The things that we say, and the things that we do, are 'sound bites', 'writing bites', and 'action bites' of who we are... I think that we should all, in our own unique way, strive to be assertive but sensitive, and sensitive but assertive, liberally conservative, and conservatively liberal, open-minded and flexible but strong on our most important self-boundaries, not too impulsive, not too restrained, capable of evolving in new directions, but strong in our central 'essence' of who we are...
Nobody is ever going to do any or all of this perfectly...nor will we all even try....I can berate -- and have berated -- myself furiously and often lately when I think that I've been either 'too weak' or 'too strong'...
When you are not happy with the way that you have come across -- either with your words and/or with your actions -- shake your head a few times, shake it off, and move on...
-- dgb, April 19th, 2011,
-- David Bain,
-- Dialectic Gap-Bridging Negotiations,
-- Are Still In Process...
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
The Psychiatrist, The Patient -- and The Used Car Sales Manager...
Some people use words primarily to hide their thoughts -- and their 'real beliefs' about what is going on in themselves and in the world. -- a slight modification and extension of Voltaire as I heard the quote first on 'Criminal Minds'. The actual quote by Voltaire, as taken off the internet, can be found later in the little 'psycho-drama' below) -- dgb
My Psyciatrist: I spoke to my psychiatrist yesterday (my psychiatrist is one of my many 'bi-polar or multiple personalities') -- and he said that I had a 'bordeline pscyhotic-paranoia disorder' as well as elements of BPD (bi-polar disorder) and OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). He said that I was having a problem lately sorting out 'my truth reality' -- or worded otherwise -- sorting out fact from fiction, and truth-reality from phantasy.
The Patient (Me) : I said, 'Doc, but that's because I've been dealing with the same used car sales manager for over a week now. He's trying to bend my perception of reality.' He says that 'misperceptions' happen all the time between people and he is 'sorry' if I 'misperceived' what he meant when he said 'Sing to yourself' after I came back from a test ride on the vehicle I was planning to buy and I told him that the radio wasn't working...
My Psychiatrist: 'How do you feel about that'?
The Patient(me): I said, 'Doc, I feel seriously offended by what he said to me...that he was being hugely 'arrogant' and 'condescending' to me in saying what he said to me...And more than that, I feel seriously shaken. I wake up now in the middle of the night -- you might have to give me a sleeping pill or an 'anti-anxiety' pill -- with a case of the cold sweats. I don't know whether I am losing contact with reality or whether someone -- specifically, in this case, the used car sales manager -- is trying to push me over the brink, push me into losing contact with reality... What do you think about that?
My psychiatrist: 'Well, I've been getting a lot of these types of cases lately. I call it 'corporate-political illusionism'. It's where the truth tends to be 'bent' by certain 'narcissistic personalities' in the direction of the almighty dollar and/or in the direction of the corporate person's 'narcissistic self-protection'. The truth is hidden or disquised -- and illusion becomes the truth'. The great French philosopher -- Voltaire -- once wrote that 'One great use of words is to hide our thoughts'.
The Patient(me): Well thanks, Doc. That makes me feel much better. So it's not just me. Other people have been having this type of 'borderline psychotic-paranoia disorder' as well. I was beginning to think it was just me.
My psychiatrist: No, it's not just you, Dave, there is a lot of corporate illusion syndrome out there...
The Patient (Me): Yeah, the sales manager wanted to bill me $270 for a GPS that he said some contractor had put into the van that I hadn't even bought yet -- in other words, his van. Before I cancelled the deal because of his rather 'snotty' comment, I asked him where in the van the GPS was, and he said he didn't know -- that it was a 'trade secrt'. He said that a GPS can cost anywhere between $300 and $600 -- which was mainly labour -- but he was giving me a break: he was only charging me the $270 that he had been billed (he was still waiting for the bill) to put in the van. The 'chip' itself, he said, costs peanuts, hardly anything, but the labour is where the price is.
I said, 'Wow, does that contractor charge $600 to put his magic GPS into a cadillac? Or does he charge that much when you need a little more 'profit padding' to build up the profit margin on a deal that doesn't have enough 'meat' on it yet?
He said that he could bring the contractor back, and I could invite all my friends and family over to see the contractor take the 'magic GPS chip' out from under the hood...But he would have to charge me for that too...He'd give me a discount...only charge me half as much...
I said, 'Wow, do you do this often, and does the contractor give you a discount in these types of cases where he has to pull the chip back out from its secret hiding spot in the van to satisfy the skepticism of an unbelieving customer? And is the customer actually willing to pay another $150 to see the contractor do this? If so, that's quite a vaudeville act you and your contractor have going on there... It must be worth quite a bit of money...
Well, needless to say, I cancelled the deal that wasn't a deal yet, hadn't been signed yet -- was dead in the water because I didn't like to be told 'to sing to myself' when I was about to commit myself to paying $4700 for a van that was not even offically e-tested and certified -- and was still in his name, not mine. Everything was starting to feel very 'shady'...and 'quasi-metaphysical'...'reality and perceptions and misperceptions were starting to seriously playing with my mind'...
That was when he started to delve more seriously into his 'theory of misperceptions' and how people can 'misperceive' what they think they heard and didn't really hear...Then the 'guilt trip'... 'Wasn't I a man of my word', he asked me, even though no deal had ever been completely consumated, never signed, and here he was giving me a lecture on 'integrity' and 'being a man of my word' when the meaning, definition, description, monetary value, of his words -- 'administration fees', 'GPS fees', 'perceptions' and 'misperceptions' -- kept changing every minute I listened to him...
How could he say that there was a 'deal' when the 'deal' kept changing every day I walked into see him -- which is why I believe the deal was never written up in the first place. He was always looking for new 'sliders' -- things that he could either 'slide into' the deal (like 'administration fees' and 'GPS fees') and/or things that he could 'slide out' of the deal (like an e-test and safety-certification slip, and the ownership of the vehicle staying in his name...)...
My Psychiatrist: Sounds like this used car manager doesn't really do much of anything by the book and, as you say, that he is operating a rather 'shady' deal or no deal here...
The Patient (me): That's what I think......but that's where he starts going back into his 'theory of misperceptions'...and I start wondering whether I should be questioning my perception of reality or not..
The Psychiatrist: No, Dave, I take back my original preliminary, presumptive diagnosis...I think you have a pretty good grasp of 'perceptual reality'....We are all partly caught up in a world where Corporate and/or Political Capitalist Illusionism tries on a pretty regular basis to 'bend our perception of reality'...
The Patient: Well, Thanks Doc. This session was well worth the money. I never knew that a seemingly simple endeavor to try to buy a new van could lead me into such a murky world of perception and misperception, epistemology and metaphysics -- like, When is an 'almost sale' -- a sale, and when is an almost sale a 'not a sale'?, and 'when is a 'not a sale, a 'sale'...you get the idea....these perceptions and/or alleged 'misperceptions' were starting to really mess up my mind...
This session was very important to me because I have to see this guy again today and I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't 'losing it'...
My Psychiatrist: Well, Dave, be assertive, be strong, be firm...don't let him walk over you....Regarding one of your 'bi-polarities', be your Doberman, not your chihuahua...
Aftermath...I was probably more chihuahua than Doberman...actually at a loss for words when he gave me most of my deposit money back...case resolved...unfortunate words on both our sides and probably some misperceptions...I am a terrible negotiator...I shake my head and move on...
-- dgb, April 19th, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain,
-- Dialectic Gap-Negotiations...
-- Are Still in Process...
-- David Gordon Bain
My Psyciatrist: I spoke to my psychiatrist yesterday (my psychiatrist is one of my many 'bi-polar or multiple personalities') -- and he said that I had a 'bordeline pscyhotic-paranoia disorder' as well as elements of BPD (bi-polar disorder) and OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). He said that I was having a problem lately sorting out 'my truth reality' -- or worded otherwise -- sorting out fact from fiction, and truth-reality from phantasy.
The Patient (Me) : I said, 'Doc, but that's because I've been dealing with the same used car sales manager for over a week now. He's trying to bend my perception of reality.' He says that 'misperceptions' happen all the time between people and he is 'sorry' if I 'misperceived' what he meant when he said 'Sing to yourself' after I came back from a test ride on the vehicle I was planning to buy and I told him that the radio wasn't working...
My Psychiatrist: 'How do you feel about that'?
The Patient(me): I said, 'Doc, I feel seriously offended by what he said to me...that he was being hugely 'arrogant' and 'condescending' to me in saying what he said to me...And more than that, I feel seriously shaken. I wake up now in the middle of the night -- you might have to give me a sleeping pill or an 'anti-anxiety' pill -- with a case of the cold sweats. I don't know whether I am losing contact with reality or whether someone -- specifically, in this case, the used car sales manager -- is trying to push me over the brink, push me into losing contact with reality... What do you think about that?
My psychiatrist: 'Well, I've been getting a lot of these types of cases lately. I call it 'corporate-political illusionism'. It's where the truth tends to be 'bent' by certain 'narcissistic personalities' in the direction of the almighty dollar and/or in the direction of the corporate person's 'narcissistic self-protection'. The truth is hidden or disquised -- and illusion becomes the truth'. The great French philosopher -- Voltaire -- once wrote that 'One great use of words is to hide our thoughts'.
