Getting it off my chest...

[miso_no_tsuki]

So, I've been lurking about, thinking thinky thoughts but kind of afraid to post them, because the intarwebs are full enough of angry ranty people. But then, I thought since almost no-one will read this anyway, maybe I should quit worrying about that and just express myself

Comments

[calcitrix]

Vandana Shiva writes a lot about that in her books on environmentalism and trade; that people are seen as commodities now. She goes into what are considered "commons" now, and what corporations are allowed to do with entire cultures' food and water supplies just to make a buck. Of course, her broader point isn't just that the current system isn't economically or socially viable, but not ecologically sustainable.

I'm with you. One of the current conglomerations of tax reforms being looked at right now would reduce taxes on the rich (poor babies) and make it up by reducing medicare benefits. Boo.

Also I love Billy Bragg!

[miso_no_tsuki]

I know *shudders* My American LJ friends show me a whole different world-one of them has had flu-like symptoms for several weeks now. She's worried that she has something more serious, but since she has *no access* to any health care and little money she's just self treating with over-the-counter meds.
AS far as I'm concerned one of the first requisites of a civilised society is universal health care.
*hugs NHS*

[ningloreth]

I am so with you, and you've raised so many points I can't even begin to comment on them properly.

One of the things that still angers me is that, when Communism collapsed in Europe, people talked about Capitalism and Democracy as though they were synonyms.

And it amazes me that, although the present government has no mandate, they act like they have a landslide majority. From a self-preservation point of view it makes no sense.

[mirabile_dictu]

when Communism collapsed in Europe, people talked about Capitalism and Democracy as though they were synonyms.

Oh, how cheering to learn I'm not alone in that! How can people be so ignorant?

[curiouswombat]

One of the things that still angers me is that, when Communism collapsed in Europe, people talked about Capitalism and Democracy as though they were synonyms.

Yes!

[miso_no_tsuki]

Thank you for the support. *hugs*
"they act like they have a landslide majority"
If the NUS carries out it's plans to destabilize Lib-Dem MP's who promised that they would fight raising tuition fees, they won't have any majority.
What really gets me is Clegg basically saying that they can't be held to anything they said (in order to get elected) because, well things are bad. Really bad.
Like *we* hadn't noticed.
*sighs*

[mirabile_dictu]

I completely agree -- to the point where I'm so thankful that I'm old and that I have no children, because the future looks so bleak to me. I wouldn't wish this world on my worst enemy. My husband and I have this conversation over and over again: what else could we have done? We voted, we wrote letters, we marched in protest, and all to naught.

It just sucks: how's that for a profound response?

[miso_no_tsuki]

It may not be profound, but it's heartfelt.
Which makes it worth a gazillion times more than any of the dreck issuing from the mouths of politicians.
I'm with Max Headroom.
"How do you tell when a politician is lying?"
"Their lips move..."

[inamac]

Indeed. The rot set in when employers started talking about 'Human Resources' rather than 'Personnel' - when people stop being people, and become a 'resource' you're heading back to the days of slavery and exploitation (Victorian values, in fact).

[miso_no_tsuki]

*nods*
Oddly enough when K started working for IBM he was told that "Our people are our most valuable resource."
Now employees are just "overhead".

[curiouswombat]

I can only agree with your every word - the business with students saddens me more than I can say. Especially as those making the decisions do not seem to be volunteering to give their own old universities £18,000 or so as a thank you for their education...

But they will saddle other people's children with such debts - whilst, I do not doubt, paying it for their own kids so that they get a good start.

As for everything being profit dependant - they seem to have no idea about real life. Let's make hospitals more productive; let's cut the number of staff... make sure every bed is always filled with a patient... then we'll complain about the infection rates (both linked to bed occupancy and nurse:patient ratio...) so we will cut the funding to punish them - they can save more money by cutting down on staff... And then we'll complain even more loudly when there aren't enough beds if people get flu or whatever... Aaaargh!

[miso_no_tsuki]

Yes! Having worked in a University Hospital while I was doing research (Before Children)-it was like that back then. I remember the endless delays to pay rises,(when they actually happened at all!) the not-back-dating of them, and a million other ways to claw back every penny from the people doing the actual work.
They were even suggesting that we should pay for the electricity used by the kettle in our Department's tea room. Yet the Admin Block was awash with coffee machines full of real actual coffee.
We of course, brought in our own tea bags.
Aaaargh indeed!
BTW, loffs your icon.Granny'd sort them out. Headology.