There is an industrial strike possible for Thursday, which will last about a week and will mean that there will be no meals available at the schools. They have made arrangements to feed the kids, but they will not cater at all for special diets, which means that we are going to have to pack meals for Smallsteps, since she is sans lactose and gluten still.
Strikes and unions are interesting really, because it goes to show the conflict in the economy that doesn't take into consideration wellbeing of the community. The fundamental rule of business is to "increase shareholder wealth" and it doesn't matter what impacts it makes on the environment, the people, or the community it affects. Even the legislation is a game to be played, where laws are bent and in some cases broken, as the cost of getting caught tends to be lower than the gain of getting away with it.
And, I think a lot of it comes down to transparency, because if we had hypothetical perfect information, we wouldn't just be able to police the practices, we would also be able to better evaluate the worth of what is delivered through the supply chains. For instance, in Australia the cost of dairy products have increased significantly in stores, but the dairy farmers themselves are struggling to make ends meet. Their costs are increasing, but the retailers aren't paying them adequately, even though they are charging more for the final product.
Would transparency of supply chain cost information make a difference?
Maybe, maybe not, but transparency at least would bring in some potential for us to make more informed decisions on the value of what we are purchasing. And, it would also mean that we would better be able to negotiate an adequate salary for the work we do. Of course, this goes against the tenets of maximizing profits, because it will lead to lower profit margins for investors, as they will not be able to justify some of the raises in costs, without raising salaries.
However, "profit" itself is a problem when it comes to society, especially since it is the driver of the economy without tying it to a need to improve society. If we went back to a little tribe thousands of years ago, profit wasn't a thing at all, there was just demand and supply. Sometimes there was a surplus, sometimes there was a deficit, and depending on the conditions, the society of the tribe would be affected. There was an immediacy to the economy, because nothing could be stored for very long, everything needed was perishable.
In the past, our investments were into the training of children, the development of tools and techniques, and the building of relationships in order to meet needs - it was all very practical for the requirements of the tribe. But, in the economy in which we have built, there is the ability to store value and convert it to meet future demands. And it is because of this that we are able to have an investment class that doesn't actually do anything much for society and in many cases, harms it.
It harms because the mechanism to building wealth at any cost for storage, means that the potential of that wealth needn't be spent on making things better and instead, tends to be used to build and store more wealth. None of it has to improve society, none of it has to be spent on training, innovation or relationships at all. It can just sit there, a kin to a freezer full of food, whilst people are starving.
But, distribution of wealth isn't the answer, because it doesn't solve for what that wealth is being spent on. In a tribe, "market forces" of needs means that there is a maximization for the group, but this doesn't hold true when there is no group. Society is very, very disjointed with a whole range of needs (and wants) that complicate the market forces by creating large gaps in expectations. These gaps can be leveraged for profit and can be used to influence the market to make choices as individuals, that go against what is best for the "tribe", all with justifications as to why it is okay.
If we could imagine a world of full financial transparency, what would we discover? Would we change our behaviors once we saw the supply chain that leads to cigarette sales, cancer drug recommendations, and innovation of cures? Would we change our behaviors if we could see all the costs and markups that go into the price of milk and bread at the grocery store? Would we evaluate products differently if we could see all of the wealth that is being created at different points along the supply chain? Would we remain silent, if we saw all the wealth that changes hands through lobbying and kickbacks for the military industry?
We won't see this.
Because if we did, things would change.
Business, government and society shouldn't be in conflict, they should be in collusion for a better world.
They are not.
But we are all chained together.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
All I know is that the people with the mass wealth are in direct or indirect control over the rules of the game. The game is to amass much more than one needs and then get swept up in that game til it swallows you and harms others.
Those rules are in place to preserve that wealth and there is little chance they will magnanimously change those rules and have apples fall off that cart.
Unions frustrate me. They were formed in essence as a way to gather the people against systems that would exploit them. Sounds great. All I see these days is the profit they take for themselves, the progress grinding process that goes into them, and the lack of motivation to do anything but the bare minimum to keep that wage coming in. "All I gotta do is show up every day and sit on my stool and I can't be fired" is a scary thing for a concerned business owner to hear!
