Just looking back at the past week or so.
Britain faces a summer of strikes as historic inflation and falling real wages bite
In Panama the protest actions against the increase in cost of living have continued for three weeks as the government has failed to give any concrete solutions.
In Sri Lanka Has a New President. That Won’t Stop the Protests
Protests intensify in Ghana over economic hardship.
Thousands of Puerto Ricans took to the streets to demand Governor Pedro Pierluisi cancel the contract with the Luma Energy company, which generated notorious increases in electricity bills and blackouts.
Massive Protests in Argentine Capital Demand End to IMF-Imposed Austerity
Fantasy?
And the truth will set you free.
Come on Bob the First, you seem to have a lot of time to enjoy blogs as entertainment now you are keeping your fantasy link to yourself. What fantasy I ask – more info please? Where? To be fair I give mine:
Here’s Slavoj Zizek – You need to watch and listen for a while before you can decide if he talks fantasy or not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exz4CugbawA 25 m
Al Jazeeera – Will today’s chaos lead to something better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWPEaunIYvs 19 m
Philosophy for cynical times.
And Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s previous Finance Minister:
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/inflation-is-result-of-empowered-financial-markets-by-yanis-varoufakis-2022-06 22/06/2022 — Yanis Varoufakis, a former finance minister of Greece, is leader of the MeRA25 party and Professor of Economics at the University of Athens.
2022 Feb https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqcpCGWoTA0 NZ
0:00 / 14:48 #DemocracyNow
Yanis Varoufakis: Europe Must Stand with Ukraine, Condemn Putin & Roll Back NATO to Restore Peace
2021 https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018813815/yanis-varoufakis-former-greek-finance-minister-presents-an-alternative-to-capitalism
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/471433/vulcan-steel-targets-buyout-of-ullrich-aluminium-for-165m
The family owned Ullrich Aluminium was established in 1961 and through rapid expansion in the 1970/80s became a poster company for New Zealand manufacturing and exporting.
It makes a wide range of products from cladding, scaffolding and ladders, window frames, and products used in boat building. It has more than 600 staff in 43 operations in New Zealand and Australia.
Ullrich reported sales of $270m and a pre-tax profits of $36m in the year ended March.
Sure Ullrich has investments in Australia, but if the company is working well for NZ, don’t sell it off. Keep it you dozey economic policy people, you thoughtless, unimaginative jerks. And don’t necessarily listen to NZ Initiative. We are NZ losers – selling strategic companies to overseas business interests. May be good now, but may change.
Look at how it is with Fonterra, NZ supposedly owned, export oriented, We have to pay world prices to access our own produce. Overseas cheese and ours the same price? While our wages are reducing to match Bangladesh’s. And sorry to Bangladesh but we hoped that we were a country that was better positioned economically. But not just when it comes to being very ‘economic’ with wages and safety that is. And I think we have mucked up our wool sector by selling strategic stuff to an Australian based company.
If we ever upset anybody and had sanctions put on us we wouldn’t be able to keep ourselves going . But that will never happen because we aren’t the mouse that roared or not any more.
RIP PC Direct.
I hope to find out one day what “late stage capitalism” means.
you’re living in it pope…look outside
If “late stage capitalism” means anything at all it means “rentier capitalism”.
It’s a bit presumptuous isn’t it? What if it lasts for another 1000 years?
Probably will Freda the alternatives aren’t attractive.
But, but it’s all Jacinda’s fault, all around the world, she is responsible.
Wrong. They are protesting against the elite. The elite are no longer neo liberal capitalists they are elite social democrats. Day-by-day everyday people are seeing the links between government-business-media-bureaucracy.
The neo-liberal argument is a smokescreen by old school lefties that see their team leading the oligarchic charge transforming the world into them and us but can’t bring themselves to criticise or call this out.
ohhh panzer-boi has learned a new name..social democrat…he has no idea what it means but ‘social’ and ‘democratic’ badddd words.
Hey Yuri. Stop bullying Will Ferrell
Both theories are correct. They are protesting against clapped-out social democrats who have sold out to neoliberalism in ways that would make their parties’ founders spin in their graves.
the only country in that group that could jokingly be called a social democracy is GB. Panama, Sri Lanka, Ghana, could hardly even be called functioning democracies. Peurto Rico is controlled territory of the US. and Argentina has been a basket case since the first junta took power way back when.
