No Wonder We Are Feeling Vexed Lately

A number of items have caught my attention in these last few days. Things which have strengthened my belief that we are expected to line up quietly, while the economic and political elite, spit on us.

Energy giant, NPower are accused of not paying corporation tax for three years running, despite a 9% price rise and a 34% increase in profits.
The other energy firms have been paying out "fat cat" bonuses totalling £5 million.
Meanwhile, more than 24% of the UK population are officially living in energy poverty.
NPower have used the investment in future energy resources, as the reason for ducking the tax bill. It is standard accounting practise apparently.
I might be swayed if they were investing in our future with philanthropic motives, but they're not. They are investing so that the directors can get bigger bonuses and shareholders can get higher dividends.
Who said that firms who invest in future energy infrastructure, should be able to offset their tax liability?
I bet whoever it was is not sitting in a cold, dark room right now.

Chairman of food giant, Nestle, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, calls for water to be privatised and says that the idea of water as a basic human right, is an extreme view.
Nestle is the worlds largest food company and 27th largest company. It employs 270,000 people directly.
As Chairman of this organisation, Brabeck-Letmathe, could be said to be at the very top of the food chain. According to Darwin, this guy should be some kind of superhuman but all I see is a sociopath, someone who cannot empathise with the people in Brazil, who's water supply is destroyed so that Nestle can sell it to rich westerners, or those children who process cocoa, who are forced to work in conditions that Brabeck-lemathe wouldn't allow his dog to endure.

The actions of NPower executives, Nestle fat cats, and the governments that allow them to operate with impunity, have not gone unnoticed.

There is an answer to all this. Simply stop playing the game. The whole merry go round relies on our cooperation.

Do you know who lives in your neigbourhood?

Cyber terrorism is on the increase. Recent hacks have proved that the systems we rely on for our daily surf, e-mail etc are highly vulnerable.
We are fools if we believe that access to the Internet will still be available, in the midst of serious civil unrest.
So who are your on line buddies? do you have their names and addresses? Phone numbers? Probably not.
You are going to feel awful lonely when the net gets turned off. Nothing is designed to cause widespread confusion more than a shut down of communication channels. Apart from not knowing how your friends and family are, you will lose touch with the common consensus (to the extent that we are able to know it via the web) The mainstream media will be our only source of news. How frightening! but do not worry, it matters little what they want you to know as long as you don't believe it.
For example, need to know the weather? Look outside. How high is inflation? Go shopping, you will find out soon enough. The problem is that we have stopped (or never learnt in the first place) thinking for ourselves. We have become conditioned to roll over to the collective knowledge of society, without realising that, society doesn't really know anything apart from what it is told is the truth. This is invariably not the truth at all.
Mostly, what we are told in place of truth, results in someone, or some organisation, making profit. Look at the way that government think tanks have industry insiders insinuated into them so that they and up preferring the profitable course of business rather than that which is best for the public.
Its shameful that government have allowed this state of affairs to come about while, all along, pretending to represent the people.

So...  get to know your neighbours. Help them out with their garden if you can, Fill in a form for them if you are good with that type of stuff.
Just talk to them. You may find that they can sew up your son's school trousers or have some other amazing skill.
It may transpire that you and they, will be working together to overcome some serious obstacles one day. Its good to know who they are in advance.

Adam Smith's Invisible Hand

Economist, Adam Smith's "Invisible hand of God" wasn't just invisible, it was never there in the first place.
As famous quotations go, it is as appropriate as, "Just like That" or ,"Now you see it, now you don't",  sayings which could easily sum up the sentiments of those who's wealth "disappeared", as if by magic at the sleight hands of Smith's Laissez Faire economic theory.

Smith did espouse altruism but it appears to have been discarded in the rush to own everything in the world.
Some reports, like this one, which suggests that those who died in the Irish potato famine, were a result of the British government's strict adherence to Laissez faire policy, rather than crop failure which was widespread throughout Europe at the time, do not convey any sense of compassion whatsoever.

I'm not knocking free enterprise but rather, the absence of responsibility whereby the less fortunate, suffer as a consequence of commerce. It is a lack of personal accountability that is the problem.
The irony is that those who benefit most from free market economics are also the most tax efficient, leaving the burden of taxation, squarely on the shoulders of the working class.

Socialism is an evil, made necessary by the greed of unscrupulous merchants, many of whom, would in any other walk of life be possibly regarded as sociopaths.

The existence of these two systems of government side by side, has created a false dichotomy, a dialectic through which "Big Business" has been able to strengthen and consolidate it's position in  government and society.

Red Nose Day: The Caring face of Communitarianism

I can't take Red Nose Day seriously any more. Here is why.

In relation to projects in Britain, people are giving money to help socially disadvantaged individuals who should be supported through the taxation system. instead of out tax pennies going into the bottomless pit of failed bank's balance sheets.
The gradual removal of the welfare system causes more domestic hardship, particularly those who are seriously ill, having benefits stopped by ATOS, than can ever be cured by buying red noses. And we are meant to feel guilty that we should be helping  more, when in reality, our government is "rolling us over".

The other side of Red Nose Day which deals with the plight of people in the "Third world", really hits the "guilt button" because was are mostly sitting in comfortable houses watching extreme poverty on flat screen TVs while we enjoy tea and biscuits.

As individuals, we are not responsible for the plight of the starving nations.
Collectively, we have a responsibility, but when our government decides to spend the aid budget on "peacekeeping", IE tanks and soldiers, I get the impression that those who really need the help, are unlikely to get it.

The ones who are able to fix this mess, are the ones who caused it. Criminals from the worlds of business and government. I say criminals because they lie and cheat, they steal, and even kill, by their actions.

The way I see it, this farce is one of the caring faces of Communitarianism,  Big Society, Political Correctness, Transformational Marxism, Common Purpose. or whatever you wish to call it.

Buying Milk or Being Milked?

Lets get straight to the point. Supermarkets are just entities designed to separate you from your cash as efficiently as possible.
Take no notice of the slogans, "Every Little Helps", "That's why Mums go to Iceland", "Saving you money, every day" and so on..
Any real benefit to you, is purely coincidental and only serves as further PR for the supermarket.
Remember this next time you are in the milking trough.. err checkout.

The catch phrase is a lie, but its not all bad in Blighty. We could have the U.S. equivalent:

"Piggly Wiggly. Feeds your life.
It feels like home.
Down home. Down the street"

Which is just plain silly.

Or this one from Kroger stores, which sounds more akin to something you would do in a quiet lay by after dark:

"Let's go Krogering"