I am not coming up with many potential solutions in this one am I? Transparency would take work to put in place by people who would benefit the least from it. It will take a sea change in economy and a continuation of individual power, connectedness and rewards along the lines we are traveling with crypto.
Such a tough place to be in to look back on how it used to be, imagine now as a point in time working towards how it will be, and imagining how things will be at this trajectory with our blinders on. So great to consider as long as it doesn't make you worry too much!
I have the same issue with them. They protect the lowest common denominator, whilst taking away a lot of the incentive to improve work and work harder.
We should demand a much higher level of transparency from governments first perhaps. We own them, right?
Interesting thoughts. I have a feeling if we ever went back to a barter system I would be out of luck. I don't think I have much to offer besides physical labor and my days of doing that are getting less and less! I hope the strike is short lived and things can get back to normal for you all soon.
I don't think anyone really has much to offer except physical labor. I would become a male gigolo - but I don't have the balls for it.
Haha, me neither!
I think I would change my behaviour if I could see the cost of the product I was going to buy. I can imagine that we buy some products that are sold by high profits.
Some things have enormous markups, but offer very little value.
I have never understood why very wealthy people want to be richer, even though they have enough for ten lifetimes. They look like drug addicts, their drug is money.
It is probably because they compare themselves to other very wealthy people and they want to climb in the rankings.
It is the same mechanism as an athlete - if you are good at something, why stop? "Good" being relative to earning money of course :)
Simpler times for sure. How sweet it would be to live in a world where innovation was the reason not just a means to an end for profits. Take me back (but with the internet and modern medicine)!
5 years of concentrated development on what pushes humanity forward as a healthy society, and everything changes.
Sadly the systems do not work together well when there is a competition for money. I know here in America the unions are not as strong as they once were. Everything in this world seems to go back to money
The unions are failing everywhere, because they themselves have become a business.
Nobody in the government I think that will want you to have free accces to its expenses. Like 10 years ago or more, our government expenses list for one month leaked up. You would not believe how much crap was bought using our money.
Just to give an example, one year they were $59M over just for trips, food and transport. We only have 130 senators. That is 453.ooo in excess for each of them, above the already approved expenses.
That is insane.
Perhaps it will never change, but ignoring it isn't going to help it either. We have to do something.
As I can see it, the only way out of it is to nurture responsible adults that in turn can become proffesional, educated, honest politicians. If not, choosing the one who is less worst politician in elections (the lesser evil) will not do us any good. Voting the right one is the solution, but the problem is that, at least in my country, there are no right ones.
You can see how blockchain as a medium for recording expenses is ideal, for the whole country to see, but that's the reason they fight against it, in my opinion.
Long time ago, in another life, I met people who were trained and nurtured to be leaders, as very good politicians, and when they decided to participate into the election, funny thing happened, all the others united against them to block them, so they did not win. One or two is not enough, need to be a whole generation educated and trained for it.
Apart from the transparency in the supply chains, I feel some schools and organizations do not have enough money to cater to the responsibilities they used to.
The recession is crazy here but I don’t know how bad it is in Finland
Anyway, make a sumptuous meal for Smallsteps when the strike starts
The school system is pretty good here, but it is degrading quickly.
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I'm not trying to defend the strike, but stopping work and making it inconvenient for others is a bit of the point of the strike. When people are inconvenienced, that is when they take notice. It is a shame that children are the ones affected, but when there are injustice, then strikes are expected. It would be great if everyone just stopped being greed and looked out for one another. But I don't see that happening anytime soon.
I think it's hard but I am always a little skeptical about the strikes because there are a lot of union members who aren't a part of the workforce. It makes me wonder whether or not they are truly doing it for the little guy. Then again, businesses are also trying to survive so they will try to gut out as much as they can. I honestly think that most things would not change even if people could see it because they are lazy.
It's frustrating to see how profit is prioritized over the wellbeing of the community. I agree that transparency in the supply chain could help us make more informed decisions and potentially lead to positive change. However, it's unfortunate that financial transparency is unlikely to happen.
Very unlikely to happen. We are not demanding enough on our legislation as a society, so those who legislate can do as they please.