UK unemployment at 17 year high

[L00b]

I write training packages for local authorities. I have achieved on my own terms. I sell what I know to help people because I have bills to pay. My partner is a Psychotherapist and she contributes heavily to what I do. But we both do a large chunk of pro bono work. Because this is what we feel is morally right.

Funnily enough, I do exactly per the above. I too sell what I know to help people (or companies), not so much because I have bills to pay (who doesn't ) as because I want my family to be comfortable and I want to see my clients do well with their innovations. And I too do a large chunk of pro bono work (probably too much, considering my targets ). But in a completely different, non-medical/non-NHS field.

 

How odd. The divergeance must be because my clients are private, my service is ultimately a commodity in a competitive market, when both your and your partner's clients are seemingly public (or ultimately public-paid for).

 

So, how does the fact that your income is redistributed tax revenue (generated from value added to commercial market goods and services) sit with you?

[Rowan22]

Funnily enough, I do exactly per the above. I sell what I know to help people (or companies), not so much because I have bills to pay as because I want my family to be comfortable and I want to see my clients do well with their innovations. And I too do a large chunk of pro bono work (probably too much, considering my targets ). But in a completely different, non-medical/non-NHS field.

 

How odd. The divergeance must be because my clients are private, my service is ultimately a commodity in a competitive market, when both your and your partner's clients are seemingly public (or ultimately public-paid for).

 

So, how does the fact that your income is redistributed tax revenue (generated from value added to commercial market goods and services) sit with you?

 

 

It's a case of the lesser of two evils isn't it? If I could live on a commune I would. I plan to retire to some isolated farm somewhere and perhaps start and do just that. I used to be far more militant than I am now. But age and experience have taught me that you change nothing by becoming secundus the silent. So I do what is essential and square it with my conscience on the basis that I am doing something to spread a more egalitarian society.

 

We both know it isn't a black and white affair. And although some of what I write may at times deploy the theatrical to make a point. I have also realised with age that life is about polarity. If no one is speaking up for the Marxist perspective, we begin to see powerful people treating the less well off like feudal surfs.

 

A point must be reached imo, where the moral issues are laid bare in their entirety. Historical antecedents included. I believe all human beings have equal rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But the limit on liberty is reached when someone’s freedom is so disproportionate that it culminates in a tyranny for the more and more who are disadvantaged.

 

Gates being a good example. Has his technology changed the world for the better certainly? But does his personal fortune and obscene amount of money represent a degree power comparable to an oligarch?

 

It does. And far too many of the super rich are deriving undemocratic power from their accumulated wealth. A point will come if it hasn't already, where governments are mere puppets to lobbyists and the fortune five hundred. I personally think we came very near to a new dictator in George Bush for this reason.

[truman]

Gates being a good example. Has his technology changed the world for the better certainly? But does his personal fortune and obscene amount of money represent a degree power comparable to an oligarch?

 

 

Out of interest what do you think of this ?

[Rowan22]

Out of interest what do you think of this ?

 

 

Great. Tax deductable but none the less I don’t want to be churlish. Doesn't excuse the fact that he has a personal fortune of fifty billion though does it?

 

And the type of P.R it generates is gravy, in light of the above.

[truman]

Great. Tax deductable but none the less I don’t want to be churlish. Doesn't excuse the fact that he has a personal fortune of fifty billion though does it?

 

And the type of P.R it generates is gravy, in light of the above.

 

Oh well he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't then? There's no-one forcing him to do this....why does he need an excuse for his success?

[Rowan22]

Oh well he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't then? There's no-one forcing him to do this....why does he need an excuse for his success?

 

It's just a moral point when people are starving.

[L00b]

It's a case of the lesser of two evils isn't it?

No, that's a cop-out. Or hypocrisy (but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt )

 

The fact of the matter is, local authorities cannot pay you for your training manuals, unless others and I make money in a commercial (read: capitalist) market and pay tax on it in the form of corporation tax, income tax etc. in the first place.

 

The fact that you yourself will be paying tax on your training manuals income is neither here nor there, as it's tax money simply recycling itself (eventually to nil, unless 'fresh tax' from the private sector keeps topping it up): unless your local authority clients get their stipend from Whitehall/Westminster to pay you with (which they get from taxation on capitalist activities), you would have no income.

 

Whereby you would have to go to 'greening up' corporations and perhaps, for reasons of personal integrity, do as little as you need to pay your bills.

 

Can't have your cake and eating I'm afraid. The same as for anyone else.

[truman]

It's just a moral point when people are starving.

 

How is that Gates' fault? He's giving billions away...From your response he should just have stuffed it under the mattress..

[Rowan22]

No, that's a cop-out. Or hypocrisy (but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt )

 

The fact of the matter is, local authorities cannot pay you for your training manuals, unless others and I make money in a commercial (read: capitalist) market and pay tax on it in the form of corporation tax, income tax etc. in the first place.

 

The fact that you yourself will be paying tax on your training manuals income is neither here nor there: unless your local authority clients get their stipend from Whitehall/Westminster to pay you with (which they get from taxation on capitalist activities), you would have no income. Whereby you would have to go to 'greening up' corporations and perhaps, for reasons of personal integrity, do as little as you need to pay your bills.

 

Can't have your cake and eating I'm afraid. The same as for anyone else.

 

You feel it’s a cop out to eat? I'm interested to hear your suggestions as to how I should feed myself and my family in a Capitalistic economy without some degree of compromise. You’re not making a great deal of sense.

[Tony]

It's a case of the lesser of two evils isn't it? If I could live on a commune I would. I plan to retire to some isolated farm somewhere and perhaps start and do just that. I used to be far more militant than I am now. But age and experience have taught me that you change nothing by becoming secundus the silent. So I do what is essential and square it with my conscience on the basis that I am doing something to spread a more egalitarian society.

 

Now come along, you're happy to accept capitalist money because they pay for you to do worthy stuff but you want to change the system so that there are no capitalists.

 

You haven't really thought about this at all have you? Parroting what you've read in manifestos and academic papers doesn't count as thinking for yourself.

 

I'll ask you the same question that I always ask - just point us to the implementation of one successful socialist system of national organisation. Just one.