1957 and 2006 - Are we better off ?

What difference does 50 years make for the working class . Are we all better off . Well , it certainly appears that way . UK household income has doubled in real terms over the last fifty years. And the pattern of family spending has also changed dramatically. Basic necessities including food accounting for a smaller proportion of our family budget, while spending is up on leisure activities, travel and motoring. Income going to housing makes up a greater share.

According to the BBC and the Office of National Statistics

In 1957, spending on food, fuel and rent , the basic three items , made up nearly half of all household expenditure. Taken together with clothing and travel, basics made up nearly two-thirds of family spending. The main luxuries for the ordinary family were tobacco and alcohol, which combined made up just under 10% of spending. The biggest other luxury item was meals eaten out making up 3% of spending. Four of the top ten spending items were food or drink, with spending on meat, fruit, vegetables and beer all in the top twenty.
Overall, the average family spent a total of £14.30 per week in 1957, out of a gross income of £16. In today's money, spending was £243 per week.

In 2006 the average household spent £456 out of a gross income of £642 before taxes.

In five decades, spending on most basics has declined sharply, with food making up only half as much of the average household budget as it did in 1957. And half of that food budget now consists of meals and takeaways - a new category introduced in the l970s.

But the cost of housing, including mortgage interest payments or rent, has more than doubled since 1957. Mortgage interest payments or rent accounted for 19% of spending in 2006, up from 9% in 1957Using a slightly broader measure of housing costs, which includes council tax, insurance and home improvements, UK households spent an average of £143 a week on housing-related costs in 2006 - or 22%.

Motoring and travel costs have doubled from 8% of spending in 1957 to 16% in 2006, mostly because of rising car ownership .

There are big social divisions in the ownership of some popular consumer goods, and the greater affluence is at least partly a result of more families having two incomes - both parents going out to work .

And But there are big differences in consumption between rich and poor.
Nearly every household in the richest tenth of the population had a computer and an internet connection. In contrast, among the poorest tenth, only 31% have computers and 21% have an internet connection. And 56% of that group have mobile phones, compared to 92% of the richest tenth. The pattern of car ownership also varies sharply by income, with less than a third of the poorest tenth of households owning a car, compared to 94% of the richest tenth of families.

Nor are we happier it is claimed .

According to economist Richard Layard of the London School of Economics, once people can afford the basics, happiness does not increase with income when comparing happiness among rich and poor countries. And looking at surveys of happiness over time, he says levels of happiness have not changed across either the UK - or US - in the last 30 years, despite the doubling of living standards in both. Moreover, the availability of new goods can just make people more jealous of what they are unable to afford, especially for the less well-off.

Other studies show that what we have lost in the last 50 years is time. Strikingly, most families now talk more in the car than at home.

Paradoxically , while we spend more on leisure goods than half a century ago, we have less time to enjoy our free time - increasing numbers of households need two earners as earlier said and working hours have increased even if there has been an official reduction , since doing overtime has climbed .

Blair - quids in

My , isn't he going to be busy man for business . First he has a job with J P Morgan Chase Bank as reported here , although the fee turned out to be 5 times what we believed at the time - $5 million a year . Now Zurich Financial Services AG, Switzerland's biggest insurer have said former Tony Blair has agreed to advise the company on international politics according to Bloomberg.com .
Blair will specifically help the insurer with its climate initiative, the Zurich-based insurer said today in a statement. He will also advise Chief Executive Officer James Schiro on general political trends and developments. No word on the filthy lucre yet though, but it's rumoured to be another half million or so .

SOUTH CAROLINA REMEMBERS

"Although the election has become all about "change", precious little of that commodity can be found in this corner of the Old South. This is where the Confederate battle flag from the Civil War still flutters outside the state capital in Columbia, next to a large statue of Ben "Pitchfork" Tillman, a former Governor who justified and even participated in lynching." (Times, 25 January) RD

NOT SO PRIMITIVE

Daniel Everett once was a missionary in Brazil dealing with so-called primitive tribes, but his experience of the Piraha people made him give up that calling to become a linguist. When asked how he had changed his views he replied: "They lived so well without religion and they were so happy. Also they did not believe what I was saying because I did not have any evidence for it, and that made me think. They would try so hard to understand what I was saying, but it was utterly irrelevant to them. I began to think: what am I doing here, giving them these 2000-year old concepts when everything of value I can think of to communicate to them they already have?" (New Scientist, 19 January) RD

AN INHUMAN SOCIETY

There are many examples of how capitalist society favours property rather than human life, but this is just about the craziest example we have come across recently.
"A Spanish driver who collided with a cyclist is suing the dead youth's family $29,300 for the damage the impact of his body did to his luxury car, a Spanish newspaper reported on Friday. Businessman Tomas Delgado says 17-year-old Enaitz Iriondo caused $20,500 of damage to his Audi A8 in the fatal 2004 crash in La Rioja region, El Pais newspaper reported. Delgado, who has faced no criminal charges for the incident, wants a further 6,000 euros to cover the cost of hiring another vehicle while his car was being repaired, El Pais said."
(Yahoo News, 25 January) RD

GREAT WALL OF CHINA

The biggest division in China today is between the rich and the poor. The advances of Chinese capitalism have left the working class well behind. "Despite its growing wealth, China still has a large number of poor people struggling with dramatic increases in the price of daily essentials such as pork, which jumped by 50%. Inflation hit an 11-year year high in November. Thursday's figures show that it fell back in December, although at 6.5% it remains a worry. The government has introduced a range of price controls recently aimed at bringing the cost of ordinary goods, particularly food, under control. Dramatic price rises have led to social unrest in the past and Beijing cannot afford for its millions of poor to go hungry." (BBC News, 24 January) RD

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE?

