I'll let my next door neighbour know tonight that his 1200 acre arable farm puts him at the base of the hypercapitalist theory upward chain.... The analogy of the cheap goods coming over from the Far East etc is also a crap one imo, as the goods themselves are still ****e, it's just that they arrive here as cheaper ****e than we can manage to produce. A more fitting analogy for that theory would surely be the mine workers who toil for peanuts to unearth precious gemstones that are consumed by rich westerners?
Not trying to be inflammatory Tobes, just presenting one economic/political theory! Does he own the farm and work it on his own or employ farmhands or labourers? The analogy of cheap clothing is appropriate due to the huge mark up made to them once they appear on the conglomerate's shop rails, which allows fashion chains and retailers to extort the maximum profit out of that initial cheap labour. Base value doesn't come into it, what's important is how efficiently the commodity can be streamlined up the chain. Yes they are low quality, shoddily made items but they are easily, all too easily, converted into quick, large amounts of profit. Your example is a good one too. Have you seen the film about that industry called Blood Diamond? In this I'd argue that there's yet another example of how the bottom can provide wealth to the top, by Hollywood taking the workers in that industry as subject matter and their being used to sustain the entertainment industry.
mmm, I'm not sure what's new in that theory (I'd never heard of it either) as all we're really talking about here is the global face of capitalism. Invariably the raw materials & labour are cheaply sourced & the products go through the chain to the end user, who is often wealthier than those involved in the production, but the end user could also end up as the consumer, dependant on the product & the distribution chain.
Dave, I haven't had proper time to give this debate over last few days and still don't today so apologies! Maybe you're right about looking back to a past that didn't exist, I remember it and (recent past) and it wasn't half as materialistic & quantity based as it is now. We've been walmarted IMO. Yep you're right, Always been unhealthy options at all levels of society but no excuse with the amount of knowledge & education at even the poorest of our societies fingertips today to have worse dietary patterns & consequential health problems than 20 years ago. We replaced ricketts with diabetes.... Yep even better idea: bring back home economics for all. Might be long term as in what? 10 years, one generation who become adults? For a proper government 10 years is nothing planning wise....or shouldn't be. And home economics in the truest sense could be added to the curriculum as soon as next September, Wasn't having a dig on socialism, in fact the opposite in this area of life/culture: that a different interpretation of it would empower the people who claim at the moment to feel powerless in the face of giant supermarkets the poorest members of our society etc etc. Finally on badger cull. I did point to the cull plus ring vaccine which defra's own report says would be better than cull only using existing vaccine. If they are hiring expert marksman to sit for days with silenced weapons to kill the badgers, they can hire the same marksman with a little additional training to do exactly the same thing but trank & vaccinate the badgers around the cull site. This isn't an over night thought, it's been planned so could have been planned just that little bit better. And then if THAT worked you have the addition of not needing to come back to the same area & do it all again in 6 years time! I just think cheapest option doesn't actually mean best for farmers. Never mind the badgers. We'll see in the next 6 years post cull I suppose since the cull is happening.
What a lovely way to put it, and a great way to slip a parallel reference to Avatar in... please log in to view this image
frank, Firstly let me apologise. I have to admit that, at the start of this thread I was out for an argument - just for the hell of it! But we are both reflecting the same essential thoughts here. The cull is in effect merely a reflection of the mess that society appears to be in when viewed from a not too distant perspective. All I was trying to point out is that, in one way or another, present day society/culture has always been viewed in that way. I remember my dad telling me that in the 1930's he was told by his Dad "God help us if there's another war with only you lot to defend us". Fortunately he didn't go on to make the same comments about my generation - but he's probably have been right!!! I referred above to the great lie that life is now faster. Scientifically that's not true it's just the stupidity of sophistry that creates that impression. We do need to counter-balance that with more emphasis being put on quality than convenience or speed.
