This is what we`ve got to look forward to

[Filo]

all you tories out there, massive cuts means an abrupt halt in growth

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/23/ireland-austerity-budgets-comment

[River Don]

And the USA is rapidly heading for a double dip too, despite a massive Keynesian stimulus.

It looks either way the debts are so massive that hard times are unavoidable.

[BobG]

And the fear of that double dip has already led to comapnies turning on each other. Hands up, all of you who have seen extensions to payment terms, to vicious purchase and supply terms, to ruthless contract re-negotiations, to outright bullying of small companies by bigger ones? I could go on and on. The list of consequences for commercail organisations is almost endless. But the point of it is, even if the economy did start to grow again, commercial relationships have already become so punitive that every one of them is now trading at a loss (I don't mean in selling ghre end product - I mean in their sales activities to downstream producers, to wholesalers and to dealers). The ability of the private sector to grow this country out of recession is well nigh strangled already beacuse individually they all have to cut their costs but colelctively they simply cut the throat of every single one of them. Free markets? Karl Marx was dead right. Mythical prize to anyone who can come up with the quotation I have in mind right now.

Cheers

BobG

[twomikenewells]

'Do not be deluded by the abstract word freedom. Whose freedom? Not the freedom of one individual in relation to another, but freedom of capital to crush the worker'

That one Bob??

[Sheepskin Stu]

Religion is the opiate of the masses?

[Barmby Rover]

twomikenewells wrote:

'Do not be deluded by the abstract word freedom. Whose freedom? Not the freedom of one individual in relation to another, but freedom of capital to crush the worker'

That one Bob??

 

.....and with the media in hand to delude the gullible.

[BobG]

Bloody good efforts lads! Both of them are extremely relevant and to the point. But the one I was thinking of was 'Capitalism contains within it the seeds of its own destruction\". Very apposite indeed I reckon.

Cheers chaps

BobG

[LongbridgeMGRover]

i still have a soft spot for Enva Hoxsa, the great Albanian Communist.......

'WITH MY PICK IN ONE HAND AND A RIFLE IN THE OTHER, WE WILL REBUILD'

but sadly the chances of a misquote are so high, its not worth repeating especially after a few pints.

[BobG]

He was one scary guy. There used to be a'shop', in a side street of Howland Street which itself was off Tottenham Court Road, where the delights of Albania were alleged to be on display. I used to walk past the place every day and I sometimes stopped to look at the pictures of good old Enver that constituted said 'delights'. I went in once, just curious like. I was clearly not welcome one little bit. The biggest, hardest, most menacing bas**rd you ever did see made sure I left smartish and didn't come back. It made me wonder, to this day, just what the purpose of that 'shop' really was. It wasn't for selling stuff that's for sure!

Ceacescu: there's another one. And he had a mad bitch for a wife as well! f**king maniac he was. I've seen some of the results.

BobG
BobG

[BillyStubbsTears]

Enver Hoxha, along with Pol Pot is possibly THE biggest raving headcase to get his hands on the reins of power of a country in the 20th Century.

He was so terrified of invasion by the other Warsaw Pact countries that he turned the entire border of the country into an enormous minefield. He had concrete bunkers built for 1 in 4 of the population to act as lookout posts for the imminent invasion.

 I've had professional dealing with some of the military and civillian de-mining guys who are STILL trying to sort out the mess 25 years after he passed on. It's a nightmare of a job, and THIS is the consequence when they get it wrong, like they did in Gerdec in March 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOzM1shOuH4&feature=related

That accidental detonation at about 1:00 looks like an explosion in the 100-1000tonnes TNT range, which would make it the size of a moderate battlefield nuke.

THAT is the legacy that Hoxha left the poor t**ts in Albania.