We are often told that capitalism is a very sophisticated system and that only bankers, investors and stockbrokers can be trusted to deal with its complexities, but recent events suggest otherwise. "French bank Societe Generale says it has uncovered "massive" fraud by a Paris-based trader which resulted in a loss of 4.9bn euros ($7.1bn; £3.7bn). The bank said the fraud was based on simple transactions, but concealed by "sophisticated and varied techniques". It also announced fresh losses of 2.05bn euros related to the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US. The losses are four times greater than those made by Nick Leeson, the rogue trader who brought down Barings Bank. Leeson was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail. ... Richard Fuld, the chairman of Lehman Brothers, told BBC News in Davos that "nothing stuns me; nothing really surprises me these days." (BBC News, 24 January)
It seems that even these so-called masters of the universe haven't a clue about the slumps and booms of capitalism. RD

NINE TO FIVE KILLER

The old saying "hard work never killed anyone", like most old sayings, turns out be nonsense."Work really can kill you, according to a study on Wednesday providing the strongest evidence yet of how on-the-job stress raises the risk of heart disease by disrupting the body's internal systems. The findings from a long-running study involving more than 10,000 British civil servants also suggest stress-induced biological changes may play a more direct role than previously thought, said Tarani Chandola, an epidemiologist at University College London. "This is the first large-scale population study looking at the effects of stress measured from everyday working life on heart disease," said Chandola, who led the study. "One of the problems is people have been skeptical whether work stress really affects a person biologically." (Yahoo News, 22 January) RD

OUR BETTERS?

From a very early age members of the working class are taught to respect authority and look up to "our betters". One of those would undoubtedly be Boris Johnson. His birth, education, wealth and social standing would certainly qualify him for that position. The following news item shows that notwithstanding birth, wealth and social standing he is still a bit of an idiot. "Boris Johnson has apologised for referring to black people as "piccaninnies" and talking about "watermelon smiles". During a debate for the London mayoral contest on Monday, the Conservative candidate said he was "sad" that people had been offended but insisted the words had been taken out of context." (Guardian, 23 January) RD

LIVING ON TICK

The desperate lives of many workers are haunted by debt and poverty. Just how widespread this misery has spread can be seen by this item.
"The scale of Britain's credit dependency is revealed today by a study that shows more than five million people are spending more than they earn every month. The research into the scale of the ''buy now pay later" culture has found spending on eating out, leisure and holidays has soared above inflation and income in the past decade. Millions of people are increasingly using credit to fund their lifestyle and loan repayments have risen at twice the level of income since 1997 as people try to emulate the profligate behaviour of high-spending celebrities." (Daily Telegraph, 22 January) RD

A FRAUDULENT SYSTEM

Governments are always boasting what an efficient social system capitalism is. They also claim how well they run the system, but such a claim seems somewhat hollow.
"Benefit fraud has fallen from £2 billion to £800 million a year since 2000, but the Government is spending more money identifying overpayments than the amount being tracked down, an official report has shown. More than £154 million was spent in the last financial year to identify £106 million worth of overpayments due to fraud, said the National Audit Office (NAO). An MP said the track record of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in recovering money lost to fraud was "frankly embarrassing".(Guardian, 23 January) RD

Global Warming and Capitalism

We are not at all surprised . We have been saying it all along .

The Independent On Sunday carries an article on a report that global warming ranks far down the concerns of the world's biggest companies . Nearly nine in 10 of them do not rate it as a priority . The report's publishers believe that big business will concentrate even less on climate change as the world economy deteriorates.Nearly twice as many see climate change as imposing costs on their business as those who believe it presents an opportunity to make money.

The survey found that only 5 per cent of the companies questioned – and not one in China – regarded global warming as their top priority. And only 11 per cent put it in second or third place. Overall it ranked eighth in business leaders' concerns, below increasing sales, reducing costs, developing new products and services, competing for talented staff, securing growth in emerging markets, innovation and technology. Although most are taking limited action to reduce their own emissions, almost one in five had done nothing.

What we of the world socialist movement said was "We can only 'cure the planet' by establishing a society without private productive property or profit where humans will be freed from the uncontrollable economic laws of the pursuit of profit and the accumulation of capital."

LAND OF THE FREE?

"A chasm still separates the black people of South Carolina, from what Rev Jackson calls their white "brothers and sisters". It is a deep division, as was apparent after a short parade from the porch of Rev Jackson's church to the domed statehouse, where the marchers congregated in the shadow of the South's most defiant symbol of white supremacy, the battle flag of the Confederacy. Across the street from where the marchers were honouring the assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jnr, a small group of white secessionists jeered. They spoke of keeping alive the memory of the "lost cause", a euphemism for racial domination. Uniformed police and secret service agents mingled with the crowd, watchful for trouble." (Independent, 22 January) RD

