SysyphusNI

elledark:

De-Regulation .. Back to the Bad Old Days

Times have been hard since the financial meltdown of 2008, caused by the reckless greed of financial institutions and the complete failure of politicians to regulate them in the public interest. Since then the right-wing recipe for recovery across the western world has been largely to give those that caused the disaster a free pass and penalize ordinary working people through harsh ‘austerity’ measures. Whatever politicians say, we’re clearly not ‘all in it together’.

In fact what has been a tragedy for so many has been seized upon as a golden opportunity by some, a perfect cover for attacks on the basic workers rights that were so hard won over the last century. If only workers weren’t so pampered with pensions for their old age and laws that require a minimum wage and safe working conditions. If only business wasn’t so restricted by not being able to fire people at whim or pollute the environment or sell unsafe food or untested drugs.

De-regulation. That’s been the cry from corporations and the right-wing politicians they employ to promote their interests. Get the burden of the state off our back. Let us do what we want and the market will take care of everything. Those who are seduced by this siren song of greed should consider the article I’ve linked to at the end of this piece. It contains some haunting pictures of child workers between 1908 and 1924 in the USA.

Pictures that show starkly what ‘de-regulation’ really looks like. Pictures of kids who had their childhoods stolen in the pursuit of profit. Pictures of children, with faces old beyond their years, who spent most of their young lives working in horrendous conditions. Children who sustained broken bones and suffered from stunted growth and curvature of the spine because of the unsafe conditions and long hours on poor pay. The photographer would sneak into factories, often hiding his camera and posing as a fire inspector. He risked being beaten by managers if they discovered him. Change was resisted and didn’t come easily.

The ‘market’ is amoral. It does not understand ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. That is why, in any civilized society, it must always be regulated in the public interest. It must always be a servant and never the master. This is a statement of the blindingly obvious but some people don’t seem to get it or, for selfish reasons, choose to ignore it.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are several thousand words-worth of pictures .

elledark:

Just when you thought Stumbleupon couldn’t get any dumber, they pull a major surprise and confound your expectations. And just in time for Xmas too.

When Stumbleupon sent in the bailiffs to evict their bloggers most of us moved here or to categorian. Some (I’m one) still keep SU accounts for messaging or shares and even look in occasionally the way one might look in on a sick friend, hoping that the illness is subsiding and they’re feeling a bit better.

Well unfortunately they’re not getting better, in fact things have just got much worse. Its pretty much terminal in fact. They’ve apparently hired a 5 year-old web designer to completely revamp the user interface and functionality. Everything is cruder, harder to get to, more inconvenient. Much of what is there is broken and the last few shreds of individuality and sociability have been stripped out of it.

If you’re an old stumbler have a visit, click the obtrusive orange ‘try the new stumbleupon’ bar and marvel at how supposedly half-way intelligent people can totally wreck what used to be a decent site. There’s nothing left there now.

Thank goodness for Tumblr, eh ?