The Ethic Protestism/Capitalism Lost and forgot about (ODT)
You could be forgiven for not knowing this is anti-poverty week. The poor, as we know, are always with us – which is great because it means we can focus on our own problems and worry about the poor’s problems later. We can fight to protect our tax breaks, then get around to wondering about how easy we’d find it to be living on $280 a week from the Pollyanna-named Newstart allowance.
The system is rigged to be Unsustainable. Why the necessity and the welcome of rep AOC (ODT)
You can also be a leader by uncovering critical information, fighting lies, spreading the truth. Core responsibilities of leadership are revealing the facts about widening inequalities of income, wealth, and political power – and uncovering their consequences.
But this form of leadership isn’t limited to reporters. It includes whistleblowers, who alert the public to abuses of power. And here courage is also required because when you blow the whistle on the powerful, the powerful sometimes strike back.
This form of leadership also includes researchers, who dig up new sources of data and analyze them in ways that enlighten and motivate.
In other words, there isn’t just one path to leadership. Whether you seek formal authority by running and gaining public office, or you organize and mobilize people into being effective advocates, or you discover and spread the truth – you are creating and developing countervailing power to spread the gains of the economy and strengthen our democracy.
These are worthy and noble objectives. They are worth your time. They can be worth a lifetime.
Nestle is one of the most hated corporations on the planet for a very good reason.
They have a long history of unethical behavior, and have been connected to human trafficking and child labor — babies deaths in third world countries due to deceptive marketing and propaganda — price fixing, and environmental misconduct, amongst other things.
But that’s not all, the company also seems to think that water — something provided for us by this amazing planet absolutely free — should not be a human right, but a private commodity for profit.
Thales wanted the six-paragraph cost-comparison between its Hawkei vehicle and the JLTV stripped from the report because it would impact its “marketability”.
Advertisement
“The vehicle cost-comparison in the impugned paragraphs purports to benchmark the cost and capability of the Hawkei and JLTV, in a way that implies that the JLTV is comparable and commensurable to the Hawkei, but approximately half the price,” Thales argued in court documents.
“This would prejudice Thales, the Commonwealth of Australia and Australian entities in the supply chain for the production of the Hawkei because it would detrimentally impact the marketability, and therefore the export prospects, of the Hawkei.”
Reflecting on the period of the Great Depression, the conservative writer Peter Viereck once wrote that the United States at that time had been “a revolutionary powder keg, needing only a spark.” That the spark never came was a testament to American society’s ability to pull back from the brink and implement policies that extended both wealth and opportunity beyond a small elite. As the global economy staggers from one crisis to the next, the future direction of politics in the West may end up depending on whether a new consensus can be reached on how to ameliorate the harms inflicted by a rampaging free market — and from there, build a vision of the future that more people find worth defending.
“There is a real potential now for a change in the conservative position on whether to regulate the harsher aspects of the market. If you look at the politics of young people today, they tend to widely share a more critical perspective on the question of what capitalism has delivered for society,” said Kolozi. “I don’t think conservatives will become socialists, ever. But a much more regulated capitalism is something that they are going to have to seriously think about accepting in the foreseeable future.”
The cyclical curse of boom and bust in a capitalist society where the banks are government guaranteed or not who is left carrying the can for irresponsible lending? The American GFC proved we all are but not those that created the debt in the first place. Maybe Islamic banking is in fact ethical banking and not just usary (ODT)
The me before we in the crazy Capitalist structure. Free market unregulated competition forces me to oversupply, cause a major problem that then we have to pay and fix. Ergo I can’t lose in that never ending denier’s cycle.(ODT)
“Big Oil is asking tax payers to pay for protecting their refineries from sea level rise that they caused by keeping us addicted to oil? Yeah…no.”
by
Jon Queally, staff writer
A Woolworths worker has applied to terminate a national agreement on wages and conditions and claim back an alleged $1 billion in underpayments for up to 100,000 employees.
In this context, paying CEOs massive bonuses when the average Australian worker is doing it tough is disappointing and out of step with the community expectations of business.
