Money Makes The World Go Round... Backwards
So, on the news this morning they were discussing the publication of the BBC expenses and salary information. Not seen any big rants on how much these people are being paid getting and how much "tax-payers money" they are spending, but it has got me thinking (well, ok this is more an amalgamation of lots of thoughts that have been running through my head recently).
OK, these people are getting paid silly amounts, but that's the way the system works. We do not have a system where people get paid fairly for the work they put in. Instead we have a market place, which means the price you get paid for your skills is subject to supply and demand and your own bartering skills. Net result, those who have power and influence get more money and those with money get more power and influence in an ever growing spiral. Those of us that don't have much of either are generally stuffed.
It's always struck me as bizarre that we live in a society were we pay people phenomenial amounts in the city to basically manipulate the system. City traders may be highly skilled individuals, but it seems a shame that these skills should be focused on working the system to increase the profit for the companies they represent rather than something that's actually useful to society. However, when it comes to the things that are fundamental to society, like food production, education, nursing, etc. The workers in these areas are generally accepted to be paid less then they are actually worth.
One thing that really worries me, is how it seems to prevent us from dealing with the real issues. In 2006, the Stern review was released bring the climate change issue to the front in order that we might actually do something about it. Nearly 3 years later, very little seems to have actually happened inspite of many discussions about how we could implement things like carbon trading, etc. However, very few inroads seem to have been made on any of these ideas. Why not? Because they don't suit big business, who are the people who hold the real power within our society. I'm fairly certain that there are many people working for these companies who would view climate change as an issue, but it's the will of the organisation rather than the individual that rules here and that will is almost entirely devoted to profit. Somewhat worrying when the IPCC suggest we need our emissions to peak by 2015, which means we've now wasted a third of the time we had to deal with these things.
In short, we live in a system where the needs of artificial constructs in the form of companies and organisations take priority over the needs of the people within them and rewards individuals based upon there power and influence instead of as a reflection of their own input into society and as a result encourages class inequality.
Solving a single manifestation of this is not going to make a huge difference to society as a whole. If you really have a problem with this consider the bigger issue rather than picking on individuals as we did with the MPs. They're just working the system in the way the capitalism encourages. If you remove one problem individual and their methods of manipulating the system, then another will come along and do something very similar, just in a different way.
OK, these people are getting paid silly amounts, but that's the way the system works. We do not have a system where people get paid fairly for the work they put in. Instead we have a market place, which means the price you get paid for your skills is subject to supply and demand and your own bartering skills. Net result, those who have power and influence get more money and those with money get more power and influence in an ever growing spiral. Those of us that don't have much of either are generally stuffed.
It's always struck me as bizarre that we live in a society were we pay people phenomenial amounts in the city to basically manipulate the system. City traders may be highly skilled individuals, but it seems a shame that these skills should be focused on working the system to increase the profit for the companies they represent rather than something that's actually useful to society. However, when it comes to the things that are fundamental to society, like food production, education, nursing, etc. The workers in these areas are generally accepted to be paid less then they are actually worth.
One thing that really worries me, is how it seems to prevent us from dealing with the real issues. In 2006, the Stern review was released bring the climate change issue to the front in order that we might actually do something about it. Nearly 3 years later, very little seems to have actually happened inspite of many discussions about how we could implement things like carbon trading, etc. However, very few inroads seem to have been made on any of these ideas. Why not? Because they don't suit big business, who are the people who hold the real power within our society. I'm fairly certain that there are many people working for these companies who would view climate change as an issue, but it's the will of the organisation rather than the individual that rules here and that will is almost entirely devoted to profit. Somewhat worrying when the IPCC suggest we need our emissions to peak by 2015, which means we've now wasted a third of the time we had to deal with these things.
In short, we live in a system where the needs of artificial constructs in the form of companies and organisations take priority over the needs of the people within them and rewards individuals based upon there power and influence instead of as a reflection of their own input into society and as a result encourages class inequality.
Solving a single manifestation of this is not going to make a huge difference to society as a whole. If you really have a problem with this consider the bigger issue rather than picking on individuals as we did with the MPs. They're just working the system in the way the capitalism encourages. If you remove one problem individual and their methods of manipulating the system, then another will come along and do something very similar, just in a different way.