Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Nuff said (sang?)
Hi again. Long entry today, sorry about that.
Society is all about money. The accumulation of wealth has become the driving force of the capitalist society, and everything else comes second. This is really not debatable, so I’m not going to spend much time on this specifically. What I want to talk about, is work.
First, I’m going to postulate that there are 2 kinds of people (in this context). People who need to work in order to survive, and people who survive on others work. The 
people who survive on the work of other people, are the owners. Those lucky few who own factories or stocks in companies, who get to sit on their asses and watch as their factories make money for them. Most people, however, need a job to survive. A job where you produce something, be it raw materials, finished goods or services. We get hired by a company of some sort, we get told what to do with the materials at hand, and we make stuff. We don’t have anything to sell but ourselves, so we sell our work to our bosses. This is where it gets interesting. Because no matter how hard you work, you get paid the same. Allow me to demonstrate.
Meet Bob. Bob works in a factory. In one week, Bob produces 100 items, which is sold by other branches of the company. These 100 items earn the company 1000 dollars. For his one week of work, Bob gets 500 dollars paid. The next week, Bob decides to give everything he’s got, and he manages to double his productivity! Wow, amazing! Well done, Bob, you just earned the company 2000 dollars instead. For this feat, you still get 500 dollars. The week after, Bob is demoralized, and only produces 50 items. The company only earns 500 dollars, and Bob still gets his 500 dollars pay.
My point here is that no matter how productive us workers are under capitalism, we get the same amount of money. As long as we produce enough to make the company survive, there really is no motivation for us to work as hard as we can. If Bob doubles his productivity, the only person who gains from it is his boss. So why should he?
My place of work recently won a cash prize because of an index. I work in a pizzashop which is part of a chain, which measures how much each branch earns in relation to what the workers earn. Basically, its an index of which branch pays the smallest part of their profit to their workers.
Marx talked about the exploitation of the workers. Capitalism can’t survive without profit, and the bosses, the owners of companies, won’t run their companies unless they earn a healthy profit. The exploitation of workers is a problem, because in the end the work we do doesn’t benefit society, it benefits our boss.
So why not turn it around? If all the factories, companies etc. that are today privately owned, are owned by the people in stead, the profit would benefit everyone. Thats the kind of world I would like to live in.
Vegard
What causes depression?
I don’t know anymore.
Everyone has good days and bad days. Days where everything is bright and blooming, where the sun shines and you can’t help but smile at people as you walk past them, no matter how weird that makes them look at you. And the other kind, the days where nothing really matters, everything sucks, everyone you meet are boring and annoying, and you would rather just go home, turn off the lights and listen to depressing music.
Lately, I’ve been having more and more of the latter. At some point in my past, there was a resembelence of logic as to my mood, it would be relevant to things that had happened. Lately, theres nothing to it. I just feel at the bottom of the barrel no matter what I do. It seems like what is keeping me from being this down, is simply the energy it takes me to pretend to be fine. Days like this, where I have barely gotten any sleep and am really tired, I simply do not have it in me to smile and pretend.
I am clinging to the idea that moving to Stavanger will fix everything. Somehow make me happier, make things better. I just don’t know any more.
And how pathetic is that? I live in Norway, one of the best countries in the world. I have had everything handed to me on a silver platter, a nice balanced childhood, a rich life in every way. Maybe human beings thrive under the perssure of failure, and living in the socialdemocratic lullabyland of Norway is damaging.
Vegard
People of the internet!
I come to you in this gravest of days. The Norwegian news-agency Dagbladet just alerted me, this womans dog has been stolen!! Apparently, some burglars broke into the home of the people watching her dog, and stole it! She was on vacation, and it is now ruined by the loss of her poor, clothes-wearing puppy who is probably being kept in a cage somewhere!
For those of you that can’t read Norwegian, the news article states that the police have found DNA-evidence on the crime scene. Thank god, those inhumane bastards need to be caught!
Alright, seriousface. What the fuck? I don’t know what infuriates me the most about this! So a beautiful, big breasted blonde has her dog stolen, and she gets a huge news article about it (which on the front page had a larger picture and font than most other articles)? Alright, I can almost live with that. But from the article, I read that the police has recovered DNA-evidence from the crime scene. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Rapists and murderers are walking free because DNA technology has not been used, but HOLD YOUR HORSES, HOLD THE PHONE, HOLD YOUR BOAT! This is the sort of crime where the criminals HAVE to be apprehended!!!
This is absolute bullshit. What about the fact that 1 out of 10 women get raped
or attempted raped in Norway at some point in their life, and 2% of all rapists are ever caught? What about the fact that as few as 10% of murderes in this country are actually solved? How about spending some tax money on THAT, in stead of a missing fucking DOG??
Norway, you dissapoint me.
Vegard
According to this article in the NY Times, senator Charles E. Schumer loves change. He loves it so much that he needs to have his fix straight away, and if the Chinese government doesn’t bloody well give it to him as soon as possible he’s going to… oh, right he can’t do squat. He seems to think that he can restrict Chinese exports. Of course he doesn’t really want to do that, it’s just saber rattling, but the truth is that he couldn’t restrict their exports even if he wanted to. You’re the Chinese’s bitch now, Charlie, at the mercy of their whims. If they want to take it slow, that’s the way it’s going to be.
Nice whistle, but it won’t make China listen to you.
Song of the blog: Hello Future, by Kosmonaut