In France, people (mostly workers and youths who have latched on as young people tend to do) were demonstrating against a proposed age hike that would take them to where the U.S, is currently (but U.S. is also trying to raise its, as well). Nevertheless, France passed a bill today that makes retirement age equal to the U.S. though longevity in France exceeds that of the US by two years. The United States is 38th out of 194 countries listed.
Passing the bill which was opposed by the working populace may reflect a few things. Some may just not like change. Some workers just don't trust government. Some workers assume (at least those who lead the unions) that unions should make all decisions effecting the workers. It surprises me that in the United States, workers and unions were not as visible opposing suggestions that Social Security be privatized. Perhaps, since it didn't succeed, it was adequately resisted but it did not happen with violence or the vehemence shown in France. I'd like to think that Americans are finding that non-violent fighting is more fruitful and productive that the 'little-boy" mentality shown by the Bush administration; that the way to solve the problems in the Middle East was by bullying with war power.
Needless to say, there can only be estimates since there are so many economic variables as to what changing the age does in a country. Writing on Social Security Around the World, the National Board of Economin Research in the US currently posts here..What can be said about universal retirement. People neither age at the same rate nor easily accept the change in their lives that retirement may bring. While some are healthy in mind and body at retirement age, others lose life quickly. While some start new careers, others are lost without their work routine and identity. Retirement is definitely not a one-size-fits-all.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
LUDDITES OF 2010
It is understandable that people out of work or with little money will not surround themselves with all the newest technological toys like iPhones, NotePads, Kindles, your favorite music delivered intravenously, texting language outside of Merriam-Webster, video more real than your lying eyes show you, and too many products to make your life beyond anyone else's.
However, it is not just poor people. Small town people often breed small town minds. I used to think it was only seniors who were Luddites. It is not. I have neighbors in their fifties who don't have a computer in their house. People who have lots of discretionary funds have even given up television. There seems to be a hesitancy to find out what is going on in the world. Granted, TV is mind-boggling these days. Whoever is coming up with the programming apparently didn't make it out of kindergarten or may have joined the Rupert Murdoch Club to Dumb Down USA Citizens. Whichever, cable providers advertise hundreds of channels available for viewing. When people confined to wheelchairs, with little else to do with their senses and limbs, turn the TV off, someone ought to take notice.
I've noticed that when I turn off the cable box, it often turns itself back on. Now how can that happen if it does not happen by a flip of a wrist in Verizon Central?. It certainly makes this suspicious person wonder what statistics are getting padded. After all, advertisers need to see NUMBERS UP.
But, I digress. Recent research has shown brain differences in those who can accept change and those who are unable to do so. In 1996 a book was written by Kirkpatrick Sale. To read Sale's opinions, click here. It is an interview by David Kupfe; Rebel Against the Future. Sale offered the argument, "To believe that what has happened to humankind in the last 200 years is "progress" is to fall into an industrialist trap of: "Anything new is better and everything is better tomorrow than it is today because we have more material advantages and more ease and speed in our life and this is good."
The sad part of this is that people would suffer more painfully before death rather than benefiting, suffering less and living longer due to the modern 'miracles' that technology has brought to medicine. If corporations were less greedy, they would make more products in the U.S., put more Americans to work and help the economy rather than draining it for personal gain for the top few. When workers feared that machines would put them out of jobs, what happened?. When horses were replaced by cars, mechanics had work. How did this come about? People have to be educated. Companies that offer courses to train their employees to take on new tasks assure them continued mutual work benefit. Creativity can really only blossom by knowing how to make your ideas come to fruition. In the fifties, science fiction fed the scientists with ideas that only those from places like MIT, Cal Tech, and the like could turn into reality rather than fiction. No Luddites they!