The Patient(me): Well thanks, Doc. That makes me feel much better. So it's not just me. Other people have been having this type of 'borderline psychotic-paranoia disorder' as well. I was beginning to think it was just me.
My psychiatrist: No, it's not just you, Dave, there is a lot of corporate illusion syndrome out there...
The Patient (Me): Yeah, the sales manager wanted to bill me $270 for a GPS that he said some contractor had put into the van that I hadn't even bought yet -- in other words, his van. Before I cancelled the deal because of his rather 'snotty' comment, I asked him where in the van the GPS was, and he said he didn't know -- that it was a 'trade secrt'. He said that a GPS can cost anywhere between $300 and $600 -- which was mainly labour -- but he was giving me a break: he was only charging me the $270 that he had been billed (he was still waiting for the bill) to put in the van. The 'chip' itself, he said, costs peanuts, hardly anything, but the labour is where the price is.
I said, 'Wow, does that contractor charge $600 to put his magic GPS into a cadillac? Or does he charge that much when you need a little more 'profit padding' to build up the profit margin on a deal that doesn't have enough 'meat' on it yet?
He said that he could bring the contractor back, and I could invite all my friends and family over to see the contractor take the 'magic GPS chip' out from under the hood...But he would have to charge me for that too...He'd give me a discount...only charge me half as much...
I said, 'Wow, do you do this often, and does the contractor give you a discount in these types of cases where he has to pull the chip back out from its secret hiding spot in the van to satisfy the skepticism of an unbelieving customer? And is the customer actually willing to pay another $150 to see the contractor do this? If so, that's quite a vaudeville act you and your contractor have going on there... It must be worth quite a bit of money...
Well, needless to say, I cancelled the deal that wasn't a deal yet, hadn't been signed yet -- was dead in the water because I didn't like to be told 'to sing to myself' when I was about to commit myself to paying $4700 for a van that was not even offically e-tested and certified -- and was still in his name, not mine. Everything was starting to feel very 'shady'...and 'quasi-metaphysical'...'reality and perceptions and misperceptions were starting to seriously playing with my mind'...
That was when he started to delve more seriously into his 'theory of misperceptions' and how people can 'misperceive' what they think they heard and didn't really hear...Then the 'guilt trip'... 'Wasn't I a man of my word', he asked me, even though no deal had ever been completely consumated, never signed, and here he was giving me a lecture on 'integrity' and 'being a man of my word' when the meaning, definition, description, monetary value, of his words -- 'administration fees', 'GPS fees', 'perceptions' and 'misperceptions' -- kept changing every minute I listened to him...
How could he say that there was a 'deal' when the 'deal' kept changing every day I walked into see him -- which is why I believe the deal was never written up in the first place. He was always looking for new 'sliders' -- things that he could either 'slide into' the deal (like 'administration fees' and 'GPS fees') and/or things that he could 'slide out' of the deal (like an e-test and safety-certification slip, and the ownership of the vehicle staying in his name...)...
My Psychiatrist: Sounds like this used car manager doesn't really do much of anything by the book and, as you say, that he is operating a rather 'shady' deal or no deal here...
The Patient (me): That's what I think......but that's where he starts going back into his 'theory of misperceptions'...and I start wondering whether I should be questioning my perception of reality or not..
The Psychiatrist: No, Dave, I take back my original preliminary, presumptive diagnosis...I think you have a pretty good grasp of 'perceptual reality'....We are all partly caught up in a world where Corporate and/or Political Capitalist Illusionism tries on a pretty regular basis to 'bend our perception of reality'...
The Patient: Well, Thanks Doc. This session was well worth the money. I never knew that a seemingly simple endeavor to try to buy a new van could lead me into such a murky world of perception and misperception, epistemology and metaphysics -- like, When is an 'almost sale' -- a sale, and when is an almost sale a 'not a sale'?, and 'when is a 'not a sale, a 'sale'...you get the idea....these perceptions and/or alleged 'misperceptions' were starting to really mess up my mind...
This session was very important to me because I have to see this guy again today and I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't 'losing it'...
My Psychiatrist: Well, Dave, be assertive, be strong, be firm...don't let him walk over you....Regarding one of your 'bi-polarities', be your Doberman, not your chihuahua...
Aftermath...I was probably more chihuahua than Doberman...actually at a loss for words when he gave me most of my deposit money back...case resolved...unfortunate words on both our sides and probably some misperceptions...I am a terrible negotiator...I shake my head and move on...
-- dgb, April 19th, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain,
-- Dialectic Gap-Negotiations...
-- Are Still in Process...
-- David Gordon Bain
Thursday, April 14, 2011
On The Relationship Between High Unemployment Levels and Global Capitalism
This is a quick oversimplification of a whole myriad of very complicated business, economic and political problems...
However, like everything else, if you want to understand and/or do something better and better, you have to start at the beginning -- and/or the bottom -- and work your way up 'The Abstraction Knowledge, Skill and Performance Ladder', until you are -- metaphorically speaking -- 'swimming with the sharks'.
Although my 'knowledge expertise' is not geared specifically to business, economics, and politics, still the narcissistic, epistemological, and ethical principles that I have learned from studying philosophy and psychology in significantly more detail, are just as applicable to the study of business, economics, and politics -- indeed, any and every aspect of human culture and human living -- as where these principles came from in the study of philosophy, science, medicine, and psychology.
Let us start with the concept of a 'free market'.
Now this is an extremely complicated -- and 'ideal' (among 'free market capitalist' advocates) -- concept that has another complicated myriad of intertwining co-factors and forces attached to it that are impossible to explain or understand in one sitting.
However, I think that most of my readers will agree that there is a significant difference between an 'ethical free market' and an 'unethical free market', and also that in today's North American and International economy, there are a whole host of overt and covert, regulated and unregulated, controlled and uncontrolled, manipulated and unmanipulated, forces at work that make this market far from 'free' -- and far from 'fair', the latter concept of which is an 'adjective' that is often contrasted against 'free', implying that 'free' -- whatever your definition of 'free' is -- is not neccessarily anywhere in the same ballpark as the concept of 'fair'.
President Obama was right when he first was campaigning and put his 'accusing finger' on 'NAFTA' as one very important 'cause' of the 'very high unemployment levels' in both America and Canada -- and connected with this -- the 'abandonment' of North American 'manufacturing plants' and other 'goods and services' businesses from North America.
In a nutshell, why make goods in Canada or America if you can make them 10 times cheaper in Mexico -- or any other 'underdevloped, poor country' in the world -- that has no 'exporting tariffs' to deal with when businesses in these countries sell their goods and/or services to Canada or America? That line of thinking is not rocket science.
Then you go back to see who put their signatures on NAFTA and you find out that from America it was Bush and from Canada it was Mulroney -- Big Business and Corporation men -- and you start to understand why when you realize that 'more and more powerful Unions in North America' were making labour costs more and more expensive here -- and gave large (and medium size) Corporations an 'escape route' away from high labour costs and unions in North America by allowing them to 'freely set up shop' iin some of the 'poorest countries in the world' with the cheapest labour forces.
However, what was good for the largest Corporations in North America -- the ones who gave the largest 'support donations' to 'Conservative' and 'Republican' Political Parties (indeed, to ANY Political Party that is likely to be in power including the Liberals here in Canada and the Democrats in America) -- was obviously not good for North American workers, the middle class, and the lower class. Thus, 'Global Capitalism and Free International Trade Agreements' have set up the current 'Class Warfare' between the 'Richest Business Owners and Polticians in North America' -- and the middle and lower classes in North America who are finding less and less businesses to work in, because of the 'evacuation' of these businesses to 'third world countries' since the signing of NAFTA.
In effect, as what used to be the 'poorest and/or third world countries' in the world are becoming wealthier and more powerful -- to the point where both Canada and America are becoming 'financially enslaved' to these countries because they now own most of North America and/or are becoming larger and larger 'loan creditors' to Canadian and/or American governments and/or businesses -- essentially buying up North America because we can't -- or won't -- properly take care of our own businesses dometic business practices.
In essence, both America and Canada have given North America businesses more than enough sufficient motivation to simply abandon North America and take their good and/or services businesses to the 'cheapest labour -- and most pro-favorable corporate countries' -- in the world.
Welcome to the 21st Century and Global Capitalism. While the largest North American Corporations and Businesses are still finding ways of getting richer and richer from goods and services businesses that have been re-established elsewhere in the world, many, many North American workers -- and worded otherwise, the North American Middle and Lower Classes which have been under siege since the signing of NAFTA -- become poorer and poorer.
Add into this equation, the amount of government money going to international wars, and massive immigration policies that simply exasperate the 'work problem' here in North America -- and you have a bad problem for a very significant portion of The North American workforce and middle and lower classes.
Get rid of these 'international free trade agreements' with the 'poorest countries and workforces in the world', start putting 'export-import tariffs' back on goods and services coming from these same countries, and let's see how long it takes for our internationally based North American businesses and corporations to 'come back home' again.
Now, let me make one more clear statement before I leave this little presentation.
I do not like to see, or want to see, any good business, with good business ethics, destroyed by overly high workers' wages, as may be arrived at in some cases by an overly 'narcissistic, aggressive, powerful Union'.
The same goes for any one-sided 'Collective Bargaining Agreement' that may be destroying a sports industry and/or franchise -- based again, on overly high player wages.
