Saturday, July 13, 2013

13/7/2013: The Moral failure of Irish policy exposed

This post by @happybeingme70
http://alexslye.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/my-response-to-minister-reilly/
is simply superb.
It is poignant, powerful, full of dignity and on-target. Read it, spread the word about it.

3 comments:

Brian O' Hanlon said...

Constantin, have you read any of Larry Lessig's work? Bill Moyers did a conversation with Lessig recently, on PBS, which is worth a view, . . . especially in relation to similar problems that we have in Ireland, . . . and this whole thing of keeping political machinery funded all of the time.

Lessig and Moyers discuss revolving doors, of different types, and commented very interestingly on one particular ex. lobbyist (who spent time in prison), in Washington's 'K street'. What was very interesting, was how cheaply that Senatorial staffers could be bought over by lobbyists. That is described in detail in the interview.

When one listens to it, it reminds one of pieces that one reads in the news every day now in Ireland - and for a very long time also, going back several decades.

I mean, its not so much about 'voting with/against conscious', or voting with/against one's constituents.

It's about the number of legislation hours that aren't spent on things remotely relevant to most ordinary citizens. Its about what's not even on the agenda.

I think, it was Lessig in the interview (para-phrasing someone else), that described political parties as gigantic tele-marketers, . . . spending four hours each day, just bringing in donations to get re-elected.

I've listened to TV3 VB show etc, for a long, long time, . . . and the strange thing about it, I've never once seen an episode with someone like Lessig's depth of analysis on the shows.

TrueEconomics said...

The reason, Brian you will never hear such honesty of opinion on Irish TV is our laws on defamation. We do not have true freedom of speech. We have a system of oblique discourse that keeps dragging feet around the core argument without naming names and without identifying the core problems.

Brian O' Hanlon said...

Constantin,
At a certain 'level' that may be true at a national level within a state such as Ireland.

But however, it still doesn't address things which are on-going, and really happening in much, much, much larger societies and states, than ours.

For instance, a country like United States, Canada, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, France or wherever. What I am talking about, is how 'skills' possessed by individuals go so quickly out of data nowadays, compared to what they did in the past. It seems nowadays, that whatever one learns as post-high school stages, at third level, will not last one much longer than the bare decade or so, having graduated with a basic level cert or diploma, or degree.

So, what we are witnessing in the most recent decade, is a huge clamouring amongst the workforce in both the private and the public sector, . . . to move out of their entry level positions as fast as possible (where they skills are nearly out of date in a few years), and into some sort of management position. I.e. A management role or position, where one can 'get off' the skills re-training thread mill altogether.

And what we see in both private institutions like banks, public sector permanent and elected state arms, agencies, governments, . . . local, national, regional, . . . are people who are afraid of their lives of getting ejected out of management positions, and getting put back into 'general population', where they will be expected to become productive again (i.e. back on that skills re-training thread mill).

I mean, you look at the game nowadays, get to management, earn enough of a nest egg very quickly, to last you when you are ejected, and spend the rest of one's life (retirement from executive positions at 40 or 50), on some pension or something.

I notice this very much myself, in education of late. How out of date, anything I might have learned on my initial 'tour' through third level was. The only antidote to that, is to get oneself off the skills and training thread mill, and pack and stack the economy in both public/private sectors, with management level, non-productive personnel, . . . to avoid this whole 'gone over sell-by-date' spectre. This is what's happening on a global level. Millions of people finding themselves in adulthood with no marketable skills at all, if they haven't gained a life raft somewhere in management (and by adulthood, I mean, a decade or two after graduation).

Yeah, we can keep on re-training adults, . . . but the numbers for doing that, really don't stack up. And this has very little, or if very un-specific to any certain country, Ireland or otherwise. It's a global phenomenon now.

? ? ? ? Who here in Ireland is actually working to understand this global-level problem ? ? ? ? ?

It's a huge market opportunity. But what are we doing about it ?