- THIS IS CAPITALISM: We don't need all of you, and we need need all of your children. We have many workers in Asia, who work longer hours for less money. And they teach their kids to do so, unlike the western workers who have the "audacity" to demand an 8-hour day, or a decent salary. So let the western workers starve, until they start accepting (much) lower wages and working conditions - here are some good examples:
Greece's financial crisis has made some families so desperate they are giving up their children
One morning a few weeks before Christmas a kindergarten teacher in Athens found a note about one of her four-year-old pupils.
"I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her," it read. "Please take good care of her. Sorry. Her mother."
In the last two months Father Antonios, a young Orthodox priest who runs a youth centre for the city's poor, has found four children on his doorstep - including a baby just days old.
Another charity was approached by a couple whose twin babies were in hospital being treated for malnutrition, because the mother herself was malnourished and unable to breastfeed.
"Over the last year we have hundreds of cases of parents who want to leave their children with us - they know us and trust us," Father Antonios says.
"They say they do not have any money or shelter or food for their kids, so they hope we might be able to provide them with what they need."
Requests of this kind were not unknown before the crisis - but Father Antonios has never until now come across children being simply abandoned.
- England: Pensioners 'will work into 70s'
A generation of "Wearies" - Working, Entrepreneurial and Active Retirees - could be forced to work into their 70s and beyond due to the looming pensions crisis.
It will result in the traditional image of the pensioner relaxing in old age changing completely as many will simply not be able to afford to retire, experts say.
Workers at consumer goods giant Unilever are to stage a new series of strikes in a huge escalation of a row over pensions, it was announced today.
Unilver said: "We believe the provision of final salary pensions is a broken model which is no longer appropriate for Unilever.
"It is our responsibility to protect the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of our business, and to do so is in the best interests of our people.
Meanwhile, the working conditions in China are "great" (if you're looking at it from the side of the capitalists) - so there is growth there (for now at least - we shall discuss more about China in the next couple of posts):
Volkswagen Brand Sales Surge As China Demand Matches Europe's
China became as important a market as Europe for Volkswagen AG's passenger car brand in 2011, as Chinese sales rose 14% to a record 1.72 million vehicles, the German auto maker said Friday.Move Over Germany, China Is Now The Number 2 Market For Luxury Cars
Volkswagen, Europe's biggest auto maker by sales, said it is also gearing up to increase production in China and India.
Germany's luxury automakers are starting to shift more of their focus to the Far East.
According to Bloomberg, China is on track to edge out Germany as the second largest market for luxury cars. It is anticipated that 969,000 luxury models will be sold in China this year, while 914,000 will be delivered in Germany.
Here's why capitalists like China: Because they can keep all the profits for themselves, while the workers get nothing - this is the "most competitive" business environment the capitalists can find, but it is also the reason why the workers have a motive to overthrow them, as they are left to live (or even die) in poverty, while the capitalists are starting to look more and more like the feudal lords they once overthrew:
China Communist Party bureaucrats like their cars high end
A remnant of a decades-old Communist Party perks system, the luxe wheels are a conspicuous target of growing public outrage over the privileges of the elite. Angry Chinese have started posting photos.
Chinese officials love their cars — big, fancy, expensive cars. A chocolate-colored Bentley worth $560,000 is cruising the streets of Beijing with license plates indicating it is registered to Zhongnanhai, the Communist Party headquarters. The armed police, who handle riots and crowd control, have the same model of Bentley in blue.
And just in case it needs to go racing off to war, the Chinese army has a black Maserati that sells in China for $330,000.
"Corruption on wheels is an accurate description of this problem," said Wang Yukai, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance in Beijing, who has been advocating restrictions on officials' cars for years.
A remnant of a decades-old party perks system, the luxe wheels are a conspicuous target of growing public outrage over the privileges of the elite.
"Becoming like China" - a great way (for the capitalists) to "restore competitiveness". After all, we can't have the workers rallying against our policies, can we?
Obama signed the NDAA – including a provision allowing the indefinite detention of Americans - on New Year’s eve.
Obama issued a “signing statement” with the bill, which – at first blush – appears to say he won’t indefinitely detain Americans.
But a closer reading shows that the signing statement is just smoke and mirrors.
Specifically, it was Obama - not Congress – who originally requested that an exception for American citizens be removed from the bill. As such, his professed reluctance is wholly disingenuous.
Moreover, Obama signed a bill which would allow future presidents to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens, and his signing statement in no way limits their power to run roughshod over our rights.
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