The Moon, the Earth and our profligacy

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Last night I was gazing at the bright sliver of tropic moon in the evening sky, reflecting on the fact that that moon, and somewhere on Earth a similar reflection of the sun upon it, have been in existence for nigh on three billion years, month in, month out. Our earliest ancestors witnessed the same new- ish moon and maybe wove religious mysteries around it.

And in only 250 years, give or take, we humans are managing to degrade and despoil this wonderful planet, pouring gunk (apologies for the sudden departure from more poetic language) into the atmosphere, heating the climate, melting the ice, and causing a mass extinction of scores of creatures, many of whom (like the fish in the sea) we depend upon, demolishing the huge tropical forests in favour of commercial crops, and destroying the fertility of the soil with long-term destructive fertilisers.

And to add insult to injury, we discover that a significant proportion of the population, in a massive exercise in lack of common sense and wishful thinking, think this is all “fake news”.

Maybe, if the $90 million demanded by Elon Musk for his proposed trip round the moon was instead the price of a bus fare, we could take the whole population of Earth on such a circular trip round the moon. In the loneliness and silence of the universe they might understand how small and how infinitely precious our planet is, and understand that to take such stupid short-term risks with it as we are doing threatens the lives and well-being of our grandchildren.

Outsourcing, responsible for low and stagnant wages

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In Britain Conservatives, set on “reducing the size of government” have outsourced almost everything able to be outsourced, even many aspects of military life.  A handful of huge private contractors undertake nearly all the tasks that used to be done by lower level government employees, including in healthcare, education, recruitment  – the list goes on and on, as does the potential for corruption and incompetence.  These contractors seem to be  no better as man/woman managers, possibly worse, since their priority is profit. Wages are as low as they can get away with.  They do not have a good track record.

The same problem exists in the United States.  Trump goes on about manufacturing industry, but he will never re- build the size of manufacturing workforce that existed in  the 1950s – the trend is about automation, not human hands and heft.

The people and the jobs Trump should be concentrating on are the people doing outsourced “non- core” jobs, and now employed by sub- contractors and temp agencies.  The  outsourcing has grown hugely since the 1980s as a way of avoiding unions and workplace regulations, and pegging or reducing costs. It is one of the main drivers of poverty.  Over the last 10 years it has been estimated that these contracting and temp agencies have accounted for 94% of employment  growth in the American economy, and now account for 24 million jobs.  The result has been an effective reduction in income to millions of people.  Outsourcing the jobs of janitors, for instance imposes a 7% wage penalty; for security guards this figure is 24%; for temp teachers 14% and those in retail 9.4%. ( partly extracted from an article on March 1st by Eduardo Porter in the New York Times)

The old idea of mutual loyalty of corporation to worker and vice- versa has now disappeared, and the shareholders (and directors) have harvested the savings, while leaving too many people living an uncertain and poorly paid life.  In the old days the corporation looked after its workforce.  There were holiday entitlements, sick pay, annual review of pay, and pensions.  All this is going or gone, including loyalty and interest in the future of the company.

Epicurus might ask the pertinent question,”What is life for?  Are so many of us just human machines, to be cast aside when convenient.  Or are we human beings who can offer service to a company, loyalty and that little bit extra every day to give thanks for a secure and predictable life?” We have all this, is pursuit of profit at any price, totally wrong.

Trying to stop Breibart News

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Breibart News is the ultra-right wing outfit associated with Bannon.  It espouses ultra-nationalism and hatred of Moslems, homosexuals, liberals etc etc.  It now aims to subvert the elections of several European countries, and any advertising revenue paid to it helps in this effort.  Several organisations have been campaigning to get advertisers to stop supporting Breibart News.  So far some 900 companies have agreed to desist –  quite a good effort.

But not all companies have CEOs with ethical outlooks.  Shopify is a $1.9 billion dollar company with 325,000 online stores in 150 countries. It runs the online stores for a large number of companies and brands, including Budweiser, Red Bull, Tesla Motors, The Economist and Herschel.  It also runs Breitbart’s online store — selling offensive clothing that tells migrant workers to “Get in line”, and boasts about building a border wall.  Shopify’s  CEO, Toby Lütke, maintains that the company and its software are “neutral” and that he has neither the right or the authority to decide what kinds of companies to do business with.

But when you are talking about misogyny, racism, xenophobia and homophobia there can be no neutrality. Epicureanism stands for toleration, respect and treating people the way you would like to be treated yourself.  The world is the worse for the number of ruthless people who run their companies seeking profit alone, and paying no attention to the human needs and sentiments of employees, customers and the general good.

A reminder – this is why we have government and regulations – to try to get corporations to behave in a civilised way, even if the regulations irritate them.   All the worse for those, including Shopify, who use weasel words to justify spreading slurs, slander, false news and hatred.  We cannot, probably should not,  ban Breibart, but We shouldn’t support it either.  At least we can clip its wings by persuading people not to advertise with it.

 

Making decisions

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We spend an inordinate amount of time, and a tremendous amount of energy, making choices between equally attractive options in everyday situations. The problem is, that while they may be equally attractive, there are often tradeoffs that require compromise.

If these mundane decisions drag on our time and energy, think about the bigger ones we need to make, in organizations, all the time. Which products should we pursue and which should we kill? Who should I hire or fire? Should I initiate that difficult conversation?  If so , when should I do it? And how should I start? Should I call them or see them in person or email them? Should I do it publicly or in private? How much information should I share? And on and on . . .

Here are three suggested methods of dealing with decisions:

1.  Use habits as a way to reduce the number of silly little daily decisions. For example: get into the habit of getting up at a particular time in the morning.  Decision-making energy should be saved for more important  things.

2.  Use  ” if/then” thinking to routinize unpredictable choices. For example, let’s say someone constantly interrupts me and I’m not sure how to respond. My if/then rule might be: if the person interrupts me two times in a conversation, then I will say something.

3.  For decisions about complex unpredictable things that some people ponder for weeks and get hung up on, simply set a deadline – say 15 minutes, not a minute more.  The time you save by not deliberating pointlessly will pay massive dividends, reducing your anxiety and letting  you get on with other things.  (Adapted from an article by Jennifer Maravillas, NBR).

I once met a very successful lawyer from New Zealand.  He said, ” A lot of anxiety is generated about decisions.  It’s better to make a decision than no decision at all.  Just think through the pros  and cons, then decide and never waste time regretting what you decided”.  I may have made some clunkers of decisions over the years, but I can’t remember ever thinking, “that was a really stupid thing to do; I wish I could turn back the clock.”  Ah, the clock.  yes, I agree with Ms. Maravillas: give youself 15 minutes, decide, and get on with your life.