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HughBeaumont
HughBeaumont's Journal
HughBeaumont's Journal
July 29, 2013
Ever notice that the ones who finger-wag and victim-blame the most about the long-standing and complex problems of the American work-force trapped in a laissez-fail Economy are almost never affected by it's crashes and numerous failures?
Alternet: Why Thomas Friedman is the Ayn Rand of Our Times.
http://www.alternet.org/media/why-tom-friedman-new-ayn-rand-our-dark-digital-future?paging=offFriedman occupies a unique place in the pundit ecosystem. From his perch at the New York Times, he idealizes the unregulated, winner-take-all economy of the Internet and while overlooking human, real-world concerns. His misplaced faith in a digitized "free" market reflects the solipsistic libertarianism of a technological über-class which stares into the rich diversity of human experience and sees only its own reflection staring back.
Friedman is a closet Ayn Rand in many ways, but he gives Rand's ugly and exploitative philosophy a pseudo-intellectual, liberal-friendly feel-good gloss. He turns her harsh industrial metal music into melodious easy listening: John Galt meets John Denver. That make him very useful to those who would dismantle the engines of real economic growth, the ones which create jobs while protecting life and limb.
snip
What are the implications of a world in which you must be above average to get "any good job"? When Garrison Keillor described Lake Woebegon as a place where "all the children are above average," it was a joke. But Friedman's not joking. He's describing a world in which ordinary people are excluded from decent employment - and he's doing it without expressing regret or demanding change.
To be fair, Friedman is an advocate for education - in his own way. But his education arguments, like his economic ones, focus on the online, the gimmicky, and the jargon-laden. Friedman's world doesn't seem to include manufacturing jobs, or construction jobs, or good government jobs. He envisions a workforce made up almost exclusively of "lateral thinkers" and "integration" engineers. Students should be trained to "invent" their jobs, says Friedman, who claims that self-invented work will be the best source of future employment.
Based on the number of people currently seeking full-time employment in the US alone, 15 or 20 million people need to "invent" their jobs pretty quickly. That's a lot of Internet start-ups, along with a whole boatload of "lateral thinking."
Friedman is a closet Ayn Rand in many ways, but he gives Rand's ugly and exploitative philosophy a pseudo-intellectual, liberal-friendly feel-good gloss. He turns her harsh industrial metal music into melodious easy listening: John Galt meets John Denver. That make him very useful to those who would dismantle the engines of real economic growth, the ones which create jobs while protecting life and limb.
snip
What are the implications of a world in which you must be above average to get "any good job"? When Garrison Keillor described Lake Woebegon as a place where "all the children are above average," it was a joke. But Friedman's not joking. He's describing a world in which ordinary people are excluded from decent employment - and he's doing it without expressing regret or demanding change.
To be fair, Friedman is an advocate for education - in his own way. But his education arguments, like his economic ones, focus on the online, the gimmicky, and the jargon-laden. Friedman's world doesn't seem to include manufacturing jobs, or construction jobs, or good government jobs. He envisions a workforce made up almost exclusively of "lateral thinkers" and "integration" engineers. Students should be trained to "invent" their jobs, says Friedman, who claims that self-invented work will be the best source of future employment.
Based on the number of people currently seeking full-time employment in the US alone, 15 or 20 million people need to "invent" their jobs pretty quickly. That's a lot of Internet start-ups, along with a whole boatload of "lateral thinking."
Ever notice that the ones who finger-wag and victim-blame the most about the long-standing and complex problems of the American work-force trapped in a laissez-fail Economy are almost never affected by it's crashes and numerous failures?
July 4, 2013
Hooooooo boy . . . parse through it. It's an eye-opener. I imagine this will be spreading like wildfire soon.
And yes, I KNOW D.C. is an expensive place to live in, but there ARE cheaper options in the surroundings. NO one's holding a gun to your heads . . . you're CHOOSING not to live among the hoi polloi in Silver Spring or Glenmont and take (shudder) public transportation.
A discussion thread where people who make 375k a year complain that they can't make ends meet.
