sprocketsanjay
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Chilling. If only because it feels like the day of reckoning is getting closer. Sometimes I think the elite can stretch this out for another 20 years or so. Other days I think we’re close to financial implosion.
The Derivatives stuff is scary. Hopefully it’s mostly because I don’t really understand it. But then even the people who are supposed to know don’t convince me that they do either. It’s like walking on a hill in the fog. Are we near a cliff face or are we still on solid ground if go a bit further?
“Welfare is mainly about taking money from those of working age – when incomes are high on average – and giving cash and services to older people, and families with children.”
Not in the UK it’s not. Welfare in the UK is about taking money from working people and using it to subsidise low pay and high rents from businesses and landlords.
This is a net flow of income from working people to rich people but masqueraded as “benefits to the poor”. Working credits (a.k.a. low pay subsidies) and housing benefits (a.k.a. support to landords to maintain high rents) account for a significant portion of welfare benefits. I will bet these will be protected.
@Boogaloo
Am I heartless and merciless if I don’t want drug addicts sleeping in the alcoves?With respect when you ask questions like that you overlook the obvious and regurgitate what you take in from the MSM. You don’t ask the question why these people are increasing in numbers and why are the political elite indifferent to them or some such other question. You simply blame the victim and let’s face it the victim doesn’t look very pleasant so that helps a bit too.
When I lived in Brussels it was striking how everybody around the EU thought the same, sang from the same hymn sheet and were obsessed with money. Robots almost. These are the same people who shape our society. No wonder there is no relevant discourse at any level. I think your post is a little bit part of that. But at least you’re reading Ilargi and asking yourself some questions. You are still way ahead of the robots.
@Zander: My friends in Scotland many of whom are yes must be totally duped by this megalomaniac then. Only one Tory MP in the whole of the country. Could it be they want out because they collectively despise the Tories but they’re always in power in Westminster?
And yes the consequences are unknown – obviously – but enough people want to take the gamble. What does that tell you about Tory rule from London? You’ve obviously forgotten Thatcher but maybe you’re not as old as me!
Today the poll of polls shows a no majority. Privatisation of the NHS could be slowed down by this vote. If nothing else the Tories know they’re hanging on by a thread most of which is yarned in Southern England.
I know what you mean by the civil nature of the campaign. It is on the face of it quite British in so may ways. But don’t be fooled. Whilst we don’t do thuggery on the face of it our elite are dab hands at socking it where it truly hurts both at home and abroad.
No, what really gets me is how my neighbours, people I meet on the street and on trains and buses are quite tolerant, polite and on the whole easy going even if some appear to be a bit uptight. That’s the England I love and enjoy. Even with the morons we have in power (who have driven the Scottish to this crossroad) I marvel how everyday folk just accept their lot and get along with each other.
It can drive me mad when they just accept the destructive policies of class ridden British politics. It makes me incredibly happy when I sit on a train and banter for an hour or so about anything and everything to complete strangers. You love ’em and you hate ’em. In the end you’re sort of glad they’re like that.
Like you a part of me want the Scots to have their autonomy. They deserve it. They would not embrace free market bullshit like England (at least that’s what I am led to believe). When Thatcher used them as a testing ground for her policies the writing was on the wall. And quite frankly the Scots took it well. But now it’s payback time.
I do like Orlov. He has an excellent post on this. Makes you realise just how much bullshit comes out of the MSM.
Maybe, just maybe, it’s because a war is what they need to get the holy grail of growth running again? Nothing else has worked so far.
Minor problem is that this ain’t Iraq or Libya and Putin isn’t a Gaddafi or a Hussein.
We’re on a tightrope.
You’re in ga ga land if you think raising interest rates will increase bank profits. I can’t speak for Wall Street but here in the UK if the BOE dares to raise interest rates, mortgage defaults will crumble the retail banks like a stack of dominos.
Hell will freeze over before interest rates go up in the UK. Monetary policy is in bullshit mode and well and truly cornered.
The Ebola epidemic shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone if it spreads across continents. A large part of the extinctions in the natural world taking place now are due to international travel both air and sea. Never in the history of the planet has there been a time when viruses, bacteria and other ‘small’ organisms could cross huge land masses and oceans so easily.
Many many species are falling foul of this relatively new phenomenon and finding they are coming up against new predators completely out of the blue – ones which they have had no time to evolve against. As a result large numbers of species are getting wiped out.
This phenomena only really becomes ‘serious’ if it starts impacting humans because its impact is fast and furious on the population as opposed to the slow and steady decline of the natural environment without the likes of ebola.
An excellent presentation by Steven Kopits (oil industry analyst)
Part 1 (20 mins)
Peak Oil and the Infinite Growth Monetary Paradig…: https://youtu.be/HcXkkKeKogMPart 2 (20 mins)
Peak Oil and the Infinite Growth Monetary Paradig…: https://youtu.be/qIEmzALohEwSo in tune with TAE but backed up with some on the ground analysis (very rare in my experience).
