alanjjohnstone
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Things hottening up in Delhi with the AAP now conducting local government in the street…literally open government but also a bit of xenophobic racism entering the local politics with anti-African sentiment. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-25822581
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/sir-bob-geldof-backs-russell-brands-call-for-political-revolution-9071967.html Ouch…with friends like these, Brand better watch himself. Brown-noser extraordinaire, Geldof, sticks his oar in. The current democratic system "may not be viable for much longer". He also praised Brand for his "articulacy and expressing the anger of the moment. We have to change and it needs to be in the context of how we live now rather than with some old-hat political ideal," He went on to condemn capitalism as a failure. Banks, he says, have been allowed to go "out of control", while pure human greed has led to the invention of "completely spurious" financial products. "They ceased to [give money to others] and gave it to themselves through fraud, outright international global gangsterism," he claimed. "That's what it was," he continued on the subject of the recent banking crisis. "Mispricing of products, fraud. Mis-selling of products, fraud. Fixing the interbank lending rate. Fraud. It was fraud on an unprecedented scale! They sucked billions out of the world economy, destroying individuals, companies and countries. Russell is completely right. That model cannot sustain us as we saw, it bankrupted Greece, almost Italy, almost France and almost Ireland. It just can't work."However, he didn’t agree with everything Brand had to say. Replacing the current political system with anarchy, for example, is "not viable or plausible"."You can't just have a free for all," Geldof added. "It just won’t work because we will form structural organisations within that as it's the kind of thing we do.""When you have these supposed masters of the universe averaging more than 248 times the average worker's pay, you have a serious problem of inequality. Inequality stops a society functioning and so it has to stop." "I do think the version of democracy that we have been living with just may not be viable for very much longer. We will have something where we have proper freedom and elected representation."We all co-operate in the knowing lie, which is that everybody promises more and that the economy will inevitably grow. what does that mean? It means more, more of what? That's not viable in an unsustainable and finite world."Nor can you in a four year electoral cycle put into place programmes that would help to ameliorate the effects of that. If the economy is affected in that way by definition politics are so that the politics that we've grown up with in a different economy cannot work in a new one, there has to be a newer type of politics."You will see a change in the type of politics. It'll still be our government, it needs to be otherwise you'll have problems and it still needs to be a more coherent economy."Perhaps Gelfof has in mind the Thai Yellow shirt suggestion – no elections and an appointed 'peoples council' made up with the likes of himself and Bono.Actually i think Geldof may be more in tune with the Pope's anti-capitalism than Brand's…its not the system…its 'human greed', its the flawed frailities of men and women and their 'materialism'.
http://www.moneynews.com/Elias/Invest-income-revenue-consumption/2014/01/03/id/544982I'm not sure how relevant this is to over-consumptionist theory but i got a feeling it does have a point."In 1980, $1 in money supply generated $3.50 of income. Today, that same dollar only generates $1.40 in income, based on data from the Fed. The primary reason for this decline has been lower levels of investment relative to GDP. Investment has a greater economic multiplier than consumption does. It generates more income per dollar of expenditure, since the spending occurs at the beginning of the production process, not at the end, as with consumption. Expenditures at the beginning create collateral expenditures to support the production process of cost-effective, high-quality, value-added goods and services for the masses."From 1980 through 2008, consumption as a share of the economy rose from 61 percent to 68 percent, while the share due to gross private domestic investment fell to 12 percent from 20 percent, according to the Federal Reserve – So how can under-consumptionism be a cause of the crisis when consumption actually rose. Whereas if Rand D is a reflection of capital consumption from 1987 through 2008, U.S. research and development rose a mere 0.3 percent per annum, compared with 4.9 percent annually from 1953 through 1987.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/4e3ed714-7f87-11e3-b6a7-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=intl#axzz2qqtSRmhhLaid on the line“The big difference between 1979 and 2013 is that we are all capitalists now,” says Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary and a former corporate lawyer “The question is what sort of capitalism do we want? We embrace free markets but we want competitive and free markets and more responsible capitalism.”