The footage begins showing the machine spinning at its ordinary speed, which appears to be the legislated maximum rate of one spin every 2.14 seconds that applies elsewhere in Victoria.
But by inserting a Crown Rewards loyalty card — a card able to be obtained by anyone over the age of 18 — the machine can spin more than twice every second and enable what is effectively non-stop play.
The card requires punters to set a time and a loss limit, although critics say these limits can be set extremely high and are not enforced.
“Poker machines, already dangerous products, are being turbo-charged with the knowledge and consent of this government,” said Charles Livingstone, a gambling researcher with Monash University’s school of public health.
In a multimillion-dollar windfall for pay-day lenders, automatic loan machines are popping up in suburban shopping centres, allowing some of Australia’s most disadvantaged communities to take out loans worth thousands of dollars with their bank cards.
Many short-term credit contracts can have an annual interest rate of 60 per cent, compared with up to 25 per cent for credit card cash advance. CashNgo charges a 20 per cent fee and 4 per cent monthly interest.
The law seems in recent times to have found an alternate economic niche in the market. What would appear to be working class or left wing law once ignored by legal business models. To be labelled a left wing lawyer was to be seen as a legal aid advocate or poor. It seems that that’s not so much any more since the finacial structure behind legal cases has changed.It seems to have become an area of investment wagering on contingent cases in which the lawyers no longer put up the bulk of the money and clients forward pay by guaranteeing a substantial portion should they win. Investors do the rest. It Sounds like LAWBET to me where investors can take part for a share. Capitalism is surely an inventive system in taking workers surplus even when disguised as aid (ODT)
Two multimillion-dollar wage theft group actions will be filed in the Federal Court on Monday on behalf of hundreds of Australian door-to-door and direct sales workers.
The young workers were allegedly paid well below the legal minimum wage for sales and charity fundraising for international direct marketing companies AIDA and Credico.
A 20-year campaign by rightwing billionaire donors to undermine trade unions and strike a blow at the progressive movement in Americacomes to a climax on Monday, in a hearing at the US supreme court.
Uber has spread around the world, disrupting the taxi establishment. Photo: Bloomberg
“Political and economic conditions now are less favourable to workers than at any time since the 19th century.”
He cited the introduction of anti-union laws since the 1970s as an important factor in this loss of worker power.
Professor Quiggin said the rise of the “gig economy” was the “predictable outcome of enhanced employer power” and had no “necessary link” to advanced technology.
“Technological disruption simply acts as a catalyst, breaking down existing patterns of work and facilitating a shift towards arrangements more favourable to employers.”
He called for a form of a universal basic income that initially could be paid to the unemployed and would remove existing onerous conditions tied to the payment of benefits.
“Political and economic conditions now are less favourable to workers than at any time since the 19th century.”
He cited the introduction of anti-union laws since the 1970s as an important factor in this loss of worker power.
Professor Quiggin said the rise of the “gig economy” was the “predictable outcome of enhanced employer power” and had no “necessary link” to advanced technology.
“Technological disruption simply acts as a catalyst, breaking down existing patterns of work and facilitating a shift towards arrangements more favourable to employers.”
He called for a form of a universal basic income that initially could be paid to the unemployed and would remove existing onerous conditions tied to the payment of benefits.
Around 2009, the legendary investment adage went something along the lines of: if you invested $1000 dollars when Sir Frank floated Westfield in 1960, you would be worth about $148 million.
For more than 50 years, Lowy was the innovator in retail property.
For more than 50 years, Lowy was the innovator in retail property. Photo: Louie Douvis
But if you invested in Westfield 18 months ago, you would have lost money even if you accepted the $10-a-share offer now on the table.
The neoliberal, arch-capitalist era we inhabit is chock-full of statistics and stories that ought to send chills down the spines of any caring, morally sentient human. Nearly three-fourths (71 percent) of the world’s population is poor, living on $10 a day or less, and 11 percent (767 million people, including 385 million children) live in what the World Bank calls “extreme poverty” (less than a $1.90 a day). Meanwhile, Oxfam reliably reports that, surreal as it sounds, the world’s eight richest people possess among themselves as much wealth as the poorest half of the entire human race.
