Strikes: winners and losers

 

Strikes: winners and losers

The coming months will see more strikes in Britain and this will include not only transport but also state administration, National Health Service, Education and other segments of the British economy. The idea is that workers want better deals to lose less of the value of their incomes being eroded by the inflationary process created by sanctions against the Russian Federation.

One of the outcomes has been the downgrading of the education system with most education centres having gone done in terms of education standards and there is more to come when teachers go on strike. To the damage caused by the Covid Pandemic will be added the damage caused by absenteism from classrooms caused by strikes. This is going to be also a difficult time for working families and many will face the dilemma of going to work, leaving their children alone outside schools or staying home to look after their families. This will also pose serious social risks. Having children without education and without adult supervision roaming around with little to do is certainly a recipe for disaster. 

We cannot entirely blame workers concerned about their incomes, but the very shortsighted approach of administrations that completely underestimated the impact of geopolitical decisions. Everybody with a grain of common sense could foresee that economic warfare would have repercussions not only for the British economy, but for the world's economy as a whole.  Even France with its nuclear power advantage is in dire straits as the vast majority of French nuclear reactors are not operational and this led to a direct confrontation between the French authorities and energy providers when French authorities tried to force energy providers to provide electricity at below operational margins. Similar situations occur across continental Europe and Winter has not even arrived. As temperatures fall, the true extent of the energy crisis will be felt and words like rationing and blackouts. Those who remember the early 1970's in Britain will know fairly well what it means. At one point, Britain was working three days a week. In Britain, temporary aid has been provided to help both ordinary consumers and companies deal with the brunt of energy prices but, unless such schemes are intended to be a permanent feature, sooner than later the real costs of energy will be felt across the board.

So what do strikes achieve? To begin with, those who are going to bear the brunt of strikes are going to be the most vulnerable and especially those who are part of the Zero Hour Contract economy and the black economy. With reduced economic activity, they are going to struggle to survive. Recession could soon be followed by Depression and we also what Depression means. In a recession, economic activity is severely affected but continues. In a Depression, the ultimate consequence is massive levels of unemployment. The hospitality industries - for example, were critically affected by lockdown measures during the pandemic. After that, they have had to deal with higher energy prices and many businesses came to an abrupt end. If now they to have to deal with higher energy prices and margins that do not cover their operational costs, for a vast number of businesses this will be the end game.

Any temporary gains will be followed by gigantic losses. In an economy with skyrocketting levels of borrowing, any salary increases will be swallowed by inflation.

British Politics: 2022 a crucially important moment

BBC? Channel 4? Radio? With audience levels falling and falling, how relevant they are compared to what they used to be 10, 20 or 30 years ago? How the digital era, including social media, have changed in terms of public opinion, in terms of their influence in decision making? This is an open conversation to talk frankly and politely.

This is about communication and about being able to listen to a wide range of points of view while keeping an open mind. Given what is going on in Europe, is there a mass media war?

Are anti-Russian measures and mass media policies leading to financial, social and political chaos in Britain and in Europe? Inflation is out of control, interest rates are rising, industrial unrest in increasing, both public debt and private debt are growing faster and faster, and countries could become unstable.

In Britain, more than a quarter of about 2.1 million mortgages could be in danger putting the banking system, once again, in danger, causing a lot more than a mere recession. What are your thoughts?

In the meantime, in Britain, as a defining moment gets closer, it is understandable that tensions will rise, but tensions will soon be followed by an anti-climax when the decision is made and minds are focused on what will be the next  Cabinet.

 As soon as the new Cabinet is known, there will be hyperactivity in both political parties.

Somehow, the initial thought was that the rise of industrial unrest would be benefit the Labour Party. What now transpires is that industrial unrest has opened a gap within the Labour Party because there are marked differences between the Leadership of the Labour Party and the Parliamentary Labour Party. As the Conservative Party gives whoever is chosen as Leader the benefit of the doubt - a sort of political honeymoon - the day after the honeymoon has already started within the Labour Party. It is going to be rough.

