Open mike 24/06/2010

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 17 comments
Categories: open mike

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17 comments on “Open mike 24/06/2010”

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  1. 1

    Peter Harris has posted over at Policy Progress about the idea of compulsory savings. Peter, who was economist for the CTU and advisor to Michael Cullen, is against it; Trevor Mallard disagrees.

    The issue of providing for retirement income in an ageing society is going to be an incredibly important one for progressives. What do people here at the Standard think should be done?

  5. 5

    Here’s a tricky one: what do you do if you have a slave labour force which is putting legitimate businesses into receivership because they cannot compete because of having to pay wages to their employees?

    Do you cease using slaves, do you pay your slaves minimum wages . . . neither. National Ltdâ„¢ is considering working with private enterprise to lease the slaves and too bad about the employees. Brilliant

    Wanna job – then go to prison:

    Another group of people that are increasingly being treated as modern day slaves are prisoners. Under international treaties, such as those on Human Rights and, for example, the 1930 Forced Labour Convention, there are exemptions that specifically allow for the enslavement of individuals within any state’s prison systems, where they often provide cheap (if not free) labour for corporations – all legal by the laws of almost all states.

    http://www.againstprisonslavery.org/

    2. 6.2

      Someone should compile a list of photos of people living under a more of a capitalistic system (say under the US bridges). Or under the Randian heaven that is Somalia.

      1. 6.2.1

        Or socialist heaven under the socialist dictatorship of Barre and his Socialist Revolutionary Party who tried so hard to impose scientific socialism on the people of Somalia. It wasn’t his fault that the economy collapsed, that there was rampant corruption, war with Ethiopia, torture and killings of his opponents, hyperinflation and it wasn’t his fault it all ended in civil war.

    3. 6.3

      “A gallery of about 40 photos showing the terrible conditions tolerated by people forced to live under the thumb of a socialist system ”

      I will give you the benefit of the doubt that your statement is tongue-in-cheek, because I don’t see what’s bad about the subway system shown in those photos. It’s all a matter of taste in design. It looks rather avant-garde. It’s got nothing to do with socialism or capitalism.

      1. 6.3.1

        Just an observation that public spaces and facilities as beautiful as the one linked to seem only to exist in the social democracies of the north.
        Compare this and this with our latest effort.

        And yes, tongue firmly in cheek.

  7. 7

    I see that the spam bots have been active today. I will put in blockers for this lot after I eat. If the other moderators could leave them there please

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