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/304867.pageHooooooo boy . . . parse through it. It's an eye-opener. I imagine this will be spreading like wildfire soon.
And yes, I KNOW D.C. is an expensive place to live in, but there ARE cheaper options in the surroundings. NO one's holding a gun to your heads . . . you're CHOOSING not to live among the hoi polloi in Silver Spring or Glenmont and take (shudder) public transportation.
June 20, 2013
Side note - Did you know that, even after taxes, Lloyd Bankfiend can purchase a $40,000 automobile every three days and it would make not an iota of difference in his wealth?
Non-Satirical Onion: Financial Sector Thinks It's About Ready To Ruin the World Again
http://www.theonion.com/articles/financial-sector-thinks-its-about-ready-to-ruin-wo,32865/Representatives from all major banking and investment institutions cited recent increases in consumer spending, rebounding home prices, and a stabilizing unemployment rate as confirmation that the time had once again come to inflict another round of catastrophic financial losses on individuals and businesses worldwide.
Its been about five or six years since we last crippled every major market on the planet, so it seems like the time is right for us to get back out there and start ruining the lives of billions of people again, said Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. We gave it some time and let everyone get a little comfortable, and now were looking to get back on the old horse, shatter some consumer confidence, and flat-out kill any optimism for a stable global economy for years to come.
People are beginning to feel at ease spending money and investing in their futures again, Blankfein continued. Thats the perfect time to step in and do what we do best: rip the heart right out of the worlds economy.
According to sources, the overwhelming majority of investment bankers are ready to get the ball rolling by approving a host of complex and poorly understood debt-backed securities that are doomed to quickly default, as well as issuing startlingly high-risk loans certain to drive thousands of companies into insolvency.
Its been about five or six years since we last crippled every major market on the planet, so it seems like the time is right for us to get back out there and start ruining the lives of billions of people again, said Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. We gave it some time and let everyone get a little comfortable, and now were looking to get back on the old horse, shatter some consumer confidence, and flat-out kill any optimism for a stable global economy for years to come.
People are beginning to feel at ease spending money and investing in their futures again, Blankfein continued. Thats the perfect time to step in and do what we do best: rip the heart right out of the worlds economy.
According to sources, the overwhelming majority of investment bankers are ready to get the ball rolling by approving a host of complex and poorly understood debt-backed securities that are doomed to quickly default, as well as issuing startlingly high-risk loans certain to drive thousands of companies into insolvency.
Side note - Did you know that, even after taxes, Lloyd Bankfiend can purchase a $40,000 automobile every three days and it would make not an iota of difference in his wealth?
June 7, 2013
Oh look, positive jobs numbers. So who does CNBC have on to push their narrative?
None other than hypercorporatist, meritocracy and laissez-fail advocate T.J. Rodgers, who's STILL blaming "government spending", who's STILL blaming the culture of the "Buffett Rule", who's STILL blaming the same old bullshit standbys all conservatives retreat to when economics just aren't going their way under a (supposedly) Democratic president.
How does anyone take this channel seriously, or worse yet, laughingly calls it "centrist" or "left-leaning"??
June 6, 2013
I think it should be put like this more often.
Of CEOs, Bathrooms and The Great American Chasm . . .
I think it should be put like this more often.
June 5, 2013
. . . . sadly, after reading the comments section of Yahoo, CNN, Business Insider and other sites, I'm compelled to go back to that kiosk every time and cast those votes.
I know. It's Sad. THIS is our lot in life. Economically, the two parties are a wash. Military spending: Wash. Stacking the Cabinet with corporate toadies: Wash. Real action on environment: Wash. Universal Health Care: Sorry, voter, Wellpoint's CEO needs mo' mansions. Real action on fossil fuels: Sorry, voter, we swim in light sweet crude and dry off with dollar bills.
