British rioters the spawn of a bankrupt ruling elite

Ok, excusing the poor in social housing, what about the poor in private rented accomodations?

Hmm? Not all poor don't work remember, most poor do work but with no significant rewards for their hard work, nearly no opportunities to work their way up in the jobs they started in, food, energy, rent, taxes are all going up, some simply make the choice to live off benefits because the jobs being offered aren't paying enough to be worth considering.

For instance, if say a poor person takes 2 temp jobs both paying fairly well, this poor person is just about able to pay bills, tax and rent while on these jobs, has no free time to spend with friends or family, hasn't enough money to have even the most basic of holidays, but is just about managing, just about scraping a living.

Suddenly one of the jobs run out of work, oh crap, that's the heating gone, the person then starts to find themselves slowly being dragged into debt with council tax and say the gas company, while this is going on, the person is still looking for another job, when suddenly his second job runs out of work.. (*)(*)(*)(*), can't pay the rent, the bills, the energy costs, spends what little they have on food, and is forced onto benefits or faces the streets.

After finally signing onto benefits, then find themselves being threatened with baliffs and legal action to repay the previous debts amounted, and this person then has to spend alot of their benefits paying off this debt or simply try to ignore it so they can live.

If the poor didn't work as you seem to suggest the whole country would grind to a halt, luckily there's only just over, or so the government claim, 2 million jobless in the UK, considering the UK has a population of over 60 million and the majority of the wealth is reserved for the top 1%, then it's easy to come to the conclusion the rich live their lives of luxury, greed and gluttony on the backs of the poor and middle class.

This scenario is so common for the UK poor these days and is becoming an ever increasing occurence.

 

In the private sector, the government AND the general public, should have no say how executives are compensated. That's up to the company's shareholders. In the US, we frown against such socialist measures.

 

That's a simplistic view, IMO. As someone that is in the midst of searching for an "Angel Investor", I appreciate the fact that there are entities out there with money to lend.

They are paid by their shareholders. They are the ONLY ones that should have a say in an executive's compensation. Now, if you ask me, I think that there should be more oversight within companies, but I abhor Uncle Sam meddling in something that he is clearly inept in handling, namely MONEY.

The problem is that both parties cater to the elderly at the expense of the working. Just once I'd love to hear a politician say "Fuck Granny, we need to think about the young for a change."

 

Some do, some economists point that out. It makes no difference. The logic of the system is the same - competition causes capitalists to drive down the wages of the workforce. Why they pay CEOs such ludicrous amounts, well again to some extent it's competition, thinking you have to pay the 'going rate' to get the 'right sort of person'. Also, they are just greedy bastards, out of touch with the real world.

Reforms and or repression. Greece is a test case, to see how far the workers can be pushed.

Yeah, one day a lot of them will wake up and realise they have had it 100% wrong, and all they have been doing is siding with the 0.01% super-rich. Either revolution, civil war, dictatorship or the total collapse of society, hard to say.

The sheite IS going to hit the fan, it already has to a large extent, but a whole generation now are in deep trouble, all social benefits are being cut around the world, the EU will fold, countries in Europe will go bust, America is not a sustainable country let alone model. It would be impossible for the world to be like America even if America could sustain itself, as the global resources are not there.

 

There is plenty of money. The rich are sitting on $ trillions, refusing to invest it.

Uncle Sam is inept because he lets Wall Street tell him what to do. This was explained by a former chief economist at the IMF:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/05/the-quiet-coup/7364/

The Quiet Coup

No, wages of CEOs should be the average wage, and that's what they will be after the revolution!

This is one seriously retarded statement.

 

other is infrastructure. who pays for education then? education is 5.7% of GDP

federal spending is 40% of GDP

so that means federal spending on pensions is 8.4% of GDP

Now lets say for round figures you are retired for about the same length of time as you are in school. This means that a pensioner on a state pension has to live entirely on about 50% more than what it costs to keep a kid in a classroom for a few hours a day.



http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/hunger-and-poverty-statistics.aspx

Ok, so the figure for pensioners in poverty is lower. Simple explanation, poor people dont live as long.

Anyway, I'm not disputing that American kids get a rubbish deal, I'm pointing out that the state pension isnt much (what is it actually?)

 

You think it's competition that drives down worker wages but drives UP executive wages? Pretty simplistic view of labor. How can competition drive workers wages down? If there are more opportunities for a worker to work, wages should go up in order to retain them, right? So, could the problem be that there are too many UNSKILLED workers for the number of UNSKILLED jobs available, but there is a shortage of skilled executives which drive skilled wages up?

What a joke! Greece is a perfect example of how hard a socialist government can be pushed. It’s low retirement age and heavy benefits have finally broken the back of the Greecian economy. The problem with Greece is that the workers don’t work enough to make the system work. LOL

IMO, I’d rather emulate the superrich than the actions of the superpoor.

Good. WE need to return to a democratic republic rather than a social democracy. While you can spend someone else’s money when times are booming, when money contracts, you’re screwed.

Corporations are sitting on $$$$. Most smart wealthy people don’t sit on their money, they invest it in something. Many companies aren't hiring because of the uncertainty of our current economy and their desire to not go through more painful layoffs in the future.

Wall Street isn’t the problem, the government is, more succinctly, the Federal Reserve is. It’s fractional banking system requires debt to be generated in order to create more money.

Right…and baseball superstars will be paid the same as utility infielders. LOL

Actually, it represents the reality that nobody wants to discuss. Then elderly are the wealthiest segment of the population AND receive the largest portion of benefits from the government, while the young are the poorest and receive the least. Seniors vote as a block, preventing Congress from tampering with SS and Medicare, even as both systems costs skyrocket out of sight. Just look at our budget. 60% is non-discretionary spending. How can we climb out of debt without touching 60% of our costs?!!

I’m 55 and I have been tearing up invitations to join AARP for five years now because I see them as a self-serving socialist organization that doesn’t give a (*)(*)(*)(*) what’s best for the country, only what additional benefits they can acquire for greedy seniors.

 

Employers try to keep wages down for the bulk of the workforce so they can compete with similar companies. However a few big companies are prepared to spend whatever to get the most experienced executives. Yes there is probably a shortage of executives to the competition works the other way.

Greece is not a socialist country. The economy is broken because the capitalist system is broken globally. It is broken because the rich avoid taxes. Pensioners in Greece do not get a lot of money and don't retire a lot earlier than in other countries. The average retirement age in Greece is 61 and most get €600 per month.

wouldnt we all

Yes, the government have spent taxpayers money to bail out the bankers. Welcome to capitalism.

 

According to the website This Is Money, America has "one of the least generous welfare systems" (Britain is even worse actually).
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...ns-mean-state-pension-vs-other-countries.html

 

But conversely in your view, it is not "socialism" when debts are "socialized" by virtue of the fact that taxpayers bail out failing bankers? Or perhaps, socialism for the rich is ok by you?

 

Its refreshing to know that somebody has got a handle on the "smoke and mirrors" nature of capitalism and the voodoo economics that underpins it.
Please would you provide the source for the graphs..Thanks.

 

cheers, yeah, for future reference though, right click any image, select copy image location, paste, voila.

http://duncanseconomicblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/wage-share.jpg?w=416&h=245

http://falseeconomy.org.uk/img/dunc1.gif

http://www.faireconomy.org/files/images/EEchartIndicatorChange.gif