HANDS FULL OF DOLLARS

The recent study of the Institute for Fiscal Studies that showed 0.1 per cent of the UK population has an income of £780,000 per annum looks decided modest when compared with the US figures. " ... the IFS's findings will be cited alongside the work of Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty, the US academics who have highlighted how wealth is held in ever fewer hands. Their study, published last year, showed that the most affluent Americans are better off than at any time since the 1920s. The top 10 per cent now account for 48.5 per cent of income, and the top 1 per cent for 21.8 per cent of income." (Times, 18 January) RD

CHINESE CAPITALISM BOOMS

Despite its nonsensical claims to be communist the growth of Chinese capitalism is explosive and inevitably has lead to gigantic differences of wealth. "Growth in China has been spectacular but it has also been unbalanced and has created staggering inequality; the US magazine Forbes identified 66 billionaires on its China rich list last year, their coffers swelled by soaring share prices on the Shanghai exchange. Neither Donald Trump nor Steven Spielberg is rich enough to make it into a table of the top wealthiest Chinese, but most people are still desperately poor, and the Beijing government is worried that rampant food price inflation will lead to serious unrest." (Observer, 20 January) RD

WORDS OF WISDOM

David Attenborough in an interview said: "Every society that's ever existed has felt it necessary to have creation myths. Why should I believe one? People write to me and say: `You show us birds and orchids and wonderful, beautiful things - don't you feel you should give credit to He who created those things?` My reply says: what about a parasitic worm that's boring through the eye of a four-year-old child on the bank of an African river? It confuses me that I should believe in a god who cares individually for each and every one of us and could allow that to happen" (Observer Magazine, 20 January) RD

NO SUB-PRIME MORTGAGE HERE

Many workers as they struggle to pay their mortgage are concerned about the so-called credit squeeze, but it does not affect members of the owning class as can be seen from the following.
"A palatial home complete with a Turkish bath for 20 people has been sold for £50 million, breaking the record for the most expensive new-build house in Britain, which was recently set by a nearby property. Toprak Mansion in north London boasts seven bedrooms, four kitchens and an 80ft dining room containing a 40ft table. It also has a green copper roof, Grecian-style pillars, a grand double staircase, a glass lift, a swimming pool with a glass bridge and a two-acre garden. The new owner, who has not been identified, is reported to be planning to spend £30 million on a makeover by an Italian designer to create a beauty salon, spa, helipad, cinema and squash court. ...The mansion was built on The Bishops Avenue, a street full of palatial homes that was once known as Millionaires' Row, but is now referred to as Billionaires' Row. The price tag trumps that paid for Palladio, a mansion in a nearby street that was bought last year by Lev Leviev, the Israeli billionaire, for £35 million."
(Daily Telegraph, 21 January) RD

LOADS OF MONEY

"In a detailed study of the very rich, the Institute for Fiscal Studies uses data from the HM Revenue and Customs to show that the top 1 per cent of adults - comprising a group of 47,000 people - earn an average of £222,000 a year; while the top 0.1 per cent make a pre-tax income of, on average, £780,000 compared with the average across all taxpayers of £25,000." (Observer, 20 January) No worries here about minimum wage legislation or foreclosed mortgages we imagine. RD

What price a life ?

A cancer patient who was forced to pay out £3,400 per fortnight for the life-saving drug cetuximab has won his battle for funding , having previously been refused the treatment on the NHS , according to the BBC .

Originally ,the Scottish Medicines Consortium said it was not cost-effective because it could only prolong life, not cure him.

Preserving life for as long as possible should be the responsibility of the NHS , the patient is quoted as saying .

Maybe so , but under capitalism , there is always a price tag and a value placed upon a person's life . Not everyone is as fortunate as this patient was .

THE COLD FACTS

Over fifty years ago a popular song of the day was Baby, Its Cold Outside. Today for many workers that song would have to be changed to Baby, Its Cold in Here.
"One in six British households is living in fuel poverty, the highest for almost a decade, according to new figures that threaten the government's target to eradicate the problem in England by the end of the decade. Fuel poverty is defined as when a household spends more than a tenth of its income on utility bills. The consumer group Energywatch said yesterday there are now about 4.4 million of these in the UK, with just over 3 million in England alone." (Observer, 20 January)
Needless to say this "progress" only hurts the poor, the old and the incapacitated; yes only the working class suffer. RD

OF MICE AND MEN

"New research on mice shows the brain processes aggressive behaviour as it does other rewards. .. The mouse brain is thought to be analogous to the human brain in this study, which could shed light on our fascination with brutal sports as well as our own penchant for the classic bar brawl. .... Scientists have known that mice and other animals are drawn to fights. Until now, they didn't know how the brain was involved. The new study, detailed online this week in the journal Psychopharmacology, reveals the same clusters of brain cells involved in other rewards are also behind the craving for violence. "Aggression occurs among virtually all vertebrates and is necessary to get and keep important resources such as mates, territory and food," said study team member Craig Kennedy, professor of special education and paediatrics at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. "We have found that the reward pathway in the brain becomes engaged in response to an aggressive event and that dopamine is involved." (Yahoo News, 17 January)
Many American apologists for the violence of capitalism have claimed that it is innate in human beings but this is the first time we have heard it blamed on mice. There has been a lot of lynching historically in Tennessee but we have never heard of white mice hanging black mice. The so-called science of "special education and paediatrics" as practiced at Vanderbilt University is to say the least suspect. RD

GOOD NEWS FOR THE HOMELESS ?

