Poor, poor strikers go shopping

[Mich the Tester]

It's not mob rule, it's progress, stupid. Some people see that the world can be made better and they strive to make it so, whether by building better houses or inventing washing machines or trying to reduce the suffering of their fellow humans. To simply accept things as they are without questioning them is both anti progress and profoundly misanthropic.

Why is it entitlement when people want a decent standard of living but "life" when companies want more profits? Why are companies automatically entitled to maximise profits and minimize what they give to workers? And why shouldn't workers be allowed to use what little bargaining power they have during asymmetric negotiations? This veneration of the body corporate as a supreme being whose needs override that of human beings is the tail wagging the dog.

I would have more time for 'strikers' if they had the balls to resign en masse instead of gathering together in a big group to try and bully their employers into submission with the safety of knowing that they'll still have a job the next day.

[Mich the Tester]

We need a Contractors Union then !!

I suggest calling it The Contractors Union of New Technology Specialists

I'm in!

[fullyautomatix]

Did anybody actually notice that the public sector was on strike ? Apart from shopping centres filled with them I doubt anybody realised that there was a strike going on.

[doodab]

Good point. I was myself thinking of opening a shop and borrowing money in order to buy from it. Anyone else for this amazing "plan B"?

Lets say we tax 100% of the profits of Tesco and then employ people on the proceeds and they then spend their money at Tesco then we have the answer to everyone's problems.

Alternatively you could borrow money to open a shop, everyone else could borrow money to buy from it, then you could move to monaco, pay **** all tax, get a knighthood for being a business genius and become a government advisor.

[fullyautomatix]

I am not interested in politics nor am I interested in whether the teacher is happy with her pension, I simply want what I paid for which is to have my child educated. If a teacher does'nt like the job then she can go and get another one and if I do not like the school I should be free to do likewise. These public sector workers are part of a socialist run monopoly where the workers jobs or "entitlement" are more important than the educational needs of the kids. These people are exploiting their privileged positions by aggregating the power of their monopoly to force the rest of us to feed their entitlement.

Reluctantly WHS ++

If any of the teachers or any other pen pushers do not like thier job or pay, they can get a job in the private sector and move up the ladder.

[RobertRice]

We need a Contractors Union then !!

I suggest calling it The Contractors Union of New Technology Specialists

[doodab]

These public sector workers are part of a socialist run monopoly where the workers jobs or "entitlement" are more important than the educational needs of the kids. These people are exploiting their privileged positions by aggregating the power of their monopoly to force the rest of us to feed their entitlement.

I think you are blaming the wrong people. They didn't create the monopoly.

I also think you are wrong in suggesting the workers needs are more important than those of the kids. Firstly, it's entirely possible for the needs of the workers to be important but less important than the needs of the kids, and secondly the kids needs are best served by happy, motivated educators.

[NotAllThere]

Did the extra money spent make up for the £500'000'000 of economic damage caused by the strikers? (Alledgedly)

[TheFaQQer]

Did anybody actually notice that the public sector was on strike ? Apart from shopping centres filled with them I doubt anybody realised that there was a strike going on.

People needing an ambulance in London last night noticed.

Anyone with children at a school which was closed noticed.

People who were down to have routine surgery or a routine appointment at the hospital noticed.

People going through Heathrow yesterday noticed - where the queues for immigration were some of the shortest seen

[TheFaQQer]

Did the extra money spent make up for the £500'000'000 of economic damage caused by the strikers? (Alledgedly)

Call me a cynic, but I wonder whether Osborne's figures in the next quarter will be off by £500million.

Of course, if the strike was the "damp squib" that CMD called it at yesterday's PMQs, then the impact won't have been £500m. Until they need it to have been that much in the next quarterly figures.