Global Economy
Taking Leave may mean the End of your Job – Solutions?
“It’s like a bachelor party for your career! Or having someone buying you dinner and then assume that means he’s owed sexual intercourse! Anyway, apparently telling people to take a vacation before they come to work for you is becoming a thing now.
Writing this week in Slate, Will Oremus reports on this phenomenon, telling the tale of Jason Freedman, the CEO of a San Francisco-based commercial real estate search engine company called 42 floors. Freedman offers what he calls paid “pre-cations” to new hires, explaining, “It’s like, ‘Yeah, have a great time! And when you get back here, work your ass off.’” The point is, that sounds terrible.
As Oremus points out, we are already a vastly overworked nation. We put in considerably more hours than we did a generation ago — and most of us are doing it while facing what the New York Times last year called “flatlined” wages. A new study released last month revealed that Americans take only about half the vacation time they’re entitled to, missing out on the equivalent of “over 500 million” days off a year. Why? Because they’re afraid of repercussions, an anxiety reinforced by what MarketWatch notes is “company culture and lack of encouragement from management to take time off.” People are reluctant to take vacations for fear they’ll be revealed as expendable.”
See more at: http://www.salon.com/2014/10/01/the_pre_vacation_is_a_trap/
Well now, what a problem we have here. In the article above you can see how taking paid leave is something that most people simply cannot do, because it could mean the end of their job. Getting a job is a big problem in this world and when you do have a job you will do anything to keep it, because you need the money to survive in this world.
This gives employers power over the employees. There are many people looking for jobs, so if you are deemed replaceable you will simply be replaced. So if it means you have works your ass off every day and not take any leave then there is nothing you can do about it unless you risk getting fired. This leads to bad work situations and over worked, overstressed employees. This will only get worse unless something changes.
A solution that will end this fear and anxiety of losing a job if you take your leave which you are in fact entitled to would be the Living Income Guaranteed. This will give power to the employees and create a dignified work environment. With the minimum wage being double the Living income people will have enough money to live. This will stop the abuse of employees, because they could simply leave and find a better place to work so the employer will need to treat his employees with care to keep them working there.
Workers will feel supported and cared for by their employers, which will result in individuals that no longer feel pressured and enforced to only be a profit-making machine, but will feel happy and content to realize that their work is being truly remunerated and that their time and contribution to the corporation is being valued as the life-time investment it actually is. A well remunerated individual will create a happier and fulfilled society that is no longer afraid of not having sufficient money to feed their family, it will be the beginning of a new era of quality work that dignifies the lives of human beings that genuinely desire to improve their lifestyles.
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The Theory of Economy
This summer I had the mixed pleasure of reading a course in Microeconomics and International trade. In microeconomics the primary focus of the researchers is to establish ‘What is the market really doing and why?’ – and this is attempted to be done utilizing mathematical formulas; primarily utilizing the famous graph where two lines cross each-other, the one line sloping downwards (demand) and the other sloping upwards (supply) – and where they meet each other = that’s apparently the optimal price for the product and the optimal quantity of that product in that given market.
What first struck me as being fascinating about these theories was that they seldom predicted how the market would behave in reality, and neither could they be verified with empirical evidence – and most of the time the authors of the my books where busy trying to find reasons and various viewpoints as to why these theories wasn’t working “as they should” – and how they probably did work but it was just that the inventors missed to take into consideration some important factors and variables.
Though, what was the most fascinating about this entire area of research, was how there was this complete worship to the idea that lower prices = higher consumer satisfaction; and that apparently for a market to be functional, what is required is that we produce as many products as possible, to the lowest prices possible, because then the consumers are able to buy as much as possible, and then we’re apparently okay, happy, and have a fruitful existence here on earth.
Obviously, when I looked at these ideas, I silently chuckled – because the logical flaw of this assumption is glaringly simple = the producers are the consumers! YES – that’s the secret of economy and the reason why we’ve got so many unemployed in this day and age is because we’ve failed to understand that when a product is cheaper, someone at the other end gets less money, which in turns means that a (employee) consumer gets less money, which in turns means that the producer gets less customers = and it all ends up in such a way that most lose but a few that manage to reap the monopoly profits of those very low-priced products – because they’ve priced out everyone else.