I was brought up by an 'Adam Smith/Ayn Rand idealistic business owner' for a dad, so I know all about the 'anti-union' argument'. Unions -- and Labour Boards -- are there for a reason: to make sure that 'powerful owners don't exploit powerless individual workers'.
However, I know that Big, Bad Unions can be just as bad as Big Bad Corporate Owners -- and Big, Bad Bankers, and Big Bad Wall Street Investors, and Big, Bad Politicians... The Automobile Industry in North America seems to be in much better shape since the Automobile Unions were battled down to a seemingly much, more reasonable power size... Now that editorial comment is being made from a spectator's distance without any deep internal insight into the history and evolution of the industry, and each company, as a whole...
Any economic agreement has to work both ways -- for the individual worker and for the Corporation as a whole that should be entitled to a 'reasonable floating and self-sustaining profit margin' -- however, we 'reasonably' arrive at 'what a reasonable profit' it. That of course, is likely to be a continual source of theoretical and practical disagreement...and dialectic debate...
How do you ever arrive at what imight be deemed 'reasonable' when the subject matter is -- money? The 'free market' capitalists, of course, would forever advocate that 'the market determine what is deemed reasonable' based on the principle of 'econonomic equillibrium' but again, the problem here, is that both the idea of the 'free market' and the idea of a 'fair market' are forever 'ideal concepts' that will never happen in reality.
Markets can be -- and are - 'manipulated', left, right, and centre. Coming from CCNN, unethical Wall Street investors sell 'bad stocks' to 'naive, unknowing investment customers' -- then, the same unethical Wall Street investors 'bet against' the 'bad stock' they have just sold. How can that type of behavior ever move us toward a 'free -- and/or a fair -- market'?
If I were grasping at economic straws, I would pick 15% to 35% net profit margin off the top of my head for most products and/or services...but again, that is a 'shot in the dark', a largely to totally 'generic and unresearched, uninformed range of percentage numbers'...But it came from somewhere deep in my mmemory banks, maybe from working for my dad's company. More research needed...I am writing above my head right now...
The high-rolling Wall Street investors would probably be laughing at this range of percentage figures...but then again...some of them should probably be in jail right now...I shake my head that American politicians 'bailed them out' -- and more than once -- through two different administrations and political parties...So much for protecting the middle and lower classes...
A working 'economic equillibrium' (EE) -- or in my philosophy-psychology words, a working 'Homeostatic-Dialectic-Democratic Balance' (HDDB) -- needs to be successfully arrived at between employer/owner and worker/employee/player.
If either side is being 'financially exploited', and perhaps, in the case of an owner or group of owners -- financially destroyed -- then it is time to either close down the business and/or the franchise, or work out a new EE/HDDB labour agreement.
-- dgb, April 14th-16th, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain
However, like everything else, if you want to understand and/or do something better and better, you have to start at the beginning -- and/or the bottom -- and work your way up 'The Abstraction Knowledge, Skill and Performance Ladder', until you are -- metaphorically speaking -- 'swimming with the sharks'.
Although my 'knowledge expertise' is not geared specifically to business, economics, and politics, still the narcissistic, epistemological, and ethical principles that I have learned from studying philosophy and psychology in significantly more detail, are just as applicable to the study of business, economics, and politics -- indeed, any and every aspect of human culture and human living -- as where these principles came from in the study of philosophy, science, medicine, and psychology.
Let us start with the concept of a 'free market'.
Now this is an extremely complicated -- and 'ideal' (among 'free market capitalist' advocates) -- concept that has another complicated myriad of intertwining co-factors and forces attached to it that are impossible to explain or understand in one sitting.
However, I think that most of my readers will agree that there is a significant difference between an 'ethical free market' and an 'unethical free market', and also that in today's North American and International economy, there are a whole host of overt and covert, regulated and unregulated, controlled and uncontrolled, manipulated and unmanipulated, forces at work that make this market far from 'free' -- and far from 'fair', the latter concept of which is an 'adjective' that is often contrasted against 'free', implying that 'free' -- whatever your definition of 'free' is -- is not neccessarily anywhere in the same ballpark as the concept of 'fair'.
President Obama was right when he first was campaigning and put his 'accusing finger' on 'NAFTA' as one very important 'cause' of the 'very high unemployment levels' in both America and Canada -- and connected with this -- the 'abandonment' of North American 'manufacturing plants' and other 'goods and services' businesses from North America.
In a nutshell, why make goods in Canada or America if you can make them 10 times cheaper in Mexico -- or any other 'underdevloped, poor country' in the world -- that has no 'exporting tariffs' to deal with when businesses in these countries sell their goods and/or services to Canada or America? That line of thinking is not rocket science.
Then you go back to see who put their signatures on NAFTA and you find out that from America it was Bush and from Canada it was Mulroney -- Big Business and Corporation men -- and you start to understand why when you realize that 'more and more powerful Unions in North America' were making labour costs more and more expensive here -- and gave large (and medium size) Corporations an 'escape route' away from high labour costs and unions in North America by allowing them to 'freely set up shop' iin some of the 'poorest countries in the world' with the cheapest labour forces.
However, what was good for the largest Corporations in North America -- the ones who gave the largest 'support donations' to 'Conservative' and 'Republican' Political Parties (indeed, to ANY Political Party that is likely to be in power including the Liberals here in Canada and the Democrats in America) -- was obviously not good for North American workers, the middle class, and the lower class. Thus, 'Global Capitalism and Free International Trade Agreements' have set up the current 'Class Warfare' between the 'Richest Business Owners and Polticians in North America' -- and the middle and lower classes in North America who are finding less and less businesses to work in, because of the 'evacuation' of these businesses to 'third world countries' since the signing of NAFTA.
In effect, as what used to be the 'poorest and/or third world countries' in the world are becoming wealthier and more powerful -- to the point where both Canada and America are becoming 'financially enslaved' to these countries because they now own most of North America and/or are becoming larger and larger 'loan creditors' to Canadian and/or American governments and/or businesses -- essentially buying up North America because we can't -- or won't -- properly take care of our own businesses dometic business practices.
In essence, both America and Canada have given North America businesses more than enough sufficient motivation to simply abandon North America and take their good and/or services businesses to the 'cheapest labour -- and most pro-favorable corporate countries' -- in the world.
Welcome to the 21st Century and Global Capitalism. While the largest North American Corporations and Businesses are still finding ways of getting richer and richer from goods and services businesses that have been re-established elsewhere in the world, many, many North American workers -- and worded otherwise, the North American Middle and Lower Classes which have been under siege since the signing of NAFTA -- become poorer and poorer.
Add into this equation, the amount of government money going to international wars, and massive immigration policies that simply exasperate the 'work problem' here in North America -- and you have a bad problem for a very significant portion of The North American workforce and middle and lower classes.
Get rid of these 'international free trade agreements' with the 'poorest countries and workforces in the world', start putting 'export-import tariffs' back on goods and services coming from these same countries, and let's see how long it takes for our internationally based North American businesses and corporations to 'come back home' again.
Now, let me make one more clear statement before I leave this little presentation.
I do not like to see, or want to see, any good business, with good business ethics, destroyed by overly high workers' wages, as may be arrived at in some cases by an overly 'narcissistic, aggressive, powerful Union'.
The same goes for any one-sided 'Collective Bargaining Agreement' that may be destroying a sports industry and/or franchise -- based again, on overly high player wages.
I was brought up by an 'Adam Smith/Ayn Rand idealistic business owner' for a dad, so I know all about the 'anti-union' argument'. Unions -- and Labour Boards -- are there for a reason: to make sure that 'powerful owners don't exploit powerless individual workers'.
However, I know that Big, Bad Unions can be just as bad as Big Bad Corporate Owners -- and Big, Bad Bankers, and Big Bad Wall Street Investors, and Big, Bad Politicians... The Automobile Industry in North America seems to be in much better shape since the Automobile Unions were battled down to a seemingly much, more reasonable power size... Now that editorial comment is being made from a spectator's distance without any deep internal insight into the history and evolution of the industry, and each company, as a whole...
Any economic agreement has to work both ways -- for the individual worker and for the Corporation as a whole that should be entitled to a 'reasonable floating and self-sustaining profit margin' -- however, we 'reasonably' arrive at 'what a reasonable profit' it. That of course, is likely to be a continual source of theoretical and practical disagreement...and dialectic debate...
How do you ever arrive at what imight be deemed 'reasonable' when the subject matter is -- money? The 'free market' capitalists, of course, would forever advocate that 'the market determine what is deemed reasonable' based on the principle of 'econonomic equillibrium' but again, the problem here, is that both the idea of the 'free market' and the idea of a 'fair market' are forever 'ideal concepts' that will never happen in reality.
Markets can be -- and are - 'manipulated', left, right, and centre. Coming from CCNN, unethical Wall Street investors sell 'bad stocks' to 'naive, unknowing investment customers' -- then, the same unethical Wall Street investors 'bet against' the 'bad stock' they have just sold. How can that type of behavior ever move us toward a 'free -- and/or a fair -- market'?
