11 thoughts on “News/Politics 12-3-12”

  3. I wish the “News & Politics” thread wasn’t the first thing I saw every time I came to this site, it’s just plain depressing.

    I’d much prefer to start with the Prayer thread, then the”Our Daily Thread,” to spend time with one another before facing the latest worldly bad news.

    Any chance they can be switched around, AJ?

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  4. Hey, this world is tough. It is very hard that prayer and daily thread come before news and politics. Be grateful that you live in the United States rather than Israel, Egypt, or Syria, or some place such as that. Though wasn’t it last week that people were talking about leaving the United States? Well, there’s always secession. You go, Texas!

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  5. Yesterday (Sunday), my wife and I went to view the local premiere of a movie made by a couple of friends of ours. (I’m name dropping.) It’s a documentary; it’s already premiered in Seattle and Portland, I think, and soon will be shown in Washington, D. C. So I’m name dropping, and you can already tell by context that it’s probably an evil movie.

    We all have to live in this world, and make a living, rendering up to Caesar and all that. In our country we have communists and fascists; no, that’s not right. Whigs and Tories? No that’s not quite right, either. Oh, yes, demoncrats and god-fearing Republicans. That’s closer.

    Communism doesn’t work. Just about everyone agrees on that. Socialism doesn’t work either. Little less agreement, but pretty widely consensused, even so. Capitalism? Lots of argument in that regard, but as long as you are not an atheistic Ayn Rantian, probably lots of libertarians right here in Wandering Views city on a hill. (Though I know of no actual “libertarian country” anywhere in the world.)

    Keeping in mind that nothing “works” until you land in Heaven (I’ll never find out for myself because you know where I am landing), just as some “religions” are worse than others, some economic systems are better than others.

    Since we joined our first food co-op and our first credit union, I’ve been a big fan of the co-op movement. The movie we saw yesterday is called Shift Change. (I had to type that carefully, being so dyslexic, demented and all.) It’s about worker-owned co-ops al over the world, but focusing primarily on Montdragon, worker owned co-ops in Spain. (In the Basque region, I think.) The movie switched around to some worker-owned co-ops in the United States, particularly in Madison, WA and some in Ohio and California as well, if my memory serves.

    In worker owned co-ops, the businesses “make a profit” so they can keep operating, investing, and paying employees. Hardly socialist. Each worker is an “owner.” (Few exceptions, but general rule.)

    Each worker/owner has one vote in how the business is run. So for example, if a large company wants to buy a small co-op, the majority of worker-owners have to vote to sell themselves. In some co-ops, everyone gets the same pay. In others, there are differentials, but they are always relatively small. If business gets bad, then to stay in business, the owner-workers can vote to cut their own salary for a while. As the Montdragon co-op in Spain (one of the most successful networks of co-op businesses in the world) consists of a group of businesses, if one co-op business has fallen on temporary bad times they can switch workers to other businesses in the co-op until things rebound.

    Perfect? Of course not. Problems? Plenty. But compared to Romney-Bain Capital capitalism, a whole lot better. At least, until you get to Heaven.

    Actually, I got a free admission, and my name appears on the credits. I helped fund the making of the movie (though my contribution was a pittance through “Kick Starter” “crowd-funding”) so I am prejudiced in favor of the movie.

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  7. kBells, I consider that a perceptive comment. I worked for a family-owned small business for several years. There were good points and bad points. One good point was they often treated their employees like family, often in good ways. (For example, at my request they hired my daughter –while she was going to college–for a summer.)

    The bad point was that it was a family full of turmoil. For example, dad and mom owned the business and split responsibility and control and played all sorts of obnoxious games using employees as pawns in their marital struggles. I knew two loyal, dedicated, competent employees who were practically driven crazy by these “games.” (One had his health seriously damaged.)

    In a co-op 1 vote per person worker owned business, they would have fired these two clowns. (They were smart and competent, but no sane person would have put up with them in charge for more than a month.)

    Of course, I had a friend (nothing to do with the business I speak of) who at the age of 15 divorced his mom. His story (which I believe) was that mom was mentally ill; dad was in denial; my friend found a judge who evaluated the situation; and ordered him placed in a foster home.

    Family values are indeed wonderful!

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  8. Kay,

    Thanks for the input. I never really gave it much thought. I just always post the Daily thread and Prayer thread first. But you have a point. I’ll try to remember to switch it up.

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  9. My family owns a small business. I am the only one of siblings who didn’t make a living of it. Almost everyone there is either family or has been there so long they are like family. It is not a very successful family business. The family doesn’t live much better than the employees and they put a lot more into it. It will probably close whne my brothers retire. None of the next generation is interested. Probably because they were never able to hire any of them at a living wage.

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  11. kBells, I appreciate your candor and “transparency” about your family business. It’s not going to be that easy to get a hold of, but you might enjoy Shift Change. There’s nothing in it that conflicts with religious belief. One of the main founders of Montdragon in Spain was a Catholic priest. I would imagine that many of the members of it and other worker-owned co-ops are religious believers. Again, there’s nothing in it that conflicts with religious belief.

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