It’s clear that we have to develop a new way of looking at economics, and that mathematics and statistics isn’t the way to go – no – we actually require to look at the actuality of what is going on. For example, poverty, what is the actuality of poverty? Why does poverty exist to begin with? It’s not a matter of mathematics, rather it’s a matter of seeing what is behind everything in this world – and that is MONEY – money that in itself is a completely innocent creation meant to be but a way of distributing goods and services to where they are required and wanted the most; but in our current system – money has become a point of control – where those that are already rich and on top of things with all possible means make sure the keep those stricken by poverty in place – else we wouldn’t anymore have a functional slave labor force that can produce all of our various gadgets and other mechanics of entertainment.
Thus, what we must ask ourselves, and economists more importantly, is why have we never used our knowledge to produce a sustainable system where all of us are able to create a life that is dignified, cool and enjoyable? What is required for us to do that? MONEY – and what do we need to bring through such money into this world? Resources – so what is then the solution – the real economic master plan as to how to create a world that would be sustainable and practical for all its inhabitants? To agree that we share the resources – at least the basic and most essential resources – those that we MUST HAVE in order to live.
Thus, I stand behind the Living Income Guaranteed – which is a functional, effective and sustainable way of creating a new world for all people where money will be shared – and for those economists that want to make a difference – I suggest that you investigate this concept and bring your knowledge to the table and help to create something from which we can all benefit!
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A Westerner’s Experience Living in Thailand
Seeing the economic status/conditions of this country, and being able to fit it into the bigger picture that includes all of the world nations, has helped me to better understand the global hierarchy of nations and how individual countries play specific roles within this.
Within this, currency manipulation and separation through cultural identities is key – also the competition point, which is expressed through nationalism.
One of the best tools to keep any nation bonded to maintaining its role in the global hierarchy is nationalism – one of the best forms of control is to have one identify with and begin to love and revere their chains – this obviously applies at the individual level in interpersonal relationships as well. Religion also plays a major role in this as the antidote when the conditions of a nation are adverse, giving all kinds of justifications as to why things are the way they are or false hope that it is all somehow ‘for the better.’
Identifying oneself with impoverishment, destitution and extremely adverse conditions carries with it great psychological implications – usually a degree of shame and a complete lack of self belief and self will – we all know how hard it is to be poor in the west at a social level and the implications this has – now imagine the massive degree of poverty that is standard, normalized and accepted in countries such as this, and how broad and far reaching these conditions are with regard to their effect on the psyche of the individual – conditions that we in the west would be appalled by, as we now see people rioting in the streets due to their living conditions worsening – whereas in countries such as this, it is already standard, accepted. It is fascinating because in this country, the protests and riots you see in the streets are actually the political minority upper-class who are angry about any attempts by ‘corrupt’ politicians to improve the lives of the poor majority lower class – this majority poor lower class simply don’t have the time or resources to gather and form a force to protest or riot, they are too busy surviving (or not even).
So our own lack of awareness to the lives of the impoverished in our own countries in the west are really just ‘the tip of the iceberg’ when you broaden that to a world-scale, and our lack of education and proper media reporting/exposure plays a major role in this – also the fact that as nations who naturally compete according to the laws of economics, this ignorance can also be justified because as long as we are on the winning team, things are fine apparently. If anything, our main priority and inclination is to take advantage of and exploit such conditions, which really something that is done quite extensively.
Language barriers and cultural norms are exacerbated through the competition principle – most racism in the world is not overt but rather implicit, the principle of ‘it is different from me therefore I value it less’. The competition principle – expressed through cultural identity – places the lens through which we tend to judge things that are different and not normal in our own cultures, which is really an unfortunate thing because when you get down to it, you realize that it is all essentially the same stuff – predictable humans behavior based on circumstances/conditions – but just appearing differently because we are coming from different perspectives that are shaped by our conditions – again here economic conditions play the largest defining role.