If I were grasping at economic straws, I would pick 15% to 35% net profit margin off the top of my head for most products and/or services...but again, that is a 'shot in the dark', a largely to totally 'generic and unresearched, uninformed range of percentage numbers'...But it came from somewhere deep in my mmemory banks, maybe from working for my dad's company. More research needed...I am writing above my head right now...
The high-rolling Wall Street investors would probably be laughing at this range of percentage figures...but then again...some of them should probably be in jail right now...I shake my head that American politicians 'bailed them out' -- and more than once -- through two different administrations and political parties...So much for protecting the middle and lower classes...
A working 'economic equillibrium' (EE) -- or in my philosophy-psychology words, a working 'Homeostatic-Dialectic-Democratic Balance' (HDDB) -- needs to be successfully arrived at between employer/owner and worker/employee/player.
If either side is being 'financially exploited', and perhaps, in the case of an owner or group of owners -- financially destroyed -- then it is time to either close down the business and/or the franchise, or work out a new EE/HDDB labour agreement.
-- dgb, April 14th-16th, 2011,
-- David Gordon Bain
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Death of Common Sense
An Obituary printed in the LondonTimes - Interesting and sadly, rather true.
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend,Common Sense, who has been with us for many years.
No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn't always fair;
- and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn), and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, are a few examples which only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents; Truth and Trust, by his wife; Discretion, by his daughter; Responsibility, and by his son; Reason.
He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers:
I Know My Rights
I Want It Now
Someone Else Is To Blame
I'm A Victim
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend,Common Sense, who has been with us for many years.
No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:
- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;
- Why the early bird gets the worm;
- Life isn't always fair;
- and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn), and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, are a few examples which only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents; Truth and Trust, by his wife; Discretion, by his daughter; Responsibility, and by his son; Reason.
He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers:
I Know My Rights
I Want It Now
Someone Else Is To Blame
I'm A Victim
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Premier Fitness leads in gym complaints: report
Premier Fitness leads in gym complaints: report
Marketplace investigation indicates many Canadians pay club fees needlessly.
Last Updated: Friday, January 7, 2011 | 8:49 PM ET Comments101Recommend112.
CBC News
Ontario-based Premier Fitness, one of the country's largest private fitness chains, also came out as a leader when CBC-TV's Marketplace asked consumers about overcharging by gyms.
The biggest issue to emerge from a national survey is that Premier continued with automatic withdrawals from bank accounts or charged the credit cards of many consumers who said they had already cancelled their memberships.
Ontario-based Premier Fitness was the leader when Marketplace asked consumers about being overcharged by their gyms. (CBC)As well as the Marketplace survey, a cross-country poll on private fitness facilities was conducted by Ipsos-Reid on behalf of the show. It found that 39 per cent of people who joined a fitness club said they had issues with overcharging. The poll, conducted online between Oct. 12 and 18, included a total of 2,004 adults, of whom 738 were current or former gym members.
Based on the poll and feedback from survey respondents, it's estimated various Canadian fitness businesses have taken half-a-billion dollars from consumers in overcharges over time.
Toronto resident Norm Jezioranski, one of the consumers who spoke to Marketplace, continued to be charged by Premier for three years after he cancelled his membership at the company's Davenport facility.
He even went to small claims court for the more than $2,000 he said the gym owed him, and won. But the gym didn't pay up.
'Honestly, I almost feel like these fitness clubs are above the law.'
—Norm Jezioranski, former member of Premier Fitness"Apparently when a judge orders you to do something, there's a lot more that you can do in terms of dragging your feet," he told Marketplace.
"Honestly, I almost feel like these fitness clubs are above the law," he said.
When Jezioranski made his final trip to small claims court, no one from the gym showed up. However, following the Marketplace investigation, Jezioranski received a cheque for $2,100 from Premier.
Pays by cheque
Danielle Marchese of Burlington, Ont., never expected to find unauthorized charges coming out of her bank account after she paid by cheque for her membership at a Premier facility in the city.
Danielle Marchese of Burlington, Ont., was surprised to find money being taken from her account under the name of P-S-C. (CBC)"Sometimes it happens. People have unauthorized payments coming out of their accounts so I thought, 'Oh OK, I'll pay by cheque. That won't happen to me, I'll pay in full."
However, after cancelling her membership, Marchese noticed a charge coming out of her bank account every two weeks, under the name P-S-C.
She went to her bank, assuming that it was some kind of service charge.
"They said, 'That's not us, it's your gym.' So I don't belong to a gym anymore and they said, 'Yup, yup.' And they actually were not surprised because I guess it's happened to a lot of people."
'They said, 'That's not us, it's your gym.'
—Danielle Marchese, former Premier Fitness memberMarchese set up an appointment to meet the manager of the gym to try to recover the $200 that had been taken from her account.
The manager didn't show up. Instead, she met with a sales representative, and Marketplace was there too, with a hidden camera.
During the discussion, the sales rep admitted there had been billing problems at the gym.
"It has happened. I'm not going to sit here and play like it hasn't. It has," she told Marchese.
During an interview, an official with Premier said it had no proof that Marchese had ever cancelled her membership.
Noticed 'real strange activity'
Marketplace also discovered that when signing up for a membership, cash doesn't cut it, because what Premier Fitness really wants is a customer's bank information.
'I sent up requests for cancellation, but it wasn't done.'
—Craig Thompson, former Premier Fitness managerWhen customers pay in cash, they're still asked to leave banking information. Otherwise, according to salespeople with the gym, they won't get a commission.
Former trainer and Premier Fitness manager Craig Thompson says he saw a similar pattern at all four of the company's locations where he worked.
Former Premier Fitness manager Craig Thompson said he would send cancellations to head office, but often they would not be processed in a timely fashion. (CBC)"Started noticing some real strange activity, like mainly the cancellations," he told Marketplace. "I knew I sent up requests for cancellation, but it wasn't done. And it would just sit there for maybe three, four months, and then they would cancel it."
"It made no sense to me," he said.
Thompson couldn't get any answers from head office when he complained on behalf of his customers.
"We call the office and there's no answer. We don't get a response because I guess we're not really supposed to know."
Premier partner denies wrongdoing
Neil Proctor, a partner in the Premier Fitness chain, bristles at any suggestion the company is doing anything wrong.
"I'm disappointed in the picture you're trying to paint of our company," he told Marketplace 's Tom Harrington.Premier Fitness partner Neil Proctor says the company has done nothing improper. (CBC)
"We cancel 35,000 people per year. We process the paper, we cancel people — 35,000, that's a lot. That doesn't indicate to me a company that doesn't cancel people. It's ridiculous."
However, the company's practices were enough to catch the attention of the Hamilton police fraud squad in 2004, when the unit was headed by Mark Simchison.
"We had reams and reams of information from consumers who had been victimized," he told Marketplace.
"I mean that got our backs up and said, 'OK, is this a glitch in the system or is this fraud?'"
The case was eventually dropped because the police couldn't prove that anyone at Premier had issued a directive to keep charging customers after they had cancelled.
Proctor defends the company's record, as well as its practices, including using only the initials P-S-C on bank charges.
"What you're insinuating is that it's vague and people wouldn't notice it," he told Harrington. "My answer to that is, if you read your bank statement and there's something on there that you totally don't understand, you ask and find out."
'No intent ever to bill people improperly'
On the need for a customer's banking information — even when a person pays upfront in cash — Proctor explains it as a contractual issue, that allows people to secure a favourable rate.
Former police officer Mark Simchison, who investigated Premier Fitness, says: 'We had reams and reams of information from consumers who had been victimized.' (CBC)"We've contracted to do something, we need billing information to carry out that contract," he said. "It's for no other purpose other than to facilitate the contract that our member has asked us to enter into with them.
"There's no intent ever to bill people improperly, to bill people without their authorization, to hold, to not process their cancellation. It's absurd," he said.
Proctor said anyone who has issues with the fitness centre should first go to the club and speak to the manager. If the consumer is still not satisfied, he or she can talk to head office.
Post a comment
101Comments have been postedRecommend this story
112People have recommended this story.REPUBLISH | EMAIL | PRINT | Text Size: S M L XL | REPORT TYPO | SEND YOUR FEEDBACK | .
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2011/01/07/con-marketplace-gym-complaints.html?ref=rss#ixzz1ARPFfRnh
Marketplace investigation indicates many Canadians pay club fees needlessly.
Last Updated: Friday, January 7, 2011 | 8:49 PM ET Comments101Recommend112.
CBC News
Ontario-based Premier Fitness, one of the country's largest private fitness chains, also came out as a leader when CBC-TV's Marketplace asked consumers about overcharging by gyms.
The biggest issue to emerge from a national survey is that Premier continued with automatic withdrawals from bank accounts or charged the credit cards of many consumers who said they had already cancelled their memberships.
Ontario-based Premier Fitness was the leader when Marketplace asked consumers about being overcharged by their gyms. (CBC)As well as the Marketplace survey, a cross-country poll on private fitness facilities was conducted by Ipsos-Reid on behalf of the show. It found that 39 per cent of people who joined a fitness club said they had issues with overcharging. The poll, conducted online between Oct. 12 and 18, included a total of 2,004 adults, of whom 738 were current or former gym members.
Based on the poll and feedback from survey respondents, it's estimated various Canadian fitness businesses have taken half-a-billion dollars from consumers in overcharges over time.
