Monday Moaning: Home Economics!

Monday Moaning: Home Economics!

Now I did not see this coming as I intended to do a small post about what kind of economics we have created. How twisted and crazy the set minimum has changed. So it turns out some of the biggest leaders in different sectors have been evading taxes.

At the same time I will have to apologize for the upcoming text as it might suggest that women should stay home. Not to mention that the situation I will be talking about has been created by men.

I might have taken the title to talk about the economics at home. Families with children and how the economics created around it is as alost to direct women back to their chores at home. Carefully treading here to say that we have created this environment and society. A community that has been walking on thin and slippery ice. Let me move on.

Talking about the stay at home mum. Or dad these days. Though it can’t be done for some reason. It is due to lack of money none  of the parents can permit to stay at home. And if one does the poverty is just around the corner.

Listening to his statement you might be tilting your head sideways and ask what the hell I am talking about. How could it be that hard. Poverty only sets in when one of the parents doesn’t work.

Could it be that alone is enough to have lots of questions marks hovering over one’s head. Let me take you down memory lane. My own youth in some way and I think some of the 60’s and 70’s children would remember this as well.

There was a time, and it sound like the beginning of one of my stories.

There was a time where mums all over the country were able to stay at home and take care of their children. See I didn’t use must. And while the hubby was away the family was happy and pretty much able to get by. That time to, there was something called upper class and lower class but it was doable for those families with just a husband working hard.

Food was reasonably priced so families were able to get by when they had good smarts and I have to say a lot of families did compared to these days. It was a given and something like a remnants of the old days. Because more women in that time started working when there either were no children or they were old enough to stay at home alone. Other women relied on their eldest to take care of the smallest just for the little extras.

Nowadays when parents do have a career and kids one of which is most likely working to pay for day care or a babysitter. Because they do not want to throw away their growth opportunities within the company. After all it is all about making name for yourself and climb up the career ladder.

Will not say I is a bad thing just like to share a view of mine in what we have created in the past years.

If one has two salaries one would automatically think that the family is better of. But the truth is different.

One salary of minimum income –about a 1600 a month- pretty much goes to day care if the child is younger than 4 years old. Taking, that school starts at that age. In the end one still remains with a single salary to pay bills and buy food. On average a day care for a month is about 1000 cash and up. If it were only 3 days a week one still would have to put up around 600. Give or take.

And this is where the kicker starts. With a near 1600 a month one is pretty much hovering close to the limit that has been set for poverty. This is us the lower working class I am talking about.

How hard could it be to get by on might ask. Either a mum stays home and have the 1600 a month or both work and may have 3200 a month in the end alf is spend on daycare. Leaving with the same 1600. Not to mention that time management might also have you pay for after school activities.

This is the economic situation we have created. And then I am not even talking about some countries how have benefits for the lower class.

It should not be the case that a family of two working parents are still struggling or only just getting by like we did 40 years ago. Other factors also say that food has gotten more expensive. And the latest of economic disasters did not help at all. Again due to that the job market also crashed.

Troubling working parents all over the country, where they need that extra bit of cash.

Clearly this is what has been created by us men. As the economics regiment is a majority of men though I think a mum can handle money way better.

Our greed for more money may have created a response or wave across the financial world that is stopping our growth and not help us te best way possible. While we earn more we can spend more, bu companies will just use that as an excuse to make things more expensive.

Rent and mortgages have become to high, Food that is only getting more expensive.

Now let us really get freaky.

One would almost think we are better off not have any kids. And a good theorist or conspiracies believer would suggest that it is a way by the government to have less so we do not overpopulate the world or just the country.

Is our world purely revolving around making money. Leaving those who want to raise a family behind and burn the bridge to the other side.

Silly right.

One can say many things. I think it remarkable how we have changed so little over the years. We do as I we want women to have a career but at the same time we make it damn hard for them to even make a living. The masks of society and our community aren’t showing any cracks as we just carry one believing it is for the best.

Though I think we need to change more. If it is what we believe then women should not work for day care alone. They should be able to also have a family on the same terms as men. No way should we force women who want  a career to stay without child or family. Because if we ask men how they would do it, their response is they have women for that.