"The residence of France's ambassador to Ireland is up for sale with a 60 million euro (45 million pound) price tag that would make it the most expensive home ever sold in the Irish Republic. "It's so big I have to call my wife on her mobile phone if I want to talk to her," Ambassador Yvon Roe D'Albert, who is downsizing to a more modest property, told The Irish Times. The 1,065 square metre (11,450 square foot) house sits on 1.75 acres (0.72 hectares) in Dublin's leafy embassy belt of Ballsbridge and has 10 bedrooms, including one used by former French President Charles de Gaulle. "A residence of such magnitude so close to the centre of Dublin has rarely been offered, if ever, to the market," boasts a sales brochure which also describes it as "possibly one of the finest city homes in Europe".(Yahoo News, 18 January)
We imagine that neither the working class of Paris or Dublin will be making a bid! RD

POLICE ARE WORKERS

Over twenty years ago during the miners' strike the role of the police was questioned by the strikers. There were reports of the police jeering at the miners and holding up bundles of fivers of overtime money and shouting "keep up the strike, we're making a fortune". Now the police find themselves in the position of having to accept a less than generous wage settlement. They are not permitted to strike but they intend to demonstrate their grievances. "Up to 15,000 officers from all 43 forces in England and Wales will march through central London in the biggest police protest for more than a decade. ... Today's protest is the first time that police have marched to demonstrate their anger over a pay deal or unhappiness with a Government reform programme." (Times, 23 January)
Somewhat belatedly some members of the police force may now recognise that they are members of the working class, just like the miners. RD

HEY MAN IT’S A GAS

"British Gas, the UK's biggest power provider, is to raise the amount it charges for gas and electricity by 15%. The announcement followed increases from rivals Npower and EDF Energy, with the firms blaming high wholesale costs. British Gas, owned by Windsor-based Centrica, said that it would make a loss this year without the price rise. Consumer groups and the Unite trade union have criticised the move, saying it would make life harder for firms, the elderly and those on low incomes. Before the British Gas move, Npower raised its electricity prices by 12.7% and gas by 17.2% earlier this month. EDF Energy also put up its electricity tariffs by 7.9% and gas bills by 12.9% this week." (BBC News, 18 January)
But why all the panic? After all we have a caring, sharing Labour government and they will immediately raise the pensions for the elderly and the dole for the unemployed by 15% wont they? What do you mean capitalism doesn't work that way? RD

LABOUR AIDS THE WEALTHY

The Labour Party promised to bring about a more equitable society, but despite these promises the exact opposite has occurred.
"The very rich have grown richer at double the pace of most Britons under Labour and their incomes may have accelerated further in recent years on the back of a rising stock market, research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows. Using the most detailed analysis of tax return records to date, the think-tank showed that, in every 1,000 adults, the income of the very richest person rose on average by 4 per cent above inflation every year between 1996-97 and 2004-05. That compared with growth of about 2 per cent for those on middle incomes." (Financial Times, 17 January) RD

CRUELTY AND CAPITALISM

"Amnesty International on Tuesday called on Iran to abolish the "grotesque and horrific" practice of stoning people to death. Amnesty, which opposes the death penalty under any circumstances, said an Iranian man had been stoned to death in July last year for committing adultery, despite a moratorium being imposed on such executions in 2002. The woman he was convicted of committing adultery with still faces the threat of being stoned, a practice that involves the woman being buried up to her breasts in sand and then pelted with stones until she dies. "Amnesty International is calling on the Iranian government to abolish immediately and totally execution by stoning and to impose a moratorium on the death penalty," the rights group said in a 30-page report on the practice. "Iranian law prescribes that the stones are deliberately chosen to be large enough to cause pain, but not so large as to kill the victim immediately ... It is a particularly grotesque and horrific practice." (Yahoo News, 14 January)
It is difficult to quarrel with Amnesty's indignation, but the "grotesque and horrific" practice of starving people in a society capable of producing an abundance and millions of children dying for lack of clean water also seems "grotesque and horrific" to socialists. RD

DIARRHEA BY THE SEA

We are all victims of the allure of holidays by the sea. There is nowhere stronger in its allure than the Mediterranean, but recent reports seem to make that place a little less attractive. "The pristine white beach that stretches for miles here is one of Albania's most popular holiday destinations. But the water is a toxic brew, contaminated with untreated sewage and industrial pollutants. Durres's pollution is among the region's worst, labelled in 2006 by the European Union as a hot spot. But across the Mediterranean, millions of tons of pollution and waste are emptied into the sea each year, according to the United Nations. Some comes from factories or the runoff from agriculture. But untreated sewage is also a major cause. More than half the sewage from Mediterranean coastal development seeps into the sea untreated. Although that percentage is lower than in some other parts of the world – in Latin America, 80 percent of sewage is untreated – the problem is particularly acute in the Mediterranean, whose closed geography means that it takes 100 years to renew its waters."
(Yahoo News, 15 January) Capitalism buggers up everything, even our fortnight "away from it all". RD

DYING FOR THE TOILET

"Five thousand children die every day globally because they do not have access to clean toilets, health experts said on Tuesday. Wealthy governments and donors could make a huge impact on global health by making sanitation a priority, representatives from a coalition of 60 health groups said. They estimated that 40 percent of the world's people do not have access to clean and safe toilets."It is about generating political will, and we also want to see is a real mobilization around sanitation in the aid system," said Henry Northover of Water Aid, which founded the coalition End Water Poverty. "We want to see the G8 (group of industrialized nations) prioritize it this year." This would also go a long way toward meeting global targets aimed at sharply reducing world poverty by 2015, the experts said. Water Aid says 1.8 million children are dying each year before their fifth birthday from diarrhoea." (Yahoo News, 15 January) We've said it before, we will say it again - capitalism is a shitty society. RD

In Debted to Capitalism

Researchers have found that, by the age of 50 years and 90 days, the typical adult will shake off the shackles of debt. In Scotland, debt-free status comes at an average age of 49 years and six months . To pay off their debts, people use a mixture of salary, inheritance, windfalls and profits from investments.