To understand Ludism (also spelled Luddism) today, I found an interesting article.. Writing about the rise of computers and the Internet, it states: "The single most widespread sign of technological change in the last decade or so, the Internet, seems to provide novel opportunities rather than eliminating old trades. If anyone wanted to destroy the Internet in order to safeguard their own job, they would have to be a very skilled computer hacker with a lot of cunning, time and energy. Information technology is so entrenched in our civilization that attempts to wreck it would require almost biblical destruction. The Internet was built with resilience in mind" It touches the degree to which progress is held back by people who resist change and progress..Not all of them want the world to run as it was presumed to in the Holy Bible, either.
However, it is not just poor people. Small town people often breed small town minds. I used to think it was only seniors who were Luddites. It is not. I have neighbors in their fifties who don't have a computer in their house. People who have lots of discretionary funds have even given up television. There seems to be a hesitancy to find out what is going on in the world. Granted, TV is mind-boggling these days. Whoever is coming up with the programming apparently didn't make it out of kindergarten or may have joined the Rupert Murdoch Club to Dumb Down USA Citizens. Whichever, cable providers advertise hundreds of channels available for viewing. When people confined to wheelchairs, with little else to do with their senses and limbs, turn the TV off, someone ought to take notice.
I've noticed that when I turn off the cable box, it often turns itself back on. Now how can that happen if it does not happen by a flip of a wrist in Verizon Central?. It certainly makes this suspicious person wonder what statistics are getting padded. After all, advertisers need to see NUMBERS UP.
But, I digress. Recent research has shown brain differences in those who can accept change and those who are unable to do so. In 1996 a book was written by Kirkpatrick Sale. To read Sale's opinions, click here. It is an interview by David Kupfe; Rebel Against the Future. Sale offered the argument, "To believe that what has happened to humankind in the last 200 years is "progress" is to fall into an industrialist trap of: "Anything new is better and everything is better tomorrow than it is today because we have more material advantages and more ease and speed in our life and this is good."
The sad part of this is that people would suffer more painfully before death rather than benefiting, suffering less and living longer due to the modern 'miracles' that technology has brought to medicine. If corporations were less greedy, they would make more products in the U.S., put more Americans to work and help the economy rather than draining it for personal gain for the top few. When workers feared that machines would put them out of jobs, what happened?. When horses were replaced by cars, mechanics had work. How did this come about? People have to be educated. Companies that offer courses to train their employees to take on new tasks assure them continued mutual work benefit. Creativity can really only blossom by knowing how to make your ideas come to fruition. In the fifties, science fiction fed the scientists with ideas that only those from places like MIT, Cal Tech, and the like could turn into reality rather than fiction. No Luddites they!
To understand Ludism (also spelled Luddism) today, I found an interesting article.. Writing about the rise of computers and the Internet, it states: "The single most widespread sign of technological change in the last decade or so, the Internet, seems to provide novel opportunities rather than eliminating old trades. If anyone wanted to destroy the Internet in order to safeguard their own job, they would have to be a very skilled computer hacker with a lot of cunning, time and energy. Information technology is so entrenched in our civilization that attempts to wreck it would require almost biblical destruction. The Internet was built with resilience in mind" It touches the degree to which progress is held back by people who resist change and progress..Not all of them want the world to run as it was presumed to in the Holy Bible, either.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
IMMEDIATE SURVEYS ONLINE AFTER ORDERING
Do companies who hire companies like Bizrate really expect value for their expenditures? Tonight I made an online order of K-cups online to a seller from whom I had never ordered before. Immediately after placing the order I had a request for a survey. Since I couldn't predict the questions to be asked, I dutifully tried to answer the questions honestly. Never having tried the product, I could not answer whether I would recommend it to anyone else; rate the product highly, or even remember the exact amount I had paid for it as I could no longer go back to that screen.
Apparently there is daily feedback to a the store subscribers to this service. To learn more about this, click here.
