The Jobs Research Website Update June 1999

[vivian Hutchinson]

N E W  N E W  N E W  N E W  N E W  N E W  
on T H E   J O B S   R E S E A R C H   W E B S I T E
---

July 1999

a New Zealand - based internet resource 
for employment action ...

  http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/

Hi, we've updated our website, and you might like to check out 
our latest work!

Take a look at these recent Jobs Letter features now freely
available on the Jobs Research Website ...

* The Big Shift ---Canadian author Bruce O'Hara calls for a shorter 
working week and a two shift workplace and outlines the advantages 
for the workforce, for businesses, for taxation and for domestic 
markets.

http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/jbl09110.htm

* More Work for the Higher Paid --
A Statistics NZ survey shows that higher paid New Zealanders are 
working longer hours just like their overseas counterparts.

  http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/jbl09210.htm

*  Toronto Dollars
by The Jobs Letter editors. Toronto launches a local currency to 
help fund community projects that create work for those who are on 
low incomes, unemployed and homeless.

  http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/jbl09310.htm

*Australian Jobless Trends -- A report from the Australian Bureau 
of Statistics on the state of umemployment. How many Australians 
are out of work, and for how long ?

  http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/jbl08910.htm


*  Oz Jobless Outcomes -- Ross Gittens of the Sydney Morning 
Herald looks at how the new "outcomes"--driven employment 
strategy, "Jobs Network" is working and finds some un-looked for 
results.
. 
  http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/jbl09410.htm


OUR TOP TEN WEBPAGE HITS  
-

1. Internet Hot-Links recommended by our Editors

 http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/hot/hotlinks.htm  

2. Statistics That Matter homepage

 http://www.jobsletter.org.nz /stt/stathome.htm 

3. Co-operation, Collaberation and Co-ordination -- the challenges 
of working together on unemployment and poverty by Vivian  
Hutchinson

 http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/vivian/ccc99.htm

4. Local Employment Co-ordination — What Can a Regional
Commissioner Do? by Jan Francis and Vivian Hutchinson

http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/art/lec99.htm

5.  A Rifkin Reader

http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/art/rifkin01.htm

6.  James K. Galbraith and Global Keynesianism 

 http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/art/artg0002.htm

7. Strategic Questioning by Fran Peavey and Vivian Hutchinson

 http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/vivian/stratq97.htm

8. Vivian Hutchinson on the 1998 Anglican Hikoi for Hope

 http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/vivian/hikoi98.htm

9. Ian Ritchie on Universal Basic Income

 http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/art/ian002.htm

10. Garth Nowland-Foreman on Government and the Civil Society

http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/art/artn0001.htm


STATISTICS FOR THE JOBS RESEARCH WEBSITE 
--
May 1999

Unique Visitors during the month  3,743
Homepage Hits during the month1,867
Total Webpage Hits overall  57,703

[Source -- OpenWebScope Website Statistics] 

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VOLUNTEERS
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"social technology" and global models

[WesBurt]

To: Douglas P. Wilson and friends on several mail lists

In a thoughtful note of 99-07-04 11:42:09 EDT, Douglas P. Wilson 
 wrote, in part:

>> "I use the term social technology to include all social applications of 
technology and all things that we "know how" to do to keep society 
running.  Is that consistent with your use of the phrase?" <<

(WSB: Very much so.  The world turns on such social technology. WSB)

Douglas P. Wilson, again:

>> "I mention this as an incentive to encourage you to write a very
clear summary of your views.  If it is clear enough then I'll try
to make sure the simulator can run it as a model and provide some
evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses.  Does that interest you?"
<<

(WSB: It certainly does interest me, and I will be looking forward to the 
further development of your simulator.  WSB)

As you say, Douglas P. Wilson, the use of biblical references does chill some 
of the audience, but it remains our oldest and best known history book.  The 
Pentateuch, or first five books in the bible, is the only place in the 
literature of Western Civilization where I have been able to find a written 
definition of the financial structure used by American corporations to 
calculate the selling price of their products and services.  Since that part 
of the bible is shared in common by Catholics, Jews, Muslems, and Protestants 
alike it should be possible to research the five books of Moses and discuss 
it in some detail without anybody's nose getting bent out of shape.  