The other side of the argument. But not very convincing for me.
“But even then, refusing to stand up for your own people crosses a line that frankly disgusts me.”
Is that what it takes? For me, western foreign policy that trashes entire nations does it. But then we are looking at a long history of ruthless colonisation and extreme exploitation.
So I don’t really see why you’re so surprised. In the game of foreign policy it’s all about what you can get. There’s alot to be gained by putting in a replacement for Mubarak. Continuous flow of oil for one.
Long time I go I wondered why the Arabs couldn’t get it together. Well, one reason is the puppets put in place by the west. A few people or a few million people who get in the in the way has never been a problem for the so called civilised nations.
Shocking to see so many people incarcerated for voicing their opinions. Courtesy of Obama’s arms no doubt.
I must confess some of the articles and graphs you quote are beyond me. The hocus pocus and jibberish is beyond belief. The almost forensic detail which you sometimes write takes me away from the big picture. The big picture is simply this. Let me tell it to you in a short story.
I spent my early years in India. I watched villagers look after their patch of farm with an eye to the future. They struggled hard to produce rice and their other crops. Even so they toiled endlessly in between harvest and sowing to ensure the land remained fertile for the long term. Many of them would joke to me that they were doing it for me so I would be able to farm this land. I was just a six year old running around whilst they toiled. They often showed what they were doing and how I should do the same when I became older. Some of their stories were often about what the previous generations had done for the next generation.
I told this story to an American who told me that at the Native American Museum in Washington there is piece about how the Natives required all their people to show they had done something for future generations. Whatver you did you then made your case to the tribe elders. It was apparently central to their way of life.
A kiwi once told me a similar story about the Mauris.
So there are many examples of cultures where caring for future generations is built in to their way of living. That often intertwined with caring for the natural environment. There was no disconnect between the two.
Now, I have never heard anyone in southern England ever talk of doing anything for future generations in this way. The idea is totally alien to them. If I tell them the stories above they do not know how to respond. They even feel uncomfortable.
Some do however feel they should pass on monetary wealth to their children. Or they may work night and day to send their kids to private school. One even does a 45 mile round trip twice a day to send their child to a top school in the area. In short if they do something for the next generation, it’s monetary, almost always disconnected from the natural environment and often to the detriment of it.
And there for me is the nub of the problem.
As a first step if western culture could embrace securing a future for the next generation that is more than monetary it might then be able to see the future is being siphoned off in so many ways as you outline, so often so well.
But without that cultural shift it’ll be like banging your head on a brick wall. I should know. I do it all the time!
I went to an ecosocialism gathering this weekend at a University of London college. Ecology and Socialism are dirty words in southern England. Free market is the god. Even whilst this triple A rated economy is on a life ventilator of cheap money and public and private debt is higher than Mount Everest the free market remains alter of worship.
Anyway, they held a series of interesting workshops. A phrase stuck in my mind. Production for living not for profit. Not catchy but made me think. The speaker argued that a 3 day week would be more than sufficient for producing goods and services to allow us to live a comfortable but not excessive lifestyle. The argument was compelling when he talked of how much is produced and simply thrown away. If we didn’t produce it we would wouldn’t have to work to produce it. Taking it further the need for profit drives excessive production. Remove the profit motive and progressively transition to a culture of producing for a comfortable but sustainable living model and we would gain a better quality of life and maybe also be informed enough to protect the natural environment.
Ecosocialism as a philosophy makes much more sense than capitalism ever did. But even as capiltalism is on a life ventilator the West still worships it. It is bankrupt of ideas as it is of cash.
With a three day collective working week education could be for life. Two days could be used to continue education both vocational and otherwise. A more intelligent and informed population might be able to steer its community better and not allow the rich to take control to further their greed.
It makes sense much more sense than a dying dinosaur.
Read many an essay like this. This one is well written too. How do the Dutch do languages so well? Really good. I learn English reading this blog!
You are writing off humanity in a stroke though just because consumer capitalism is so destructive and manipulative. I don’t agree with that.
If you watched over the dinosaurs you’d have said there is no chance of intelligent life on earth and yet a few million years later intelligent life sprung. We do not know the future no matter how much we know. It could be climate change will knock us massively and a few of us may survive the shock and we will evolve out our faults. We may not. We don’t know. I believe we will or another species will because I am an optimist. Like you I think western capitalism will be a flash in the pan. It had the potential to be brilliant but was totally flawed.
In the meantime I despair when my PhD friends believe in creationism, the divinity of Jesus and think the dinosaur fossils were put there to test us by “God”. Your comments about god are pertinent. I liked them.
Mother earth still has a long way to go. She’s not done yet.