Toronto resident Norm Jezioranski, one of the consumers who spoke to Marketplace, continued to be charged by Premier for three years after he cancelled his membership at the company's Davenport facility.
He even went to small claims court for the more than $2,000 he said the gym owed him, and won. But the gym didn't pay up.
'Honestly, I almost feel like these fitness clubs are above the law.'
—Norm Jezioranski, former member of Premier Fitness"Apparently when a judge orders you to do something, there's a lot more that you can do in terms of dragging your feet," he told Marketplace.
"Honestly, I almost feel like these fitness clubs are above the law," he said.
When Jezioranski made his final trip to small claims court, no one from the gym showed up. However, following the Marketplace investigation, Jezioranski received a cheque for $2,100 from Premier.
Pays by cheque
Danielle Marchese of Burlington, Ont., never expected to find unauthorized charges coming out of her bank account after she paid by cheque for her membership at a Premier facility in the city.
Danielle Marchese of Burlington, Ont., was surprised to find money being taken from her account under the name of P-S-C. (CBC)"Sometimes it happens. People have unauthorized payments coming out of their accounts so I thought, 'Oh OK, I'll pay by cheque. That won't happen to me, I'll pay in full."
However, after cancelling her membership, Marchese noticed a charge coming out of her bank account every two weeks, under the name P-S-C.
She went to her bank, assuming that it was some kind of service charge.
"They said, 'That's not us, it's your gym.' So I don't belong to a gym anymore and they said, 'Yup, yup.' And they actually were not surprised because I guess it's happened to a lot of people."
'They said, 'That's not us, it's your gym.'
—Danielle Marchese, former Premier Fitness memberMarchese set up an appointment to meet the manager of the gym to try to recover the $200 that had been taken from her account.
The manager didn't show up. Instead, she met with a sales representative, and Marketplace was there too, with a hidden camera.
During the discussion, the sales rep admitted there had been billing problems at the gym.
"It has happened. I'm not going to sit here and play like it hasn't. It has," she told Marchese.
During an interview, an official with Premier said it had no proof that Marchese had ever cancelled her membership.
Noticed 'real strange activity'
Marketplace also discovered that when signing up for a membership, cash doesn't cut it, because what Premier Fitness really wants is a customer's bank information.
'I sent up requests for cancellation, but it wasn't done.'
—Craig Thompson, former Premier Fitness managerWhen customers pay in cash, they're still asked to leave banking information. Otherwise, according to salespeople with the gym, they won't get a commission.
Former trainer and Premier Fitness manager Craig Thompson says he saw a similar pattern at all four of the company's locations where he worked.
Former Premier Fitness manager Craig Thompson said he would send cancellations to head office, but often they would not be processed in a timely fashion. (CBC)"Started noticing some real strange activity, like mainly the cancellations," he told Marketplace. "I knew I sent up requests for cancellation, but it wasn't done. And it would just sit there for maybe three, four months, and then they would cancel it."
"It made no sense to me," he said.
Thompson couldn't get any answers from head office when he complained on behalf of his customers.
"We call the office and there's no answer. We don't get a response because I guess we're not really supposed to know."
Premier partner denies wrongdoing
Neil Proctor, a partner in the Premier Fitness chain, bristles at any suggestion the company is doing anything wrong.
"I'm disappointed in the picture you're trying to paint of our company," he told Marketplace 's Tom Harrington.Premier Fitness partner Neil Proctor says the company has done nothing improper. (CBC)
"We cancel 35,000 people per year. We process the paper, we cancel people — 35,000, that's a lot. That doesn't indicate to me a company that doesn't cancel people. It's ridiculous."
However, the company's practices were enough to catch the attention of the Hamilton police fraud squad in 2004, when the unit was headed by Mark Simchison.
"We had reams and reams of information from consumers who had been victimized," he told Marketplace.
"I mean that got our backs up and said, 'OK, is this a glitch in the system or is this fraud?'"
The case was eventually dropped because the police couldn't prove that anyone at Premier had issued a directive to keep charging customers after they had cancelled.
Proctor defends the company's record, as well as its practices, including using only the initials P-S-C on bank charges.
"What you're insinuating is that it's vague and people wouldn't notice it," he told Harrington. "My answer to that is, if you read your bank statement and there's something on there that you totally don't understand, you ask and find out."
'No intent ever to bill people improperly'
On the need for a customer's banking information — even when a person pays upfront in cash — Proctor explains it as a contractual issue, that allows people to secure a favourable rate.
Former police officer Mark Simchison, who investigated Premier Fitness, says: 'We had reams and reams of information from consumers who had been victimized.' (CBC)"We've contracted to do something, we need billing information to carry out that contract," he said. "It's for no other purpose other than to facilitate the contract that our member has asked us to enter into with them.
"There's no intent ever to bill people improperly, to bill people without their authorization, to hold, to not process their cancellation. It's absurd," he said.
Proctor said anyone who has issues with the fitness centre should first go to the club and speak to the manager. If the consumer is still not satisfied, he or she can talk to head office.
Post a comment
101Comments have been postedRecommend this story
112People have recommended this story.REPUBLISH | EMAIL | PRINT | Text Size: S M L XL | REPORT TYPO | SEND YOUR FEEDBACK | .
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2011/01/07/con-marketplace-gym-complaints.html?ref=rss#ixzz1ARPFfRnh
Friday, November 12, 2010
Falling Into The Nietzschean Abyss
I'm falling...
Falling...
Into the Nietzschean Abyss...
Quick...
Anybody have a trampoline...
A really, really long ladder...
A fire department...
A parachute...
Even a set of mountain gear...
Some shoes and gloves with spikes...
To grab onto the walls...
Perhaps a ledge...not that I've seen a ledge...
I can't see anything..
It just keeps getting darker, and darker, and darker...
I can barely see the light above me...
Does this abyss...
End in water?
Or hard rock ground...that is going to break all my bones...
And kill me...
Anybody got a super big, thick mattress...
That they can throw beneath me...
Perhaps this abyss...
Goes right through the earth...
To China...or Australia...or New Zealand...
Or more likely it ends in fire and rock...
Perhaps I will meet the Devil himself...
Did I do something wrong...
Go down a bad path...
Or make a wrong choice...
Make a whole bunch of bad choices...
To get me here....
Is this my 'Un-Divine Punishment'...
Or might I learn something down here...
Can I learn something about myself...
And turn myself into a better person...
My own personal Phoenix re-born...
Whatever doesn't kill you,
Makes you stronger....
How much deeper must I plunge?
And who or what am I going to meet down here?
Or is this going to end on a deathbed of cold rock...
Or burning lava...
Deep water maybe I can survive...
Although with my momentum,
I'll probably run out of air long before I resurface...
Assuming I resurface at all...
Is this a dream?
A myth?
A nightmare?
Please, be a nightmare!
And let me wake up!!
Now!! Before I have a heart attack!!
If I must be down here,
Let me at least walk around...
Not keep falling...
Man, did I ever miss The Nietzschean Bridge...
Even the Nietzschean Rope...
Anybody...give me a Nietschean Rope...
That I can once again feel some Nietzschean Hope...
Climbing is far better than falling...
Give me some mountain gear...
And I'll take on Mt. Everest...
Or let me land safely below...
And I will take on...
Narcissus...Dionysus...Even Satan himself...
The 'Unholy Trinity'...
No deals with The Devil...
Well, maybe some detoxified compromises...
(My bargaining power isn't very good right now...)
But I'm not going to sell my Soul...
Maybe I did already sell my Soul...
Maybe that is why I am down here...
I sold out on My Self...
I sold myself to The Devil...
Where did I go wrong?
What bad choice did I make?
Or was it a whole slew of them?
How did I sell myself to The Devil?
By failing my parents when they need me most?
By looking powerless and weak in front of my kids...
And in front of my long-time girlfriend?
Maybe I have become powerless and weak?
How did that happen?
By turning my back on corporate owners...
Who had already sold themselves to The Devil?
Who every day were choosing Profit over People?
But in walking a way...
I was making things worse for myself...
Throwing myself into this economic abyss?
Is a 'Personal Economic Abyss'
The same as a 'Nietzschean Abyss'?
Or are the two abysses just connected together?
Different holes down to the same landing pit?
Not enough money and you can't pay your bills properly...
Take your kids and/or your girlfriend out for dinner...
Help your parents out of their own Economic Abyss...
You/I feel weak inside...
You can't chase your own dream...
Because you are too busy just trying to get out of...
Your Own Economic Abyss...
'Recession' is too weak a word to describe...
The Personal Economic Hell that you feel going on inside you...
And all around you...
As you battle your personal demons...
And meet some of the people you need to meet...
To work your way out of your Economic Abyss...
And not the ones who want to keep you down there...
The psychology, economics, and politics
Of Insufficieny...and Deficiency...
Keep you deficient...
And they can keep the 'puppet controls' on your destiny...
A bloated, unemployed work force...
Willing to work for less and less..
Makes unethical Corporate Owners....smile in smug self-satisfaction...
'Keep the immigration coming...'
Chirp the corporate owners to the politicians....
'More tax dollars and votes for you....
And a cheaper and cheaper labour force for us...
Pretty soon, we won't have to build our plants...
And offices...
Overseas...
Cause we'll have what we need here!
The minimum wage is $10 an hour...
We can get around that...