One survey supplier advertises: click here to see
Free Paid surveys, sounding pretty much like an oxymoron to me, too me a moment to read that 'if you qualify' you can earn money with these. If a senior wants to feel 'over the hill' just agree to one of these and hear (after you have answered the age group you are in), "Oh, thank you very much but that category has already been filled." Is it truly filled and represented or is it their tactful way of saying, "Your opinion is not worth it to us."? Realistically one can understand that there are a lot of products out there young people of today use where we seniors may not have as significant a profile. By the same token, young people do not need toilet seats that will raise them two inches, three pronged canes, Depends, and a few other products any good drug store might stock.
If you would like to make a business of taking surveys, there is software available to you. Click here.
Apparently there is daily feedback to a the store subscribers to this service. To learn more about this, click here.
One survey supplier advertises: click here to see
Free Paid surveys, sounding pretty much like an oxymoron to me, too me a moment to read that 'if you qualify' you can earn money with these. If a senior wants to feel 'over the hill' just agree to one of these and hear (after you have answered the age group you are in), "Oh, thank you very much but that category has already been filled." Is it truly filled and represented or is it their tactful way of saying, "Your opinion is not worth it to us."? Realistically one can understand that there are a lot of products out there young people of today use where we seniors may not have as significant a profile. By the same token, young people do not need toilet seats that will raise them two inches, three pronged canes, Depends, and a few other products any good drug store might stock.
If you would like to make a business of taking surveys, there is software available to you. Click here.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
FACEBOOK AND MARK ZUCKERBERG...
For those of us who have been trained to spot a combination of features that frequently spell
Asperger's enjoy the TV show, The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon is a stereotypical example of the brilliant, compulsive, socially inept person who lacks typical emotional responses to cues others read differently.
Today I saw the movie The Social Network. I was told the movie is not true to the actual Facebook and its inception and inventors. However, Hollywood portrayed Mark Zuckerberg as classic Asperger's..
.
Asperger's enjoy the TV show, The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon is a stereotypical example of the brilliant, compulsive, socially inept person who lacks typical emotional responses to cues others read differently.
Today I saw the movie The Social Network. I was told the movie is not true to the actual Facebook and its inception and inventors. However, Hollywood portrayed Mark Zuckerberg as classic Asperger's..
.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
TRUTH IS HARD TO FIND THESE DAYS
Stephen Colbert's coining of the word 'truthiness' has made it plain that it is very hard to find on the media, in writings, and, especially, in politics. Even more amazing is that people say things on camera and then either forget or think that the denial they could use for years will work for them in this technological era. All politicians should have a course in electronic databases and searches through video..
Recently, State Senator Leland Yee, (D) Sacramento was stripped of his position as assistant to the president
pro tempore of the State Senate. He refused to vote for a budget that was against his conscience because of the too severe cuts in severe cuts to education, social services and health care. Read in full here.
We elect people to go to Washington to vote as our representatives. States do the same within their legislatures. What has happened to democracy when the leaders become despots who demand lock-step obedience. We should not have to revert to secret ballots. The leaders should understand that their dictatorships will not persist in the US. Only the voters can vote them out of office.
For eight years we watched the House and the Senate under Bush never deviate from the demands to vote as directed. Few in office had the strength to vote their conscience and risk not getting elected again. How else they may have been blackmailed has never become public, but my guess is that a lot of pressure was brought to bear. Let's face it, those who say our system is broken are quite correct. It is. Some want to go back to the days of the founding fathers when our total population was four million. Ridiculous. We cannot function going back 260 years any more than we could live as they did in the Bible 2000 years ago. It just doesn't work..
Our country can ill afford to be dumbed down to meet the level of those who cannot accept change. Change is happening faster than it ever has and those who cannot adjust to it cannot be allowed to wield the power given the Teapartiers, or the far, religious Right. We need to work towards truth and transparency. We need a Supreme Court that will not make a mockery of that part of our system that has worked for so many years while resisting the changes that are necessary..
Recently, State Senator Leland Yee, (D) Sacramento was stripped of his position as assistant to the president
pro tempore of the State Senate. He refused to vote for a budget that was against his conscience because of the too severe cuts in severe cuts to education, social services and health care. Read in full here.
