This is part one of an article that I am calling Against "The Sky is Falling" by Indur Golkany (it's actually entitled something else--read it to find out).
Here is part 2.
Remember, an intelligent discussion requires dialogue, not a monologue.
Also, I have long held that the current economic paradigm of the "economics of scarcity" is a false manufactured mental box that allows an elite to manipulate and control and squelch producers and original thinkers.
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3 comments:
Let me start with the disclaimer that I sat and had about 6 Manny's while watching the Seattle Sounders(a soccer team) lose to a team in Toronto, then I purchased a pony keg of Widmere Hefeweizen came back to the camp ground and am in the process of "feeling no pain".
So - I'm in agreement that we are not running out of space etc. I had to laugh when the article mentioned that in the grand scheme of things this is just a mere speed bump. Well, if the speed bump lasts even 25 years that is the rest of my life =] So that is no solace!
I'll have to reread this later. What's happening is that the employers have a "buyers market" right now and can discriminate over the slightest thing. If you have had any problem in the last 20 years you are dispossessed, if you are not college educated, you are dispossessed. etc etc. (I talked to a guy who just got a AA degree and told me he couldn't wipe his arse with it.
He is working as a seasonal gardener here only because his Mom knew someone. I don't stand a chance, so I better keep fishing.
If your insulated from this with a good job, you have no idea. For the rest of us its a feeling similar to what the rest of the world is dealing with.
For all the talk pro or con whether the sky is falling... it feels like its falling to me, rather it feels like the oxygen is depleting and I'm suffocating. Cheers!
Life isn't so bad when I can still get drunk, anyway...
I hear you. It may seem as if I have an insulated job but all it would take is majority of fascists on the Port's Commission to boot us all out and replace us with contractors that are buddies with them...
My comfort could be overthrown in a moment. Before I got this job I spent 40 months unemployed/under-employed and nearly lost my house and the ability to buy another. Before that fun little experience, I had work for a bunch of asshole contractors that would kick you to the curb in a moment (unless you were a nephew or on your knees under the desk). And if you have gray hair when you take a call to one of these miserable contractors, you're likely to get rejected.
The essays are a study on overall trends and any time one considers the macro-picture of things it tends to miss all the individual suffering that goes on as things fluctuate. I have talked to enough people who are going through exactly what you are going through, and what your acquaintance is going through.
If my health were to fail or an accident should happen to me, I would be screwed, because since I've had to pay attention to my family, I've not gotten my formal education at the master's level to allow me to get a somewhat reasonable job other than my trade.
One of my fellow workers who has lung damage from overhead drilling of concrete during his apprenticeship is slowly dying as he tries to work (so far he's doing ok with modern medicine keeping him going), and he once said, "If you're not suffering now, you have either just come through some suffering or you are about enter into some suffering."
Hopefully I didn't come across as a pity party, and also it wasn't directed at you.
You answered my feelings best in saying that "The essays are a study on overall trends and any time one considers the macro-picture of things it tends to miss all the individual suffering that goes on as things fluctuate."
That was the point I was trying to convey anyway.
Your friend could be compensated for his lung damage. During my OSHA 510 classes they talked about this and how many people used to have no recourse and just died young from working around concrete. Of course, what good is compensation if your dead, right? Maybe he has a family.
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