Inappropriate Names

quote:

"I do like your Nuclear reactor analogy, but it rather misses the point that we are now in the days of global capitalism, and have been for a very long time. The capital cannot be used as a servant of society, as the society cannot control it unless it is a closed market. The internal market is not separate from the global market in any respect, to the extent that the government is the servant of capital. Indeed, I regard this as desirous, without exchange as a method of regulating interstate competition for resources, the only avenue available for a state to gain additional resources would be warfare / colonialism. Not to mention that a state that controlled the capital would be a tyrant."

"As to the working man? Which working man? Class is one of my least favourite social constructs, as it almost entirely rests on self-identification, but as you have set it in those terms... The working class that the Labour Party came into existence to represent is all but extinct. We now have a huge middle class, who have similar interests and broadly similar social attitudes, it is only natural that the mainstream parties in the UK are converging on the centre ground."

Dear Dom,

I agree about the occupation of the Eastern European Countries in the Post-War Soviet Block. What the Soviets did before and after the end of the War is in no real way different to what the Nazis had already started.

But as for the governments of democracies being the servant of the Capital I profoundly disagree, and once again I will cite the Scandinavian Nations, where the governments are not in thrall of Capital, but make Capital the servant of their countries' societies. This is in my view the desirable outcome and an example of how mature and successful countries can employ Capital as the dynamo, rather than the master.

We would do well to see how these countries make a varying degree of success in this.

In my view the government in a mature liberal democracy should be the utter servant of only one master, and that master is the people of the countries they govern at the behest of their electorates. Sadly the "I know better than you, what is good for you" patronising New Labour Government of Mr Blair [and in my view the Jury is still out on Mr Brown in this issue] makes us all fools.

As for the working class, I can tell that though I am no class warrior, then something of the sort certainly does exist, however you actually name it. If not then the Legal Minimum Wage would hardly be a necessity! In the A/V Room you posted that £300 might amount to a weeks wage for some, whilst being small change for others. I can tell you that you are exactly right. I see both sides in this. In my whole life, my largest weekly wage has never exceeded £260 a week gross! My late grandfather was definitely paying the incremental tax rate of 90% [I am not sure it was not actually 98% at one time] in Norway!

So I am perhaps in a rare position to see the divide! The divide itself is not necessarily something to complain about. Clearly my grandfather was a lot cleverer a man than me! But I do see that there is an economic group in UK which your post entirely points up [probably unintentionally in the sense that you deny they exist, which is all too common a response] existing as a true lost "under-class," which certainly includes me, falling ever further from the average earner, and yet still being heavily taxed, and actually getting worse off in real terms by the year, even in the good times of the last twelve or so years. I would struggle to vote for New Labour, and though my tendency is to a gentle consensus style conservatism [of the MacMillanesque type], I find it hard to see what point there is in my voting at all. I do vote, because I think it is everyone's responsibility to do so, but there is no party that either represents my aspirations or even represents my best interests. The myth of "trickle down wealth," truly is a myth from my end of the telescope!

I hope you do not mind me posting these thoughts, posted in good faith as a pause for thought, rather than a rant.

George

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
Human Resources.

Actually it sums the modern situation up all too well. Personnel is the old word, and I wish we could get back to a time when the personal contribution made by individual wage earners was rather more than as a mere resource with a number attached!

I am starting a new job in a tiny little company of more than a century’s standing, where no one is merely a resource or a number, but that is luck. I hope it will last another 25 years and then I forget the worry of being a mere resource statistic - infinitely disposable, and treated without any commitment to the human aspect. Victorian values have done well under Mr Blair.

George

I wholeheartedly agree. My wife's employer now no longer has a 'Personnel' department,nor any longer a 'Human Resources' dept. ...it's a 'People and Culture' dept. The newsletters she gets sent home from work are so full of buzzwords , trendy patois and doubletalk, they are practically indecipherable to non-employees. Surely Personnel' did what it said on the tin ! Change for it's own sake !!