For instance, in my experience I have noticed the tendency for many foreigners who come here to judge this country – which is quite an easy thing to do, given the conditions here and the issues they create – without ever considering that they themselves have in fact played a role in why things are the way they are in places like this. National borders are really illusory when it is plain fact that the entire world is very directly connected by a global economic system, and of course more indirectly connected through relationships.
When you break down borders and view this as a global issue, you also realize that in fact, what we would call ‘normal middle class’ people in western/developed nations, who we consider as not being rich, are in fact within the top %10 of the worlds richest people – so when people in the west feel disempowered to act and make any change for the better in their world within the mentality of ‘poor little old me, what could I possibly do?’ – understand that there are people in this world – China serves as a great example of this – who live in complete slavery. They get up, work for 18 hours, with short breaks for meals and hygiene upkeep to make sure they are still alive and can work – sleep for 6 hours and then repeat. People who would look at the lives of middle class people like ourselves and think ‘omg, they have 2 or 3 hours of free time to themselves every day and bit of extra money in the bank?’ what a life! I only wish I could ever be so privileged, the things I could do with all that freedom…’
We are also – in the case of Thailand – talking about a nation where certain basic freedoms are not even allowed by the rule of law – for instance while we have free speech in the west – although that is questionable and constantly under duress – this pales in comparison to a nation like this where for instance you literally cannot say any thing negative about the monarchy – you would be thrown in jail.
In the west, our lack of understanding and our inaction comes largely from information control and manipulation, but when we are talking about a country with money and resources through which the individual tends to be more enabled and have more opportunity, ignorance is more of a choice – whereas in Thailand there is a large amount of information control on the internet and in media in general, and again very limiting economic conditions – many people genuinely don’t know what they don’t know and have no way of ever finding out, and thus have very little chance or opportunity of being able to help themselves.
So this really all puts into perspective our self-responsibility and our responsibility to our world as middle-class westerners.
Investigate the Living Income Guaranteed Proposal and Join us for discussion.
Colonialism: Problems and Solutions
By Barbara Stängl
The Problem with Colonialism
“Colonialism is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Colonialism is frequently used interchangeably with imperialism. This is not actually correct, even though both involve political and economic control over a dependent territory. In colonialism, population is oftentimes transferred to a new territory as settlers who maintain an allegiance to their home country, whereas imperialism denotes the power and control factor one ruling country has over the other. However, the starting point of increasing profit and expanding power is the same.
The trick was to disguise the profit and power motive, in fact the exploitation that is be executed through colonialism, as development – with an argument known as the mission of bringing civilization to under- and undeveloped peoples, which was used to justify the intrusions and devastation of the land. So, internal decisions of the respective countries were influenced, financial and intellectual support arranged, the money for infrastructure projects lent, where around a fifth of the loan would be the actual money received, ensuing a tie-up of 80 percent in deposits in London, that would enslave the respective third world countries’ population. ‘Call in the loans’ is basically how the word colonialism is lived and manifested today.
Despite the fact that oftentimes the respective countries that had been targeted for ‘development’ fought for and received independence of the capitalist country, this revealed to be deceptive, as the status ultimately amounted to that of an informal colony. Besides, any obligations given up by them had to be taken over by befriended countries that were tied into such agreements by ‘legal’ coercion.
The idea or ideology of colonialism is nurtured by capitalist nations throughout the world with the enforcement of political, cultural and economic control over the weak nations of the world, in order to exploit them for pure self-enrichment – looking for trade, but basically sucking out the wealth of the countries it has pre-ordained for its dealings. So colonialism it is a major part of capitalism for the purpose of securing financial, economical and power interests. To this end, also, billions of slaves have been trafficked to the Americas, for instance, to have cheap human resources as laborers on the plantations that were set up, in its wake raping nature and natives alike of a balanced relationship with the whole as here as pre-established, causing warfare at all levels, resulting in genocide and complete agony for all life.
Colonialism also took on horrific extents in Malaya and Kenya, for example, where whole villages were punished in 1952, the states turned into a police state with a shoot to kill policy, detention camps were established with forced labor and hangings and any attempt to thwart British revenue demands were brutally oppressed. Hereby the UK gained immense military and industrial strength. Again motivated by material, economic and strategic interest, and, promising independence, GB continued following this ideology of colonialism in the Muslim world; the war on Iraq was spurred dividing the area into weak states, creating Iraq for the oil it needed for the Royal Navy – exchanging rulers and gassing and bombing the nation.
