Something quite sinister about the global financial crisis

[BrilloPad]

30 started my comp science degree and 9 finished.

Were you among them? Sorry I could not resist.....

[scooterscot]

You did media studies?

No. I din't do it.

[Old Hack]

Were you among them? Sorry I could not resist.....

No, narrowly missed a first as it happens. I think people study Maths and Physics and think it would be a piece of piss to program a computer properly. All they end up being good at is writing ickle scripts, not systems.

[scooterscot]

Drop out isn't failure. Lots couldn't simply deal with it intellectually, despite having the necessary A levels.

Exactly. I remember some people just being baffled in a lecture and just saying 'that's it I've had enough!' and walk out never to be seen or heard from again!

Each until his or our own.

[GazCol]

It's quite ironic to see this thread on a board for contractors, where even the lowest paid amongst us is likely to be earning £200 a day for at least 130 days of the year.

It's already been mentioned, but I don't think the median poster here can be accused, by the majority of society, of being anything other than rich.

[vetran]

It's quite ironic to see this thread on a board for contractors, where even the lowest paid amongst us is likely to be earning £200 a day for at least 130 days of the year.

It's already been mentioned, but I don't think the median poster here can be accused, by the majority of society, of being anything other than rich.

Actually I tend to define rich as someone who doesn't need to work.

By all means we are well off (with what we earn we can live a comfortable life) and some of us are even wealthy (have enough resources we could live off them for the rest of our life). However there is a world of difference between us being able to afford to go to expensive restaurants a few times a month and the truly rich who could buy the restaurant out of pocket change.

We are a long way away from earning £12K and struggling to pay the rent but we are still not the ones receiving the wealth the workers are being milked for.

This is the trick governments & socialists manage they convince people the ones with more money than the poorest are rich and should be punished by taxation while the super rich rob the poor blind.

[DodgyAgent]

First is recognising / identifying the problem.

The solution will not be pretty no matter the direction we look, it's either a sharp painful correction (we've not had it yet) or a long drawn out correction lasting decades.

It hardly needs someone with the intellect of Einstein to work out what the problem is does it?

Just for you here is a brief explanation of what the problem is::


We are bust

[GazCol]

Actually I tend to define rich as someone who doesn't need to work.

By all means we are well off (with what we earn we can live a comfortable life) and some of us are even wealthy (have enough resources we could live off them for the rest of our life). However there is a world of difference between us being able to afford to go to expensive restaurants a few times a month and the truly rich who could buy the restaurant out of pocket change.

We are a long way away from earning £12K and struggling to pay the rent but we are still not the ones receiving the wealth the workers are being milked for.

This is the trick governments & socialists manage they convince people the ones with more money than the poorest are rich and should be punished by taxation while the super rich rob the poor blind.

I think not having to work is a good definition of who's rich and who isn't. It's one I use as I'm sure many others do - surely you've passed a contract at one time or another because you wanted an extra month on the bench. Not having to work continoulsly for the entire year and still being stable financially is a good barometer. Look at it the other way - what's the average retirement age for an employee in the UK, mid/late 60s? What's the average retirment age for a contractor? I'm guessing it's much, much lower.

Of course there is a difference between the rich and super rich, but the way some people have posted you'd think they're living just above the bread line.

Edit - I've lost my tangent a little bit with this post - essentially I mean the media labelling 99% of the population as poor and 1% as rich is laughable.

[evilagent]

Naom Chomsky has some interesting ideas on the nature of wealth flows, and reasons for the impoverishment of the middle-classes.
Although he has a more global perspective, and US-centric, but his ideas may chime here in the UK about the growing chasm between rich and poor, global organisations and governments, etc.

Worth a google for some of his youtube lectures.

[doodab]

the way some people have posted you'd think they're living just above the bread line.

Because they are closer to the bread line than the milk and honey line.