I know this is just a rambling of a crazy Crow. But my parents may have struggled with just one salary. I ended up having a good live knowing what it means to have a little less than others. These days I see parents with two salaries struggling even more. And a single salary family heading over to the food banks so they can have a little it to give to their children.

Times have changed and arguable whether it has been for the better?

Let me know what you think of our situation.

Best Wishes
Ranting Crow

Monday Moaning: Illusive Money!

Monday Moaning: Illusive Money !

In ancient times we had no money, we traded livestock or other crops if we wanted something. It was bright idea of someone to create what these days is called a bank. Giving a coin and getting a pice of paper back that stated you had one coin in the bank. And that piece of paper being used to pay a baker. And before we knew it paper money is born.

But where did and when did we decide to create money as money. Who started giving trinkets for a goat. Or even as we done in southern America to give marbles for gold. Just seeing these examples already creates unfair exchange and thus giving different value to the same thing.

When it is created out of thin air it is in the first place an illusion. Yet we put a great deal of faith in it. It has become important if not the most important thing to have these days. And if one would think it stops there, one is mistaken. Even today money is printed and created as if it always have existed. Out of thin air money is created so that bank stay upright and are able to spend money.

Money that was never there in the first place.

Why do we put so much faith in something that isn’t real. Created from thin air. And polluting minds as it is. Because everywhere around us we hear and see its use. You have to have it. ANd the more you have the more you can do and the more power one has.

Though those with the most money are the ones sitting on it and causing the national banks to create more. So that the smaller man can invest and use it till it reaches the same old fart sitting on his money again. It is becoming a vicious circle that leads to some kind of doom scenario. Yeah I know it is thinking the worst of things. But the latest recession was real. Caused by banks that used money that was not there in the first place. Just some smart book keeping.

he same as when we print new money and divide it among banks.

But back to the ones sitting on money. Those with the most of money like to spend little as possible. While those with no money like to have some to spend and buy to become like those with money.

It is clear that money has become a symbol of status.

Now why would I even write all this about money? Well it has become clear that we the normal people have become nothing more than what money used to be.

It is said we live in a corporate and market society. That the market that is build on money with money only to make money. That would suggest that we as individuals are good for only one thing. Being to spend money. We have become the livestock to be traded between markets.

Commercials used to introduce us to new things to buy. And like sheep walk behind what is the trend.

It is harsh to even see myself as some kind of dumb as sheep. But the truth being that if I do no follow I am being left behind like some crazy ass cow.

So what does this economy make us out to be? Are we truly consumers or are we just ding as what the markets wants us to be. It is eerie to think we are guided like a donkey following a carrot. Except for us it is a dollar bill.

We look up and see the wealthy and want to be like them. And yet the market gets more expensive costing us more money so we never end up with enough to even come close to what we aspire. I know some do and are able to crawl from the pits. but what does become of them when they do. they are like the market. creating opportunities to make even more money.

As a company grows they need more money to exist in the first place. So in terms they want more and more just like the big guns.

How is that we created a vicious circle from nothing.

Now I am not much of an economic student, nor have I studied any. And I get the fact that economics should not be like a pyramid but more like a circle But what I see is that the situation is like a pyramid or multiple ones. And it rains money once in a while when it is decided o print some more. Use a smart bookkeeping trick to make it work in the books and send the money to the bottom of the pyramid only to end up top again.

The saying is that money must rock and roll and be used but that also means by the bigger guns. But they have so much they only spend a small portion. Never enough to make all the money flow and keep on flowing.

It is the illusion we call money. A means to a certain end we never thought through. As the end is a pit where the money is stuck. So print some more out of thin air.

I do not have an answer, I am just stomped. Knowing full well that if by any change we take away the money we have nothing left and everything will collapse. We will be lost with it. Lost without a piece of paper or plastic. Lost without the air it is made of. That is how much importance the market society has made it. That is how much we are addicted to what we created.

Are these crazy ass conspiracy theories? Maybe but how crazy were we to think this up how smart was one of us to come up with this idea. How was it possible for land owners who just claimed it was theirs to begin with ask rent for something that wasn’t theirs to begin with. Theories made by a an who just likes to think. create ideas and possibilities. Not saying I am right, but who would say I am wrong.

