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Yes i had a chart that had data going back as far as 1880 for the UK but its either in a book and i cant find it or online somewhere. It showed the same sort of trend.
The only reliable indicator you can use for it over the long haul is to meaure against gold prices and other precious metals.
That's just the true rate of inflation.
It looks a lot less worse than it really is because the number of goods you can swap for your cash, as well as improvements in manufacturing and so on has gone up. As your loaf of bread has become easier to make and cheaper and cheaper to provide, the falling currency value has made the price actually rise.
Even a moment's thought should allow anyone sane to realise that if things were actually growing in the economy, the value of the £ relative to goods would go up, not down.
In reality, the whole thing is seriously fucked, and when these people come to cash in their pensions, they will either have to be told "no" or the whole system will crash a la 1930.
If you're not gonna provide a source that puts those charts in context then they're meaningless.
Annual hours worked in the UK-
1870: 2,984
1913: 2,624
1938: 2,267
1973: 1,688
1992: 1,491
Source: Maddison A. (1991) Dynamic Forces in Capitalist Development: A Long-run Comparative View.
Well yes, of course they've gone down since the 1800's. Duh. :rolleyes: Why did they go down though? Out of the kindness of the boss? Or due to trade union struggles? And have they gone up recently due to capital re-establishing its control via anti-union legislation and casualisation? Without putting these things in a historical and social context, it means even less than your stupid graphs.
Nah, you measure everything else in terms of gold to find out where your currency is up to.
Working hours came down initially because factories that treated their workers better were more productive. Trade unions only figure in spreading the beneficial change around, they in no way shape or form created it.
The main reason that working hours have fallen is that more people are working.
There is no interest for a capitalist in raising the numbers of hours worked, unless there is a government subsidy or piece of legislation making it profitable. As usual, the unions create uneconomic conditions and then suffer down the line for it.
I'm just glad my bin men come on a wednesday
just kidding.
but i was actually having a rant at my girlfriend today at how pointless life was. the only time we are free is when we are in the womb. after that, and the state owns us. we are trained up, to a given age (lets say 20), then we work for the state, for 50 years or so, then we are expected to die.
everything else seems to be an illusion. whats the difference between a £10,000pa wage and a £40,000pa wage? Shouldn't life be about happiness and not numbers? Of course, if everyone wants the higher wages then they have to train which improves the supply side of the economy which brings down costs which in turn improves international competitiveness which means at the end of the day the government end up getting rich. and so do we, in theory.
id rather be happy than rich though. :chin: i want subsistence existence, if you get what i mean. provide for myself.
but thats all besides the point. people in the uk let the government tread all over them. its good theyre standing up to get their respect.
It could never be due to the fact a generation that enjoyed a birthrate boom is going to retire with a smaller ratio of people who work to pensioners than they had/have while they were/are working.
Yep, we have to work for the needs of capital. Shit innit.
I heard its going to be 1 over 65 year old to 4 workers soon, thats crazy, unless we start massively importing workers or culling old people something will have to change.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/5357/
P'haps?
Seems about as sensible as any other suggestion I've heard.
So whats the solution? Where is the money going to come from?
As if anybody supporting this strike is intelligent enough to have an actual sustainable solution that doesn’t involve some imaginary magic pot of money or tired and discredited ‘tax the rich’ nonsense. (Believe it or not some of the left it seems still haven’t worked out that if you tax doctors at 95% they might move to Canada or Australia...Or if you tax millionaires similarly they’ll stash their riches offshore).
Workers in the public sector already have it good compared to the private sector. Yet it’ll be low paid workers in the private sector that end up paying more taxes to further prop up the public sector if the strikers get their way…In the real world meanwhile there isn’t a bottomless pit of money, life expectancy is rising and it’s not unreasonable to retire at 65.
And that will be enough for all public sector pensions?
We are living longer and we are not having enough kids, like it or not we have to ask serious questions as to how we are going to fund this situation.