If rules regarding leadership contests are changed in the Labour Party, then Andy Burham and Sadiq Khan could become contenders. Should Liz Truss become Prime Minister, the pressure to chose a woman leader in the Labour Party will be unbearable and the present Deputy Leader would have more than one reason to challenge Keir Starmer as a female and as somebody who could be closer to the Trade Union Movement. 

Let us remember that all the aforementioned events have as background a crisis of major proportions at an international level and that whoever is in power in Britain and in other countries in Europe will have to deal with.

Time: Aug 7, 2022 06:00 PM London

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Going Underground: not just numbers, but actual families

 

We are used to hear about layoffs, so used to hear about layoffs that layoffs happen all the time and we are none the wiser about how they happen or even where they happen. What is even more odd is that we are not even aware of the real repercussions of the fact that people being laid off. We are not really aware of what is going Underground, under the ground of numbers and percentages we are being flooded with.

I guess that when you enter a bank branch - of the few that remain open compared to the numbers we had just a few years ago, or when you enter a local supermarket, you don't think about how many people have simply vanished from workplaces having been replaced by automation. You might think about how difficult it is to get a job or about how little people are being paid with salaries that will never allow them to climb the housing ladder, but you don't make the connection between automation and rising dispossesion. Somebody might talk about isolation, depression, anxiety, and so forth, but we seldom see the link between employment and many of the social illnesses, mental illnesses and physical illnesses. 

Most of us build our present and think about our futures taking into account how much we earn doing what we are doing. You make plans and suddenly you get the news that you no longer have a job. You no longer have what it takes to support yourself, to pay your bills, to save for that ever elusive future that you might never have.

Like an economics teacher of mine said 'don't forget that all those numbers, those figures, those percentages, those equations and formulae are real people'. 

What about a vaccine against unemployment?

There is no secret about the fact that more than 250,000 people lost their jobs in the United Kingdom since the start of the Covid-19 saga, but lets not forget that many companies like Debenhams and Arcadia were facing tough choices long before Covid-19 became item number one on the news. 

Hardly a single sector has been left untouched by the new realities. We have been bombarded with messages that have made vast segments of the British population extremely afraid. For the moment there is little hope of life being what it was before Covid-19. Britain is like a car running on an empty tank. Much needed social interaction is in very short supply and what before was normal can now be considered to be a criminal activity.

How anxious do you feel? How depressed do you feel? What makes you happy and makes feel that your life is worth living? Financial issues produce a huge impact on peoples' lives. Suddenly, your world becomes very small. You cannot do this and you cannot do that. When 'I can't afford it' becomes the norm rather than the exception, the words 'dead end' come to mind.

The rise of the numbers of people suffering from some kind of mental illness is one of the direct consequences of the Covid-19 saga. Lockdown measures are not good for the economy, but lets remember that our mental health and physical health are also being compromised.

 

 

Corona Virus: What comes after it?

Corona Virus: What comes after it?

We cannot listen to the news without the customary report about the economic consequences of the present Corona Virus crisis. 

Day in, day out, those who know about economics and those who play by ear, they all have something to say about impending doom.

What about if the present crisis changes the way we do things for the better? What if numbers and percentages are seen no more as rulers? What if we start looking at life and human beings as what they are: life and human beings.

There is no point in talking about the number of dead people including those who are dying in care homes if we are not willing to implement necessary changes to ensure that should a similar situation arise in the future we are better prepared to keep people alive.

What if we can work better and more efficiently without being crowded in cars and public transport? What if we save the time we spend travelling around having a more balanced lifestyle? We could produce more, have better lives, and have much a much better economy.

Comments made about how Beijing looked before the Corona Virus crisis and how Beijing looks now during the Corona Virus crisis, about how animals were returning to places taken over by humans beings, made me think. What about making the improvements generated by a tragedy a permanent feature of a new way of life?

Where there is danger, there is opportunity. The opportunity to do things much better.