tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post8570135090152001146..comments2023-10-30T09:23:42.803-05:00Comments on Some Assembly Required: SAR #11059Charles Kingsley Michaelson, IIIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04364694465614330540noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-31638909974748695172011-02-28T21:10:32.175-06:002011-02-28T21:10:32.175-06:00Re: Damned Math! CKM, you should know better. For...<b>Re: Damned Math!</b> CKM, you should know better. For the average worker deferred compensation is inherently socialist (and thus evil). Only if you run a corporation does deferred compensation transmogrify into a benefit that accrues to the worthy.<br /><br />AND<br /><br /><b>Re: Dispassionate Analysis</b> I don't know about folks in the rest of the country who pay much less per gallon but in my neck of California I'm not driving unless absolutely necessary. We're already paying about $3.75/gallon at the cheapo stations - assuming I still have a job this summer (and thus a choice) I'm thinking this may be another year with a "staycation".kwarknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-70933900418484442192011-02-28T18:31:28.852-06:002011-02-28T18:31:28.852-06:00Re: Danger Zone
I tried to post this on Saturday,...Re: Danger Zone<br /><br />I tried to post this on Saturday, but now seems as good a time as any.<br /><br /><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/02/201122414315249621.html" rel="nofollow">A revolution against neoliberalism?</a><br /><br /><i>The last time I encountered the word "technocrat" was in Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine — a searing indictment of neoliberalism which argues that the free-market fundamentalism promoted by economist Milton Friedman (and immensely influential in the United States) is predicated on restructuring economies in the wake of catastrophic disruptions because normally functioning societies and political systems would never vote for it. Disruptions can be natural or man-made, such as … revolutions.<br /><br />...<br /><br />The last great wave of revolutions occurred in 1989. The governments that were collapsing then were communist, and the replacement in that "shock moment" of one extreme economic system with its opposite seemed predictable and to many even natural.<br /><br />One of the things that make the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions potentially important on a global scale is that they took place in states that were already neoliberalised. The complete failure of neoliberalsm to deliver "human well-being" to a large majority of Egyptians was one of the prime causes of the revolution, at least in the sense of helping to prime millions of people who were not connected to social media to enter the streets on the side of the pro-democracy activists.<br /><br />...<br /><br />If the January 25th revolution results in no more than a retrenchment of neoliberalism, or even its intensification, those millions will have been cheated. The rest of the world could be cheated as well. Egypt and Tunisia are the first nations to carry out successful revolutions against neoliberal regimes. Americans could learn from Egypt. Indeed, there are signs that they already are doing so. Wisconsin teachers protesting against their governor’s attempts to remove the right to collective bargaining have carried signs equating Mubarak with their governor. Egyptians might well say to America 'uqbalak (may you be the next).</i>OkieLawyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17071917464425173379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7806136543904112143.post-27138334799270997342011-02-28T12:28:01.888-06:002011-02-28T12:28:01.888-06:00Mmmmmmmm, Laphroaig...Mmmmmmmm, Laphroaig...jfwellshttp://twitter.com/jfwellspdxnoreply@blogger.com