Here in Toronto, just get Ford to dump the 'fair wage policy'...
I like much of Ford's mandate....but not that one...
You can't justify a two or three tiered workforce...
Where contracted, privatized workers become essentially discriminated against...
And treated like 'Third World Workers'...
Turn a blind eye while they get paid half -- or a third of -- the wages of the workers still left over in City Hall...
This is what I call 'Downloaded' and 'Downsized' Worker Contracts'...
Where hundred thousand dollar earning civil politicians...
Allow private contractors to treat their workers like 'Third World Slaves'...
The Importation of 'Third World Wages' into Canada to become competitive with..
China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, The Philipines, Mexico, South America...
While politicians keep the borders open, the immigration tap on full blast...
Like the bathtub tap running full at full throttle while water spills over the top of the bath...
More immigration, cheaper labour, unethical corporate owners, and/or even corporate owners simply trying to remain competitive with outside countries' cheaper labour forces...
What we need in as international monetary system...and an international minimum wage system that puts all countries, and all corporations on the same equal footing...
Otherwise, the countries with the cheapest work forces win the battle of Globalization...
Canada, and particularly Ontario...seems to be trying hard to get there...
What used to be Canada's wealthiest province....
Is being trashed by Free Trade, Globalization, Uncapped Immigration, Paying more attention and giving more favoritism to new immigrants than to the senior citizens and the workers who have lived in Canada all their lives...
I am all for cultural diversity, cultural integration, AND EGALITARIANISM
BUT EGALITARIAN TAKES A VICIOUS NOSE DIVE WHEN CANADA IS TRYING TO RE-CREATE ITS OWN 'INTERNAL GHETTO WORK FORCE' TO COMPETE WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES...
I ADVOCATE FAIR WAGES TO EVERYONE WHO LIVES AND WORKS IN CANADA, NOT JUST TO THOSE WHO WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT, AND/OR THE HIGHEST ECHELONS OF PRIVATE CORPORATIONS...
For anyone who has done well in Canada, I tip my hat to you...as long as you have maintained your ethics and integrity getting to where you are...
But beneath you, and amongst the 'front line blue collar and white collar workers' there is a movement going on...and it is not a good one...
I call it creating a 'ghetto work force' -- even to the point of ignoring and/or finding ways around provincial 'minimum wage' laws....
One very efficient way around Ontario's minimum wage laws...
Is simply to create a 'worker's contract'...
No benefits, no minimum wage...
Maybe they are paid 'ghetto commissions'....
Or maybe they are given an hourly wage...and then told...
It includes your gas expenses....
That is a very popular trend these days...
Dowload rising gas prices onto the 'worker with a contract'...
Turn most of Ontario taxi drivers, or limo drivers, or courier drivers...
The ones who can't figure it out, or have nothing better to turn to...
Into a provincial 'Ghetto Work Force on Wheels'...
Let's see if we can get them down to $5 an hour....or less...
While our politicians turn a blind eye to what is happening...
'Oh Canada, We Stand On Guard For Thee!'
Keep those borders open, all you Republican and Democratic politicians...
And keep all those New Mexico farmers and corporations happy...
How can you know how much a worker is making?
If you don't even know that he or she is in the country?
If you want cheap 'home-grown' products and services, North America...
Then, you have to accept The New and Already Here, 'Third World Working Wages'...
Otherwise, stay at home, stay unemployed...
And we will simply produce our products, create our services...
Elsewhere, in other parts of the world...
It's called 'Free Trade'....
And 'Globalization'....
Don't you just love it?
It is bringing more and more workers...thousands...millions...
To a much clearer understanding of what at least one part of...
The Nietzschean Abyss is...
Fewer and fewer Big Unions...or for that matter, any type of unions...large or small...
As the whipped cream and the cherry on top...of the Banks and Mortgages 'Almost Financially Collapsing'....But somehow, with The Presidents' and The Senate's help....managing to escape with millions and millions of dollar of 'separation contracts'...and then 'Stimulus Packages' to coax them back....We need you...kind sirs...to steal more and more of our hard earned money...
We can't live with you, but we can't live without you either...
So we will give you millions of more money...'Stimulus Money'...to not go out the back door and leave an empty bank or mortgage company behind you...They must have learned from the Fitness Clubs...they used to do that...Go bankrupt under one name after stealing 'years of contract membership money'...and then open another Fitness Club...under a different name...
Only in America...
Well....correction...it seems to be a 'Global Financial Game' these day...
Here's to Globalization...
China is doing well...
I better not write too loudly...
China is in the process of owning North America...
If it hasn't essentially gotten there already...
Anyway, hats off to China and India in one respect at least....
They know how to balance budgets...and pay by cash, not credit...
I have no problems with these countries, or any other country, wanting to do better...
I just ask how North Americans are making their own lives better?
Canada used to be scared of being 'swallowed up' by America...
Now both Canada and America deserve to feel rightfully afraid...
Of being swallowed up by China...
America...home of the brave and free....
America...fighting on foreign shores to preserve its freedom and integrity...
While Foreign Corporate Forces Are Taking that same freedom and integrity away...
Coming in through a different door...
'Free trade' is not the same as 'fair trade'...
The generations of politicians and capitalists before us knew that...
That is why they had 'tariffs'....for purposes of 'national protectionism' and/or a 'more equal international trading foundation'....
If foreign corporations are paying a pittance of the labour costs that North American corporations are paying....
How is that 'fair' in a very competitive global market?
It is like one gigantic 'teeter totter game'...
China, India, Pakistan, The Phillipines, Taiwan, Mexico, South America...
Are all going up...
As America and Canada go down...
The Economic Abyss....bringing with it economic despair...
Soon funnels into the Niezschean Abyss....
Until our whole existence is essentially poisoned by economics...
We still have freedom...some freedom...less freedom...
I take my hat off to those who are doing well...when many are not...as long as you have kept your ethics and integrity reasonably intact...
Meanwhile, I still write about the politically...
And economically...
Incorrect...
My problems pales compared with those who are fighting...
In foreign wars...
Or are fighting devastating health problems...
Or are living on the street or in temporary shelters...
At least when I step away from this computer in a few minutes...
I still have a solid home base from which to leave and come back to, and enough time, money, and energy to fight another economic day...
In between my forays into writing about philosophy, psychology, economics, politics, mythology, religion...
Lose your body, lose your mind...and you lose everything you have to fight your economic, creative, professional, and/or personal battles with...
At least in between bad jobs, I can still write in Hegel's Hotel...
Write about Nietzsche and The 'Anti-Christ'...
Write about Jung and Mythology...
Write about Freud and Transference...
And still find a way to help my parents...
And take my kids and girlfriend out to dinner...
Together or separately,
As long as we are living, breathing, and still have hope, energy, and willpower...
We can still climb our way out of Nietzsche's Abyss...
No Faustian deals with The Devil...
Are needed...
Just faith in ourselves, and what we can do...
Both individually...
And collectively...
In dialectic...
And pluralistic...
Union...
-- dgb, Nov. 12th, 2010,
-- David Gordon Bain
Posted by david gordon bain at 6:27 AM Links to this post
Falling...
Into the Nietzschean Abyss...
Quick...
Anybody have a trampoline...
A really, really long ladder...
A fire department...
A parachute...
Even a set of mountain gear...
Some shoes and gloves with spikes...
To grab onto the walls...
Perhaps a ledge...not that I've seen a ledge...
I can't see anything..
It just keeps getting darker, and darker, and darker...
I can barely see the light above me...
Does this abyss...
End in water?
Or hard rock ground...that is going to break all my bones...
And kill me...
Anybody got a super big, thick mattress...
That they can throw beneath me...
Perhaps this abyss...
Goes right through the earth...
To China...or Australia...or New Zealand...
Or more likely it ends in fire and rock...
Perhaps I will meet the Devil himself...
Did I do something wrong...
Go down a bad path...
Or make a wrong choice...
Make a whole bunch of bad choices...
To get me here....
Is this my 'Un-Divine Punishment'...
Or might I learn something down here...
Can I learn something about myself...
And turn myself into a better person...
My own personal Phoenix re-born...
Whatever doesn't kill you,
Makes you stronger....
How much deeper must I plunge?
And who or what am I going to meet down here?
Or is this going to end on a deathbed of cold rock...
Or burning lava...
Deep water maybe I can survive...
Although with my momentum,
I'll probably run out of air long before I resurface...
Assuming I resurface at all...
Is this a dream?
A myth?
A nightmare?
Please, be a nightmare!
And let me wake up!!
Now!! Before I have a heart attack!!
If I must be down here,
Let me at least walk around...
Not keep falling...
Man, did I ever miss The Nietzschean Bridge...
Even the Nietzschean Rope...
Anybody...give me a Nietschean Rope...
That I can once again feel some Nietzschean Hope...
Climbing is far better than falling...
Give me some mountain gear...
And I'll take on Mt. Everest...
Or let me land safely below...
And I will take on...
Narcissus...Dionysus...Even Satan himself...
The 'Unholy Trinity'...
No deals with The Devil...
Well, maybe some detoxified compromises...
(My bargaining power isn't very good right now...)
But I'm not going to sell my Soul...
Maybe I did already sell my Soul...
Maybe that is why I am down here...
I sold out on My Self...
I sold myself to The Devil...
