Big business, Big tech, Big pharma, Big government, Big unions - all politically motivated, and all a pox on our lives.

Thank you, Ttbn - nobody could have said it better!

Big business, Big tech, Big pharma, Big government, Big unions - all politically motivated, and all a pox on our lives.
ttbn,
And, big mobs of consumers !

ttbn & Yuyutsu,
What's the point of pointing at big-time producers but not at consumers when the whole circus is plainly one huge symbiosis ?

individual,

Yuyutsu and I are not big consumers. We have control over only what we do ourselves. If more people did the same, things might be different.

I have seen the reports and agree with them!

One notes, emanating from the UK, currently governed by a conservative party!

As someone who once spent many long evening hours piloting a silver top, I have some empathy for these drivers. And dog eat dog competition for paying fares! From which you pay the petrol bill out our own pocket if employed as a commission earning contractor. Which in many instances was the entire take for a slow night!

It was not easy to qualify for a cab licence, You had to know your city very well and be able to drive almost anywhere without consulting a map. And in an era where sat nav was a pipe dream. As paid drivers, they will be fairer comp for the massively over-priced city cabs!

Who have price gouging governments to thank for those reprehensible, morality and ethical free, unfair outcomes!

And now evident almost everywhere you look these days at GOVERNMENT fees and charges? And robotised, pedantic bureaucracy?

It's like you need to find a $1,000.00 a fortnight to comply with GOVERNMENT provisions, out of a $944.00 per fortnight, age pension? Particularly if you have a mortgage with the ultra pedantic QLD, lender of last resort, housing commission? And I know you know what I'm talking about! It's everywhere?

Government and public servants used to serve? Now they rule like elected and non elected, for life (tinpot) dictators, who simply wouldn't survive if they had to change places with those they rule and price gouge? And those with the least they target, given their inherent ability to seek legal redress/public scrutiny?
Alan B.

Dear Individual,

«What's the point of pointing at big-time producers but not at consumers when the whole circus is plainly one huge symbiosis ?»

Thank you for putting me straight: there is no point in pointing at anyone, it is unhelpful.

Ttbn is generally correct in saying:

«Yuyutsu and I are not big consumers. We have control over only what we do ourselves. If more people did the same, things might be different.»

While I estimate my ability to control what I do and limit what I consume to be above average, it is still imperfect, I can still improve.

We are all on that road and it is not fair to point back in criticism at others who are still further back along this road. I was there too once, if not in this lifetime than certainly in some previous ones, I too must have been a big consumer, perhaps a big producer too.

Big business, Big tech, Big pharma, Big government, Big unions, etc. need not have been a pox on my life had I not accrued such karma by doing similar things myself in the past. Once I expiate for that and clear myself of this karma, my life could flow smoothly without even noticing that they ever existed.

I am sure Mr Phillips with his toxic spin could make the case why Negros in the cotton fields of Alabama in 1860 were not slaves at all, but independent contractors. The reality is, in the gig economy large multinationals worth billions write "contracts" with poor chaps whose only asserts are a bicycle and a mobile phone. The objective of these "contracts" is to maximise profits for the multinationals by circumventing the hard won rights of workers to a fair go on the industrial playing field. What Mr Phillips is against is the application of fairness, and what the UK decision was based on was that there should be in any agreement fairness for both parties. The notion that if the contract conditions are unsustainable for the "employee", which they often are, then the taxpayer can pick up the slack, and pay the employee" benefits from the public purse. Its all designed for a win for the multinationals at the expense of hard working Australians.

in 1860 were not slaves at all, but independent contractors
Paul1405,
What would you call those who started that dreadful business & those who sold their own ?
There's a very sobering TV Documentary presently with Samuel Jackson as Exec Producer. It's called ENSLAVED.
It's beyond understanding what makes people to treat other people so terribly & in cold blood !
As bad as the White Slave Traders were it was the decent Whites who eventually put an end to it. Have yet to hear of modern Asian & African People smugglers to rise up & stop it though !

Hi Indy,

What would you call those who started that dreadful business & those who sold their own ? Myself disgusting people, others might call them business entrepreneurs operating in a free market. Not sure what Mr Phillips might call them, the slaves that is, "independent contractors'.

"There's a very sobering TV Documentary presently with Samuel Jackson as Exec Producer. It's called ENSLAVED. Must watch.

"It's beyond understanding what makes people to treat other people so terribly & in cold blood !" Financial greed, something the slave traders and todays multinationals in the gig economy have in common.

"decent Whites" absolutely millions upon millions, decent people all over the world, as we have today.

You may not believe me Indy, but my Great Great Grandmother on my mothers side was born a slave on the Island of Mauritius, convicted of attempted murder as an 8 year old (poisoning her mistresses tea, along with her girl cousin aged 12). The pair were sentenced to transportation for life to NSW. All's well that ends well, her and her convict husband done vey well as farmers in NSw and she died a wealthy woman in 1891. BTW the court hearing in Port Louis was completed in less than a day, without the mistress giving evidence, only a written statement, and the girls having no legal representation. The judge in his summing up said he would have hung them, if it wasn't for their tender ages, being under 16.

My Great, Great Grandmother was born to a slave girl aged 16, fathered by her master a white man (French name) who was 42 and married at the time.

According to my Fijian/Indian friend his ancestors who were brought to Fiji as virtual slaves, sorry "independent contractors", to work the British sugar plantations, were often beaten by overseers for the crime of "laziness". Maybe the multinational Greasy Pizza Company, could consider such a clause in their contract as a way to boost productivity.

Paul1405,
I recall Col Rambuka not being too happy about the situation there either a few years ago.
It's one of those dilemma preventing a dreadful past not to be forgotten but bringing it up opportunistically to keep the wound festering for yet another insidious ulterior motive does nothing to solve the wrongs of the past.
Slavery, as is modern sex slave trafficking is still practised today by the descendants of the original inventors of that trade.
My answer to this would be capital punishment for trading & jail time for using the past wrongs as a spring board for ulterior motive i.e. cause continued unrest.
The terrible wrongs of the past must be acknowledged by teaching in school & unbiased documentary films.
Do not forget for one minute that descendants of both Slaves & Traders are always ready to benefit in whatever way possible by exploiting their forebears' suffering & exploits.
Two wrongs don't make a Right ! Acknowledging evil forebears is a sign of decency !

... does nothing to solve the wrongs of the past.

I can't believe I wrote the above because the past can't be undone-bad English !
Brining up past atrocities is a responsibility for the descendants of perpetrator & victims so that upcoming generations can set their moral & ethical standards higher than the people of the Past. Such history must be taught without sanitising because perpetrators may well have been victims first & vice versa. Our Education systems have failed in this & have mercilessly engaged in the indoctrination of victimhood rather that on the factors that led up to the dreadful deeds.
Future generations will inevitably turn out no different if they don't get provided with the facts of both sides ! Let's focus more on History & less on Entertainment industry idolisation !