MP's

comment by Miller (U9310)
posted 1 minute ago
I'll just spam your twitter again.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I wasn’t on twitter until Mick decided to create one for me. 😡

comment by Hoop Dream$ (U14822)
posted 6 minutes ago
comment by RonaldVilliers (U21490)
posted 1 hour, 28 minutes ago
Read a very interesting article earlier on Modern Monetary Theory, and how basically government debt as we perceive it is completely messed up.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a34n54/modern-monetary-theory-explained

Interesting read.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Read the same article. The concept of giving everyone a job at $15 an hour effectively eliminating poverty was very interesting. Im sure they are trialing something like this in Norway.

The last paragraph in the article pretty much says it all though unfortunately;

"Myerson isn’t so sanguine. He isn’t convinced winning the intellectual debate will be enough. “The billionaires have the power so the economics that supports their agenda is going to be the predominant one.” If MMT became mainstream and increased public spending became the norm, power and wealth would shift away from the ruling class. Myerson suspects that won’t happen without a struggle. He remembers something that Ann Larson and Laura Hanna of the group Debt Collective said at the conference: “There will be no trickle-down MMT. It’s going to have to come from organizing people.”

So the powerful and wealthy would have to give up their privileged positions for the benefit of society? They wont and the sorry state of the birth lottery determining the fate of lives will continue to worsen.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So basically you want communism.

Yep, got a great track record.

comment by Hoop Dream$ (U14822)
posted 4 minutes ago

comment by RonaldVilliers (U21490)
posted 1 hour, 28 minutes ago
Read a very interesting article earlier on Modern Monetary Theory, and how basically government debt as we perceive it is completely messed up.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a34n54/modern-monetary-theory-explained

Interesting read.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Read the same article. The concept of giving everyone a job at $15 an hour effectively eliminating poverty was very interesting. Im sure they are trialing something like this in Norway.

The last paragraph in the article pretty much says it all though unfortunately;

"Myerson isn’t so sanguine. He isn’t convinced winning the intellectual debate will be enough. “The billionaires have the power so the economics that supports their agenda is going to be the predominant one.” If MMT became mainstream and increased public spending became the norm, power and wealth would shift away from the ruling class. Myerson suspects that won’t happen without a struggle. He remembers something that Ann Larson and Laura Hanna of the group Debt Collective said at the conference: “There will be no trickle-down MMT. It’s going to have to come from organizing people.”

So the powerful and wealthy would have to give up their privileged positions for the benefit of society? They wont and the sorry state of the birth lottery determining the fate of lives will continue to worsen.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I really like the idea, i studied economics and it makes sense to me, though in reality however good a solution this is, keeping all these people in work when Job automation really hits would be another story and as you point out it's mighty difficult to change anything like this from the bottom up. Would probably need a revolution of Bolshevik standards to ever have a chance of getting off the ground though.

In Finland they have been trialing Universal Basic Income there for a while, every person in work or not receives £500 a month from the government. A potentially good solution for the job automation issues to come.

comment by If anyone can, Emre Can (U3979)
posted 7 minutes ago

comment by Hoop Dream$ (U14822)
posted 6 minutes ago
comment by RonaldVilliers (U21490)
posted 1 hour, 28 minutes ago
Read a very interesting article earlier on Modern Monetary Theory, and how basically government debt as we perceive it is completely messed up.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a34n54/modern-monetary-theory-explained

Interesting read.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Read the same article. The concept of giving everyone a job at $15 an hour effectively eliminating poverty was very interesting. Im sure they are trialing something like this in Norway.

The last paragraph in the article pretty much says it all though unfortunately;

"Myerson isn’t so sanguine. He isn’t convinced winning the intellectual debate will be enough. “The billionaires have the power so the economics that supports their agenda is going to be the predominant one.” If MMT became mainstream and increased public spending became the norm, power and wealth would shift away from the ruling class. Myerson suspects that won’t happen without a struggle. He remembers something that Ann Larson and Laura Hanna of the group Debt Collective said at the conference: “There will be no trickle-down MMT. It’s going to have to come from organizing people.”

So the powerful and wealthy would have to give up their privileged positions for the benefit of society? They wont and the sorry state of the birth lottery determining the fate of lives will continue to worsen.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
So basically you want communism.

Yep, got a great track record.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you even read the article?

Comment Deleted by Site Moderator

comment by I am just McCann these days, Unless I am pumpin ye and ye want to call me Daddy (U21454)
posted 3 hours, 21 minutes ago
I do t know if that rule generally works Curly, Italy has the highest salaries for Politicians in Europe 100k+ and they still are pash at there jobs and corrupt.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Was watching Last Week Tonight on Monday, and John Oliver did a piece on their upcoming election.. I believe it's the 17th General Election they've had in 16 years 😂

Also the standard of candidate running in it is hilarious.. even Berlusconi is back despite looking like a rejected Waxwork and being illegible for another year still.

Comment Deleted by Site Moderator

Comment Deleted by Site Moderator

keeping all these people in work when Job automation really hits would be another story
==========================================================
I actually think a Universal Basic Income will help with that.

We basically pay each other for stuff that we value. If robots are doing all the jobs we’ve traditionally taken for granted, all that will happen is that we’ll value something else.

We won’t stop spending money, or trying to make extra money, or valuing what others do for us, and I suspect only a small minority of sad bassas will take it as an invitation to sit on their erses watching tv all day. Did a job like "personal trainer" even exist 50 years ago? Maybe some rich people had one, but now some people doing fairly ordinary jobs have one ( not me, I hasten to add).

Ha-Joon Chang’s theory is that Scandinavia has a much more flexible labour-market than other countries, and that contributes to their economic success. Especially, he thinks, more flexible than America’s (and Trump has been voted in by people who want to turn the clock back, and bring the old jobs back).

The reason he thinks the labour market is more flexible in these countries is that people aren’t nearly so afraid of losing their jobs, because the welfare is so good, and because they don’t lose their medical cover with it.

Welfare tapers downwards the longer you are out of work, so what people tend to do is use the first year or two to re-train , acquire new skills, create new jobs, etc. So long as they don't take too long over it, they can do it without damaging the lifestyle of their families too much.

Whereas we tend to think that if we do that, everyone will just sit on their erses all day watching the Simpsons. There are a minority who will do that (and their welfare will taper off quite quickly), but Ha-Joon Chang’s theory is that we shouldn’t organise the economy just to deal with those people. Most people want to do things.

Effectively, what he’s saying is that the Scandinavian welfare system is a kind of prototype for how Universal Basic Income could work after automation has taken all the traditional jobs. He likens it to a company investing in new plant....you set money aside to do it.

What's not going to work is if people are just dumped at the bottom of the food-chain , with low-grade service jobs and stagnating wages, as is happening now. There are going to be ructions, if that continues (if there aren't already), and I'll be amazed if Trump's attempts to turn the clock back turns out to be the correct solution to that.

Totally agree, poor wages = poor quality MPs