Until then, the average Briton is in debt to the tune of £10,306. Men are deeper in the red, with debts totalling £12,631, while the average woman owes £7,982, excluding any mortgage.

"There are a lot of people in a cycle of debt. They're paying for credit over ten to 15 years, which means they may not pay it off until their retirement." Stuart Glendinning, the managing director of Moneysupermarket.com said .

A spokesman for Your Money Matters said: "As the cost of living continues to rise, we're being forced to save through our twenties and delay the major milestones of life until our thirties. On top of that, the average cost of a house is now well over £200,000 so we're not even getting on the housing ladder until 34. All of this and the average UK salary is just £25,986 for men and £20,488 for women, so it's no surprise that the majority of us are hitting our fifties before shaking off the shackles of debt."

SO MUCH FOR PRINCIPLES

Away back in 1906 when the British Labour Party was formed they made great play of their morality and principles. So they spoke in an almost biblical fashion about ethics. Today however we live in different circumstances and the Labour prime minister has to deal with the real world of capitalism. He represents the British capitalist class and must represent their interests. So while it true that dictatorship and the suppression of democracy may not be very ethical when he visits China he has to remember who are his paymasters.
"He said trade was not "one way" - while Britain would import more goods, it would export its financial services. He and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao have agreed to boost trade by 50% by 2010 and he predicted "tens of thousands" of British jobs would be created. ... Speaking to reporters after talks in Beijing, the two leaders confirmed they had agreed a joint target of increasing two-way trade to $60bn (£30bn) over the next two years." (BBC News, 18 January) And not a word about democracy or free speech we imagine. RD

THE SPORT OF MILLIONAIRES

It used to be said that horse racing was The Sport of Kings now it seems that football is the sport of millionaires. After a series of takeover bids in the premier league, football has moved from the sports page to the financial page. "Manchester United intends to carve out new global sponsorship deals as it seeks to capitalise on a fan base it estimates at 33m, according to David Gill, its chief executive. Announcing a record pre-tax profit of £59.6m for the year to June 30, up from £30.8m the previous year, Mr Gill said future growth would accrue from the first year of the new Premier League TV deal and commercial ventures." (Financial Times, 11 January)
So while United and City football fans might argue in the pub about the merits or demerits of this or that striker's abilities, the real business of football is raking in the loot from sponsorship deals. Capitalism sees everything from a profit angle RD

SMILING WAGE SLAVES

Inside capitalism men and women of the working class have to please the owners. They must be good timekeepers, hard workers and extremely obedient, but now it seems this is no longer enough - we must smile while we are being exploited. "Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker's productivity, physical wellbeing and competence. ... The system would allow managers to monitor employees' performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure." (Times, 16 January) "
There will be no frowning in this office, Smith. Smile, damn you. Smile". RD

THE OBSCENITY OF CAPITALISM

The columnist Richard Morrison in an article mocking the ridiculous prices paid for modern art, refers to Don Thompson's book The $12 Million Stuffed Shark and brings to notice the obscene wealth enjoyed by a handful of billionaires. Remember we are dealing with the social system of capitalism where millions exist on a $1 a day. "He looks at the buyers for "trophy" art; billionaires such as the American asset manager Steve Cohen, who bought the shark with what, for him, was loose change (it would have taken him five days, Thompson estimates, to have earned the $12 million price tag). (Times, 16 January)
Overlooking the term "earned", we are talking about someone whose income is over 2 million times that of another. Doesn't capitalism make you sick? RD

GOD AND THE HIGHWAY CODE

The dreadful censorship of the so-called communist party in China and the mind-numbing restrictions of Moslem leaders in the Middle East are often attacked in the Western media but what is not so generally known is the censorship enacted by Christian churches in the so-called free West. "Slovakia's broadcasting regulator Tuesday slapped a two-million-koruna (60,000 euros, 88,400 dollars) fine on a private TV company for mocking the Vatican, a report said. The broadcasting council said a programme screened by commercial station Joj's last year, which mocked Vatican instructions on applying the concept of Christian love to driving, abused viewers' religious sensibilities and was not objective, the CTK agency reported. Priests were "not the best experts" to give guidance on driving since the Vatican possessed "only two kilometres of highway and the last traffic accident was more than half a year ago," the programme mocked." (Yahoo News, 8 January) RD

EVERYTHING HAS A PRICE

One of the craziest aspects of capitalism is its "everything has a price" mentality. Thus an industrial court decides how much the loss of a limb or of an eye is worth in pounds and shillings. Even the loss of a partner in a divorce case is evaluated in money. This news item shows that in Kenya there is even a price put on a murder.
"The price for burning down a home: 500 shillings, or about $8. Double that to have someone hacked to death. The price list comes from a leading Kenyan human rights group that says some of the worst violence in the country's deadly disputed presidential election is the work of militias paid and directed by politicians. The government of President Mwai Kibaki and the opposition have traded blame for the killing and arson that followed Kibaki's victory in the Dec. 27 election that international observers say was followed by a rigged count. Some of the attacks took on an ugly ethnic twist, with other tribes turning on Kibaki's Kikuyu people. But the respected and independent Kenyan Human Rights Commission says there is more to it, and that it appears to involve politicians from both sides." (Yahoo News, 12 January) RD

