No doubt the mafia corrupts Italian society, but how do they differ from the huge American corporations who spend fortunes on lobbying, wining and dining politicians, distorting elections with money, offering inducements for favorable contracts, cosy regulations and tax concessions? Why is there no talk of breaking up distorting monopolies? Epicurus might have had a Greek word for all this – he would have called It a ?????? *
* If you don’t speak Greek – a racket.
British animal rights activists from Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have argued that the term “pet” is derogatory to animals, and should not be used. Instead, they suggest words like “companion”, which is less patronising. Referring to oneself as an owner of a pet “implies that the animals are a possession, like a car, for example”, rather than “their own individual beings”, the charity’s spokesperson said.
My comment: Last time I looked I couldn’t find a dog, cat or any other companion- type animal who spoke English or who comprehended anything more than maybe the soppy word “Walkies?” to denote impending exercise. My point is that animals are not about to demonstrate in the street because they are called “pets”. Don’t be daft!
A large proportion of global population of 7.7 billion people is aged 24 or under. In Africa 41% are 15 or under, The Asian and Latin American figures it is 25%. Most of these young people will reach adulthood scarred by recession, civil war, falling living standards and austerity programs. Many current protests center around shared grievances about inequality and jobs. In India each month 1 million people turn 18 and can register to vote. In the Middle East and North Africa an estimated 27 million youngsters will enter the workforce in the next five years. Any government that fails to provide jobs and housing is in for a rough ride. The young people referred to above are different from previous generations in that they are nearly all have access to the internet. They are healthier, on balance better educated than previous generations, and are aware of the concepts of free speech and living wages, and less prepared to see them denied.
Protests are everywhere and expectations are higher. The young, faced with a fearsome climatic future, are protesting injustice, inequality, environmental degradation and the oppressive powers that be. Meanwhile, authoritarian regimes backed by financial elites and wealthy oligarchies are prepared to crush threats to their power, while hypocritically deploring protester violence. (Simon Tisdall Guardian Weekly, 1 Nov 2020).
My comment: We can thus expect a growing incidence of violence and migration caused by climate change, lack of jobs and opportunity, not to mention affordable food. Some of this is being driven by the attitudes of elderly populations who have done nicely, thank you, but seem to care little collectively for the struggling younger generation. (Exhibit 1 is Brexit, driven by the votes of the elderly, I regret to say). Epicureanism and peace of mind should be attractive under these conditions, a set of beliefs that apply everywhere and are not age-dependent. We should continue to advocate for Epicurus, his peaceful beliefs and way of life.
Finland is to guarantee new fathers at least 95 working days of paternity leave (equivalent to more than four months off work), a reform aimed at giving all parents the same rights, regardless of gender. Each parent will be given 164 working days of paid parental leave, and can transfer up to 69 of them to their partner. Besides promoting equality, the reform is designed to lower the divorce rate and halt the decline in Finland’s fertility rate (at 1.35 births per woman, it’s one of the lowest in the world). Effectively, it trebles the father’s allowance, giving Finland one of the most generous parental leave systems in Europe (see below).
Using OECD figures here is a snapshot of paid leave for mothers in other countries around the world:
Female workers on an average salary in Estonia can take job-protected leave when they give birth and continue taking home full wages for the first 18 months of their child’s life, in the form of 20 weeks fully paid maternity leave followed by the first 62 weeks of maximum paid parental leave. After that, monthly payments drop considerably until the child turns three.
Maternity leave is available at two-thirds of a woman’s average earnings for 14 weeks – six of which are compulsory. Parental leave can then be taken by mothers and fathers at a percentage of earnings until the baby’s first birthday, but it is usually taken by women. It can be extended up to 14 months if both parents take it.
Sweden is ranked by Unicef as the world’s most family-friendly country and 17th for maternity leave. Women are entitled to 10 weeks full rate equivalent maternity leave followed by 480 days parental leave, 90 days of which is ringfenced for each parent.
Billionaire Lloyd Blankfein joked as he announced his 2018 retirement as Goldman Sachs CEO that he looked forward to “unrestrained tweeting” in the years ahead. But the Twitter life apparently bored the billionaire, and his twitter account went silent for three months — until last week when Senator Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primary. Sanders, a Blankfein tweet ranted will “ruin our economy.” As a nominee, Blankfein says, he’d be the Russian pick “to best screw up the US.”
Blankfein seems to be engaging in some Trumpian projection here. Few Americans, a just-released Better Markets report details, have done more to “ruin the economy” in real time than Blankfein in his 12 years as Goldman’s top exec. The bank reached ”new heights of lawlessness” in the run-up to the 2008 financial crash, Better Markets notes, and then “continued to violate the law in the post-crash era.” The new report may be the best evidence yet that Wall Street, as a certain senator from Vermont charges, has only one essential business model: “fraud.” Chuck Collins, Inequality.org 2/17/20)
My take: I won’t edge into party politics and comment on Bernie – it is inappropriate. However, Blankfein is an example of a small number of people who have successfully manipulated both the economy and society to engineer a situation where capitalism, as it has developed, is working for them but not for ordinary people, either in the US or anywhere else. Billionaires like Blankfein can buy anything they want and have special privileges when they want the ear of a politician. Meanwhile they pay little or no tax, and in some cases give little to charity. If I were Blankfein I would keep rather quiet.
