Arguments are raging about the minimum wage.
If, for one moment, we leave aside the question of
what age a ’man should be, and for the sake of argument
assume the case for someone who is about 30 years old.
What gives? From a ’mans wage we have to deduct
tax and other stoppages
the cost of accommodation mortgage/rent
food
power electric/gas/oil/etc
rates council tax/water/sewage
travel to work ( bus, car, train )
pension
clothes
furniture & household goods
buildings & contents insurance cover
maintenance
medicines
cost of any accidents
TV licence
telephone
car running/repairs/tax/insurance/AA/etc
holiday 2 weeks abroad?
christmas & birthdays presents/cards/fare/etc
books/magazines/newspapers
drink/cigarettes/gambling not considered
Try this for yourself
add up all the deductions and
subtract these from your total annual income
divide what’s left over, if any, by 52
that’s your real weekly wage
divide this by, say 40, or whatever, and this will give you
what you earn per hour in expendable income
that is, expendable on what you want
as opposed to what you have to spend to live.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
slavery?
Does anyone else feel the way I do about work?
It seems to amount to no more than legalised enslavement.
Pay them just enough to buy the essentials.
Just keep them alive and able to work.
Don’t worry too much about their health,
if they’re knackered when they get home then
all they’ll have the energy for is
to watch a bit of TV and then go to bed.
Keep them all quiet, depressed, badly fed & badly paid,
and you can keep them under control.
On TV keep on showing them the poor in other countries
and they’ll continue to count their ’blessings’.
Of course, if we all had the same standard of living
throughout the world
then the amount of pollution would be enormous.
Maybe that’s why the world governments don’t want to help the poor?
It seems to amount to no more than legalised enslavement.
Pay them just enough to buy the essentials.
Just keep them alive and able to work.
Don’t worry too much about their health,
if they’re knackered when they get home then
all they’ll have the energy for is
to watch a bit of TV and then go to bed.
Keep them all quiet, depressed, badly fed & badly paid,
and you can keep them under control.
On TV keep on showing them the poor in other countries
and they’ll continue to count their ’blessings’.
Of course, if we all had the same standard of living
throughout the world
then the amount of pollution would be enormous.
Maybe that’s why the world governments don’t want to help the poor?
to reduce rubbish
when i was a child there was a deposit of 2p on every lemonade bottle
these were always returned to get 2p off the next purchase
boys would collect abandoned bottles to increase their pocket money
if the greek government introduced a deposit on plastic bottles of 10 lepta
( to begin with ) people would begin to return empty bottles
if after, say, 1 year, sufficient were not being returned to reduce rubbish
then the deposit could be increased to 20 lepta,
more people would return bottles = less rubbish
the deposit could be increased every year
until all/most plastic bottles were being returned
a 20mm red D could be added to all labels
with the date of production and the necessary deposit
( needed if deposits are to be increased in future )
bottles brought into greece by travellers would not have the red D
so would not have a refundable deposit on them
once it had been established that this system works
deposits could be put on all sorts of packaging that ended up as rubbish
cans, cigarette packs, glass, etc
this could be phased in adding a new package each year
this would cost the greek government very little, or even nothing, to introduce
bottles would be returned by consumers, children, tramps, etc
manufacturers and traders who sell these products make profit from sales
and are part to blame for all the rubbish in greece
they have some responsibility to collect the empties
and return them to the factories or waste collection centres
( after removing the red D from each package )
these were always returned to get 2p off the next purchase
boys would collect abandoned bottles to increase their pocket money
if the greek government introduced a deposit on plastic bottles of 10 lepta
( to begin with ) people would begin to return empty bottles
if after, say, 1 year, sufficient were not being returned to reduce rubbish
then the deposit could be increased to 20 lepta,
more people would return bottles = less rubbish
the deposit could be increased every year
until all/most plastic bottles were being returned
a 20mm red D could be added to all labels
with the date of production and the necessary deposit
( needed if deposits are to be increased in future )
bottles brought into greece by travellers would not have the red D
so would not have a refundable deposit on them
once it had been established that this system works
deposits could be put on all sorts of packaging that ended up as rubbish
cans, cigarette packs, glass, etc
this could be phased in adding a new package each year
this would cost the greek government very little, or even nothing, to introduce
bottles would be returned by consumers, children, tramps, etc
manufacturers and traders who sell these products make profit from sales
and are part to blame for all the rubbish in greece
they have some responsibility to collect the empties
and return them to the factories or waste collection centres
( after removing the red D from each package )
shares not grants
The government gives grants to help businesses
to get started or to get out of difficulties,
but wouldn’t it be better to give this money
in return for future shares in the company?
If a company succeeds then
it can afford to pay dividends for government shares held.
The income from these shares would gradually increase over the years
and could be used to help other businesses.
The fund account would have to belong to the people of Britain
and not to the MPs of any party.
The shares would not be for sale by anyone,
only a referendum could produce a decision to dispose of them.
In a hundred years or more there may even be
a large enough income to help reduce the tax burden of the state.