THE MADNESS OF CAPITALISM

The vast amounts of wealth spent on weapons is staggering as this recent news item illustrates.
"The United States has agreed in principle to provide Israel with better "smart bombs" than those it plans to sell Saudi Arabia under a regional defence package, senior Israeli security sources said on Sunday. Keen to bolster Middle East allies against an ascendant Iran, the Bush administration last year proposed supplying Gulf Arab states with some $20 billion in new weapons, including Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) bomb kits for the Saudis. The plan has angered Israel's backers in Washington, who say the JDAMs, which give satellite guidance for bombs, may one day be used against the Jewish state or at least blunt its power to deter potential foes. Israel has had JDAMs since 1990 and has used them extensively in a 2006 offensive in Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government dropped its objections to the proposed Saudi deal in July after securing U.S. military aid grants worth $30 billion over the next decade." (Yahoo News, 13 January)
The bombs may indeed be "smart" but those supporting such a system are very foolish indeed! RD

SWEET FOR WHOM?

"Near what remains of the first sugar factory in Brazil, built in 1877 with a sign in Latin over the entrance that translates as “Sweet is the Reward of Work,” Danuza Gomes da Silva swings a glinting knife as she makes her way down the length of a field cutting cane. She bends to slice the sticks of young cane dropped by other workers from the top of a truck. Again and again she straightens. A band of 12 labourers like her plants about 10 acres a day. Sugar cane buds easily from the ploughed furrows, and it grows fast. But the work associated with it is hard. Danuza, round-faced and soft-eyed, makes between $8 and $13 a day depending on her productivity. At 35, she has four young children. Only 20 percent of the 7.5 million acres planted with sugar cane in Brazil is mechanized. The rest depends on manual labour like hers. ....Machines that plant and harvest are slowly spreading across the expanse of Brazilian cane fields. But Danuza’s harsh existence is a reminder that behind the global buzz over Brazil’s cane-based ethanol production — the 21st century’s environment-friendly bio fuel par excellence — lurk enduring social problems. Ethanol, renewable and relatively clean, is lovely. The life of the migrant Brazilian rural worker, finite and hot, is not." (New York Times, 10 January)
Every advance that capitalism makes it does so out of the exploitation of workers like Danuza. RD

CAPITALISM KILLS

6,000 illegal immigrants from Africa to the Canary Isles died or went missing attempting to get work in Europe. Many European governments decry this illegal operation but they are partly to blame for this trade.
"Ale Nodye, the son and grandson of fishermen in this northern Senegalese village, said that for the past six years he netted barely enough fish to buy fuel for his boat. So he jumped at the chance for a new beginning. He volunteered to captain a wooden canoe full of 87 Africans to the Canary Islands in the hopes of making their way illegally to Europe. The 2006 voyage ended badly. He and his passengers were arrested and deported. His cousin died on a similar mission not long afterward. Nonetheless, Mr. Nodye, 27, said he intended to try again. “I could be a fisherman there,” he said. “Life is better there. There are no fish in the sea here anymore.” Many scientists agree. A vast flotilla of industrial trawlers from the European Union, China, Russia and elsewhere, together with an abundance of local boats, have so thoroughly scoured northwest Africa’s ocean floor that major fish populations are collapsing. That has crippled coastal economies and added to the surge of illegal migrants who brave the high seas in wooden pirogues hoping to reach Europe. While reasons for immigration are as varied as fish species, Europe’s lure has clearly intensified as northwest Africa’s fish population has dwindled." (New York Times, 14 January) RD

The Gap Widens ( 4 )

And From the BBC

The rapidly rising incomes of the richest 10% of the population are the major factor contributing to growing inequality in Britain.
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), an independent think tank, the incomes of the top 10% have risen faster than those of the population as a whole since Labour came to power in 1997. And that increase has been particularly concentrated at the very top of the income distribution - among the half million individuals in the top 1% of the income scale.

Between the 1996-97 tax year and 2004-05, the income of the richest 1% grew at an annual rate of 3.1%, compared to 2.3% for the population as a whole, and the income of the top 0.1% grew by 4.4%. The stock market boom has boosted the income of the rich
The growth was particularly strong in the Labour's first term, where the income of the super-rich grew by 8% per year. The IFS suggests that the rising stock market between 2005 and 2007 may have further boosted the income of the rich - a view confirmed by the 20% increase in the wealth of those in the Sunday Times rich list in 2007.

In contrast, those at the bottom of the income distribution - and especially the poorest 15% of households - saw their income go up at below-average rates, and in some cases even fell.

"It seems there are two interesting phenomena, at either end of the income scale, that are driving trends in overall income inequality" said IFS's Mike Brewer

Overall, the gap between the bottom 10% and the top 10% has widened. The top 10% of individuals in the UK now receive 40% of all personal income, while the bottom 90% receive 60%. The top 0.1% get 4.3% of all income - the highest figure in the UK since the 1930s, and three times as much as they received as a share of income in 1979.

