Oct
23
Extrapolating Corporate Power
Filed Under Business, Life | 2 Comments
I am tired so will write this on the fly. I hope it still retains some sense.
The idea here is to explore, as I write, a theoretical extrapolation of corporate power to envisage the consequences. I do so because the World appears to be heading that way. One stagerringly powerful ally that is tempering them is the WorldwideWeb, linking the voices of the masses together in an unvetted anti-power unity.
The scenario I want to envisage is where there are a finite number of corporations that control all human ‘work’ practices. And that they collude together to curb salaries forthe masses to near poverty levels. Aside from a few who choose to subsist on own-cultivated foodstuffs, the low salaries have to be endured by most. Even those trying to survive with self sufficiency have to forgo services such as water, waste, power.
With Governments merely puppets dangling from the greedy hands of the Corporations, democracy has long since vanished.
The Corporations essentially use the masses as slaves to provide goods and services for the elite minority who exist in the positions of power.
Any uprising, any rebellion is swiftly snuffed out by millitary force, also under Corporate control.
You see, the Corporations own all the World’s resources and run the World for the benefit of the few.
OK, this is far fetched, but the chilling aspects of this scenario are that we are many steps on the way to achieving it. But, most alarmingly, the Corporate juggernauts no longer have functional brakes, and the Government are turning a blind eye in case they take their business elsewhere and with it the large taxes they pay. Large but not correct - even now Corporations invest in various and many tax avoidance schemes that are by an realistic definition fraudulent means of avoiding due payment.
Jun
8
Published!
Filed Under Business, Life | Leave a Comment
I spent the Winter writing not one, but 2 books. All about the Oriental game of Go.
At long last, they are available Worldwide on Amazon :
And I have a web site to accompany them :
Now I will send copies to the American, Europoean and British Go Associations for reviews. I hope!
Dec
4
Capitalist mantra
Filed Under Business, Life | Leave a Comment
Grow, grow grow! This is the capitalist mantra. The unquestionable word of business.
Grow or die!
I have trivial business experience, and an unqualified in questioning the mantra for it’s business value. But what I do question is it’s long term vailidity.
Growth is a form of change, and as such is a necessary part and parcel of life. If you do not change with the times, you can readily flounder. But the whole point of adaption for survival is that it is not predicated on the same mantra. Growth is meaningful at many times in the life of a business. But as the main stay of its future, it should surely be questioned.
First, it smacks of pure greed. Businesses take a bigger and bigger slice of the market. Execpt, of course, they cannot all do this, so this greed squeezes and kills other businesses. Of course, this is partly the way of the World - survival or demise. But it is amplified by this unnecessary greed.
Second, as businesses grow, they distance themselves from both the lower rungs of their employees and also their customers. They become bigger than these people. Or the obsession with growth forces this hand.
Third, the profit that fuels this growth becomes sacrosanct. Better by far to sell your customers short, or polute the environment in ways you can get away with then ever jeopardise the burgeoning profit line.
And so on.
I’ll counter my argument at this point to say that companies like Canon, on whom I rely to produce astonshingly complex and powerful cameras and lenses could only operate as it does with its enormous size. It can manufacture its own processors, lenses, cameras and so on, in a very efficient, synergystic way. Such a large company is self sufficient very much because of its size.
But this counter to my argument is actually an endoresement for it.
I am not arguing per se against growth as a modus operandi for a business.
I am arguing against growth as the only mantra for all businesses. Businesses should operate appropriately, in accord with the type of business they operate, and the changing customer needs and working environment. In other words, growth should be an option, not a mandate. It is only one of a number of devices a business can adopt to manage its future.
If you project forward this growth mantra, large companies become corporations that become so big they are bigger thanGovernments. Their size then allows them to leverage tax breaks that fuel further growth, trampling on the well behaved competition, who cannot lobby as effectively. The Governments are fearful of these juggernaut corporations - they receive huge tax incomes from them, and do not want to lose these or destabilise the economy.
These corporations squeeze salaries of their workers wherever they can. If all we get left with is a small number of enormous corporations that control or own all the small businesses, their monopoly becomes dangerous. Yet the Governments are too weak to do anything about it.
The underlying point I am making is that the World has finite resources. It cannot sustain constant growth. The ebb and flow of life and business should be the norm, not unsustainable expansion. The latest banking bailouts are evidence of Governmental fear, and unrestrained growth that ruthlessly discards constraints such as regularotory bodies, and the time honoured mechanism of retaining the cushion of large reserves.
Jan
11
I sent a reminder letter to a customer by recorded delivery on the 20th of December 2007. My receipt claimed that this method was :
“Ideal for items you might need to prove were received, like job applications or legal documents.”
As you might guess, 3 weeks later, the letter was declared lost by the Royal Mail. They didn’t write to tell me this. Oh no. I had to ring their ‘help’ line. ‘Hinderence’line is a better description. I had to speak the 13 character reference number and then speak the date of delivery. Five times in fact, until it could understand what I said.
After a delay, a human at last appeared.
“Can I have your reference number please.”
Can you believe that? The system failed to pass on the information I had laboriously told it!
And the lady who spoke to me was very impatient that I give her this number rather than escalate my concerns about the stupidity of the system.
So I was then told to complete a loss or damaged form. I tracked this down on the Internet, and filled it all in. And, of course, rather than receive this information and immediately process it, I had to print the form and post it.
Can I trust it to be delivered?
And who exactly can I contact in the Royal Mail who might want to know the reality of how their business can fail and infuriate the public? Someone who would both reply, and have the power to act. If you know, then please tell me.
4th February 2008 update : the saga continues …
3 weeks after posting my form, it was returned. Apparently, it is not enough to tick the box on the form that says that I have a receipt - I must enclose it. Why on earth does it take Royal Mail 3 weeks to tell me this? And why do they not make it clear on the form page that it is mandatory?
So no I look set to another 3 weeks before any possible compensation!
13th February 2008 update :
I received a standard letter saying that they were ‘.. sorry to hear that we did not deliver a Recorded Delivery item …’, and compensation in the form of 12 stamps. They give me more means to lose mail! Hoorah! They do not compensate for the loss of the contents of the letter. So why do they ask for the amount I am claiming? I asked for £20 pointlessly.
It sounds to me like a service that is simply not worth using - it is better to use Registered Delivery, except that this costs £4.30