It is also bloody hard to get sacked unless you pull an Allitt/Shipman.
Woohoo! Now watch the prices go up.
And the Pound to drop llike a stone pushing import prices up and inflation and and and.
But then the Pound is down and peeps will realise they can buy a Rolls Royce for about US$450 and so you will earn lots and lots of money which will go into the tax havens of the Asians that already own all your Equity
Evidently. The part where people decide itâs no longer worth making an Eastern European fortune off our minimum wage.
Good news indeed, if it lasts. Then again, wages for most couldnât get any lower, so it may be slightly deceiving.
I do worry itâs just a âgolden glowâ moment before our demise.
1/10
Fantastic to put a score on your understanding of the issues, AG.
Mwah, smiley face, etc.
Iâve been getting into David Goodhartâs book, The Road to Somewhere, which attempts to explain some of the factors that led to our exit from the EU. Heâs behind the two terms âsomewhereâ and âanywhereâ in relation to how people are split. Goodhart goes to some length to say very few people are totally one or the other. Most are a bit of both, on different issues.
Somewheres are people that like to live close to where they were born, and have a deep attachment to their communities and ways of life, defined by their relationships with it. Anywheres tend to be university educated, and tend to have âachieved identitiesâ that are specific to them, not where they are.
Goodhart reckons that a few things put us on the road to Brexit. First, he reckons that the expansion of the higher education sector has been a huge influence. Prior to Ken Clarkeâs wholesale conversion of Polytechnics to Universities, the tradition of boarding for your education was largely confined to the Russell Group Universities. Polys tended to focus on teaching vocational skills to the local population.
This, along with the destruction of the Apprenticeships scheme in the 1980s and 90s. made University the only real game in town. Itâs perhaps no surprise that weâve gone from 15% of people going to University, to around 48% today. All but the poorest kids board (there has actually been a reduction in boarding amongst the less affluent). Goodhart doesnât argue that University necessarily cuts you off from your old barrio, but it does bring you into contact with a much wider world, which gets those Anywhere tendencies going.
Weâve blundered into a situation where just over half the country doesnât go to University, compounded by the fact that the The Somewheres that do stay put and look for work are up shite street. Most middle skilled jobs have gone, employers. who used to believe it was part of their societal role to provide apprenticeships say they canât or wonât do them now. Theyâre competing for low-skilled work with not only Europeans, but also graduates whoâve had difficulty turning their degree qualifications into corporate gold.
Its OK @pap you just carry on believing what you want and insinuating what makes you feel superior -I am happy for ya
Smiley face, amusing cockemoji etcâŚ
So what youâre saying is that because 48% go to Uni, 52% of the nation are thick and will be replaced by AI even after the Immigrants stealing their low paid jobs have gone home.
Yep, I can see that argument.
Now what %age voted Brexit?
I donât think I was saying that, exactly, When itâs just 15% of people not going to University, thereâs no stigma about not going, less overflow of graduates into non-graduate work, less sneering about the manual but essential jobs that people get paid to do,
Automation is a case in point. Labour has been so cheap and flexible that weâre not as far along as our French cousins on the issue. As I said in the Rise of the Machines thread, automation in and of itself wonât be a good deal without a redefined social contract. Besides, those robots are going to need to be researched, supplied for, built, marketed, distributed, sold and serviced.
That will not replace all the minimum wage, but will start to replace some of the more technical jobs that were lost. Do it right, and we may be able to make up the gap with countries that have no compunction with automation, or throwing huge amounts of dirt cheap labour at a problem as they do in the Far East. As usual, weâre nowhere near where we need to be on the issue, either in terms of thinking about the social impact or getting it implemented.
Many Leave voters chose out for precisely the same reason youâre concerned about automation, Youâre undoubtedly concerned about the paid opportunities taken off the job market, existing wages devalued, terms and conditions weakened, scales tipped further in the direction of big business. When Tony Blair decided to waive the seven year wait for newly acceded Eastern European countries, a million Eastern Europeans moved here in the first two years to work, they took opportunities off the market.
Surveys reckon that only about 7% of the population is racist. Most Leave voters that voted along immigration lines are therefore anti mass immigration, not anti-immigrant. Blair can bleat as much as he wants about how we got it all wrong, but it was his cynical, ideologically motivated decision that put the United Kingdom on the path to Brexit. The British public has been largely very accommodating. Weâve all got Agnieskaâs and Tomaszâ in our lives, and weâre better for it. That never meant it would remain blind to the downsides, especially when it was so apparent in the pay packet.