Down the workers

  By Mystic | September 24, 2012 - 05:58 |

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Written by: Mystic on September 24, 2012.
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  • Subtlepath

    a bit pessimistic but basically I agree.  The only wild card is government….and its government’s central responsiblity to govern (i.e. controll the machinations of the “machine”).  Here in the U.S. our civil war was bascially fought over who would run the plantations :the industrial plantations of the north and the agricultural plantations of the south.  The northern industrialists out gunned the southern agriculturalists.  But now we have the grandest plantation of them all :The Monetary/Banking Plantation……heaven help us since government (our only previous gardian) has been “owned” by the finantialists.

    • http://overthepeak.com/wordpress/ Mystic

       Yep, only the government could save you ……. and they are not going to.
      Cheap oil would help.
      Too many people …… not enough basic stuff stuff.

  • CSArichardo

    Agreed and in the past there were monopoly laws that would break up the biggest and worst abusers.  But these laws have been circumvented by these companies demanding open free trade markets.  This allows the big guys to argue that growing internationally is not monopolistic!!

    • http://overthepeak.com/wordpress/ Mystic

       The `Big Boys` have bought the governments.
      Rule by cut-throats.

  • Axel1million

    The ‘worker’ is being subject to a pincer movement from ‘them’ and technology.  
    If you are a worker then get out as fast as you can… time is not on your side!

    I’ll go as far to state, ‘what the hell do we humans think we are doing’?

    • http://overthepeak.com/wordpress/ Mystic

       ….. and most of the world, seems to take a strange pride in NOT planning ahead (which is odd~!).

  • Anne Panne

    An excellent analysis of where we are and how we got here. I fear your depiction of the end-game is likely to come true. Marx did get a lot of his analysis right.
    Keith Richards once sang ” I will walk, before they make me run”. That’s my sentiment also. I try to prepare for what’s to come, and untie myself from the system, one knot at the time.

    In Norway we have a certain type of capitalism, where whole communities support a local industry. The owner and boss can certainly drive a Mercedes and have a bigger house, but not a Ferrari and have a mansion. Both good and hard times are shared equally. It’s often called “Capitalism in Sunnmørsk”.  Financialisation is about to kill it, by forcing them to stop or buy them.

    • http://overthepeak.com/wordpress/ Mystic

       Either by accident, or on purpose; any sense of local community has been broken up.

      People are isolated and fall under the control of central government and big business.

      Local will return, when it is seen that central government and big business does not know who the people are.

  • snedmeister1

    Good morning Nick…
    Good video too..!! :)

    I have been thinking about this video, and came to the conclusion many Gov’s endorsed the squeeze placed on workers…

    Yes the companies push it through under the heading of  `competitiveness` etc, but NAIRU is also a clue to how Gov’s want an economy to run….
    ie, low inflation….

    I know NAIRU is more about unemployment levels, but wage increases are inflationary too, and the Gov’s know this….

    Over the recent past, I think I agree that a pattern emerged where squeezing the wages of the workers returned results that were favourable in the short term for companies, and they all dived in to keep up….

    I also think Gov’s liked it too, as companies became more competitive, profits were up, and shareholders approved, and yes, it fitted in nice with the low inflation policies….
    But, all this seems to have had undesired consequences and pushed up Joe Public debt levels to compensate…

    In short, I agree, the momentum has reached a level that can not be stopped, the Genie is out (so to speak), and it is definitely a dead end road…

    Could the trend be reversed without altering the path of other desired goals ( competitiveness, inflation etc )..??
    And if it could, are the Gov’s capable of implementing such a plan…???

    I doubt it too…..

    Hope you are back to full health now,
    Sned.

    • http://overthepeak.com/wordpress/ Mystic

      Not quite full health, but good enough thanks Sned.

      So, we agree and are thrown back to `what is`.

      As you pointed out, a couple of moons ago ……….. the government rather hoped that the population would take on more debt. 
      They are not taking on the debt that was expected of them.

      In kinda macro terms, this leaves a lot of debt hanging around without enough money `out there` to pay it back.

      All of this could be sorted via the old defaulting, forgiving and printing modes; but, the big question is – `What happens after all that~?`.

      Has something happened besides a big run up (and one day down) of debt~?

      I am sure the price of oil has a part to play in the picture.
      I am also sure all those nice new cheap Asian workers are in there as well …….

      …….. and other things.

      Hello Sned~!

      • snedmeister1

        It is probably a good idea, to ask ourselves “What is different..??”…..

        As you say, default would normally do it, but this time I think the problem has been put off for so long, that  defaults would cause too much pain, as the problem has grown too much….

        Joe public taking on a lot of the debt himself at record highs, is one thing that is different I suppose, Oil and Asian workers, yes they are definitely in the mix….
        Then there is the squeeze on wages you have mentioned….

        I also think the complexity of how the debt is linked together is different this time….
        It is no longer just me not paying you hurts you,….
        It has become me not paying you hurts not only you, but also the next man, and all the other men in the picture….

        Orderly default would be needed, but probably impossible to manage….
        It’s like a dark cloud hanging over the world economy (in my mind), but no-one has the wherewithal to find solutions….

        In summary: This time, all our problems have come at once and to all of the players at the same time, and I am sure I haven’t even considered half of problems around us..!!! 

        Hello…!!!

        • http://overthepeak.com/wordpress/ Mystic

          I’ll start a written thing about this.
          I will put something up on the menu tab `read`, dropdown `me`…..
          …. and I’ll leave it open for comments
          ….. and we can write it all together now.  

  • Jantje.

    The Dutch government raised the VAT tax from 19 to 21 percent.
    Halve of the people will spend less because of this raise of VAT. They were already sick of the economy, but now even penicilin does not work. Fifty percent will decrease spending. Partly because they now really understand that their government has abondoned them. That I already knew long time before. I intended to buy a number of gadgets a few months ago, but now I intend to buy a number of carrots and bite on them the next months or years instead of that. It also contains vitamin C I believe. That is better than VAT.
    Signing of, your true servant,

    Jantje.

     

    • http://overthepeak.com/wordpress/ Mystic

       Is this great European `let’s get together` going to keep going~?
      Can they push more `integration`~?
      What will be the balance.  How many `givers`, to how many `takers`~?
      Will France be a `giver`, or a `taker`~!?

      Has Holland even got a government yet~?

      So many questions~!

      • Jantje

         I can answer the government question. That is: “no”.
        But they think it will be soon. By the way the predictions for the end result of the elections failed. That is because the voters changed their voting behavior just because of  that predictions. Many people did not want Rutte as number 1 (of the VVD party) and many did not want Samson (of the PVDA party) so they voted for Rutte. The result is that there are two parties that are completely opposites in ideas. But Rutte and Samson look like good friends, they even ate in a restaurant already. They think they will soon agree to disagree.

        • http://overthepeak.com/wordpress/ Mystic

          Will they both `do what it takes`, to save the Euro`~?