Reply to: Pay squeeze worst since Victorian age, study finds

[SpontaneousOrder]

So presumably using that argument, all IT contractors in public sector work are public servants as ultimately the public pays their salaries? I bet they don't go on strike or is that all covered by IR35

NHS & tube workers, fire brigade, etc all work for monopolistic employers - everyone pays for those services whether they want to or not, and only a relatively very few who don't mind paying twice have a choice to use private services instead. Consequently the market for alternatives is very small, and those public workers have us by the balls.
Public sector contractors are private companies working on publicly funded jobs - they don't have the same hold beacuse the IT industry is much larger than the public sector. Tube drivers though can't just be replaced at the drop of a hat like IT workers - because there are no other tube drivers.
I.e. the forces that limit the market for public services also limit the market for the labour to fulfil those services.

I think it's appalling - if you don't like you job then find another. Don't hold your patrons to ransom, risking their health in the process.

[TykeMerc]

we aren't THAT hungry!

You may have a point there, how about feeding the Soylent to pigs? Bacon is tricky to resist.

[vetran]

Only as a stockpile of raw materials.

Soylent Green, it's made from people agents.

we aren't THAT hungry!

[TykeMerc]

The world will always need agents

Only as a stockpile of raw materials.

Soylent Green, it's made from people agents.

[DodgyAgent]

The world will always need agents

[NickyBoy]

The number of workers needed is shrinking at the same time as our population is growing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

The old adage of 'technology will create new jobs to replace the old' is being proven false.This constriction of worker wages is a natural side effect of that, because the value of the average worker is dropping as more people are competing for the continually shrinking array of jobs.


Our economic system needs to change at a fundamental level, or collapse. A capitalistic growth model cannot continue past the point when no-one is needed to produce the goods/services, because then no-one has money to buy the goods/services.

Involuntary lifetime unemployment for the majority of the population is an inevitable by-product of advancing technology. The sooner people come to terms with that, the better.

[original PM]

What's that animal that eats its own children for its own benefit?

pretty sure polar bears do that

[lilelvis2000]

It's going to happen, anyway.

What's that animal that eats its own children for its own benefit?

[BrilloPad]

Maybe we are entering a new victorian age. The UK will rule two thirds of the globe. An age of progress. And the vast majority live in poverty.

[Zero Liability]

It's going to happen, anyway.

[lilelvis2000]

What do you expect when you have a massive welfare state with a massive promise to payout pensions regardless if the pot is empty? Bad idea that state pensions. Let people save for them themselves. If they don't to save, let them live in poverty. Shame that would hurt their polling, so we all know it will never happen.

[lilelvis2000]

Isn't the DLR driverless still? It was when I last went on it sometime back in the late 80's which makes it more than 25 years ago...

I think the Vancouver system was built in 86? and is much larger than the DLR, especially now they've put is some long extensions.

But beware the ticket inspectors that hang about on the platform and at the last moment jump on the train. I've seem some quite embarrassing moments.

[darmstadt]

About time. Vancouver has had driverless trains for 25 years.

Isn't the DLR driverless still? It was when I last went on it sometime back in the late 80's which makes it more than 25 years ago...

[lilelvis2000]

Slightly off topic, but nice to see the latest tube trains are capable of driverless operation. Way to go, replace them all by driverless trains then turn the system on and tell all those overpaid tube drivers to f* off and find a job that has some point to it.

People on the left or right are just as bad, one side rails at overpaid bankers or directors of big businesses, the other rails at benefit scroungers. In my view we should target those at every level whose income far exceeds what they actually contribute, the jobless who make no effort to find employment, the overpaid members of powerful unions, the bosses whose bonuses are not justified by company performance, whatever.

About time. Vancouver has had driverless trains for 25 years.

[darmstadt]

Ja.

Tomorrow belongs to me us.

Oy vey, deja vu! I was listening to that today and checked out who wrote the original, didn't realise its from Cabaret (although SAHB version is better)