Long time ago when I lived in India my grandmother and I travelled to another town. We passed a mango tree bearing young fruit. The tree looked beautiful in the sun. Majestic and vibrant. My grandmother stopped and said a small prayer to give thanks for the abundance of life and the fruit. It was a normal thing to do. She did it often. Almost all the older people did. I thought it was pointless and played while she gave thanks. Now, I look back and realise that’s a way of staying connected with the natural environment. Never forgetting your place in the big picture.
When I tell my English friends this story they laugh.
In her book “The Sixth Extinction” Elizabeth Kolbert says we are living in a special time in the earth’s history. There have only been five occassions in history like the current – the previous five mass extinctions. She chronicles the rapid demise of amphibians in South America. These creatures have survived all previous extinctions but are under severe stress now – across the globe. That gives you an idea of how things are now.. 400ppm is a serious number. But life seems to carry on as if nothing much of note is happening. The UK recorded one of its biggest car sales this month. It’s civil servants are drafting plans for a big road building programme to accommodate anticipated growth in traffic. That’s just here in the UK today.
It’s like a bad dream.
Shale oil well decline is well known. As is currently increasing production of gas/oil from shale wells. But obviously this will tail off as well declines catch up. Has anyone seen any calculations/estimations as to when we can expect american shale gas/oil begin its decline curve?
Hello BeezlyBub
Really interesting comments. Can you send me references to any of your comments so I can read further (especially Solar, Wind and Hydrogen).Thanks
sprocketYou would expect Stockman to take thd position he does. He’s a Hayek. And just because he’s an American grandee his writing gets noticed. There are many bloggers saying similar things and to a large extent they’re on the money I think. Da da da.
But the real news is right at the bottom, from the World Bank expecting food wars round the corner. The elite know where they are leading us? They must be f….g stupid.
Excellent point daisychain!
20% renewables could be ample. Saying it’s no where near enough implies the current consumption is the baseline and the marker to aim for. Nothing could be further from the truth. The amount of energy plain wasted and also used wastefully is collossal. It’s the subject no one wants to talk about in this age of plenty. Reducing and even rationing energy use coupled with investing in renewables is a no brainer – for people with any brains that is.
I do wonder by the likes of Raul and Dimitry Orlov balk at renewable energy. They poo poo fossil energy (obviously). So where do they think their energy will come from? How much do they think they need that it won’t be enough. Please show us some numbers.
Hi Carbon
You raise a good point about “framing the debate”. When Raul often says words to the effect that you all accept this or aren’t doing anything about it, over here in the UK the framing of the debate is crucial to implementing farcical policy.Benefit scroungers is a sure fire winner. All these people (often immigrants) taking huge amounts of benefits. We must act etc. The real issue is these people (often new immigrants) are claiming benefits but as income top ups because they’re working in very low paid work. Work that isn’t providing a living wage so the tax payer is topping it up. In essence subsidising the coporation they are working for. But frame the debate as the benefit scrounger who is workshy etc and bingo you have an argument to rollback the welfare net.
This has been very powerful way to subdue any public opinion. It also helps to have a media owned by your coporate friends. Witness Lord (ha ha) Lawson given prime time on BBC TV to say climate change is baloney and this winter’s flood are just normal climate variation. What a swell guy.
I think you’re wrong Raul on the premise that UK taxes will rise to maintain public services. They will, but not much. You see the one big difference between us here in the UK and you continentals is that we have an elite here that wants to see minimal public services or even none at all. Currently they are running down services massively in parts of the UK that have Labour support. It’s getting run down and third worldesque there.
This is their big chance to spread that out and they will take it. We will see a massive roll back of public services. Erosion of welfare provision is already in full swing. Food banks are busy. Disabled people are losing benefits. Bedroom tax is a travesty. There’s not a sign of discontent.
They’ve already privatised essential public services (like trains and buses) against all common sense. Sold it to the elite at knocked off prices and we have a fragmented, expensive and a third rate transport system. Huge profits are being raked off at the taxpayers expense and there is little resistance against that too.
Watch ’em finish the job off.
If the Scots know what’s good for them they’ll take independence because austerity anglo saxon style hasn’t got going yet. They’ll get it big time from London.
How ironic that yesterday you highlight the issue of climate change and today you berate the UK politicians for not ensuring capital investment and therefore further exploitation of fossil fuels by big oil during the twilight years of the North Sea oilfields.
Surely our political elite got that (inadevertently) right? Through their shortsightedness and cowtowing to the corporates the last vestiges of North Sea oil and gas might remain in the ground. Totally consistent with your stance on climate change? Why berate them for it?
Yes I am sure we’ll suffer financially for it. But what does that matter when large wads of tax revenue goes straight to the bankers, the £ is verging on monopoly money with a currency crisis just round the corner?