With every court ruling that allows the government to operate above the rule of law, every piece of legislation that limits our freedoms, and every act of government wrongdoing that goes unpunished, we’re slowly being conditioned to a society in which we have little real control over our bodies or our lives.
While idiotic supporters of our two-party system wring their hands over the sensationalist nonsense reported by the mainstream media, we thought it might be worth touching on the most dangerous lie…
“Sometimes these people don’t understand how capitalism works,” the Florida Republican opined about people on Medicaid. “You incentivize investment, people deploy capital, create jobs, build companies and put more people to work so they can afford all these things and not have to be on Medicaid.”
De Beers Diamond Cartel Was Founded by a White Supremacist De Beers, the company that single-handedly made the diamond industry what it is today, was found
Colin Cook discusses the failures of our economic system and why the gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” is only deepening, via a modern-day parable.
In the early evening, as the sun starts to sink over the coffee farms and flower plantations, Robert Lawrence likes to stroll along the river that bisects the town of Boquete.
Has anyone noticed the increased advertsing in Australia? It asks if our income is shrinking we too can retire away from family and grandkids and by doing so support them by Retire in Belize – Everything You Need to Know
Imagine how much you won’t save on Health Insurance at 70
Former BHS owner Sir Philip Green has been branded the “unacceptable face of capitalism” and accused of taking hundreds of millions of pounds from the high street chain before running off to “his favourite tax haven” by MPs after the company collapsed into administration. The 88-year-old department store went bust on Monday, putting 11,000 jobs at risk and threatening the closure of up to 164 stores in the biggest retail failure since Woolworths went under in 2008.
Experts at a European Union think-tank are demanding that the EU prepare to put down strikes and protests with military force. Due to the deepening social inequality in a globalised economy and growing military conflicts within the EU’s borders, such outbursts will inevitably increase. [CLICK]In the study by the European Union Institute for Security Studies, the authors bluntly state that in the face of these developments, the army will have to be used increasingly for policing duties to protect the rich from the anger of the poor.The book appeared a year after the near-collapse of the global financial system in 2008, entitled “Perspectives for European Defence 2020.” It makes clear that academics and politicians are very aware of the revolutionary implications of the crisis. They are working through scenarios that would allow the opposition of the vast majority of the population to social attacks to be suppressed.Under article 222 of the Lisbon treaty, a legal basis has been created for the deployment of military and paramilitary units within EU states in times of crisis such as mass protests as seen in Greece. [CLICK]
The former finance minister of Greece says people must work to save democracy from capitalism, otherwise the voracious economic system will completely devour the fragile political philosophy, he warned in a recent talk.
You can’t live in the United States without hearing celebrations of capitalism and the wonders of entrepreneurship. People such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are lauded for making it possible to buy…
Early Islam and the Birth of Capitalism proposes a strikingly original thesis—that capitalism first emerged in Arabia, not in late medieval Italian city states as is commonly assumed.
Early Islam made a seminal but largely unrecognized contribution to the history of economic thought; it is the only religion founded by an entrepreneur. Descending from an elite dynasty of religious, civil, and commercial leaders, Muhammad was a successful businessman before founding Islam. As such, the new religion had much to say on trade, consumer protection, business ethics,
Today marks the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in America and contrary to popular belief, slavery is not a product of Western capitalism; Western capitalism is a product of slavery.…
News headlines this week of epidemic drug abuse and mortality among Americans confirm what many observers have already noted – America is in bad, bad shape.
Since the founding of the United States, generations have been inculcated with the belief that capitalism is the only acceptable method of economic organization. Isn’t it time for a radical change of thinking?
Allowing people to raid their super to buy overpriced homes is more proof the system is rigged to favour profit gougers.
De Beers Diamond Cartel Was Founded by a White Supremacist De Beers, the company that single-handedly made the diamond industry what it is today, was found
Experts obviously point fingers at Wall Street for the collapse, but some things just don’t add up
The former finance minister of Greece says people must work to save democracy from capitalism, otherwise the voracious economic system will completely devour the fragile political philosophy, he warned in a recent talk.
olddogthoughts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.