Where did I go wrong?
What bad choice did I make?
Or was it a whole slew of them?
How did I sell myself to The Devil?
By failing my parents when they need me most?
By looking powerless and weak in front of my kids...
And in front of my long-time girlfriend?
Maybe I have become powerless and weak?
How did that happen?
By turning my back on corporate owners...
Who had already sold themselves to The Devil?
Who every day were choosing Profit over People?
But in walking a way...
I was making things worse for myself...
Throwing myself into this economic abyss?
Is a 'Personal Economic Abyss'
The same as a 'Nietzschean Abyss'?
Or are the two abysses just connected together?
Different holes down to the same landing pit?
Not enough money and you can't pay your bills properly...
Take your kids and/or your girlfriend out for dinner...
Help your parents out of their own Economic Abyss...
You/I feel weak inside...
You can't chase your own dream...
Because you are too busy just trying to get out of...
Your Own Economic Abyss...
'Recession' is too weak a word to describe...
The Personal Economic Hell that you feel going on inside you...
And all around you...
As you battle your personal demons...
And meet some of the people you need to meet...
To work your way out of your Economic Abyss...
And not the ones who want to keep you down there...
The psychology, economics, and politics
Of Insufficieny...and Deficiency...
Keep you deficient...
And they can keep the 'puppet controls' on your destiny...
A bloated, unemployed work force...
Willing to work for less and less..
Makes unethical Corporate Owners....smile in smug self-satisfaction...
'Keep the immigration coming...'
Chirp the corporate owners to the politicians....
'More tax dollars and votes for you....
And a cheaper and cheaper labour force for us...
Pretty soon, we won't have to build our plants...
And offices...
Overseas...
Cause we'll have what we need here!
The minimum wage is $10 an hour...
We can get around that...
Here in Toronto, just get Ford to dump the 'fair wage policy'...
I like much of Ford's mandate....but not that one...
You can't justify a two or three tiered workforce...
Where contracted, privatized workers become essentially discriminated against...
And treated like 'Third World Workers'...
Turn a blind eye while they get paid half -- or a third of -- the wages of the workers still left over in City Hall...
This is what I call 'Downloaded' and 'Downsized' Worker Contracts'...
Where hundred thousand dollar earning civil politicians...
Allow private contractors to treat their workers like 'Third World Slaves'...
The Importation of 'Third World Wages' into Canada to become competitive with..
China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, The Philipines, Mexico, South America...
While politicians keep the borders open, the immigration tap on full blast...
Like the bathtub tap running full at full throttle while water spills over the top of the bath...
More immigration, cheaper labour, unethical corporate owners, and/or even corporate owners simply trying to remain competitive with outside countries' cheaper labour forces...
What we need in as international monetary system...and an international minimum wage system that puts all countries, and all corporations on the same equal footing...
Otherwise, the countries with the cheapest work forces win the battle of Globalization...
Canada, and particularly Ontario...seems to be trying hard to get there...
What used to be Canada's wealthiest province....
Is being trashed by Free Trade, Globalization, Uncapped Immigration, Paying more attention and giving more favoritism to new immigrants than to the senior citizens and the workers who have lived in Canada all their lives...
I am all for cultural diversity, cultural integration, AND EGALITARIANISM
BUT EGALITARIAN TAKES A VICIOUS NOSE DIVE WHEN CANADA IS TRYING TO RE-CREATE ITS OWN 'INTERNAL GHETTO WORK FORCE' TO COMPETE WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES...
I ADVOCATE FAIR WAGES TO EVERYONE WHO LIVES AND WORKS IN CANADA, NOT JUST TO THOSE WHO WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT, AND/OR THE HIGHEST ECHELONS OF PRIVATE CORPORATIONS...
For anyone who has done well in Canada, I tip my hat to you...as long as you have maintained your ethics and integrity getting to where you are...
But beneath you, and amongst the 'front line blue collar and white collar workers' there is a movement going on...and it is not a good one...
I call it creating a 'ghetto work force' -- even to the point of ignoring and/or finding ways around provincial 'minimum wage' laws....
One very efficient way around Ontario's minimum wage laws...
Is simply to create a 'worker's contract'...
No benefits, no minimum wage...
Maybe they are paid 'ghetto commissions'....
Or maybe they are given an hourly wage...and then told...
It includes your gas expenses....
That is a very popular trend these days...
Dowload rising gas prices onto the 'worker with a contract'...
Turn most of Ontario taxi drivers, or limo drivers, or courier drivers...
The ones who can't figure it out, or have nothing better to turn to...
Into a provincial 'Ghetto Work Force on Wheels'...
Let's see if we can get them down to $5 an hour....or less...
While our politicians turn a blind eye to what is happening...
'Oh Canada, We Stand On Guard For Thee!'
Keep those borders open, all you Republican and Democratic politicians...
And keep all those New Mexico farmers and corporations happy...
How can you know how much a worker is making?
If you don't even know that he or she is in the country?
If you want cheap 'home-grown' products and services, North America...
Then, you have to accept The New and Already Here, 'Third World Working Wages'...
Otherwise, stay at home, stay unemployed...
And we will simply produce our products, create our services...
Elsewhere, in other parts of the world...
It's called 'Free Trade'....
And 'Globalization'....
Don't you just love it?
It is bringing more and more workers...thousands...millions...
To a much clearer understanding of what at least one part of...
The Nietzschean Abyss is...
Fewer and fewer Big Unions...or for that matter, any type of unions...large or small...
As the whipped cream and the cherry on top...of the Banks and Mortgages 'Almost Financially Collapsing'....But somehow, with The Presidents' and The Senate's help....managing to escape with millions and millions of dollar of 'separation contracts'...and then 'Stimulus Packages' to coax them back....We need you...kind sirs...to steal more and more of our hard earned money...
We can't live with you, but we can't live without you either...
So we will give you millions of more money...'Stimulus Money'...to not go out the back door and leave an empty bank or mortgage company behind you...They must have learned from the Fitness Clubs...they used to do that...Go bankrupt under one name after stealing 'years of contract membership money'...and then open another Fitness Club...under a different name...
Only in America...
Well....correction...it seems to be a 'Global Financial Game' these day...
Here's to Globalization...
China is doing well...
I better not write too loudly...
China is in the process of owning North America...
If it hasn't essentially gotten there already...
Anyway, hats off to China and India in one respect at least....
They know how to balance budgets...and pay by cash, not credit...
I have no problems with these countries, or any other country, wanting to do better...
I just ask how North Americans are making their own lives better?
Canada used to be scared of being 'swallowed up' by America...
Now both Canada and America deserve to feel rightfully afraid...
Of being swallowed up by China...
America...home of the brave and free....
America...fighting on foreign shores to preserve its freedom and integrity...
While Foreign Corporate Forces Are Taking that same freedom and integrity away...
Coming in through a different door...
'Free trade' is not the same as 'fair trade'...
The generations of politicians and capitalists before us knew that...
That is why they had 'tariffs'....for purposes of 'national protectionism' and/or a 'more equal international trading foundation'....
If foreign corporations are paying a pittance of the labour costs that North American corporations are paying....
How is that 'fair' in a very competitive global market?
It is like one gigantic 'teeter totter game'...
China, India, Pakistan, The Phillipines, Taiwan, Mexico, South America...
Are all going up...
As America and Canada go down...
The Economic Abyss....bringing with it economic despair...
Soon funnels into the Niezschean Abyss....
Until our whole existence is essentially poisoned by economics...
We still have freedom...some freedom...less freedom...
I take my hat off to those who are doing well...when many are not...as long as you have kept your ethics and integrity reasonably intact...
Meanwhile, I still write about the politically...
And economically...
Incorrect...
My problems pales compared with those who are fighting...
In foreign wars...
Or are fighting devastating health problems...
Or are living on the street or in temporary shelters...
At least when I step away from this computer in a few minutes...
I still have a solid home base from which to leave and come back to, and enough time, money, and energy to fight another economic day...
In between my forays into writing about philosophy, psychology, economics, politics, mythology, religion...
Lose your body, lose your mind...and you lose everything you have to fight your economic, creative, professional, and/or personal battles with...
At least in between bad jobs, I can still write in Hegel's Hotel...
Write about Nietzsche and The 'Anti-Christ'...
Write about Jung and Mythology...
Write about Freud and Transference...
And still find a way to help my parents...
And take my kids and girlfriend out to dinner...
Together or separately,
As long as we are living, breathing, and still have hope, energy, and willpower...
We can still climb our way out of Nietzsche's Abyss...
No Faustian deals with The Devil...
Are needed...
Just faith in ourselves, and what we can do...
Both individually...
And collectively...
In dialectic...
And pluralistic...
Union...
-- dgb, Nov. 12th, 2010,
-- David Gordon Bain
Posted by david gordon bain at 6:27 AM Links to this post
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Top 6 most indebted countries (and why)
Top 6 most indebted countries (and why)
by Michael Sanibel, Investopedia.com
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Provided by:
The recent financial crisis and recession have been a worldwide occurrence. The events in the United States since 2008 have garnered most of the headlines because the U. S. has the world's largest economy and national debt, but the reality is that many countries in Europe are in worse financial shape and continue to deteriorate.