But . . . siigggggggh . . . . I cannot let the likes of these hatemongers, these bastards who still want to live in either 1955 White America or 1984 Reaganomicon . . . I cannot let these kinds of sub-idiot knuckledragger Klansmen take the country over. I cannot live in the ChurchWarMerica, the steamroll-the-poor nightmare, the white-makes-right stupidity these people WANT. I cannot take seriously anyone who, by subscribing to a faith-based government and economy and military, has allowed someone else to do the thinking for them.
Didn't it come out recently that Romney actually had a corporatized plan for the White House, complete with flowcharts, performance-based evals and a Six-Sigma-like management structure? What if that had come to pass?
These vile comments prove that Republicans are getting more and more willfully hateful and stupid each and every year, and this is what our vote means: keeping their kind of candidates away from power.
What kind of a set-up IS this? Are we now nothing more than babysitters for problem children brat kids who don't know any better and refuse to get smarter (thanks to corporatized media)?
Where are our Huey Longs? Where are our FDRs? Where is OUR vision of an egalitarian society and fairer economy? Does it exist only in ones and zeroes?
I expect better from politics and the people that are supposed to be seriously participating in it, and goddamnit, I'm not getting it.
Whenever I think "voting serves no purpose" . . . .
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/michelle-obama-clashes-heckler-fundraiser-043338613.html. . . . sadly, after reading the comments section of Yahoo, CNN, Business Insider and other sites, I'm compelled to go back to that kiosk every time and cast those votes.
I know. It's Sad. THIS is our lot in life. Economically, the two parties are a wash. Military spending: Wash. Stacking the Cabinet with corporate toadies: Wash. Real action on environment: Wash. Universal Health Care: Sorry, voter, Wellpoint's CEO needs mo' mansions. Real action on fossil fuels: Sorry, voter, we swim in light sweet crude and dry off with dollar bills.
But . . . siigggggggh . . . . I cannot let the likes of these hatemongers, these bastards who still want to live in either 1955 White America or 1984 Reaganomicon . . . I cannot let these kinds of sub-idiot knuckledragger Klansmen take the country over. I cannot live in the ChurchWarMerica, the steamroll-the-poor nightmare, the white-makes-right stupidity these people WANT. I cannot take seriously anyone who, by subscribing to a faith-based government and economy and military, has allowed someone else to do the thinking for them.
Didn't it come out recently that Romney actually had a corporatized plan for the White House, complete with flowcharts, performance-based evals and a Six-Sigma-like management structure? What if that had come to pass?
These vile comments prove that Republicans are getting more and more willfully hateful and stupid each and every year, and this is what our vote means: keeping their kind of candidates away from power.
What kind of a set-up IS this? Are we now nothing more than babysitters for problem children brat kids who don't know any better and refuse to get smarter (thanks to corporatized media)?
Where are our Huey Longs? Where are our FDRs? Where is OUR vision of an egalitarian society and fairer economy? Does it exist only in ones and zeroes?
I expect better from politics and the people that are supposed to be seriously participating in it, and goddamnit, I'm not getting it.
June 1, 2013
Oh and look, the one done by a wing-ding. . . . isn't spelled correctly. SHOCKED. Your meme doesn't make sense and "Wine" is something you drink, stupid. Leave the funny to us.
"Old Economy Steven" - Had to share these memes. Sad but true.
http://www.quickmeme.com/Old-Economy-Steven/popular/1/?upcomingOh and look, the one done by a wing-ding. . . . isn't spelled correctly. SHOCKED. Your meme doesn't make sense and "Wine" is something you drink, stupid. Leave the funny to us.
May 23, 2013
"Mo money, mo problems"???? PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT. I'd trade salaries with him in a fast heartbeat. If I was making that kind of bank, you'd never see me at a desk in 5-8 years. Like one of the wiser commenters said: "I didn't find the part of the article that said he was forced at gunpoint to buy three cars and a $1 million house."
The World's Most Microscopic Tear Dept: "Why the Rich Don't Feel Rich".