Colonialism sees exploitation and inhumane treatment of people with attacks against insurgents by systematic abuse, such as sleep deprivation, hooding, sexual degradation and starvation. Afghanistan is another example that is well-known, also Israel, established as a settler colony as an outpost of European capitalism, fostered in particular by British imperialism along with the creation of other states to ensure their influence. The list goes on.
One can easily see where this is going: the exploitation and devastation of the earth’s resources and enslavement of all but very few, the Elite behind it all, though even they are subservient to their greed and fear of sinking below the obtained standard trying to hold what they have made themselves believe they’re entitled to.
The solution
Since the driving factor is capitalism and within this profit and power and thus the starting point is existent of desire for More, which comes in form of economic control over those nations with rich resources, in the wake of which immense suffering is created for life on all levels, the solution is to limit the control of the corporations. They should not own natural resources and be allowed to mine them for profit of the very few without taking environmental consequences into consideration within responsibility and in regard to sustenance of an overall natural equilibrium. The resources will be handled in a way that is best for all.
It is necessary to take the capitalistic factor out of the equation, namely by implementing a system of equality with each and every living being on earth, where each being is entitled to an income from birth on. Thus each will have enough to stop the struggle for survival and coerced cooperation into a situation of compromise and devastation will be able to be immensely limited. Fear will be taken out of the equation to a great deal and the basis for self-investigation will be established.
The primary steps toward this solution would be to educate people on what equality actually means and what the consequences of implementing such a life principle into and as our practical living would look like to let people eventually see, realize and understand that fearing financial equality is quite ridiculous.
Establishing a party that each can actually vote for is essential as history has proven that acts of revolution give rise to a turnover with the ultimate effect that the same system is implemented only with a different person at the top, not to mention the brutality that is accepted by opting for violent and aggressive measures. The aim of the party would be to reallocate and nationalize resources and redistribute the responsibilities for these and their respective processing to people who are actually competent to handle such a task ecologically with responsibility.
Of course a new financial system will require substantial changes in the administrative structures and tasks and a consequent slimming down of the present extortions of these offices. On the other hand, there will be a need for people to evaluate, forward and implement improvements and suggestions thereof and people will have to be supported and educated to be able to participate with common sense, which will require the directive and clarity of insight of the respective persons to be the peers in this matter, thus after a slimming down there will be stable foundation to be set up and new expansion with regards to various novel fields, for example of science and research, that will need to be supervised will be possible.
Media will have to have a completely reversed focus point namely not to misinform and influence to the disadvantage of the people, but to inform and open up problematic points to impulse some stroke of genius or simply common sense toward solutions that support the common good and forward real growth for humanity.
On the long run the education system has to be totally reorganized and revised, pertaining for one to the contents and basically to the starting point of education as such, where not competition is being fostered to later ultimately cater to the corporate greed – the profit and advantage of the 1% -but but to ‘pick up everyone where he’s at’ and direct toward a re-establishment of common sense and actual know-how as to how things function in this world, what is here and how to create and move toward solutions that are best for all in a team.
The reward, as benefits, is obvious:
No being will have to suffer. Everyone will have food, water, shelter, education – a life. There will be no wars for resources. Fear will be on a personal level as a part of the mind consciousness system to be directed but not reinforced by the economical and financial system and so more easily handled and stopped.
School will be something very interesting without fear of failing in the system later due to bad marks, because competition will not be lived as ‘me against you’ within a superiority/inferiority paradigm, but wanting to excel in and as a team, because one will want to participate with one’s self-expression and not as a matter of surviving in the system.
There will be peace and a possibility of real self-expression without fear.
There will be a great mess to be cleaned up, but there will be a co-operation that establishes itself as everyone has enough for himself and is free to actually work together.
The Living Income Guaranteed integrates these principles in The Proposal, it is in our best interest to end foreign interventions for the sake of profit making purposes and instead, be able to focus on strengthening our own nations economy as well as developing trade within fair terms that benefit both sides.