Time has blurred away the truth behind all this and all we are left with is what we have today. And to most that is money. Money being the only truth they see, know and can touch.

And last question. What if money only become digital? How much is a bit worth? How much would we make it worth when we can’t touch it anymore. Returning it to the illusion it was to begin with.

Monday Moaning: Butchering Industry!

Monday Moaning: Butchering Industry!

I use Monday to moan, blowing of a little steam about our worldly issues. But are they as worldly as we think. Does it show through enough the problems we cause. I talked about what advertisement and how smart they are to make us think how much better on product is to the former one. How a simple name change can make us think just that. Food production and how we need to eat more organic while every veg pretty much has undergone some change.

But than there is also mass production, we all know of it and it is pretty much to keep the prices down. After all when there is to much of it prices go down. When we use cheaper recourses from our planet it becomes even more cheaper. Shall we cut in labour cost it is the cheapest of them all. Just how well does that all work when veggies are mass produced as well and thrown away when it is not eaten. Or used in cheap meals and cans.

Not spending much is something we all look at, More so since wagers have gone down or have been stalled for so long due to a crisis. Now who to blame for the crisis is not even debatable since we all have some say in that. So I am not going to go there.

So cheap is good for our wallet, but how good is it for the economy. Now speculating on some issues might just be a way to think about it. and I for one have done so in the past. As cheap as we produce things still are getting more expensive as raw materials are harder to get or are being controlled. Best example might be oil. Last week a news item suggested that oil was being shipped out to sea till the price is right again to sell it. In large tankers it is just drifting till the price goes up. Unreasonable taxes on boxing materials, like the cardboard for your breakfast crunchiness or the bag for the evening crisps make up for the higher prices. This is said to be some kind of tax to reduce litter and help the environment.

But how much does that help if we produce even more than we can eat or buy. Is it still good for the environment.There is also another issue playing that might be a bigger question to ask. Not sure if it true or not but the speculations of some specialists do not deny it.

Getting your groceries cheap is one thing, even more so when your pay check does not let you buy much in the first place. Not spending a lot is the best option. What I am going to suggest here has to do with a job I used to do 20 years ago. And it is in that same time I seen the industry change. It covers a large scale of things, like how even the gap between rich and poor gets bigger. Sounds silly right.

I used to be a butcher and loved doing what I did. It was a skill at the time I learned it. And old fashioned job you will. That slowly got taken over by mass production. The meat wars have started.
Keeping it cheap means getting a lot of it made ready for consumption. Now if it took around 4 hours to completely get the bone from the cow when doing it alone. It got shortened to a single hour. by simply adding more people to the line with less to do and a lower pay rate. One bone each and te cow flew through the system. still getting more expensive I might add. As prices pretty much have doubled in these years as well.

The meat industry still has a lot of hands on work but the skill need is nothing more than that of a single bone all day every day. Producing faster to keep prices as low as they can. My expertise has become obsolete. And in many other industries you see machines taking over jobs, because they can do it faster and thus produce more while only one person keeps it in check. It does make one think that my diploma and expertise is used to say I am to expensive to be put on  a line. And small time butcher can’t compete with the prices of a supermarket. Yet people are out there on the street not making money.

Not having it and buying mass produced products that cost less to make and only make the big guns of that company richer. But what we cannot spend means more gets thrown away and prices will go up. No job I no money. No money means we can’t buy. What we can’t buy need not to be made. When it isn’t made it need less people to make it. Less people with a job means there are less people that can spend money. And while products gets more exclusive they get more expensive. Making the big guns making money while we cannot spend it.

But back to being a butcher. The meat industry. Would one believe that a leg of a pig would go for less than 1 dollar a kilo. An entire pig is about the same price. The drop has been to an even record low of 40 cents. Still one leg is about 35 kilo or 70 pounds. To get the bone out of there, I would have usual got around 2 dollars each leg and do around 30 an hour. Yeah that raise the price a lot right. For I would make 60 dollars an hour, but than again I would work only 4 hours a day. The other way around is simple. 60 dollars an hour would mean they can have 6 people working for 10 dollars an hour. And cutting up 60 legs an hour.