So perhaps, a reason that these protests are taking place is because they were governments that put profits before people, perhaps the people were tired of being told that the tax cuts for the richest, would have trickle down benefits for everyone, and now they don’t care whether its neo libs, neo cons, or woke elites in charge, they just want change.
Erupting more against pathetic sub standard greedy self interested politicians who are just fucking hopeless and infesting the world while fucking it and their supposed people over, than capitalism.
” greedy self interested politicians who are just fucking hopeless ”
Yes I concur.
And then they market people like Key and Brash as not real politician’s as somehow that makes them un tainted by the establishment or corrupted by the system but its just another neo liberal elitist marketing campaign.
And that IS capitalism.
Yes raised more people out of poverty than any other system?
Limbo how low can you go first?
Mike, You had it right the first time.
MUST READ: Migration, chefs and essential skills
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/08/07/must-read-migration-chefs-and-essential-skills/
Around the world, countries that allowed large amounts of migration from low wage countries to drive down labour costs, while allowing massive increases in public service demands such as health care, social security, policing, justice, means the cost of living for the average worker gets out of sync and people’s taxes start to be spent on paying for subsidising wages in low wage, high profit areas and supporting socially poor business like liquor and gambling instead of increasing people’s quality of life.
Remember the idea that with technology were would all live better lives with only 30 hr working weeks….
Recent add in Auckland! This employer expects a lot from their minimum wages – a 50 hr week, own transport, in Auckland (their wages will be unlikely to cover rent, and running a vehicle), living costs, then they will complain they can’t get anybody and after advertising this for 2 weeks, can apply to import more minimum waged, unskilled workers that the rest of the country can support instead of better pay and conditions to help everyone in that industry!
Are you looking for a career in the meat/butchery industry?
Are you wanting over a solid 50 hours of work per week?
Are you hardworking and reliable?
I have the job for you!
Otahuhu based
$21.20PH + 8% Holiday pay
ASAP start
Full training provided
6am starts everyday with approx 10 hour days
You will learn a variety of new skills such as making skilled meats, how to prep beef and lamb for market consumption and how to process live stock from start to finish.
You will need to pass a drug test
Must have own transport
Must have the right to work in NZ
I bet with that 50 hr working week list for those low wages, people would love to work there, (in Auckland)! Sarc!
Thanks savenz – I feel very drawn. Like lines in a Malcolm Evans cartoon though!
That sounds like a great job for a school leaver still living at home, which is, of course, exactly who jobs offers like that are directed at. Only they aren’t allowed to state as much in the ads now because its “discriminatory”.
And seriously, do you think someone with no necessary skills who is going to be given on the job training in an entry level role should be paid more than minimum wage? How how long do you think they’ll stay on minimum wage if they prove themselves to be reliable and capable?
This is the trouble with you socialsts: you see this as an insult rather than an opportunity. The kids that listen to you sit around waiting for a high paying entry level job that doesn’t exist, the kid that takes this job is starting a career and is earning $50k per year.
@ Exclamation Mark, Sounds like you want NZ go back to the 1900’s putting kids down mines for 50 hours.
Ever been a butcher – it’s very hard work – you should not be working 50 hours on this in 2022 as a starting career on minimum wages.
Within a short period of time most of the people in this job will be on ACC or leaving it.
The normal working week in NZ is 40 hours not 50 hours.
If this is their first job experience you want it to be a good one – not working 10 hours days, in a physical and stressful environment when one mistake will cost you a finger. How many school leavers have their own transport while working on minimum wages near Otahuhu?
Increasingly minimum wages jobs are jobs for life for low income people. They literally never get a pay rise, like many staff in the supermarkets (which would not surprise me this is one of them). Pretending this is a starting wage and there is going to be quick advancement is laughable.
Butchery used to be a craft skill back in the day and you actually got trained and accredited for it around the world with higher and higher standards of butchers. Then the 1980’s happened and they got rid of the experienced highly trained butchers in NZ and replaced them with lower paid staff. They then asked the experienced butchers to train the newbies on similar wages which many declined and left the industry. Its a joke to say there is work advancement in the meat processing industry. The craft of butchery skills are going and gone from this industry and many others.
