[DaveO]

Re: Austerity gone too far? : Tue May 07, 2013 3:22 pm  

JerryChicken wrote:

Its an attitude that is very prevalent among the self employed or business owners who have created their own business from scratch - worst still are those who inherited a going concern and continue to accept the platitudes for it.

Low in empathy/guilt, with weak conscience, good liars, fraudsters, impervious to rules, punishments, materialistic?

Some characteristics shared by the people in question in your post would you say?

If so they are showing psychopathic tendencies. You may have heard of a recent study done that likened investment bankers to psychopaths but I think the net is wider than just that ilk.

For years now I have always got very annoyed when I see some CEO or Chairmen saying things like "The business made people redundant." or really dishing out any negative news hiding behind the company. The "business" didn't do any such thing. A person or persons decided to do it and a person or persons decided who was to lose their jobs. It is the same when politicians talk about a flexible labour force being a good thing. The "labour force" is people and "flexibility" means very little job security and often low wages to boot. To hide behind such terms as "the business" or "the labour force" is at the very least narcissistic (though of course narcissism is a symptom of psychopathy).

I am sure there are good business owners out there who have many a sleepless night if they are facing having to lay people off but there are far too many people out there today who show an astonishing lack of empathy with other peoples situations.

I used to think it was the ignorance of those who had never seen at first hand any tough situations in life but that doesn't cut it. Some have and others are intelligent enough to see what the reality is for a lot of people yet they still show an amazing lack of empathy. So the only conclusion is narcissism is a lot more common than people may think!

Re: Austerity gone too far? : Tue May 07, 2013 3:32 pm  

WIZEB wrote:

I guess I shouldn't be so rounded.

Tried dieting you fat bastad?

Re: Austerity gone too far? : Tue May 07, 2013 3:35 pm  

Rock God X wrote:

Not particularly?

If you're gonna suck cock you really do need to be particular about whose cock you suck

Re: Austerity gone too far? : Tue May 07, 2013 3:35 pm  

Rock God X wrote:

Not particularly?

None that he's informed me of anyway.

Might of had to bum a couple of his gaffers along the way, mind.

Re: Austerity gone too far? : Tue May 07, 2013 3:48 pm  

cod'ead wrote:

Tried dieting you fat bastad?

No bread for six weeks.
No takeaway for six wks.
4 miles down the railway lines daily.

Got a wedding Saturday.
New suit, new white shirt (just to show the tan off) and new electric blue silk tie.

They will be flocking.

Re: Austerity gone too far? : Tue May 07, 2013 3:57 pm  

WIZEB wrote:

None that he's informed me of anyway.

Might of had to bum a couple of his gaffers along the way, mind.

How does one 'not particularly' suck a cock? Surely one is either sucking a cock, or one is not.

Re: Austerity gone too far? : Tue May 07, 2013 4:08 pm  

Can we please kept the bad language down please.

Re: Austerity gone too far? : Tue May 07, 2013 4:18 pm  

Bad language? Think that was a cock up on my part. You're cock on, though. Won't happen again, cock.

Re: Austerity gone too far? : Tue May 07, 2013 4:19 pm  

Like others here, I've certainly had a fair share of luck, good and bad.

The only thing I've ever received was unemployment, on occasions when I have been out of work. Although as mentioned earlier, that excludes education and health care.

My own experiences of being out of work were certainly not happy or somehow rolling in it, but the biggest impact, in my experience, is on your confidence and, indeed, your sense of dignity.

I'm fortunate enough, at present (I take nothing for granted) to have regular work that pays well - allowing me, for instance not only the best lifestyle I've had, but also to save. I have long-terms aims, and I invest my own, unpaid time in those, so I'd suggest that that reflects a preparedness to out in the time to 'get on'.

But one of the major lessons of my own experiences was that you can't just do it on your own - we none of us exist in splendiferous isolation, where work, for instance, is simply the matter of getting up and the morning and deciding that we will work today. The idea of everyone running their own business would be ridiculous, so therefore we understand that, for the majority, they do the jobs required by those people who do. And if, as over the last few years, the economy is in recession, then it is patent idiocy to pretend that everyone can simply go out and get that job.

But with that comes something else: government has a role. A national economy does not - just like we worker bees - exist in isolation. Government policy affects the wider economy - and with it, people's jobs. So if that is the reality, and people accept that, then it is crass not to accept that government (the state) also supports those who, affected by downturns in the economy, cannot find work.

But to return to what I mentioned earlier: if we accept that the income gap has widened, and that that is negative for society as a whole, what do people believe should be done to tackle that?

And if people do not accept that, what is their factual basis, given the detailed statistical basis of The Spirit Level?

And can we, for the sake of this discussion at least, get past tribal politics and consider the issues?

Re: Austerity gone too far? : Tue May 07, 2013 4:29 pm  

Rock God X wrote:

How does one 'not particularly' suck a cock? Surely one is either sucking a cock, or one is not.

I don't know.
If you have some experience on the subject, I'm all ears. (not mouth ).