Not had time to fully read or understand the article but i am sure others may find it of interest. It does repeat what we now believe to be a myth about fractional reserves and goldsmiths. The update is that the fed is manipulating the gold price because the banks no longer can cover their reserves under fractional rules. The Fed and gold :- http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article37413.htm
http://rt.com/usa/amazon-anticipatory-package-shipping-836/ Amazon is now going a stage further than just delivering faster with drones. They now intend for you to buy before you even know you want to. Amazon patented the “anticipatory package shipping” process which is expected to expedite shipments through sending specific items to distribution centers near those customers who the company expects to buy them in the near future. The destination will be based on a number of “business variables”, including customer’s purchase history, wish lists, saved searches, and general search data. Firstly one or more items will be packed as a “package for eventual shipment to a delivery address”without specifying the delivery address but only the “destination geographical area.” And then while the package is in transit the system will specify the exact delivery address, when the customer purchases the item. The patent also describes “speculatively shipping” scenarios for the delivery destinations as well as how to re-route parcels based on proximity of potential buyers, claiming that packages could remain in continuous transit on trucks until a customer decides to make a purchase. "Speculative shipping of packages may enable more sophisticated and timely management of inventory items, for example by allowing packages to begin flowing towards potential customers in advance of actual orders,” the patent says. If the behavior purchasing pattern fails, Amazon could deliver the package anyway to build customer loyalty as a gift to someone who might like it.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-labour-will-make-jobless-take-maths-and-english-tests-9070660.html The jobless would lose their unemployment benefit under a Labour Government if they failed a “basic skills test” and refused training. Get on your bike replaced by get back to school.
"There was a need for a party that doesn’t just get 50 votes as TUSC does."LU are sooth-sayers too…we shall wait and see just how many votes it attracts when it stands on its own name and programme.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/57fd1a96-7e46-11e3-b409-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2qiWtIulT And then there is Social Physics“Social physics helps us understand how ideas flow from person to person . . . and ends up shaping the norms, productivity and creative output of our companies, cities and societies,” writes Pentland. “Just as the goal of traditional physics is to understand how the flow of energy translates into change in motion, social physics seems to understand how the flow of ideas and information translates into changes in behaviour.” Bank of America decided to change its system to enable staff to hang out together over coffee and swap ideas in an unstructured way. Almost immediately there was a dramatic improvement in performance. “The average call-handle time decreased sharply, which means that the employees were much more productive,” Pentland writes in his forthcoming book Social Physics. “So the call centre management staff converted the break structure of all their call centres to this new system and forecast a $15m per year productivity increase.”I wonder if they will say the same when unions and strikes are the subject of coffee time discussions?
Adam’s argument is perfectly reasonable. Capitalist drive for profits causes short-comings in safety precautions being taken. Socialism can rectify those. However, accidents and genuine misfortune do occur and socialism can only minimise those and not prevent them entirely. If the type and scale of technology used involve dire consequences if safe-guards fail – should we gamble with the odds when alternative technology already exists and there is no imperative requirement inside socialism to adopt fracking, GMO, nuclear energy and many other risk-carrying technologies.While we can easily recognise the benefits of medical research into drugs we do not endorse its priorities, that even capitalists such as Bill Gates can see clearly are skewed in the sense more scientific resources goes into curing baldness than malaria. So similarly some socialists feel the same about fracking etc That it should be opposed because it is a diversion from deploying the skills and knowledge to solve more pressing human needs. As we always point out, only socialism can turn tanks into tractors. Likewise, only socialism can end environmentally destructive extractive industries. To sit on the fence is to side with the capitalist class. As Adam also pointed out, the material requirements for socialism has long been achieved. I say the need for socialists to support dark satanic mills is also in the past. It is not for the current members of the SPGB to set what the acceptable risks are to be in socialism, but we can take a stand on what they should be in the capitalist world we live in now. We leave the quibbling over allowable CO2 and methane levels – and stick to our position – system change not climate change.
Even campaigns has a negative connotation, its what PR and advertising engage in ..communications is something HR department do…I always had an affection for agitprop
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/16/green-councillors-brighton-referendum-council-tax-riseMore on the dilemma of administrating capitalism.Kitcat said: "The coalition's cuts mean we cannot deliver the services we were elected to provide and which our consciences say we should provide. We have no choice but to seek the views of local people on funding these services through a tax increase."
It seems that one of the drug cartels, the Knights Templars, was itself originally – or claimed to be – a self defense organisation. It accuses the current self-defense groups of being fronts for the rival New Generation drug cartel.In Northern Ireland the nationalist and loyalist paramilitaries also got locked into a conplicated turf war for the illegal drugs trade. If it is the rich land-owners financing the vigilante movement, just how long will it be before they use it against the peasants and farm workers trying to organise labor unions?
