We all know the rothschilds are running the world...but what is the choice Putins ideal ? the fat boy in korea ?...... or the loons driving around in 4x4,s beheading everyone in the middle east ...I know who I,d rather have[smile]...and as for the scum carrying on in London yesterday ........
Under capitalism, the owners of the economy live off the labour of the working class. The working class produce the surplus value (profit) and the bosses control it. Wealth is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands as giant multi-national corporations swallow up the competition. The global economy is dominated by 200 companies - the CEO's and big shareholders of these companies rule the world and make decisions which affect the lives of millions yet they are not elected. In America, the richest 400 people have more wealth than half of the population. This grotesque inequality creates scarcity for the majority. 8 million children starve to death every year due to this scarcity.
Working class does not necessarily mean you live on a sink estate or earn the minimum wage. Class is determined by our relation to the means of production. The capitalists own the means of production, they are a tiny minority. The working class do not own the means of production and must sell their capacity to work to the owners in return for wages. The vast majority of the population are working class. Of course there are different layers within the working class but a well paid worker is still a worker.
The ruthless pursuit of profit is destructing our planet and it is unsustainable.
Capitalism has entered its era of irreversible decay, it has outlived its historical usefulness, just as slavery and feudalism did before it. The crises will be deep and the recovery will be weak, preparing the way for even bigger crises. The most intelligent capitalists understand this, read the Financial Times and see for yourself. Their system is in decay but they don't know what to do about it. They can cut spending which will stagnate the economy and increase social tension or they can increase spending and sink further into debt. The capitalists are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
What is the alternative? Socialism. The working class will take economic and state power. Once in power production will be democratically and rationally planned according to human need, harmoniously with the planet. Genuine socialism is based on democracy at every level, democratic control of the economy, unlike capitalist democracy which is a fig leaf concealing the dictatorship of big banks and capital. Under workers' democracy - all officials are elected and subject to direct recall. No official will be paid more than a skilled worker. These elected officials will have real power, unlike the puppets under capitalism.
The incentive under socialism will be to work LESS and free humanity from the drudgery of labour. Socialism will build on the advances of capitalism to create superabundance. The working day will be consistently reduced. As technology advances and productivity increases it will take less time to produce what we need. The material capacity to produce superabundance exists now, it is not a fantasy. The problem is we don't control the technology, it is controlled by the capitalists who use it to enrich themselves at our expense.
We will reach such a high level of production that we only need to work a few hours a week. The robots will do the hard work for us leaving us free to enjoy life. You see, the aim is to end the working class and unleash the potential of humanity.
It's not Gona happen tho is it.. so stick in make the most of your own life whatever that means to you.. or just moan about the rich and blame everyone else
Never said i hated coucil housing said was good thing what tory did giving council tenants right to buy the house and i live on a council estate and have a mortgage to put record straight
Quote: dream attack wrote in post #112Never said i hated coucil housing said was good thing what tory did giving council tenants right to buy the house and i live on a council easte and have a mortgage to put record straight
Exactly, the right-to-buy is a classic Tory policy. Seems you don't hate the Tories as much as you think.
Quote: dream attack wrote in post #112Never said i hated coucil housing said was good thing what tory did giving council tenants right to buy the house and i live on a council easte and have a mortgage to put record straight
Exactly, the right-to-buy is a classic Tory policy. Seems you don't hate the Tories as much as you think.
You didn't answer the question either.
Out of interest what do you live in private landlord council or your own ? I know all my London mates except one have moved out of London.. the one who had stayed bought his council house and will move out of London once his kids have left school.. last time I spoke to him about it .. it was worth big money.. he's a joiner by trade and as working class as you could get
My mum is a nurse. Dad worked as a butcher most of his life, now semi-retired. They bought a house in Battersea in the '80's for peanuts. Sold it few years ago in the housing boom. Bought a cheaper smaller house and a flat for me and my brother. Our rent will pay for their retirement. We were fortunate, would have been hard to get on the property ladder without them helping us out.
Depends on the size of their portfolio. Landlords are middle class. They work and also gain an income through ownership. A corner shop owner is classic middle class. They own small means of production and work. The big landlords who don't work are part of the capitalists.
