Where Do We Go From Here...?

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Pinga said:
There are countless more examples, big and small. If you refocus on the things that are working, your year will be better than the last.
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"Unable to tolerate the prospect that the cycles of conflict will continue, many are anxious to find continuing improvement in the human lot. Who can fail to sympathize with them? Lacking any deeper faith and incapable of living with doubt, it is only natural that believers in reason should turn to the sorcery of numbers. How else can they find meaning in their lives?"

So do all those 'rights' negate the wrongs?

Far from the watchful eye of the world’s media, war is ravaging Yemen, killing thousands of civilians, and starving and displacing millions more.

This brutal conflict should be in the spotlight, especially in countries that supply arms to Saudi Arabia, which leads the coalition accused of causing most of the civilian deaths. Countries such as Canada.

This year, the Liberal government approved $15-billion in sales of light-armoured vehicles (LAVs) to the Saudi kingdom, a sale that gave this country the dubious honour of being the second-greatest exporter of arms to the Middle East, The Globe and Mail’s Steven Chase reported in June. Earlier versions of Canadian-made LAVS seem to have been used in the war against Houthi rebels in Yemen, The Globe reported in February.

Human-rights groups protested against the sale, but otherwise there has been little public outcry.

Do you agree with the government’s argument for selling the combat vehicles to a country with an abysmal human-rights record because it creates jobs, and if we don’t, someone else will?

Lousy arguments for citizens of a country aiming to be a leader in global freedom.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/yemen-the-war-canada-cant-afford-to-ignore/article31567236/
 
Canada's housing bubble is about to explode... I am picturing the "obscurer" from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

When you're already low income the financial predictions are not scary. Another day another article about the dollar/ yen/ euro. Rents have been too high for years. Ownership not even an expectation anywhere in the plans.
 
We shall see what we shall see ... I too truly hope history proves me wrong.
In the meantime that hope ... equates with responsibility for my own actions.
I have much to do ... fare thee all well.
 
Kimmio said:
Canada's housing bubble is about to explode... I am picturing the "obscurer" from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

When you're already low income the financial predictions are not scary. Another day another article about the dollar/ yen/ euro. Rents have been too high for years. Ownership not even an expectation anywhere in the plans.
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One of the reasons Jesus got on with the poor and not quite so well with the dominant rich.
 
monk said:
We shall see what we shall see ... I too truly hope history proves me wrong.
In the meantime that hope ... equates with responsibility for my own actions.
I have much to do ... fare thee all well.
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Finding the days offer less to do and more to be. Sounds simple. Best to count the cost prior to making the decisive commitment.

Prophets are now pronouncing the call to "repentance" in all places. Power is resisting with increasing vigour. Standing on guard as a citizen is now risky.

Peace be with you and your house...!

George
 
Luce NDs said:
Maybe cos to move into the wood shed and allow the hows to be rented out ...
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Am I immoderate in psyche?

Consider the CTV news feed this morning that by 11:00 AM the financially elite in Canada will have earned more than the national average income! Is this immoderate ... or pressure on the poverty stricken and the bleeding middle class to support 8-10% increase in earnings for the elite?

Is cognizance in the elite a complex issue if they don't know it when in that spot? Thus ND ease ... and we move on ... but the same old story goes on if institutional caste exists ... the psyche doesn't! But don't speak of it truly as those up there will be agitated by Zues-la ... the underlying facts ... troubled pools?
 
Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Michael Pearson is a huge leader in this area (183 million compared to next in line of 26 million). The number is based on total compensation, and the company had some interesting stock drops & rises. The company is under investigation from US Securities and Exchange.
 
Correct, but if you subtract this outlier, which you can essentially do if you step back one year to 2014, when Pearson's salary was 'normal', executive compensation in the top employers of the private sector has increased from 40 times the average worker salary in 1990 to 184 times the average worker salary in 2014. (To add insult to injury, some of this compensation is in the form of stock options, which are taxed at half the rate of 'regular' compensation.)
 
Hmmm. My stock options weren't taxed at half the rate. Interesting. Maybe it depends on the option
 
Ps. I do concur that the low end needs to come up and the to end has issues.

I wonder how they factor in wealth for owners of private firms?
 
Pinga said:
Hmmm. My stock options weren't taxed at half the rate. Interesting. Maybe it depends on the option
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From page 6 of "Throwing Money at the Problem" by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Link here: https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2017/01/Throwing_Money_at_the_Problem_CEO_Pay.pdf

"Right now, income earned through stock options is taxed at half the rate of ordinary income—a tax break that is worth billions to Canadian executives."
 