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/why-rich-don-t-feel-rich-200600130.htmlThe money-news site The Billfold recently ran an interview with an anonymous physician who earns $570,000 a year and says, I know that technically I am in the 1%, but I dont feel rich at all. He went on to explain how he owns a home worth nearly $1 million, three cars, a couple of investment properties, and a chunk of a profitable healthcare company yet still frets that he doesnt have enough. I dont feel secure, he said. Before I had a job, the six-figure mark was a goal for everyone. And now Ive hit the half-million dollar mark. I dont know if Id feel rich if I ever met the seven-figure mark.
Commenters howled, of course, deriding the discontented docs self-indulgence and making many predictable observations about materialism run amok. Its emblematic of the insane level of lifestyle creep that allows someone who makes $500k+ a year to feel not rich, wrote one reader, reflecting the sentiment of many others.
The anonymous doc, whom the site dubbed Jake Smith, acknowledged his own materialistic impulses. There is a palpable pressure to keep up with the Joneses, he said of the social demands in his affluent community, which is in the suburbs of a sizeable eastern city, according to Logan Sachon of The Billfold. Yet he also showed a degree of restraint, making do, for instance, with a 7-year-old Lexus when many of his neighbors drive brand-new Range Rovers. That doesnt exactly generate sympathy but it shows more self-awareness than the wealthy or caricatures of the wealthy are typically known for.
snip
Rather than attacking Smiths sense of entitlement, it might be worth reconsidering what it means to be rich in the first place. A lot of wannabe millionaires fantasize about a life in which they never have to worry about money at all. But that may be the very thing that leads to the gaudy behavior we find most appalling about the rich. A healthy dose of worry might help the wealthy remember how the other half lives, and even spend their money more like the 99 percent.
Commenters howled, of course, deriding the discontented docs self-indulgence and making many predictable observations about materialism run amok. Its emblematic of the insane level of lifestyle creep that allows someone who makes $500k+ a year to feel not rich, wrote one reader, reflecting the sentiment of many others.
The anonymous doc, whom the site dubbed Jake Smith, acknowledged his own materialistic impulses. There is a palpable pressure to keep up with the Joneses, he said of the social demands in his affluent community, which is in the suburbs of a sizeable eastern city, according to Logan Sachon of The Billfold. Yet he also showed a degree of restraint, making do, for instance, with a 7-year-old Lexus when many of his neighbors drive brand-new Range Rovers. That doesnt exactly generate sympathy but it shows more self-awareness than the wealthy or caricatures of the wealthy are typically known for.
snip
Rather than attacking Smiths sense of entitlement, it might be worth reconsidering what it means to be rich in the first place. A lot of wannabe millionaires fantasize about a life in which they never have to worry about money at all. But that may be the very thing that leads to the gaudy behavior we find most appalling about the rich. A healthy dose of worry might help the wealthy remember how the other half lives, and even spend their money more like the 99 percent.
"Mo money, mo problems"???? PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT. I'd trade salaries with him in a fast heartbeat. If I was making that kind of bank, you'd never see me at a desk in 5-8 years. Like one of the wiser commenters said: "I didn't find the part of the article that said he was forced at gunpoint to buy three cars and a $1 million house."
May 21, 2013
Bewsh 41-speak aside, it gets better . . .
http://www.nytfriedmanforum.com/agenda.php
"markets", "competition", "adapt", "innovate" . . . CHRIST. This guy isn't interested in balance or reducing inequality. He never HAS been. "Competition" is a "motivational" way of telling us suckers from both shores that we're nothing but pawns in a wealth cabal's cost war. It'll be nothing but a bunch of salivating plutocrats and their fawning supporters blathering to a kept man in canned "interviews" as they strategize how to relocate even more workers to tent cities and, using an even more brutal climate of fear and "competition", gouge the wages and benefits of the ones you keep.
What galls me is that this guy sells tons of books and has fans in supposed progressives and Democrats. Just like his vile books, this will be a seminar that pays fealty to abject greed disguised as concerned corporate hypothesizing, and I'm SICK of this garbage. It's kinder and gentler Uncle Milton, but you're still getting the same shaft.
Let me tell you cash-masturbating businesspeople something . . . I really, REALLY wouldn't want to be the last wealthy people in a LESS fair, economically hopeless and depressed world.