The report says that "income inequality is at its highest level since the late 1940s".

The average income of the top tenth, of £49,950, was double the average income of all taxpayers (£24,769) and triple that of all households (£15,000), one-third of whom pay no tax.
To get into the top 1%, an individual needed an income of £100,000, and to get into the top 0.1%, £350,000. The average income of £155,000, while the top 0.1% of taxpayers had an average income of £780,000.

WHO ARE THE VERY RICH?
Male: 90%
Middle-aged: 80%
Live in London/SE: 70%
Work in finance, property, accountancy, law: 60%
Average income: £785,000
Source: IFS, top 0.1% of GB taxpayers, 2004/5

yet again another bunch of bankers

Just how does all those bank losses bear on the rich rewards that bankers are accustomed to ? Well , for the minions of Merrill Lynch , the investment bank , not very much , at all .

This according to The Independent

Despite plunging $8.6 billion into the red , and writing off a further $14.1bn of its investments in mortgage-backed debts, taking the total write-downs to $22bn and making it Wall Street's biggest loser since the mortgage market collapsed in the summer Merrill Lynch could still pay its executives an average pay of $353,089 per employee and an average bonus of $211,849, just down only very modestly from the previous year when the figures were $364,940 and $218,957, respectively despite the sub-prime mortgage meltdown .

Stan O'Neal , the ex - chief executive of Merrill Lynch received a retirement package estimated at $160 million .

THE GAP WIDENS (3)

The inequalities of capitalism are worldwide, as this recent example from Peru shows.
"Kicking a football around a dusty lot, Judin Quicano looks like any other boy of four. But stand him against a standard growth chart and he is almost a head shorter than he should be at his age. ...Health officials say he is among nearly 30% of Peruvian children in his age group who suffer from chronic malnutrition. The figure rises to 90% in such places as Lliupapuquio, a village in Apurimac department in Peru's heavily Indian southern Andes where Judin lives. The picture is similar in neighbouring Bolivia and Ecuador. What makes the stunting of children's lives and bodies more shocking in Peru's case is that the country is enjoying a boom. The GDP expanded by 8.3% last year alone, and is some 45% bigger today than it was in 2001 ... Although governments have increased spending on social programmes, they have done little to improve their effectiveness. In Apurimac, majors complain of duplication, corruption and lack of local control. But the bigghest problem is that economic growth is not reaching many parts of the Andes. Official figures put poverty in Apurimac at 74.8 in 2006, having increased slightly since 2004." (Economist, 10 January) RD

THE GAP WIDENS (2)

An example of how the gap between rich and poor is growing in China can be seen from the wealth enjoyed by the capitalist class in that country.
"In early December, Beijing's in-crowd converged on the central business district for the opening of the Kunlun gallery. Sipping Veuve Clicquot and Mumm champagne, the real estate tycoons, stock market warriors, and Prada-clad celebrities gawked at Ming Dynasty Buddhist statuary and 15th century scroll paintings. Four Tibetan art works eventually fetched $3.4 million and, at a follow-up auction eight days later, 87 pieces of Buddhist art netted $10.4 million." (Yahoo News, 11 January) RD

THE GAP WIDENS

The gap between rich and poor widens as capitalism develops, so it should come as no surprise that China is experiencing just such a gap. "Beijing wants to give the impression of a "harmonious society", yet the gap between rich and poor is growing. With food-price inflation nudging 20 per cent, some fear protests. The heavy, grey pollution that squats like a toad over the capital has caused the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, to talk of delaying the marathon. The government's confidence seems brittle. The dissident writer Hu Jia was arrested for "subverting state authority" in late December. Hu Jia sees the problems of the poor, those affected by environmental problems and people with Aids as indivisible, and this government cannot abide anyone who joins the dots. A new decree banning all but state-owned video-sharing sites will hit those showing any anti-government footage."
(New Statesman, 10 January) RD

CHINESE BOOMING DEATH RATE

"Accidents in China's notoriously dangerous coal mines killed nearly 3,800 people last year, state media reported Saturday — a toll that is a marked improvement from previous years, but still leaves China's mines the world's deadliest. A total of 3,786 were killed in mining accidents in 2007 — 20 percent lower than the 2006 toll, indicating the effectiveness of a safety campaign to shut small, illegal mining operations and reduce gas explosions, the Xinhua News Agency quoted the head of China's government safety watchdog as saying. Coal is the lifeblood of China's booming, energy-hungry economy. The mining industry's safety, which has never been good, has often suffered as mine owners push to dig up more coal to take advantage of higher prices." (Yahoo News, 12 January)The development of capitalism in China has led to more deaths amongst the working class. Surprise, surprise? RD

POOR AND DESPERATE

Men and women because of poverty are forced to work for wages. Inside Europe and North America they have to do as they are told by their masters, to turn up on time to be respectful and if asked to do so cringe, but it is even worse for our African comrades.
"Last year roughly 31,000 Africans tried to reach the Canary Islands, a prime transit point to Europe, in more than 900 boats. About 6,000 died or disappeared, according to one estimate cited by the United Nations." (New York Times, 14 January)
Men and women of the working class are dying to be exploited. Let us get rid of this mad society. 6.000 died last year, how many this year? RD