We might wonder, however, how religious teachers from all four faiths could 
omit this bit of interesting knowledge from their teaching for 3,000 years.  
But they say one to another, "Moses commanded us a law for our inheritance, 
it is our inheritance, not theirs."  It is a great loss to all concerned when 
we throw out the baby with the bathwater.   

The excerpt below may shed some more light on my point of view which had its 
origin in the 1940s decentralization program of the General Electric Cmpany, 
which in turn, followed Alfred P. Sloan's financial reorganization of General 
Motors in the 1920s.  From those rather substantial origins, my point of view 
on "social technology" was further refined by my participation in GE's 1953 
new product program to automate the dispatching function on interconnected 
systems of soveriegn electric power companies.  

As you know, the eastern interconnected system covers all of the U.S. and 
Canada, east of Texas, with probably more sovereign corporations within the 
interconnection than there are soveriegn nations in any similar area on 
earth.  Of course, electric power is a unique commodity governed by natural 
laws, but most of that law applies also to the production and flow of all 
commercial commodities produced in industrial nations with an advanced 
division of labor dispatched by a circulating medium of exchange.  A 
particular exception being:  Storage capacity for electric power is quite 
limited in comparison with current consumption, so supply must be kept equal 
to demand in "real time," without the convience of leveling production by 
building to inventory during low demand, and drawing from inventory during 
periods of high demand for the product.

I try to keep in mind, while exploring this subject, the fact that if this 
were not a simple subject, not in its literature of course, but in its 
fundamentals, I would not have been able to formulate such a robust global 
model as is shown at , nor defend 
it as effectively as I do.  Your detailed review of the model was most 
helpful, and sincerely appreciated.

