(Of course, nobody is working much full time these days now are they? Suddenly 29 hours is about as much as many can get.)
Can't comment on what it's like there, but over here permanent contracts are rare and the number of jobs offering full time employment is dropping. It's often not choice (though more and more folks are working multiple part time jobs)
Oh, and while we're at it, let's keep throwing a metric crapload of money at green energies that nobody (in business OR the private sector) seems to want. But let's NOT take economic advantage of our own natural resources and the employment and tax revenue it would bring.
Aren't business and the private sector generally the same thing?
As per green energies, green isn't my particular interest, sustainable is. Sustainable costs more in the immediate and doesn't rely on finite resources. What private company would want to risk a reduction in profits for a few years?
And now we must not only quit exploiting our own workers, but Chinese ones as well.
This all sounds FANTASTIC! I like it! Let's start tomorrow! Get it going!
While it may not be something you're overly bothered about, it's certainly something to be aware of, because there are a lot of pushes for improved conditions, coming from within China itself.
Re - Living wage, a living wage in the US and China wouldn't be the same. A living wage needs to be calculated based on the cost of living in any given area. As it stands, I think it's fair to say it costs a lot more to live in the US than it does in China.
Also, on the note of China. While it may save the company money by having workers in China, that's money which is leaving the US and going to China and helping their economy. Money, as it is, isn't finite, and wealth can grow. Sure. But who in the US is making money from having workers in China? If the workers are US based that's money being spent in the US, going towards jobs in the US, which gives those US workers money, most of which will then be spent in the US.
Healthcare. Can't go down this road without being political. Let me just tie a couple together though. Ending the war on drugs, and then expecting me to pay for the healthcare later in life of someone who did drugs his whole life is a JOKE. That being said, I think the rest of the country should be able to opt out of providing your healthcare if you sat your fat butt on a couch your whole life and ate burgers and fries until you weigh 300 lbs. Or if you drank so much you now have a liver the size of basketball. Or if you smoked so much that your lungs look like the stuff I just cleaned out of my grill. (But, then again, I guess rich fat cats "create the conditions" that somehow FORCED you into bad health as well...... oy.) We'll just all have to agree that it will be expensive.
Most of us need healthcare at some point in life. Yes, there are scumbags that will be using it too, though you need to remember that they are a statistical minority. As for smokes, tax from them can go into healthcare.
When it comes to costs of healthcare, doesn't it bother you are gambling with the house (i.e. to lose) when it comes to insurance companies. These insurance companies are out to make as much profit as they can. Coupled with hospitals which are also out there to make a profit. Most of what you are paying isn't for your healthcare, it's to line the pocket of someone in a boardroom.
"Free" college". Couple questions. Who gets to go to Duke or Harvard, and who gets to go to Stinky Finklestein's School for Hair Design? Who gets a PHD and who has to stop at a two year technical school? And who pays for it?
Merit is usually a wise choice for people following education. I'd rather have a doctor that got into medical school because of his own smarts, not just because daddy bought him a place.
Tax pools can pay for it and provision of an undergraduate degree is usually a fairly allowable expenditure. If you get a degree, you'd hopefully be a stronger earner, paying more tax, which goes back towards the next generation.
Free mental health care. So, these billionaires you piss and moan about should get free mental health care? Or is it just for the working class and the poor? Oh, and who pays for it?
I've thoroughly enjoyed each visit I've had to the US, even the time I landed in hospital myself. However, the one sour note I've always left with was the number of clealy mentally ill people who are on the streets. Not that other countries are without issue, far from it. I just haven't seen it to that extent in any other developed nation.
I'll state that I'm fully aware that things where I'm from are far from perfect. However . . .
-If the government here was to ever try and remove the NHS, the people wouldn't have it. While not perfect, we hold our health service with the same level of reverence as the Military and Fire services are held in the US.
-I'm proud that my country is making positive moves in regards to sustainable energy (~40% at present).
-Education is a positive boost for society, I'm glad that I didn't have to pay tuition fee's, that I was able to get into my school of choice - based on merit. That I gained entry to, and funding for, my masters - based on merit. That my PhD position, and scholarship, were offered to me (and taken) - based on merit.
Is it a utopia here? Far from it. Though I wouldn't want to start pushing our healthcare, energy or educational approaches backwards from where they are now.