We elect people to go to Washington to vote as our representatives. States do the same within their legislatures. What has happened to democracy when the leaders become despots who demand lock-step obedience. We should not have to revert to secret ballots. The leaders should understand that their dictatorships will not persist in the US. Only the voters can vote them out of office.
For eight years we watched the House and the Senate under Bush never deviate from the demands to vote as directed. Few in office had the strength to vote their conscience and risk not getting elected again. How else they may have been blackmailed has never become public, but my guess is that a lot of pressure was brought to bear. Let's face it, those who say our system is broken are quite correct. It is. Some want to go back to the days of the founding fathers when our total population was four million. Ridiculous. We cannot function going back 260 years any more than we could live as they did in the Bible 2000 years ago. It just doesn't work..
Our country can ill afford to be dumbed down to meet the level of those who cannot accept change. Change is happening faster than it ever has and those who cannot adjust to it cannot be allowed to wield the power given the Teapartiers, or the far, religious Right. We need to work towards truth and transparency. We need a Supreme Court that will not make a mockery of that part of our system that has worked for so many years while resisting the changes that are necessary..
Sunday, October 17, 2010
WHO ARE THE POLITICALLY CORRECT KEEPERS AND 'DECIDERS'?
Unions once started out with great goals and purpose. Today, many Unions have become self-serving and lost the purpose of making worker's jobs safer, and free from abuse. Instead, some Unions seem to want to retain their members (not workers who have jobs for which they are behaving irresponsibly).
The politically correct inventors seem to have become far too rigid. Words that have been part of our life to express happy emotion (like gay) is now hi-jacked by homosexuals. The people on the Island of Lesbos (Lesvos) whose residents are known as Lesbians, Greece, resent their name being limited to something other than its origin or being called homosexual women...
I deeply resent that Song of the South, a really beautiful movie by Disney, which depicts the South in a period most wish to forget, has been a movie taken off the market. Should history really be rewritten or denied? Apparently some think that periods of our history can just be swept under the politically correct rug.
Predictably. what started out as tactfulness, consideration and kindness, was grabbed by the rigid, 'slippery-slopers' who thought it their task to rewrite everything they didn't like..Fairy, for those brought up on fairy tales, The Politically Incorrect Dictionary says 'fairy' should no longer be used. It is homophobic. " Replaced by Petite airborne humanoid which possesses magical powers. The term fairy should be avoided when discussing these mythical beings, regardless of how gay they may appear."
I particularly like someone's idea for 'bald'...comb free. The reality today is that Google has as many humor driven words as the more official lists. Click here for one.
Some things from our past should readily be altered or dropped. However, all words should not be in that category. Beware of losing our right to free speech and concepts byh falling in too deeply with the politically correct attempts.
.
The politically correct inventors seem to have become far too rigid. Words that have been part of our life to express happy emotion (like gay) is now hi-jacked by homosexuals. The people on the Island of Lesbos (Lesvos) whose residents are known as Lesbians, Greece, resent their name being limited to something other than its origin or being called homosexual women...
I deeply resent that Song of the South, a really beautiful movie by Disney, which depicts the South in a period most wish to forget, has been a movie taken off the market. Should history really be rewritten or denied? Apparently some think that periods of our history can just be swept under the politically correct rug.
Predictably. what started out as tactfulness, consideration and kindness, was grabbed by the rigid, 'slippery-slopers' who thought it their task to rewrite everything they didn't like..Fairy, for those brought up on fairy tales, The Politically Incorrect Dictionary says 'fairy' should no longer be used. It is homophobic. " Replaced by Petite airborne humanoid which possesses magical powers. The term fairy should be avoided when discussing these mythical beings, regardless of how gay they may appear."
I particularly like someone's idea for 'bald'...comb free. The reality today is that Google has as many humor driven words as the more official lists. Click here for one.
Some things from our past should readily be altered or dropped. However, all words should not be in that category. Beware of losing our right to free speech and concepts byh falling in too deeply with the politically correct attempts.
.
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