For your benefit I cannot work the job I learned so hard for. Or else I need to blindly be on a line like a cog in a machine. I understand. It is cheaper that way to produce more. But still the price went up.

Still lets keep a dollar a kilo it s sold for around 4 to 5. And worse most pigs are sold in central Europe so slaughter houses in western Europe can up their rate. So they can kill more, produce more and make more money. This is an industry that uses mafia practises to claim a better deal. The chicken industry is pretty much the same. because what we cannot do here we can do elsewhere. And again there is a shift in where one can work, and how cheap it has become, while we still pay a normal price for our meat and veggies.

When will we stop producing more than we can eat and still have normal price for the food we eat. Does it ever occur to us that we are killing our own economics and opportunity. That we ourselves are the cause for the gap getting bigger between the corporate world and those who need to work. This endless circle of making money spending money making products will collapse if we keep going on using faster and cheaper ways by eliminating human labour cost. While the meat industry can use 6 instead of one, other industries can use none rather than 10. The question is do we need that much food if we know we sell it cheap elsewhere to the price stays high here. If we know the box our cereal is in is more expensive than the cereals due to tax. If we know veggies are thrown away if it is not sold. Do we need so much food.

This is one side of a story of what this corporate world s coming to. A small tip of a mountain pile of money getting lost in a bin or in the pocket of the corporations. If we do not have money to spend how can we than make money if less needs to be produced. What way will we turn this carousel. Are we on the right track, or did we loose sight of what truly is important.

Ooh well what the fuck right. cheap is good. Who needs professionals/craftsman, they are a dying breed after all.  Did you know there is a shortish as well for professionals and craftsmen. Since less and less of the youth would choose a craft or skill.

Monday Moaning: Deflating Economics!

Monday Moaning Deflating Economics

Last week I got really angry at some high placed guy at the European bank. I mean for real. It was just a stab at the economy and pretty much kill it, if you ask me.

Now the argument that he lowered the interest rate again to a 0,05% is a good thing as it will stimulate the economy and people to get a loan again. And thus spending more money, which again is a good thing.

Now the other reason concerns me and got me angry.

They are and were afraid of the low inflation rate. I mean serious, they are concerned about the fact the inflation was LOW.

A simple understanding teaches us that inflation is making money less worth or products more expensive. Now if we know that. How can we, or better as he said, why should we be concerned when that doesn’t happen. What is wrong if money keeps its value? What’s wrong with product staying the same price?

We already had 100% inflation in the past 15 years. We already saw our milk becoming twice as expensive or bread or gas for that matter. Next to that the money we are getting for our jobs did not raise that much. So getting less money but having to pay twice, plus the economic difficulties we are enduring already made the gap between rich and poor bigger. Do we truly need more inflation to where the poor are even worse off if they cannot pay for their food? Or other products for that matter.

Do we really want more inflation than we are already getting? What kind of world economics demands more inflation? Have we built that much on loans and interest? Does everything only revolve around what we earn from interest? If that is true and we want more inflation so we can raise our interest rates have we not abandoned some fundamentals a honest world. Should we teach our children that the world turns and is built on what we have lend and loaned.

All that money on our banks in our pockets is money we pay interest over. That money is not ours. We are merely lending it. Everything we do is done with money from another country. While other countries do things with money we loaned them.

Not a single country or most likely most country are not even capable of sustaining themselves, because of that.

We want more inflation? Since when? How can someone say that on international television while he is appointed to safe guard the money of the countries, Cold hard cash earned over the back of millions and just seen as meaningless. How can one say that knowing full well it will just widen the gap between rich and poor.

The less we have to spend, the fewer products are made. The fewer made the less people we need to work to make it. The fewer people who would make an honest wager to spent on products.

This economy is sustaining itself by upping and lowering rates and not thinking about the people who can spent the money. Not to forget we get more machines to do our work to produce more keep cost low. But if I am not working I do not have the money to buy it. And if the inflation causes money to be worth less that my dollar won’t even buy me a loaf of bread.