I appreciate that the concept is open to suggestion and improvement.
to get started or to get out of difficulties,
but wouldn’t it be better to give this money
in return for future shares in the company?
If a company succeeds then
it can afford to pay dividends for government shares held.
The income from these shares would gradually increase over the years
and could be used to help other businesses.
The fund account would have to belong to the people of Britain
and not to the MPs of any party.
The shares would not be for sale by anyone,
only a referendum could produce a decision to dispose of them.
In a hundred years or more there may even be
a large enough income to help reduce the tax burden of the state.
I appreciate that the concept is open to suggestion and improvement.
social security advisers
Proposal to ease the problems of social security claimants.
Even an educated extrovert, with a high IQ, can find dealing with social security hard going. Most claimants are none of these, if they were they’d probably be working. Some claimants can’t even read and some of these are too embarrassed to ask for help. So, instead of the current system of folk going into the imposing? smelly, dirty office buildings of the DSS; having to struggle to obtain basic benefit from staff who (let’s be honest now) sometimes behave as if the cash was coming out of their own wages; we need something better. And if this system also benefits the staff, we can kill two birds with one stone.
Unless you have ever seen confrontation between a claimant (no; they are definitely not customers - it is an insult to call them this) and a member of staff you won’t understand this bit…claimants should no longer have to sit opposite someone ⁄ behind ⁄ a ⁄ protective ⁄ barrier asking them for money. DSS staff should no longer have to deal directly with the public. Instead…there could be social ⁄ security ⁄ advisers, a bit like solicitors. One would go into their office and sit down next to them, discuss circumstances and be told what claims can be made. The forms could then be filled in by the social ⁄ security ⁄ adviser on behalf of the claimant to ensure the full entitlement is paid. This would also relieve DSS staff from the pressures of dealing with antagonistic claimants.
Even an educated extrovert, with a high IQ, can find dealing with social security hard going. Most claimants are none of these, if they were they’d probably be working. Some claimants can’t even read and some of these are too embarrassed to ask for help. So, instead of the current system of folk going into the imposing? smelly, dirty office buildings of the DSS; having to struggle to obtain basic benefit from staff who (let’s be honest now) sometimes behave as if the cash was coming out of their own wages; we need something better. And if this system also benefits the staff, we can kill two birds with one stone.
Unless you have ever seen confrontation between a claimant (no; they are definitely not customers - it is an insult to call them this) and a member of staff you won’t understand this bit…claimants should no longer have to sit opposite someone ⁄ behind ⁄ a ⁄ protective ⁄ barrier asking them for money. DSS staff should no longer have to deal directly with the public. Instead…there could be social ⁄ security ⁄ advisers, a bit like solicitors. One would go into their office and sit down next to them, discuss circumstances and be told what claims can be made. The forms could then be filled in by the social ⁄ security ⁄ adviser on behalf of the claimant to ensure the full entitlement is paid. This would also relieve DSS staff from the pressures of dealing with antagonistic claimants.
Shareholding
Workers in a company should be given shares to ‘hold’ while they are employed by that company. On leaving they would have to surrender their shares. Shares could be gained each year for not being late, not being sick, overtime done, special contributions to the company, self improvement (training, first aid, fire warden, etc) and years service. The longer one stayed the more shares one would hold, loyalty would be encouraged. The worker would have the dividends from these shares but the shares would always belong to the company. There would also be an incentive to help the company do well to increase the dividend.
I appreciate that the concept is open to suggestion and improvement.
I appreciate that the concept is open to suggestion and improvement.
road safety
as a safety measure at traffic light junctions
could we have a 1 meter circle drawn at the centre of the road
whenever the lights fail
the junction can then be treated as a roundabout
at the exit of one-way streets
it may help to have a row of 300mm triangles
( flat sides out - maybe with a line to re-inforce the meaning
just like those in the centre of roads - single line and broken line )
to show one cannot drive into the road
2 square dots, or 3 or 4 could be painted on the road
in the middle of each lane at say, 500m intervals or more
to remind drivers of the speed limit
these could not be stolen for their aluminium content
and would only be covered occasionally by snow
( trees grow over signs much more often )
these days we see hatched strips down the centres of roads
to improve safety ?
how about a 1metre wide hatched strip along motorways
between the inside lane and the hard shoulder
to increase safety when cars break down ?
could we have a 1 meter circle drawn at the centre of the road
whenever the lights fail
the junction can then be treated as a roundabout
at the exit of one-way streets
it may help to have a row of 300mm triangles
( flat sides out - maybe with a line to re-inforce the meaning
just like those in the centre of roads - single line and broken line )
to show one cannot drive into the road
2 square dots, or 3 or 4 could be painted on the road
in the middle of each lane at say, 500m intervals or more
to remind drivers of the speed limit
these could not be stolen for their aluminium content
and would only be covered occasionally by snow
( trees grow over signs much more often )
these days we see hatched strips down the centres of roads
to improve safety ?
how about a 1metre wide hatched strip along motorways
between the inside lane and the hard shoulder
to increase safety when cars break down ?
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