PROGRESSING BACKWARDS

In a sane society technological advances would be looked upon as a step forward for humanity, but we don't live in a sane society we live in capitalism. Simon Caulkin the Management Editor of the Observer reveals some alarming outcomes of such technical progress.
"More than half of all UK employees - 52 per cent - are now subject to computer surveillance at work, according to research from the Economic and Social Research Council's "Future of Work" programme. That's a remarkable figure, and it has lead to a sharp increase in strain among those being monitored - particularly white-collar administrative staff. ... Substantial pay rises for most managers contrast with static or even declining wages for low-end computer-monitored workers, who are working harder, and longer hours, into the bargain." (Observer, 13 January) RD

PROPHETS AND PROFITS

The future of global warming is a complex subject, but many experts believe the growth of carbon emissions could lead to disaster. One of the supporters of that notion is the World Bank with its various schemes to halt or lessen these emissions, but their difficulty is that they also support the profit system so they are left in a contradictory position.
"The World Bank has emerged as one of the key backers behind an explosion of cattle ranching in the Amazon, which new research has identified as the greatest threat to the survival of the rainforest. Ranching has grown by half in the last three years, driven by new industrial slaughterhouses which are being constructed in the Amazon basin with the help of the World Bank. The revelation flies in the face of claims from the bank that it is funding efforts to halt deforestation and reduce the massive greenhouse gas emissions it causes. Roberto Smeraldi, head of Friends of the Earth Brazil and lead author of the new report, obtained exclusively by The Independent on Sunday, said the bank's contradictory policy on forests was now clear: "On the one hand you try and save the forest; on the other you give incentives for its conversion." (Independent on Sunday, 13 January) RD

CAPITALISM BRINGS DESTRUCTION

The history of capitalism is one of death and destruction. Thus the English enclosure acts decimated the agricultural population, the Highland Clearances replaced generations of clans with sheep, the indigenous population of the USA were robbed and murdered, the aborigines of Australia were killed like vermin and now in South America the same pattern emerges."These are the Yanomami; a group of just under 30,000 indigenous people who live in one of the most remote and mysterious regions of the Amazon, a Portugal-sized area of almost pristine jungle, straddling the border between Brazil and Venezuela. For thousands of years the Yanomami have inhabited the region living in an almost identical way, hunters and gatherers, bound by age-old traditions and isolated from the modern world, deep in the world's largest tropical rainforest. But for how long? In the 1980s, some 40,000 illegal wildcat miners poured into the Yanomami's ancestral lands in search of gold. ... According to some sources, before the government expelled the miners in 1992, up to 20% of the Yanomami people died in just seven years. Now the Indians fear history may be about to repeat itself. At the end of last year, the indigenous rights NGO Survival International reported that hundreds of illegal miners - known in Brazil as garimpeiros - were again flocking into Yanomami lands. Activists fear that the miners are likely to unleash a new wave of destruction in the region; bringing violence, alcoholism, disease and prostitution to the region's virtually untouched indigenous villages." Sunday Herald, 13 January) RD

School exam cheats

Soicialist Courier has previously drawn attention to the inequities of the education system that provided for the more privileged sections rather than the poorer students . We now discover that built into the school examination system was a system of appeals procedure against low grades that favoured those who attended larger independents and comprehensives in wealthy suburbs, as opposed to those in deprived or sparsely populated areas.

Thousands of pupils from leading state and independent schools across Scotland were apparently given artificially inflated exam qualifications through a controversial computerised appeal system. Under the scheme, which was scrapped last year, Standard Grade and Higher exam results at certain schools were automatically upgraded without being separately checked by officials at the Scottish Qualifications Authority. New SQA figures reveal that in 2007, when these exam appeals were manually checked for the first time in 15 years, a large proportion were rejected demonstrating that a sizeable number of previous upgrades were questionable. Schools with small class sizes or those where only a handful of pupils were predicted A passes were not eligible. Therefore, bright pupils who just fail to meet their predicted grades from these schools would not be automatically uplifted. Five out of the 10 schools with the most derived grades were private, with George Watson's College in Edinburgh topping the list and Hutchesons' Grammar in Glasgow coming second. Two comprehensive schools from East Renfrewshire, Williamwood High School in Clarkston and St Ninian's in Giffnock, also had a high number of derived grades.

Christina McKelvie, SNP MSP and a member of the Scottish Parliament's education committee, said: "This change in the appeal rate shows the SNP was right to demand the end of the derived grades system which was seen to clearly favour pupils in better-off areas or in private education..."

John Milligan, a science teacher from Sutherland who was responsible for starting a campaign to end derived grades, said the figures vindicated his position. "It was was already hard enough for pupils from poorer areas to overcome hurdles in their path and this system supported that..."

CRISIS, WHAT CRISIS?

The newspapers are full of foreboding about a possible economic slump and cite mortgage re-possessions and credit card debt, but this only applies to members of the working class. As usual the owning class are still rolling in it.
"If the economy is about to hit a rough patch, there was scant evidence of it at the opening day of the Collins Stewart London Boat Show at the Excel exhibition centre in Docklands. Sunseeker, a company based in Poole, Dorset, has the most expensive boat on sale, an £11.5m super yacht (anything over 24 metres is a super yacht) moored outside the hall. The Sunseeker 37 has three decks and four guest berths. It has a professional galley, room for a dozen people to sit around a walnut dining table, two lounge areas and a huge sundeck. Robert Braithwaite, who runs the company, said the firm has sold 10 and that anyone wanting to buy one would now have to wait until 2011." (Guardian, 12 January) RD