Regards,

WesBurt


 Begin excerpt from a six month old post <<<
Subj:   The Whole Divine Law (Fig7-9b.GIF)
Date:   99-01-03 15:25:38 EST
From:   WesBurt
~~~ Snip ~~
Since the word, CAPITALISM, has been made meaningless by the advocates of 
postmodern relativism, we might find it useful to call our present condition, 
commercial democracy, as Henry Carter Adams did one-hundred and twelve years 
ago.  That is to say, we live in a society that has all of the mechanisms for 
effective democracy still in place, and still in working order, but yet the 
commercial interests exercise an undue influence on public policy, to the 
detriment of the environment and our quality of life.  The closest analogy I 
can think of to illustrate our condition is the biology experiment which 
begins with a stable and healthy colony of laboratory rats.  

Rats, as you know, are in the middle of the obnoxious species continuum, 
somewhat larger than cockroaches but smaller than poor people, and we can 
learn a lot about poor people by experimenting on rats.  Anyway, the 
experiment calls for restricting the rat-colony's living space and reducing 
its daily food supply.  I have never seen the experiment performed, but I 
hear that

FW Monthly Reminder

[S. Lerner]

 *FUTUREWORK MONTHLY REMINDER*
>
>   FUTUREWORK: Redesigning Work, Income Distribution, Education
>
>FUTUREWORK is an international e-mail forum for discussion of how to
>deal with the new realities created by economic globalization and
>technological change. Basic changes are occurring in the nature of work
>in all industrialized countries. Information technology has hastened the
>advent of the global economic village. Jobs that workers at all skill
>levels in developed countries once held are now filled by smart machines
>and/or in low-wage countries.  Contemporary rhetoric proclaims the need
>for ever-escalating competition, leaner and meaner ways of doing
>business, a totally *flexible* workforce, jobless growth.
>
>What would a large permanent reduction in the number of secure,
>adequately-waged jobs mean for communities, families and individuals?
>This is not being adequately discussed, nor are the implications for
>income distribution and education. Even less adequately addressed are
>questions of how to take back control of these events, how to turn
>technological change into the opportunity for a richer life rather than
>the recipe for a bladerunner society.
>
>Our objective in creating this list is to involve as many people as
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FW Please check your posts

[S. Lerner]

I notice that over the weekend we had several posts with problems:
duplicate messages in one case and then a long 'junk' post - just
unintelligible letters and symbols.  It's probably a good idea to check out
your own posts from time to time to catch such problems and remedy them if
possible.

Sally

FW New list of interest (fwd)

[S. Lerner]

>Date: Sat, 3 Jul 1999 02:00:17 -0400 (EDT)
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (ow-watch-digest)
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: ow-watch-digest V2 #129
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Precedence: bulk
>
>
>ow-watch-digest Saturday, July 3 1999 Volume 02 : Number 129
>
>
>
>OW-WATCH-L From Tim Rouke
>
>--
>
>Date: Fri, 2 Jul 1999 11:31:56 -0400
>From: Sherrie Tingley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: OW-WATCH-L From Tim Rouke
>
>- --
>From:  tim rourke[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>
>
>Hi!
>
>Workfare-mincome  is a fairly new list  that was started by people
>concerned about the perversion of social welfare into forced labor that is
>generally called workfare. The exact focus of the list continues to evolve
>but most subscribers are interested in strategies that  can stop workfare,
>which means considering what the alternative to workfare is.
>
>Social programs seem to go through three stages;
>1) The punitive stage of workfare, work houses, and work tests.
>2) The welfare entitlement stage that gives people something to survive on,
>but still sees unemployment as temporary. Assistance usually  inadequate
>and comes with demeaning means tests.
>3) The highest stage of evolution, of simply giving people enough to live
>on and letting them do as they please with their own time. In different
>countries it is called Mincome, Citizen's income, Guaranteed Annual Income
>(GAI), and Basic Income.
>
>The question is then how to stop the regression to workfare and engineer
>the progression to mincome? Many subjects touch on it, from Community Work
>against Institutionalised Poverty, to Labor and Civil Liberties Law, to the
>techniques and aims of Public Opinion Polling. It is a moderated list, but
>no submission will be refused unless it is clearly out in orbit.
>
>This is no longer a list for people who have nothing better to do with
>their time and who want to have pointless debates. It is for serious
>anti-poverty activists who want to exchange useful information and
>experience about how to effectively combat workfare in their own
>communities, and to turn it into adequate incomes for all people.
>
>The list is fairly international, with eight countries represented, but the
>bulk of subscribers presently are in Ontario, Canada.
>
>Try this list out. Unsubbing is even easier that subbing.
>
>To s*bscribe go to
>
> http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/Workfare-Mincome
>
>or e-mail the moderator at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>
>
>
>Information about Ow-Watch-L at:
>http://www.welfarewatch.toronto.on.ca/wrkfrw/welcome.html
>Visit the Workfare Watch Project Website at:
>http://www.welfarewatch.toronto.on.ca/
>
>--
>
>End of ow-watch-digest V2 #129
>**
>

The Servile State

[Thomas Lunde]

Title: The Servile State



Feeling a little rushed for time, I still wanted to share some thoughts of a book called the Servile State by Hilaire Belloc, written in 1912 and suggested by a quote from WesBurt in one of his posting.  I have commented before on how much good writing, I think, was done in the latter part or the 19th century and this falls into that category.  The title is almost a double entre in which there is the servile state on the indivudual level, identified as man who has lost the means of production and is dependent on others to provide him with paid employment and the Servile State, which refers to government which has colluded with business to subvert the democratic process to create the conditions by which the majority is disenfranchised of the means of self sufficiency by a small minority of property holders and landlords.

