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although surprisingly people in many top jobs get massive rewards without having any measurable skills..the city of London eg is somewherethat vast salaries can be had for what is in truth a job were the individual ability plays almost no part, in fact the less perceptive can often do better...for a while.
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You only need to look at football as an example of this.
It's capitalism in a bubble. Wayne Rooney isn't 300 times better than a professional earning 1000 a week. The gamble is that the brand Manchester United who were built off the pay checks of the parochial working classes of Manchester and floated on an exchange in New York and contributes tax there but play in our league leverage risk of fame and glory from anyone who will buy into them (even tours of China) so it doesn't matter if Rooney doesn't contibute 300 more goals a week than the other player as the paying fools on the gate pay for it. It collapses ofc when the fickle support leaves them because they don't do well enough in relation to pay and they then quickly lose revenue. Lehman brothers collapsed, Man Utd can too. |
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The irony of the poverty question (and distribution of wealth) is that in the poorest of countries there are some of the richest people on earth.
Countries like Kenya and Nigeria are incredibly rich places for the few who take all the money. No one in these countries should starve. Even less so in India where possibly 800m people don't have effective sanitation. Utter madness. Even in a place like Malawi with few resources, the Ministers drive around the country in Mercs while people starve. Easy to blame the West for all of the problems but the way our cake's been divided is hundreds times fairer than in many poor nations. |
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While that maybe true Injera it does detract somewhat from the portrayal given by the back slappers in Westminster who get erect over the traditions and fancy palaces to say we are just a little bit better in reality than banana republics.
Of course that's a slight exaggeration but not much since we have the worst inequality of all developed nations and printed money like the last vestiges of a failed state remember. So who exactly are we keeping afloat when the queen owns over 50% of real estate and around 65% or capital assets are owned by just 20% of the nation? That's even before we start going into the way we specialise in production of warfare....... |
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I take the point Dusty but we are massively better off than we realise.
Things that were once luxuries a few decades ago are now considered essentials. We of course take decent housing/heating/light/food and clothes for granted, whilst millions upon millions can only dream of these things in other countries. That's a huge achievement but in most places I hear little appreciation let alone gratitude for what we DO have as opposed to what we lack. The wealthy will always get richer because money makes money. You'd have to be a daft millionaire not to increase your wealth. The challenge is there for the rest of us to achieve great things (if that floats our boat). Sadly the less well off are patronised by Govt ('we're on the side of ordinary people' etc) and have their needs paid for or hugely subsidised. All that does is reinforce a sense of 'woe is me' and stifles ambition and personal responsibility. |
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My personal belief is that consumer credit and debt made much of the improvement possible.
While the collective wealth increases so does debt....so does that really equate for any real gain in the end? The economy was boosted by finding oil reserves in the north sea which was like free money and like all things take out merchants skin the animal and leave the crumbs that fall from the table while being called 'wealth creators'. It has always been the same. Capitalism requires growth continually, when you get too big for your own pond you have to take over other peoples. Much like getting non capitalist economies to buy into theirs, piliging much of it and then getting them to borrow from the IMF. |
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On a personal level I equate the action of humans with what I refer to the 'harvest syndrome', one where in days of old people stored up food for baron times ahead. In contemporary times money displaces food as a store of wealth as it doesnt easily go off. We all have to calculate the amount required to take us into old age, but the difference is the plague instilled by the notions of 'get rich quick' or 'self before society' mean the greed has taken over need.
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I read an article the other day which was allegedly an interview with Putin. In it he stated that if any muslims wanted to settle in Russia then they must eat like a Russian, work like a Russian and breathe like a Russian. They will not be allowed to litter the country with mosques as they have done in the US and UK, and do not expect Russia to change any of it's laws to accommodate their religious beliefs.
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I'm off to Moscow.
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mate of mine went to St Petersburg CMAT a couple of years ago, he was queuing at the railway station and the Russian police went down the line and made every non white get their passports out. He said it was a lovely place and was treated well by everyone despite him being British.
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You should see Moscow Station, looks like a 5 star hotel lobby.
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