"George, curious, do you truly believe that there are only extreme possibilities?" Pinga

Never hurts to keep looking at a statement or question. From some angle it may offer an unexpected opportunity.

We have been purposefully engaged with "harnessing" the energy of the natural order. Isaac Asimov, in his "Foundation" trilogy explores this. He proposes that every evolved planetary system is confronted with a nuclear crossroads. Decisions made at that crossroad bear strong implication.

You are well aware that I am not making use of "plain speech". It takes a bit of energy to engage my point of view in this rag tag communion of friends. You ought also be aware that I bear no ill will against any person or association of persons. My quarrel is with the ideas by which persons are led forward along the path of experience.

My bias is for personal responsibility. Thinking is part of my evolutionary repertoire. Used well it serves my hope of survival. Misuse of thinking brings harm and, abuse brings danger. There is no empirical ground for rejecting these categories and their consequence.

Periods of historical crisis have common themes. Looking through history with a critical eye we discover patterns and indicators by which we may direct our processes of decision and determination. All advanced civilizations expressed conspicuous consumption as indication of merit. King Herod and his guests from the Jerusalem temple enjoyed all the indulgences of their political hedonism. Jesus was critical and it cost him. Willing to pay that price Jesus inspired resistance. A liberating alternative was made manifest.

Far too many are encouraging the unthinking population to an attitude of business as usual. More and more are stepping out of that illusion. Plato's allegory of the cave comes to mind. This is not a time for new arrangement of the shadows on the wall. It is a time for new consciousness. We are not the master's of the universe. We are human being lost in the tangle of our own arrogance. Now the consequence present at the outset is fully in play.

Civilizations rise and they fall. Human being is diminished by the rise and recovered in the fall.

George

"Epicurus taught a simple lifestyle focussed on learning and simple pleasures would reduce pain and anxiety. Buddha taught that ceasing attachment would reduce suffering. Jesus taught that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven. Again and again, the teaching is simplicity and lack of material attachment. I am able to live a version of that in our world. Others can, too." Mendalla​



 
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The communists had the right idea. Just a horrible, inhumane and brutal execution that failed. But, ultimately we have to go beyond materialism and transcend. We are indeed capable of doing far greater things when we as a society choose what we should be doing and all pull or push towards those common goals rather than everyone on their own. We have to realize that we are stronger together and finally activate the massive human hive mind that is hardcoded into our DNA.

That's how I like to think of it at least. :)
 
Bette, I worked at a corporation where I was regularly offended by the stock options of our CEO and our senior executive.
You can see the stock options for publicly traded companies as part of the public information.
Here is the link for Microsoft: https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=MSFT

Once our HR VP just about set off a firesale in the stocks until she shared that she was building a new house, so was exercising a bunch of options.

For those slogging it to continue to save pennies and cut resources, it was nauseating.

I do support limits imposed but, not sure how that would work before someone figured a work around.
I think that stock holders need to put pressure on comapnies to quit squeezing employees and instead squeeze C level executives.
 
Pinga said:
Bette, I worked at a corporation where I was regularly offended by the stock options of our CEO and our senior executive.
Once our HR VP just about set off a firesale in the stocks until she shared that she was building a new house, so was exercising a bunch of options.

For those slogging it to continue to save pennies and cut resources, it was nauseating.

I do support limits imposed but, not sure how that would work before someone figured a work around.

I think that stock holders need to put pressure on comapnies to quit squeezing employees and instead squeeze C level executives.
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I am not sure where you are going with this ... are you suggesting that buying stocks is where we go from here?

When you purchase stocks, you are buying a share of the ownership of that particular company. Because of this, investing is commonly looked at as a partnership between the company and its shareholders. - Is that a correct statement?
 
We have opportunity for labour of each aimed at the good of all. Choosing so we divest ourselves of capital concern. This precipitates a journey of transformation. The end of this transformation being a true commonwealth.

Who would resist this and why?

George
 
GeoFee said:
We have opportunity for labour of each aimed at the good of all. Choosing so we divest ourselves of capital concern. This precipitates a journey of transformation. The end of this transformation being a true commonwealth.

Who would resist this and why?

George
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I am not quite sure of what you are trying to say, It does sound a bit like Karl Marx.
 
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