Slow Londinium Down Londinium

SLOW LONDINIUM DOWN LONDINIUM.

"I come alive
Outside the M25."

What I'm reading

I have just finished "Insanity: The Idea and Consequences" by Thomas Szasz.
I will write something about it maybe later.
I am now reading "Unspeak" by Steven Poole which is excellent.

Why?

You always hear:
"Get a job, scrounger! I'm paying for your benefits while you sit on your arse!"

Why don't they ever say to CEOs:
"Get a proper job, scrounger! I'm paying for your rounds of golf and swimming pools!" ?

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See how effectively our minds are policed.

Your living room is the factory you are the product.

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Yes ordinary people do pay for the profligate wages of people like CEOs and other business suits, as well as other members of the idle rich, who supposedly work for a living, as much as they pay for people's welfare benefits.

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MONEY

Money


[13c. L moneta, money, mint]

Anything which is generally accepted as a medium of exchange.
While often having little intrinsic VALUE, money or the lack of it rules many people's lives. "The argument is that money being the calculus we use to measure value, it is vital that the money system should operate fairly and objectively. Money values should reflect the actual values and preferences that people have. For example people's pay should reflect the value of the work they do. As things are, however, everyone knows that the money system does not work in this way. Some people get highly paid for work of little value, while others get paid much less for work of greater value. The people who run the money system - bankers, stockbrokers, and so on - do not run it professionally, with the aim that it should operate fairly and efficiently in the interests of society as a whole. They operate it in such a way as to cream off above-average incomes and capital gains for themselves and their clients. In this sense the present money system is fundamentally corrupt." (James Robertson, 1985). "Making money out of money - or more accurately making money out of debt - has become a massive industry, holding the world to ransom" (Green Party, 1987). (see DEBT CRISIS). Many Greens believe that our money system is beyond saving, so out of touch is it with real wealth and the real needs of people. While money can be liberating if used appropriately (never forgetting that it is only symbolic of real wealth), green-thinkers see LOCAL CURRENCY, BARTER, OWNWORK and informal work largely taking its place. See also INFLATION, WEALTH.

[source: "A Dictionary of Green Ideas", ed. John Button, 1988.
Words in capitals refer to other entries]

I wud just liyk to mayk another plee for logicul speling.

I wud just liyk to mayk another plee for logicul speling.

http://www.spellingsociety.org/

This may even be related to the Dyslexia issue.
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Diagnonsense

Re: Mental health and employment in The Guardian today.

Reminding people of the reality that mental illness does not and cannot exist might serve to focus more on whether it was work situations that led to the problems in living revealed here. Conditions and diagno(nsen)ses such "schizophrenia", "OCD", "ADHD", "manic depression" - do not actually exist as distinct illnesses.

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Also the common incidence of so-called "ADHD" must be related to the over-stimulation of kids in a multi-media society.....

Bicycles in Beijing

Car ownership and use is growing very fast in Beijing.
Bicycles are used less.
And all for no reason other than slavish following of the industrialised world.
There is no need whatsoever for this switch to mass automobile use.

Unemployment Again

Johann Hari has written an article regarding unemployment and benefits.
He reveals a very important and under-known (to coin a word) fact - we can afford benefits!
Benefits for the unemployed constitute 3 percent of government expenditure.
We can afford welfare.
Please tell this to Anne Widdecombe and the DailyMail-ists!

Unfortunately Johann neglects to point out that work does not have to be the same thing as paid employment.

With mechanisation there will inevitably be less paid work. Other types of work have to be researched.
Other factors will mean that suitable paid employment will be hard to find.
Therefore to tell people who can't get a job to starve will be a terrible injustice and crime.
That is what is being proposed.

Saying to someone:
"You refuse to get or cannot get a paid job. Therefore you can starve," is the full horror of what is proposed.
Many people, because they are taught to believe in capitalist ethics, would at first wholeheartedly agree with this. "Earn your keep. Pay your way. No free lunch..." etc.

Firstly, the government can easily afford paying those who don't work a minimum allowance.
Secondly, there may not be work.
Thirdly, everyone has a right to basic needs.
Fourthly, why should work be paid work?
Fifthly, if we believe in human liberty people should have a choice as to what to do.
Sixthly, everyone wants to work and do something. So to believe that those who don't do conventional work are selfish and idle is not entirely true. ........


A universal income where the government gives money to the people instead of people giving money in taxed wages to the government is the best solution. What does it matter which way the money goes?

Tax revenue will still come from those who earn large amounts.

The only fair system is a universal basic income to guarantee the human right to basic needs.

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Logical ramblings:-

If I am owed my basic needs (because I can't work) then I am owed my basic needs in all circumstcances.

The alternative is to say:

If I cannot work then I am owed my basic needs but;
if I can work then I am not owed my basic needs.

Therefore you are saying that: if I can work then I am not owed my basic needs.
Which is absurd.

EITHER
1) EVERYONE IS OWED THEIR BASIC MINIMUM INCOME FOR NEEDS OR
2) THEY ARE NOT OWED THIS INCOME.

"ADHD"

"ADHD" - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - does not exist.

I repeat it because a) it is true b) it needs to be said c) people don't seem to grasp this:

"ADHD", "SCHIZOPHRENIA", AND ALL "MENTAL ILLNESSES" DO NOT EXIST.

I repeat THEY DO NOT EXIST.

U.S. Democracy

Like England, the USA can't really call itself a modern democracy unless it has voting reform and fair proportional representation and until it stops disenfranchising some groups of its citizens.