Some books, like George Orwell's 1984 have become metaphors used to bring to light the loss of freedoms and potentialities of whole populations.  Belloc's book should be included in this genre and quoted and read much more than it is.  The time of 1912 was before the First World War, and just after some of the major "trusts" what we would call monopolies had been curbed after years of accumulation by the titans of the day.  Many of the problems we are dealing with today are similar to problems that existed then.  The accumulation of vast wealth by a few and the poverty and disenfranchisment of the many by employers.  The breakdown of the agricultural peasantry was not yet complete, with 50% of the population still be employed rurally, but the trend had been more and more towards industrialization.  It was in this change that Belloc says the small landowner is being supplanted by capitalists with the collusion of governments to make slaves - a word he uses quite often - of the working class.

Quote:  Page 51

A clear boundary exists between the servile and the nonservile condition of labour, and the conditions upon either side of that boundrary utterly differ one from the other.  Where there is compulsion applicable by positive law to men of a certain status, and such compulsion enforced in the last resort by the powers at the disposal of the state, there is the institution of slavery; and if that institution be sufficiently expanded the whole state may be said to repose upon a servile basis, and is a servile state.

Where such formal, legal status is absent the conditions are not servile; and the difference between servitude and freedom, appreciable in a thousand details of actual life, is most glaring in this:  that the free man can refuse his labour and use that refusal as an instrument wherewith to bargain; while the slave has no such instrument or power to bargain at all, but is dependent for his well-being upon the customs of society, backed by the regulation of such of its laws as may protect and guarantee the slave.

This following quote is a clear example of Belloc's idea of slavery.  Without posting the whole article, it seems that a number of welfare recipients were "forced" to take jobs due to changes in the US Welfare laws and after working for 6 months as part of a government program were hired by the firm.  As the firm experienced financial difficulties, the welfare workers "slaves of one bureaucracy" were replaced by "slaves of another bureaucracy" which was enforced by laws of the state.


Atlanta Journal-Constitution

06-19-1999, Page A1

Prisoners 'hired,' so ex-welfare clients fired;
Free convict labor means trash sorters are recycled out of a job.

To save money, a struggling South Georgia recycling plant fired workers
hired off welfare to sort trash for $5.25 an hour. They were replaced with
free convict labor, bypassing a Georgia law that prohibits prisoners'
taking the place of paid employees. 

The concept of Workfare - which is anything but fair, is another instance of government sponsored slavery in which a welfare recipient can be required to work without being able to "bargain" or withhold his/her labour by laws backed up by the powers of the State.

But, it is more pervasive even than these blatant abuses.  I will relate an antecdote.  A friend of my daughters related how after 20 years of long distance truck driving, he decided to retrain himself.  After two years of Tech college, he attained certification as a System Technician with a great amount of hard work and considerable expense and sacrifice from his family.  After searching for a job for over 6 months, he was "offered" a contract which is basically - if you want it - take it or we will find someone else, for $13.50 per hour Canadian which would be the equivalent of about $8.50 American - now it is true that he can refuse his labour, one of Belloc's conditions, but the second condition - to be able to use that refusal to bargain with his perspective employer is basically denied to him due to the job market surplus's.  Secondly, if he is on any kind of government assistance p

Re: Media / Oral Literacy

[Thomas Lunde]

--
>From: Robert Rosenstein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

> 
> It seems to me that the thrust of all this, if it continues, is away from
> a society in which everybody is (should be) reading and writing literate
> to one in which the overwhelming majority will be culturally-content with
> their daily entertainments (movies, sitcoms, music videos, award shows,
> specials), and manufactured news bits. In such a situation, there will be
> a privatization of knowledge, owned by the few and used for the benefit
> of the few - which is almost the situation, now.

Thomas:

A couple of thoughts on the above paragraph.  Most listening, watching
technologies are time specific.  Though you have mentioned several times the
attribute of being able to listen while doing something else, I would
comment that retention, reflection and musing get lost as the data stream
continues uninterruped.  The minute you take your attention from the TV,
radio or other media, there is no going back to catch what was missed.  It
is much like riding on a train.  As long as you sit at the window looking
out, you can see the current scenery, but you can't replay that which has
just went past, nor recapture that which happened while you glanced away or
left your seat for a minute.  The strength of reading as learning
information medium is that you can go back and re-read or compare with other
information and reflect on the juxtaposition of thought that has been
presented.

Similarly, with speaking.  It is a spontaneous event, unless speaking from
something memorized.  For most people, speaking is not prethought, it is
just a reflex action and the speaker is often surprised or delighted or
ashamed of what came out of his mouth as is the listener.  Also, speaking
limits vocabulary to approx 5000 common words in the language.  While
writing allows a greater vocabulary and language more specifically used.
Writing, focus's the communicator specifically on his message, allows
complex themes to be developed, fosters rational thought and specificity
rather than the generalizations commonly used when speaking.  A large part
of this is dealt with in great depth by Marshal McLuhan and his observations
that TV and radio represent a sensory change from visual (reading and
writing) to an oral society, which most of prehistory and history up until
Guttenburg operated in.  Oral societies are often tribal, ruled by emotion
and passion, foster different lifestyles and focus on different aspects of
reality than a visual society.  According to McLuhan, media shape the
sensorium of individuals and his major theme was that we are creating new
media which is reshaping the majority of the populations sensory intake
which will have the effect of changing society in ways that are totally
different from political philosophy's, economic theories and cultures.

Respectfully,

Thomas Lunde

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