More from Investopedia:
• 7 Currency Blunders You Could Cash In On
• 6 Things You Didn't Know About The U.S. Budget Deficit
• 7 Smart Steps Every New Homeowner Should Take
There are various ways to rank indebtedness, such as debt per capita and deficit or debt as a function of gross domestic product (GDP). This ranking is based on cumulative debt as a percentage of GDP and is limited to an analysis of the 25 largest economies. It is further limited to "external" debt, which is the portion of the national debt that is owed only to foreign creditors. The source for the debt and GDP amounts is the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook most recent numbers from mid to late 2009.
1. Ireland - Debt/GDP: 997%
The days of Ireland enjoying one of the fastest growing economies in Europe are over, at least for now. The story is all too familiar, as easy credit fueled a housing bubble that burst and damaged consumer confidence.
After recording budget surpluses in the prior two years, the economy reversed course in 2009 and contracted 7%. This eroded tax revenues and sent the annual deficit to a record 14.3% of GDP. The European Union set a target for Ireland to reduce that figure to 3% by 2014, but the International Monetary Fund has indicated that the deadline will be missed. Moody's has subsequently lowered its bond rating.
2. Netherlands - Debt/GDP: 467%
The national debt in the Netherlands has reached record levels as a result of the world financial crisis and recession. Much of the added burden was caused by significant government support for the country's banking sector. The increase in debt per capita is second only to that experienced in Ireland.
The Netherlands joined the eurozone with a hard guilder a decade ago, but its current debt would likely disqualify it for membership.
3. United Kingdom - Debt/GDP: 409%
Investment bank Morgan Stanley fears that Great Britain could face a severe debt crisis in the near future if it continues down its current path. According to the bank's report, this is a case of not putting aside sufficient reserves when the economy was sound. During the peak of the boom, it still ran a budget deficit of 3% of GDP when other European countries were running surpluses exceeding 2%.
Like many other countries, Britain bought time during the financial crisis by implementing massive fiscal stimulus and forcing the public to fund losses in the private sector. Without the restoration of fiscal credibility, there is a significant danger of a government bond sell-off, pound weakness and a flight of capital.
4. Switzerland - Debt/GDP: 273%
Generally regarded as having one of the world's most stable economies, Switzerland has taken its budget crisis seriously. When the national debt began to escalate in the last decade, the Swiss voted to approve a constitutional amendment forcing the government to balance expenses and revenue during each economic cycle. While annual deficits may still occur, this has instilled discipline in the process and lowered the country's borrowing costs as investors rushed to safety.
This so-called "debt brake" was implemented in response to increasing debt stemming from a slowdown in economic growth. Deficits climbed as spending rose for unemployment benefits and tax revenues declined. While government expenditures were cut across the board, rising revenues have not been sufficient to pay down the incurred debt.
5. Portugal - Debt/GDP: 228%
With last year's deficit coming in at 9.4% of GDP, the Portuguese government has instituted a growth and austerity program with the objective of reducing that number to 2.8% by 2013. These measures have sparked strikes in the public sector including postal and transportation services. Those events have been further propelled by unemployment above 10%, the worst in 40 years.
The root problem has been low productivity and virtually no economic growth in the past few years. Portugal ranks last in GDP growth among countries that adopted the euro as a common currency. Demand for goods and services has stalled, along with innovation and business momentum. In addition, Portugal's exports have been undercut by cheap labor in countries such as China. (For related reading, see The Economics Of Labor Mobility.)
6. Austria - Debt/GDP: 214%
The recession and government assistance to banks have contributed to the budget crisis in Austria. The finance minister has rejected the notion of higher taxes in favor of administrative reforms to cut spending. He has predicted that the annual deficit would grow from 3.5% to 4.7% of GDP between 2010 and 2012 before starting to decline. That peak would be the third-highest since 1976 when such data were first recorded.
Rising unemployment has resulted in increased expenditures for unemployment compensation and other government benefits. In addition to the reduced payrolls, tax reforms have driven down overall tax revenues.
The Bottom Line
While the U.S. and Canada have large economies, their respective debt-to-GDP ratios are 93% and 62%. The U.S. gets most of the attention because of the size of the numbers that comprise the ratio - $13.5 trillion debt (June 2009) and $14.4 trillion GDP (2009 estimate).
By comparison, China and India have ratios of 7% and 20% respectively. Their economic growth rates have also exceeded the western nations over the past few years, thereby keeping their debt ratios relatively low. If the western nations don't implement policies to reduce their debts, they run the risk of jeopardizing future economic growth and prosperity.
Email this Page IM this StoryBookmark this StoryAdd to your Del.icio.us account
by Michael Sanibel, Investopedia.com
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Provided by:
The recent financial crisis and recession have been a worldwide occurrence. The events in the United States since 2008 have garnered most of the headlines because the U. S. has the world's largest economy and national debt, but the reality is that many countries in Europe are in worse financial shape and continue to deteriorate.
More from Investopedia:
• 7 Currency Blunders You Could Cash In On
• 6 Things You Didn't Know About The U.S. Budget Deficit
• 7 Smart Steps Every New Homeowner Should Take
There are various ways to rank indebtedness, such as debt per capita and deficit or debt as a function of gross domestic product (GDP). This ranking is based on cumulative debt as a percentage of GDP and is limited to an analysis of the 25 largest economies. It is further limited to "external" debt, which is the portion of the national debt that is owed only to foreign creditors. The source for the debt and GDP amounts is the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook most recent numbers from mid to late 2009.
1. Ireland - Debt/GDP: 997%
The days of Ireland enjoying one of the fastest growing economies in Europe are over, at least for now. The story is all too familiar, as easy credit fueled a housing bubble that burst and damaged consumer confidence.
After recording budget surpluses in the prior two years, the economy reversed course in 2009 and contracted 7%. This eroded tax revenues and sent the annual deficit to a record 14.3% of GDP. The European Union set a target for Ireland to reduce that figure to 3% by 2014, but the International Monetary Fund has indicated that the deadline will be missed. Moody's has subsequently lowered its bond rating.
2. Netherlands - Debt/GDP: 467%
The national debt in the Netherlands has reached record levels as a result of the world financial crisis and recession. Much of the added burden was caused by significant government support for the country's banking sector. The increase in debt per capita is second only to that experienced in Ireland.
The Netherlands joined the eurozone with a hard guilder a decade ago, but its current debt would likely disqualify it for membership.
3. United Kingdom - Debt/GDP: 409%
Investment bank Morgan Stanley fears that Great Britain could face a severe debt crisis in the near future if it continues down its current path. According to the bank's report, this is a case of not putting aside sufficient reserves when the economy was sound. During the peak of the boom, it still ran a budget deficit of 3% of GDP when other European countries were running surpluses exceeding 2%.
Like many other countries, Britain bought time during the financial crisis by implementing massive fiscal stimulus and forcing the public to fund losses in the private sector. Without the restoration of fiscal credibility, there is a significant danger of a government bond sell-off, pound weakness and a flight of capital.
4. Switzerland - Debt/GDP: 273%
Generally regarded as having one of the world's most stable economies, Switzerland has taken its budget crisis seriously. When the national debt began to escalate in the last decade, the Swiss voted to approve a constitutional amendment forcing the government to balance expenses and revenue during each economic cycle. While annual deficits may still occur, this has instilled discipline in the process and lowered the country's borrowing costs as investors rushed to safety.
This so-called "debt brake" was implemented in response to increasing debt stemming from a slowdown in economic growth. Deficits climbed as spending rose for unemployment benefits and tax revenues declined. While government expenditures were cut across the board, rising revenues have not been sufficient to pay down the incurred debt.
5. Portugal - Debt/GDP: 228%
With last year's deficit coming in at 9.4% of GDP, the Portuguese government has instituted a growth and austerity program with the objective of reducing that number to 2.8% by 2013. These measures have sparked strikes in the public sector including postal and transportation services. Those events have been further propelled by unemployment above 10%, the worst in 40 years.
The root problem has been low productivity and virtually no economic growth in the past few years. Portugal ranks last in GDP growth among countries that adopted the euro as a common currency. Demand for goods and services has stalled, along with innovation and business momentum. In addition, Portugal's exports have been undercut by cheap labor in countries such as China. (For related reading, see The Economics Of Labor Mobility.)
6. Austria - Debt/GDP: 214%
The recession and government assistance to banks have contributed to the budget crisis in Austria. The finance minister has rejected the notion of higher taxes in favor of administrative reforms to cut spending. He has predicted that the annual deficit would grow from 3.5% to 4.7% of GDP between 2010 and 2012 before starting to decline. That peak would be the third-highest since 1976 when such data were first recorded.
Rising unemployment has resulted in increased expenditures for unemployment compensation and other government benefits. In addition to the reduced payrolls, tax reforms have driven down overall tax revenues.
The Bottom Line
While the U.S. and Canada have large economies, their respective debt-to-GDP ratios are 93% and 62%. The U.S. gets most of the attention because of the size of the numbers that comprise the ratio - $13.5 trillion debt (June 2009) and $14.4 trillion GDP (2009 estimate).
By comparison, China and India have ratios of 7% and 20% respectively. Their economic growth rates have also exceeded the western nations over the past few years, thereby keeping their debt ratios relatively low. If the western nations don't implement policies to reduce their debts, they run the risk of jeopardizing future economic growth and prosperity.
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