Amazed at the Choots-pah: Thomas Friedman hosting "The Next New World" forum . . .
. . . at the ultra-low price of $495!
http://www.nytfriedmanforum.com/
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu . . . .
Pulitzer Prizewinning New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman hosts this timely forum, bringing together chief executive officers, tech pioneers, government officials, influential decision-makers and scholars to discuss the new world economy, opportunities and challenges. We will explore the complex dynamics of new-world infrastructure, especially the transformative electronic, digital and mobile environment. Attendees can expect invaluable insights into strategies for success in todays new world order.
Bewsh 41-speak aside, it gets better . . .
How this Next New World is changing your job, your workplace, and your competition.
Understand the various patterns of interaction used by people today, and how that impacts the way they engage with businesses, brands and each other.
Assess the impact of an always-connected workforce, and how it will impact interaction with customers, partners and among internal teams.
Hear methods for navigating through and taking advantage of the changing dynamics of human interaction.
snip
How robotics and other cutting-edge technologies can increase productivity but also disrupt your office and workforce.
Identify the latest technological advancements, and how they are working in concert with each other to enhance innovation, productivity and prosperity.
Hear methods for incorporating technology, while retaining the core elements of your business.
Assess the impact of accelerated product and service lifecycles, and how that will force businesses to adapt.
How everything from climate change to fallen infrastructure is threatening global supply chains and how the rise of a new global middle class is disrupting American global dominancewhile creating new markets.
Gain an understanding of the changing nature of supply chains, and how that will impact the delivery of products and services.
Learn how increasing consumption in developing markets will impact the price, supply of, and demand for commodities, luxury items, and the need for innovation.
Hear projections on how America will need to manage the rapid changes occurring in the global markets to ensure prosperity over the next several decades.
Understand the various patterns of interaction used by people today, and how that impacts the way they engage with businesses, brands and each other.
Assess the impact of an always-connected workforce, and how it will impact interaction with customers, partners and among internal teams.
Hear methods for navigating through and taking advantage of the changing dynamics of human interaction.
snip
How robotics and other cutting-edge technologies can increase productivity but also disrupt your office and workforce.
Identify the latest technological advancements, and how they are working in concert with each other to enhance innovation, productivity and prosperity.
Hear methods for incorporating technology, while retaining the core elements of your business.
Assess the impact of accelerated product and service lifecycles, and how that will force businesses to adapt.
How everything from climate change to fallen infrastructure is threatening global supply chains and how the rise of a new global middle class is disrupting American global dominancewhile creating new markets.
Gain an understanding of the changing nature of supply chains, and how that will impact the delivery of products and services.
Learn how increasing consumption in developing markets will impact the price, supply of, and demand for commodities, luxury items, and the need for innovation.
Hear projections on how America will need to manage the rapid changes occurring in the global markets to ensure prosperity over the next several decades.
http://www.nytfriedmanforum.com/agenda.php
"markets", "competition", "adapt", "innovate" . . . CHRIST. This guy isn't interested in balance or reducing inequality. He never HAS been. "Competition" is a "motivational" way of telling us suckers from both shores that we're nothing but pawns in a wealth cabal's cost war. It'll be nothing but a bunch of salivating plutocrats and their fawning supporters blathering to a kept man in canned "interviews" as they strategize how to relocate even more workers to tent cities and, using an even more brutal climate of fear and "competition", gouge the wages and benefits of the ones you keep.
What galls me is that this guy sells tons of books and has fans in supposed progressives and Democrats. Just like his vile books, this will be a seminar that pays fealty to abject greed disguised as concerned corporate hypothesizing, and I'm SICK of this garbage. It's kinder and gentler Uncle Milton, but you're still getting the same shaft.
Let me tell you cash-masturbating businesspeople something . . . I really, REALLY wouldn't want to be the last wealthy people in a LESS fair, economically hopeless and depressed world.
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Member since: Fri Aug 13, 2004, 03:12 PMNumber of posts: 24,461