I'll bring this here.epwc wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2024 9:20 amYeah, we're a society that knows the price of everything but the value of nothing. We've had a person working with us recently, early 50s, had a job as a broker in the City (6 figure wage, 6 figure bonuses) got made redundant and ended up here. She could not believe how much work there was to do, and the max we can pay her is £36k, cos it's a real business doing real stuff that's been affected by Brexit, climate change, the war in Gaza etc. Meanwhile a friend of my daughters (all the right connections) has just got a job in the same part of the same city firm that this lady used to work in, she says the fellas spend most of their time playing darts or perfecting their putting techniques.Tichtheid wrote: ↑Fri May 24, 2024 9:10 am More seriously, how do you challenge global capitalism? The majority of us want shit that we don't need and we'll happily pay half price for something that has to travel from the opposite side of the planet which has been made by prison labour than buy local from a unionised environment where a fair wage is paid for a day's work.
I make guitars as a hobby. I can buy a Gibson guitar made in Montana under safe conditions where the people in the factory are skilled trades people and they are paid a fair wage. These guitars cost anything for three thousand pounds upwards.
I can get a "Chibson" a knock-off from China that costs two hundred a fifty quid and, from a distance, looks exactly the same.
I can barely buy the wood and hardware to make one for two hundred and fifty quid. Ok this is fairly niche, but it's an example of the bigger situation.
My father in law is in hospital at the moment, 87 with a huge brain tumour, I was there with my daughter thursday night and he just would not get back into bed so they could change his pants, he physically attacked the 3 nurses that were trying to help him. They won't make 6 figures between them, and I haven't seen any putting machines or dartboards in Basildon Hospital...
First off, best wishes to your father in law. Second, best wishes to the nurses. The rhythm of the words "Basildon hospital" made me think of one of my favourite songs - a celebration of people from all over the world who make the NHS tick
