The duty of the common man

[Ozzie Osmond]

For most of the 20th century the duty of the common man was to labour down the pit, at the steelworks or at the shipyard producing as much goods as possible.

From 1980 his duty changed. No longer was he to work as a producer but instead his duty was to borrow and spend as much as possible to drive the consumer boom.

What's next? Return to production? Return to spending? Or something else?

[Ozzie Osmond]

powerstroke said:

the only thing we seem to have been able to do is get the worst most lazy and feckless to breed like rabits live on benifits, and import hardworking eastern europeans to do the low skilled work....

It is a big question why we spend a small fortune on a shool system which often achieves so little. It seems a relatively rudimentary type of schooling (India, Poland, China?) can deliver more in the right hands than our own approach.

[Ozzie Osmond]

crankedup said:

This Country has billions of tons of coal waiting to be extracted, we have clean coal technology and plenty of workforce looking for the jobs. I would imagine that mining technology has moved on since our mines were closed, so why the heck do these mines stay closed? I can't imagine that we can't compete with the use of mining tech' against China. But as a Nation we pay benefits money to these people!

This fascinates me. My limited understanding is that UK coal is typically "high sulphur" and cleaning the exhaust gases was uneconomic back in the 1970s so coal was abandoned. Since then technology has moved on and the oil price has risen dramatically. There is also the "strategic" attraction of having our own energy supply as North Sea oil/gas dwindles.

Instead we seem to be committing to imported wind power and nuclear technologies.

[Ozzie Osmond]

XJ40 said:

Youth unemployment and falling education standards here won't do us any favours going forward, I think our standards of living in the old world will stagnate, probably diminish as they rise in the developing world, unfortunately.

Valid points IMO

XJ40 said:

Against this back drop we'll have to become more self sufficient (again).

I think that's right.

XJ40 said:

We use such large amounts of energy to move food and manufactured items here from around the globe, if/when we have a peak oil crisis/transition, I'm sure they'll be more manufacturing and agriculture work for the common working man in this country once again.

Our population is now so big and the climate so dreary that we would probably struggle with to replicate current imports within the domestic economy. One useful feature is the colossal efficiency of big container ships in term of £ per kg per km. (Although the same doesn't apply to airfreighted soft fruit from the middle east!)

[Ozzie Osmond]

johnxjsc1985 said:

Everyone is hibernating in their homes and being brainwashed by Murdoch and co. into thinking the world is a terrible place.
We may be the most educated generation but our ancestors understood what it means to enjoy life far more than we do.

Interesting points.

Q: "Who are you afraid of?"

A: "Other people."

Q: "Why?"

A: "Because of all the fictional stuff I watch on TV...."

Get out and live!! OzOs