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Merkel and Barroso promote compliant Irish Government (Updated) | 28 comments (28 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Merkel and Barroso promote compliant... (4.00 / 4)
I think the saddest thing for the people of Ireland - and perhaps the rest of us is that it seems no party is articulating an alternative to Austerity, or even a resistance to the logic of Austerity.

Gunder Frank's thesis seems ever more important to me as we more and more become a world where wealth is concentrated in multinational corporations and the small class of people that are attached to them. (Some in charge, some servants.)

In the past, there were countries with a middle class not directly at the mercy of the multinationals, but it looks like very few countries will maintain that status, we're heading for 3rd world inequality levels everywhere...

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Wed Feb 16th, 2011 at 09:35:41 AM EST
Re: Merkel and Barroso promote compliant... (none / 1)
Labour is trying, but their suggestions aren't serious.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Wed Feb 16th, 2011 at 10:04:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Merkel and Barroso promote compliant... (4.00 / 2)
last night i saw on current tv a story about an american IT pro whose job had been outsourced to india, so he decided to go to bangalore to see the other side of the story.
after staying there a month with an indian family, whose man was manager of a call centre there. the american even worked a while there to see what it was like.
he made a reflection at the end of the doc, in which he said his losing his job in the US probably translated to supporting 16 indians, and he concluded it was worthwhile...

he was an unusually aware person, it's not a line of logic that would probably win many votes stateside.

whouldathunkit? the international corporation as global social wealth distributor.

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty

by melo (melometa4(at)gmail.com) on Wed Feb 16th, 2011 at 12:52:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Merkel and Barroso promote compliant... (4.00 / 2)
Globalisation does have its benefits for third world countries like India, but those benefits are very unequally distributed - and could thus make the poor feel even poorer relative to the nouveau riche in their midst (or more likely up on the hill).

The problem is partly that in a world with an almost unlimited supply of labour - the price of that labour cannot but fall - except for those in direct and indirect receipt of rental income from capital.

Index of Frank's Diaries

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Feb 16th, 2011 at 01:48:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Merkel and Barroso promote compliant... (none / 1)
Fine Gael's proposals to gut the public sector more than ever underline the degree to which they are doing the bidding of the "private sector" increasingly dominated by multinational firms - that and the old money professions of Law, Accountancy and Medicine - professions which are better paid in Ireland than almost anywhere else and which have yet to feel the full brunt of the current recession.

Index of Frank's Diaries
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Feb 16th, 2011 at 02:11:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Merkel and Barroso promote compliant... (none / 1)
Yeah, my only consolation is that an accountant helps pay the bills here. We'll probably personally do ok from an FG government, or better than others, anyhow.  And it won't be our fault.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Wed Feb 16th, 2011 at 03:55:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Merkel and Barroso promote compliant... (none / 1)
Some of my best friends and relations are accountants and doctors (I draw the line at lawyers)...

Index of Frank's Diaries
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Feb 16th, 2011 at 04:08:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Merkel and Barroso promote compliant Irish Government (Updated) | 28 comments (28 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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