Quote: dream attack wrote in post #82Imagine bring up 2/3 kids in london on that amount of money no wonder millions of low earning families are using food banks weekly
Millions?!?!?
Most that go there will probably use the money they've saved to spend on drugs or piss!
There are a minority of lazy benefit scroungers but they are not the real enemy. The cost of undeserving benefits is a drop in the ocean when compared to the trillions in unpaid labour plundered by the bosses, not to mention the billions lost to tax avoidance and estimated 20 trillion in offshore accounts. This money could be used to raise the standard of living for all.
The captialists need to divide the working class to reinforce their class rule. They want you to blame the unemployed, sick, people on benefits and immigrants. In reality, capitalism needs unemployment for competition in the labour market and to replace striking workers. Capitalism cannot provide full employment and a living wage. Increasing the average wage will increase unemployment and vice versa. The only way to full employment and a living wage is a socialist economy. The working day will be reduced with no loss of pay to spread out the work and public works programmes will supply more jobs. Work will be a universal right.
Quote: nothavinit wrote in post #117I moved out of London. Parents bought flat in Essex. I pay them rent.
A good thing to do for you and a thing I would like to do for mine.. what's your views on working-class landlords
landlord 1) An owner of scummy fungus-, rodent- or insect-infested property which they rent (often for a long period up front) after giving said property a superficial spring-clean and repaint to fool the naive and desperate university student seeking accommodation. Can be recognised by the electric heaters trained on new carpet in said property which the naive tenant falsely believes will warm them through the winter, but are actually to retard mould growth until point of rental and will be removed in secret once they pay up and their backs are turned. Once said infestation manifests, the landlord takes the rental money and the deposit (known to cognoscenti as "bye-bye money"), and disappears to a remote holiday resort, nary to be seen or heard from again. Alternately he may come back for rent in shorter-term instalments, well aware that the law cannot touch him or that he has terrorised the tenant too thoroughly for the latter to test said law. Frequently claims to need to clear out tenants for the purposes of having the residences fitted with all mod cons, then merely has the rooms subdivided into cubicles too small to swing a cat in. The landlord is intimately familiar with (1) all his rights, and (2) the departure times for all flights to Andalucia and the Canaries (or equivalent Stateside). Typically much beloved by students past and present, especially those who managed to get official campus accommodation.
Quote: nothavinit wrote in post #119My mum is a nurse. Dad worked as a butcher most of his life, now semi-retired. They bought a house in Battersea in the '80's for peanuts. Sold it few years ago in the housing boom. Bought a cheaper smaller house and a flat for me and my brother. Our rent will pay for their retirement. We were fortunate, would have been hard to get on the property ladder without them helping us out.
Depends on the size of their portfolio. Landlords are middle class. They work and also gain an income through ownership. A corner shop owner is classic middle class. They own small means of production and work. The big landlords who don't work are part of the capitalists.
I would be happy to pay rent to my parents as you do.
But rent to a stranger is dead money and not something I would want to do unless I absolutely had to.
read all the comments on this thread with interest.i have never and will never vote labour,how anybody classes these knobheads as being for the working class people needs to have a serious think about it.as somebody on the thread said we are in 21st century not in the 1970s and 80s,find it so tedious the i vote labour and read the mirror and in the union at work,the mirror is shit,unions are weak as piss and the labour party are a bunch of clowns,all my opinion of course but can people who vote labour really say when labour are in power they are better off and when torys are they are so much worse off?really?tbh i notice very little difference,i got to work,work hard for my family,we have a nice home and go on holidays and im happy with that,the sooner people get on with their lives and stop moaning,and can anybody tell me whats working class about milliband and all his cronies?genuine question cos to me he comes across as anything but working class. imo maggie said something that really can some up some people in our country,during the falklands she gave the order to sink the belgrano,bearing in mind the argies were the agressors and killed numerous british troops etc,yet all people could say in the press conference was ask why she gave order it was heading away or something similar,and she said,only in britain could people be asking why an enemy ship was sunk,in other words,there were too many do gooders then just like now. appologies for my rant and like i say just my opinion