Capitalism, The Best Solution to Poverty

[macdoc]

Brian yur a true commweal Scot...the world of should.
Where were you on the Political Compass??

[Brian Peacock]

I point in many directions.

[macdoc]

These are some of the tough policy knots to solve.

J EAN-FRANÇOIS RAYMOND wasn’t expecting an eviction notice in the last few days of 2022. He’d lived in his spacious apartment in Montreal’s east-end neighbourhood of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve for twenty-two years. It was home in the truest sense of the word. “It was the place that I raised my kid,” he said. “There are plenty of memories.”

more
https://thewalrus.ca/airbnbs-canadian-housing/

[Brian Peacock]

Conservatives, bosses and corporate landlords don't like it, but...

Largest UK public sector trial of four-day week sees huge benefits, research finds.

[JimC]

David's work with a council, as sustainability manager, involves a 9 day fortnight - he gets every second Friday off. As well, he works from home one or two days a week...

[pErvinalia]

Does he work less hours than standard, or more hours on less days?

[JimC]

As far as I know, it's standard in terms of the official daily requirement, but I also know that he basically works more than the standard hours, and is thus well regarded for promotion.

[aufbahrung]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cml2kvd2dvno

South Korea politician blames women for rising male suicides

A politician in South Korea is being criticised for making dangerous and unsubstantiated comments after linking a rise in male suicides to the increasingly “dominant” role of women in society.

In a report, Seoul City councillor Kim Ki-duck argued women’s increased participation in the workforce over the years had made it harder for men to get jobs and to find women who wanted to marry them.

He said the country had recently “begun to change into a female-dominant society” and that this might "partly be responsible for an increase in male suicide attempts”.

South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates among the world’s rich countries but also has one of the worst records on gender equality.

Councillor Kim’s comments have been criticised as the latest in a series of out-of-touch remarks made by male politicians.

Councillor Kim, from the Democratic Party, arrived at his assessment when analysing data on the number of suicide attempts made at bridges along Seoul’s Han river.

The report, published on the city council’s official website, showed that the number of suicide attempts along the river had risen from 430 in 2018 to 1,035 in 2023, and of those trying to take their lives the proportion who were men had climbed from 67% to 77%.

(continued)

[Sean Hayden]

Those are sad figures.

In South Korea, mental illness is taboo, even within a family. Over 90% of suicide victims could be diagnosed with a mental disorder, but only 15% of them received proper treatment. Over two million people suffer from depression annually in South Korea, but only 15,000 choose to receive regular treatment. Because mental illnesses are looked down upon in Korean society, families often discourage those with mental illnesses from seeking treatment.[68]

Since there is such a strong negative stigma on the treatment of mental illnesses, many symptoms go unnoticed and can lead to many irrational decisions including suicide. Alcohol is often used to self-medicate, and a significant percentage of attempted suicides occur while drunk.[69]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_South_Korea

[pErvinalia]

[L'Emmerdeur]

Not a joke.

[Svartalf]

seriously? I thought it was from the Onion

[Brian Peacock]

The rich were led to believe they were different. Those days are numbered

“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me,” wrote F Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. “They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different.” The delusions of entitlement – that the rich deserve their wealth, privilege and the right to transgress social mores as they choose – are ever-present. In their eyes, wealth can’t just be a by-product of luck, can it? It must, one way or another, be deserved.

Among the great deformations of the four neoliberal decades through which we have lived are not just the policy catastrophes – monetarism, financial deregulation, austerity, Brexit, the Truss budget – but also the way that wealth generation and entrepreneurship, so crucial to the capitalist economy, have been ideologically framed. Instead of being recognised as a profoundly social process – in which great universities, the financial ecosystem and the runway provided by large and sophisticated markets support entrepreneurship – enterprise, and the wealth it produces, has been characterised as wholly attributable to individual derring-do in which luck plays little part. Hence the obsession with shrinking the state to reduce “burdensome” tax.

Individual agency is part of the story but, as Warren Buffett acknowledges, so does the “ovarian lottery” – being born in the US where its system favours the skills he possesses. One of the richest men in the world believes in capital gains and inheritance taxes – and paying them. Riches are a privilege: taxing them to contribute a fair share to society’s wider health – from which the rich benefit too – is the obligation that comes with being privileged.

But decades of being congratulated and indulged for the relentless pursuit of their own self-interest has turned the heads of too many of our successful rich. They really believe that they are different: that they owe little to the society from which they have sprung and in which they trade, that taxes are for little people. We are lucky to have them, and, if anything, owe them a favour. ...

Political analysists and commentators have beenn telling us that the days of Rapacious Capitalism's and the Super Rich are numbered for at least 200 years - and yet those with enormous privilege and power have always managed to change the rules, and if necessary the game, whenever a crisis came along threatening the 'natural order'.

The end of the super wealthy? Any day now guys. Any day now.

Unless you seek to change the structures of Power and redistribute the wealth across society, the ultra-rich will continue to harvest the lion’s share of economic gains while using a tiny fraction of their wealth to buy the politics that expands and fortifies their dominion.

[Sean Hayden]

But our situation mostly isn’t something the rich gave us, it is us.

[Brian Peacock]

Aye, in a way. We swallow what they dribble into our mouths and think: that's all there is, better make the most of it I suppose.