Now I have not studied economics so it may not entirely be as bleak as I make it sound. And maybe I am just a fool for not understanding. But I do understand that this is not the way to keep on going.

To say we need higher inflations is stupid in every way since those struggling would only struggle more.

Now there is a second concern as some economics have said that since China stopped building so much steel and concrete demand has dropped 15% worldwide. This obviously will be felt by those providing the product and thus will most likely sell at a cheaper price to downsize the stock. So those economics who keep an eye out on worldly economics also say a worldwide deflation is going to happen.

Is it really a bad thing? What is wrong if the people with the most money have a deflating wallet. The thing is we rarely lower prices overall. Sure we do for steel, Concrete or grain. But bread is not getting any cheaper for the people who are buying it.

Have we not exploited the economy enough or the people really? To support those who only want more. Isn’t it a bit ridiculous that we thrive on the loans we have instead of our own hard work? Funny to see we rather get rich lazy than being a fair worker. That we still need these hard working people to help those lazy, who just earn interest by having the working class needing loans.

It is all about the money. And never about the people. It makes me sad to think a human life is worth so little.
Beginning to look like the saying: money stinks, is becoming true. That within the world of economics nothing is done to make it fair for everybody. That it is one way trafficking of money. Those who have money can make money by lending it out. Pretty simple thinking I know but true.

In a time not so long ago that was called loan sharking. And was considered a criminal act. Sure maybe the rates are more normal, but who makes the rates? Somewhere along the line in history we made a dive or took a wrong turn. And all we are doing now it trying to fix it with some patching. Hope we find a real solution one day. But what do I know right, I  have not studied economics, all I know is that the money in my pocket is gone ten times faster these days.

Just another Monday Moaning rant by me
Best wishes
Ranting Crow

Monday Moaning! Economics of Science

Monday Moaning,

I write these rants, not as a scientist or economist. I write them with the use of my own brain and what it can comprehend at the time. Surely I do not hold the answers to any problems but it is nice to throw them up and have people talk about them. To think for oneself is a must in a climate where we let too much come from corporate thinking.

I am calling it corporate thinking as it is thoughts brought along after research of a corporation or business. And that thought or idea is than projected on many people to spread the word. So we are all facing in one direction and do not want to look back again.

That is where a bit of my science etcetera comes in. I think we look to far forward all the time. We are always trying to solve or fix problems by creating new helpful machines. All we can think of is how we can make things easier and life longer. Make a machine to fix our mistakes or issues we have on this planet.

We are trying to cut down our CO2 and are creating ways to get rid of it or use it in another way. But in the same time our hunger for plastic products and other consumer products is growing. Soon as we can stop ourselves from wanting more and creating more we can maybe stop having so much CO2 getting in the air. Just a thought. We are always fixing what we broke or ruined. But we are fixing it with more creations.

Should we not go back to the source of the problem? Instead of repairing what we are causing with a creation. Again these are my assumption and maybe simple thinking. But to see sea gulls cut open and have stomachs full of plastic caps, pieces of bag or even lighters. We have to wonder if we are not going the wrong way with our plastic consumption. And need for even more.

That is than involving the economic side of things. Because let us face it. If we need or want less (commercials make you want more) factories have to be shut down. Prices go up of items when there are produced less. Simple economics. But those who think things will get cheaper should also know our natural resources do not last for much longer. And when resources go down the price goes up just the same.

So at this moment we are just keeping prices artificially low. But it is not working for our planet or our environment. It is very simple thinking. But that is because I am not a scientist or economy specialist.

We are the only species on this planet who create an artificial world we have to adapt to. We do not use nature we alter it and get used to our own creations. Instead of working with nature we work against it because we believe it does not hold anything for us other than resources.

And it is not too late to clean up our mess. Either we do it ourselves or Mother Nature will do it for us. She is already throwing more tsunamis and tornadoes our way. The number of earthquakes are slightly on the rise or getting bigger. New viruses are being born. Are we still going to fix them with innovations so we can still live. Curing new illnesses or build better buildings again. Or are we going to start respecting our planet and hope we can calm her down.

Just a few thoughts that came to mind this Monday Moaning Morning.

Best Wishes
Ranting Crow