will get you dinner with the God....er....Man himself. I do believe the fellow has cracked it - Religion without the Bullshit!

OMG, seriously? Doesn't the church call that tithing?

It's been done before, I think it's called Scientology.

Heh...I don't know...Scientology seems more like Bullshit without the Religion.

[peter]

[peter]

Theresa May [the UK Home Secretary] anounces today that the terrorist threat level in the UK is being raised from 'substantial' to 'severe'.
As a result of the rise of anti-western militant groups in Syria and Iraq [read the Islamic State] the perceived likelyhood of there being a terrorist attack in the UK is deemed 'highly likely' - though there is no intelligence to suggest that one is iminent. David Cameron says we are in the middle of a 'generational struggle' against a poisonous ideology and that ISIS poses "a greater and deeper threat to our society than we have known before".

Lets just think about that. When I was living in London in the seventies and eighties the IRA were blowing up pubs and railway stations in the mainland UK on an almost weekly basis. Every where you went there were notices and announcements to 'report suspicious packages'. Yet for all that no-one was the slightest bit bothered or moderated their behavior in any way whatsoever that would give meaning to these terrorist acts. Forty years previously the might of the Third Reich stood poised not twenty miles from the UK with only 'those noble few' standing between us and invasion. Still we hardly turned a hair.

So lets keep this in perspective shall we. We've been here before, much more realistically and much worse in effect. This kind of over the top rhetoric designed to frighten people and keep them on edge [for whatever malignant purpouses the politicians hope to achieve thereby] should be recognised for what it is. Bullshit!

[I'm Murrin]

What, you don't think their statements about a threat are credible? Why ever not? I mean, why wouldn't a group struggling to establish a firm hold on part of the middle east against weakened local authorities, in a time of growing international support for intervention by strong western states, decide to deliberately attack and provoke one of those same states?

[Avatar]

Split off into a thread on Scottish Independence.



--A

[peter]

It's a nightmare in the shop trying to get people to do the work. We are open 16.75 hours a day 364 days a year. Thats a lot of hours and with a minnimum of two staff pluss a manager needed at most times, this requires a staff of ten or so people. However, try as you might, virtually every person who comes for interview, will only work 16 hours, or won't work more than twenty but less than 24 - and the reason they give is always the same. "If I work ouside this my bennefits will be cut and then I'll effectively be working for nothing. So many people have been offered 40 hours but have refused becuse "I'll only be £12 a week better off than I am now."

Well here's a message for you; I work 40 hours and I'm only £12 better off and I do it because I believe that if you are fit to do a job and there is a job for you to do then you have a moral obligation as a responsible member of your society do do it. It doesn't matter if you are a trained brain surgeon, you don't have a right to a job as one and in the absece of such work you have no right to place yourself as a burden to your society if there is work - any work - for you to do. It is work - any work - that allows you to hold up your head and say "I contribute."

[ussusimiel]

What you need, peter, are some immigrants who are not entitled to benefits. That's the way we do it in Ireland!

I used to be of the same opinion as you, peter, now, not so much. What you are describing is the classic poverty trap, where the benefits provided overlap with the lowest paid jobs. The usual way to get around this is to continue paying a significant percentage of the benefits for the first couple of years after the person returns to work.

The poverty trap becomes more pernicious in a low wage economy. The Welfare State attempts to provide every person with a basic income that will meet their minimum needs. If that's all a full time job will do then I can sympathise with someone for not wanting to take such a job. IMO, in our modern consumer-economy,the purpose of a full-time job is to be able to meet your basic need and save some money for other stuff. When Unions and other protections for workers have been totally eroded, and when the race for the bottom gets into full swing, I am an advocate of the State intervening so that its citizens do not have to be at the complete mercy of business.

The globalised economy we live in means that certain jobs that people would have been qualified to do are all gone East, forcing such people to work for the minimum wage, is, IMO, unfair and a consequence of forces over which they have no control. If you allow business to make all the rules then it is only a matter of time before we return to a form of wage slavery. The Welfare State is a buttress against that, and also one that we as citizens actually can influence every four years or so.

u.

[I'm Murrin]

The ideal solution, though one that is perhaps hard to achieve, is one where benefits provide enough to subsist, and the minimum wage is high enough that you're significantly better off with it. Having them too close together means situations where people taking employment may be sacrificing a lot (having to start paying for childcare, for example) for little gain.

Personally I'm the type who'd put a premium on the loss of free time from taking a job; it needs to be worth using that significant portion of your life. £12 a month I'd say is not worth the huge sacrifice in free time. If the employment market is unwilling to offer fair compensation for a person's time, then that person has every right to stick with the deal that's better for them overall.

[Avatar]

Good posts U and Murrin.

Gods know if I could get the same salary for doing nothing, I'd be home right now instead of at work on the Watch.

Agreed. The lowest paying job should have an advantage over any benefits.

--A

[I'm Murrin]

I was unemployed and on job seeker's allowance for a year and a half after University; as I was living with my parents, and don't spend much money anyway, the majority of my JSA payments wound up in my savings (I was getting £45 a week, the basic payment). I had quite a bit saved up after that, and was very comfortable not working.

Of course now I have my own bills and a mortgage to pay, so I have to work, and I'm in a job that happens to pay pretty well. (For now. I'm still at risk of redundancy at the end of the year. :/)

[peter]

Good points guys and of course I'm not blind to the arguments therein - but I have pride [even while I'm being f***** in the a*** by the system I'm supporting] and this says to me if you can work, then work. If you don't like the deal you are getting, then work to get a better one or work to get the deal changed.

Quick change of topic; in the shop today we had our first delivery of electronic nicotene delivery systems [I'm not going to call them e-cigarettes - they're not cigatettes] which are liquid phials containing a multitude of different flavoured nicotene inhalation vapours. The flavours we have on offer include bubble-gum, energy drink, tropical fruit and cherry amongst a number of others. The packaging is bright and modern and very appealing to the young eye. Does it not strike you that, far from being the aid it claims to be in helping people give up smoking [the product is called 'kik'] - it may be the very thing that actually introduces youngsters to the 'pleasures' of nicotene in the first place. A similar trick was pulled by the booze industry years ago with the introduction of fizzy pops that contained alcohol [Hooch was one I recall] that would fit the young, sweet adjusted] palate while at the same time teaching the person about the fun to be had drinking. This [ie the nicotene product] seems to be even more devious and potentially damaging to me and it beggars belief that such products are even legal!

[michaelm]

Does it not strike you that, far from being the aid it claims to be in helping people give up smoking [the product is called 'kik'] - it may be the very thing that actually introduces youngsters to the 'pleasures' of nicotene in the first place.

I think you can include adults in that too. I know far too many people who were struggling with smoking who only smoked a few a day or just when they went out drinking who are now smoking those things all day long.

It's almost as if they are an excuse to not give up as it's "not as unhealthy as tobacco"...

[aliantha]

Murrin mentioned this in the "how are you feeling today?" thread. He said he doesn't know anybody who's using these things to quit smoking.

[michaelm]

Yep, quite the opposite for me. It's almost as if they have changed people on the verge of giving up into chain smokers.