Supermarkets used to have a butcher on site for each supermarket. Now apparently they get untrained, unskilled workers who mostly don’t know what they are doing in factories, and then package up the meat into plastic containers and ship it out to the supermarkets. Be aware much of the meat you eat, might be 3+ months old. Butchers I know don’t eat meat from Countdown, that’s all I’m saying.
They used to pay experienced butchers more 20 years ago and it was a high skill job, now butchery wages are lower than decades before, thus it is not a career that youth want to invest into and the industry struggles to attract people.
Instead of this being an industry problem they need to fix themselves, like construction and all the other rip off careers, they lobby the government to effectively keep things the same by adding in more migrant staff, which they need to keep replacing as the migrants leave too.
Modern slave butchery, like many others requires long hours so the wage looks higher and the industry can fiddle the system to get unskilled migrants. They are really paying a minimum wage hourly rate, just like farm labourers etc but make then work 50 – 80 hours, while claiming paying them $50 – $80k so they pull the wool over the eyes of immigration.
When migrants take these jobs, they get residency, leave the industry as soon as they can, and then (if not injured and on ACC) and the tax payers have to support more people and their families who will likely live their lives in poverty and need substantial support from NZ services, social welfare and charities. They also often have a poor impression of working in NZ and it’s getting out to the world.
New survey ranks New Zealand as second worst of best countries to live and work abroad
https://thefeed.co.nz/2022/07/21/new-survey-ranks-new-zealand-as-second-worst-of-best-countries-to-live-and-work-abroad/
Back breaking work and long hours, often leads to ACC. In addition the factory process, is propping up less fresh food coming to NZ mouths. Nobody keeps working as a butcher in NZ on minimum wages and the trained butchers refuse to take those rates.
It is also making NZ stagnate for productivity as we get surpassed by other countries due to more and more job creation for unskilled people to work longer and longer.
The sooner the government stops the NZ low wage/skill less immigration rip off, and start to respect and pay workers with pay and conditions on parity with OZ, the sooner NZ’s problems will abate.
Remember we can have a liquor store on every corner in NZ, but apparently can not afford the same for health care!
Gary Payinda
“There is not a village in Northland that doesn’t have either fast food, liquor or smokes on offer, very conveniently, within a few minutes’ walk from the village centre.
“But you try to put a school nurse in there, or an alcohol and drug rehab facility, GPs or dentists … there are none of these things. There’s a drought.
“If we can put liquor store in every poor neighbourhood we could put a nurse in those neighbourhoods as well. And we were choosing not to do it.”
Oh FFS!
We have gotten where we are because of the creation of “free money.
The problem with replacing capitalism is what, and who, do you replace it and the Capitalists with??
People like Marama Davidson, the Maori Party, and the angrier posters on TDB? Hardly a better and wiser group of people.
The problem with replacing capitalism is what, and who, do you replace it and the Capitalists with??
People like Marama Davidson, the Maori Party, and the angrier posters on TDB? Hardly a better and wiser group of people.
Is this a serial? When will the next episode come? I’m desperate for an answer to the first two.
Well we are pleased you aren’t listed as one of the options.
Capitalism is such a natural system. It’s hard to get rid of, the only way to do it involves totally destroying the country in question. Even then, it will probably return in a different form in a few decades
Its been late stage capitalism since the GFC. Chicago School Ec died. But no one saw what was written on his chest. “DO NOT RESUCITATE!”
But all these clever clogs decided to shove the world into poverty by been “Austere” and also feed the rich and greedy billionaires because they too were to big to fail! And look what’s happened!
Meanwhile we’ve had a global explosion in Social unrest, fake Climate Change Green Wash’n, A Plague and an ongoing capitale crisis!
And now, finally, WWIII is knocking on the door. So which is to come first? The end of the world by;
War
Famine
Social upheaval
Capitalism Collapses ‘finally’
Governments Across the World bailout and head to Mars with Elon and Jeff Bozo!
With the Dooms Day Clock at 100 seconds to midnight. I hope something fuckn happens soon because all this talk about something is going to happen is boooooring as!
And lets not forget that there is another Weimar Republic in the making ready to backstab and cause war on a number of fronts with foe & allies!
Its name is Turkey!
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/turkeys-interest-rate-gamble-blows-out-to-80-inflation/FNZC2KLVRFTZ7R7C7QRSKKXEWE/
That’s terrible and Erdogan has a similar character to Muldoon and will stick to his path despite warnings from cooler heads.