Human Resources = Attrition Management

AS for most inappropriate company name

First Great Western

let us hope that their investment plan will provide trains that run, that run on time and will run with sufficient carriages so that all passengers can sit down

My brother-in-law is a fireman.
Apparently, when he rescues people from a car crash, or gets people out of a burning building, they can't call them victims, or casualties or survivors. They are now called "customers". Some get customer satisfaction surveys to complete, containing questions such as "did the rescuer call you sir/madam, were they polite to you, did you feel valued, etc.
Bloomin' ridiculous.
Matt.

quote:

Originally posted by manicatel:
My brother-in-law is a fireman.
Apparently, when he rescues people from a car crash, or gets people out of a burning building, they can't call them victims, or casualties or survivors. They are now called "customers". Some get customer satisfaction surveys to complete, containing questions such as "did the rescuer call you sir/madam, were they polite to you, did you feel valued, etc.
Bloomin' ridiculous.
Matt.

Matt. IMO your Brother in law should be given a satisfaction survey, asking him questions such as...'Did you get pelted with bricks and bottles by your "Customers" whilst you were risking your life putting out the fire?'...and 'Did that make you feel valued?'

MT

Dear George,

I do not disagree that it would be very advantageous if the model the Scandinavian nations have pursued could be applied universally, but I honestly believe that their success in this regard has been largely as a result of a great wealth of resources and a relatively small population. It would be very difficult for a country, such as the UK, whose wealth relies almost solely on the skills of its workforce, and low regulation institutions such as the LSE which attract businesses to use our island as a base.

I also respect your view on the desirability of democratic governments being the servants of their electorates, but sadly external influences often force their hand. I would add however, that to my mind what separates overtly democratic, but highly authoritarian regimes such as Belarus from true liberal democracy is a limit on the power of the government beyond the ability of the electorate to punish the government at the ballot box. I would view this to be a guarantee of various individual rights, to cite Kant "life, liberty and property" to name just a few. A government with excessive control over property, by extension capital would not only be exerting control upon that capital as a tool, they would be infringing the rights of the individuals who held that capital.

I share your distaste for; and would too struggle to vote for New Labour, indeed I have done so only one one occasion, whilst in Scotland. A purely tactical decision based on my own conclusions that the SNP, who looked like taking the seat, were better in no respect and had the added repugnance of being a party of political misfits, united solely to seek to gain power by stirring up and exploiting an irrational hatred of the English.

I must admit to being shocked by your level of income. I would largely agree with your comment about your grandfather with regards to the income divide; but from our conversations you strike me as being far more intelligent and knowledgeable than you credit yourself with.

I am also glad that you subscribe to Macmillan style consensus conservatism, something I would regard as being the standpoint of a rational and pragmatic person, in juxtaposition to the rabid ideologues one often encounters when discussing politics! It leaves us free to discuss things without an irritating fixation on artificial/theoretical models!
I do not mind you posting your thoughts in the slightest. On the contrary, I have been finding our discussion very interesting, enjoyable even.

Kind regards,


Dom

Dear Dom,

Thanks for your reply. It is a strange one, but I lack a certain confidence, and there are good enough reasons for that!

My father was an unscrupulous crook, and without doubt that held me back, because as a result, I could never allow ambition to cause me to do anything vaguely dishonest! No doubt in different circumstances I might have joined the family business in Norway [which ceased on my grandfather's retirement at 70], had my grandparents kept my brother and me at the time my parents divorced in 1970, but my father won the issue of guardianship, and so I started to work on the farm as a 16 year old. The years I should have spent gaining A-level and qualifying for University at a time when it was grant aided, were spent working for no wage for a dissolute man, who went out of business when I was 19!

I did manage to get A-levels [Maths, Physics, and Electronics] as a mature student about seven years ago, and actually start reading Civil Engineering at Coventry University, but there was no way I could finance it without some backing as the Student Loan situation existed then, let alone now! It did not stop me trying ...

So it is quite amazing that I do not have a massive chip on my shoulder! But I do not. I have just taken what I hope will be a job to last till I am too old to work, albeit for about £250 a week gross. All ambition spent, I shall enjoy not having to work in a big high pressure outfit, but make the job work comfortably well.

Thanks for your reply. George

"Consumer Choice".

The genius that "leads" our country always seems to be the last to know. Today W announced the US economy has "clearly slowed". His power of perception knows no bounds. Included in the news article was the term Negative Growth. Why combine negatives and positives when really one negative will do.

BT customer service

quote:

BT customer service

For 99.9% of companies XXX customer service will do.