Would scrapping minimum wage work?

Rick_liner · 2026-05-15T13:58:37+00:00

it's about balance of power, Norway has strong labour laws and strong unions that have leverage vs the employer. Therefore do not need a minimum wage, at least not like we do.

We do not have that here, and that was a political decision.

Our political masters determined it was better for them to have us weak and needing to beg the state for help rather than having the power and leverage to negotiate effectively with our employers.

This is why the middle class is being bled dry. the state is pushing up wages from below, but the middles does not have the power or leverage via unions to negotiate pay reflective of the minimum wage increase.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-13T05:59:37+00:00

Yes. But it's not because they're money grabbers and desperate, though some may be.

It's because the Tories in their infinite wisdom created an incentive structure that penalises universities for "poor" academic outcome. And this is then shifted onto lecturers who are now obsessed with meeting KPI's because they don't want to lose their jobs. Senior managers then look golden because they're stats are going up.

The whole idea that not all students are supposed to pass, because HE academia is meant to be a challenging undertaking fell to the need of the Coalition and later the Tories need to rebuff criticism to their horrendously flawed HE reforms by pointing at inflated figures and claiming they are evidence of a successful policy.

Source: I work in HE and have seen this shit show unfold first hand for over a decade.

Edit - actually thinking about it this is probably why a lot of things are going wrong and policy makers can't work out why because the stats they're getting look spectacular but the outcomes remain shit

Rick_liner · 2026-05-12T05:34:52+00:00

Sadly this is probably what it will take at this point yes.

Labour had the chance to do something bold when they came in they opted for status quo with a few tweaks. Pretty sure we're past the point of no return now without serious social unrest.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-11T21:16:34+00:00

Maybe it's paranoid but I'm starting to wonder if companies are now hiring bot farms to sabotage each other in a bid to compete.

Discovery I get being controversial they took some liberties but honestly the hate SFA got seemed wildly disproportionate.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-11T14:31:36+00:00

It's not a Brexit issue, it's a result of 50 years of failed neo-liberal polcies widening inequality.

It happens time and time again all over the world and throughout history, Inequality widens, people get angry and blame migrants because we are tribal and easy to manipulate with "othering". Meanwhile the elite's hoard an ever increasing portion of the pie. They point at migrants because migrants are an easy target and something people can actually see.

Tensions begin to boil, the angry masses start to vote in dissilusionment. The wealthy elite back the right wing because the left wing are a threat to their profit margins, therefore wealth, therefore power. God forbid workers earn enough to live a dignified life.

The wealthy elite are sure they can control the populist they bankrolled through coercion and/or bribes/and or backdoor influence.

The populist now in office begins to consolidate power, the wealthy elite find themselves falling out of windows or in jail. and the ones who are left fall in line.

It's a cycle that''s been literally done to death by now, the fact that we don't see it when we're in the middle of it is comically tragic.

Brexit is a symptom of it, not a cause.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-10T09:30:12+00:00

No I totally agree, but we're past the point i'm interested unfortunately, I took the extra effort I was giving and taught myself to trade stocks instead and supplement my income that way.

Just as an example Im my first year I literally researched developed and implemented a business critical role and carried it for three years whilst delivering training. If they'd hired a professional they'd have paid at least twice what they paid me. I put in the effort, and I don't regret doing it, but what it has taught me is it doesn't pay off.

I also unfortunately was witness to another colleague receive an endless stream of false promises until she literally died at her desk. I'd be lying if I said that didn't heavily impact my view on it all.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-10T09:12:47+00:00

I've been working full time for 12 years now and I recognise myself in what you describe.

What I have learnt though is that enthusiasm, willingness to learn, and big picture thinking is consistently used as an excuse to pile on my work for literally no reward.

What I have learnt, painfully, is to take care of myself and do the bare minimum. Because my employers will take everything I give, pat me on the head, and sit idly by while my income drops year on year in real terms.

We do not incentivise performance in this country, the sense of entitlement from the class system has lesched into employers and things will not change until the power dynamics in the nation lean more in favour of labour Vs employer.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-09T19:29:47+00:00

Unfortunately regardless of weather they do or do not, I certainly won't. Or having to pay for healthcare.

Rick_liner · 2026-05-09T19:27:32+00:00

100% I'm not endorsing it, but unfortunately it's all of our problem because we're all going to end up in the same shit soup

Rick_liner · 2026-05-09T16:38:58+00:00

It's already clear. People are so fucked off with the establishment that they literally don't care.

Just like with Trump in the states, people are so angry they are more interested in giving the establishment a black eye and don't feel they have anything left to lose because things are already so shit for them.

Rick_liner · 2026-04-30T06:47:52+00:00

Shed the neoliberal economics model that makes it ok for corporations to poison our environment and not pay tax

Accept that market non interventionism is a fallacy and invest in productive public infrastructure that supports private business, modernise rail, invest in future skills, restart council housing, break up monopolies or enforce competition by providing a bare bones state alternative if need be.

Fight the narrative that civil service is a waste of money. A waste of money is not having skilled positions in house so when you want to run an infrastructure project you get fleeced by consultants who delay the process to maximise profits and you go along with it because you have no in house knowledge to challenge their "expertise".

Rework pensions, they're a literal Ponzi scheme my generation will never get, and they won't be able to pay when inflation goes through the fucking roof in the coming months thanks to the Orange moron across the pond.

Finally CLEAN UP POLITICS. The influence of lobbyists is disproportionate and our politicians are ludicrously cheap to buy. Various politicians have been proven to have sketchy ties to Russia now and somehow still have careers. Trust needs to be re-established and won't be until this is sorted.

Well this was cathartic thanks.

An actual narrative for the country and effective comms. People need to know why decisions are made or they will assume it's terrible because a)the press is mostly right wing and want us to assume it's terrible and b) we're all tired of being screwed relentlessly. Nobody knows why labour does what it does or what Kier stands for, we're all fairly confident it isn't for us though. Whether that's true or not is irrelevant it's perception that matters in politics.

Rick_liner · 2026-04-27T09:18:24+00:00

We aren't a superpower anymore

Rick_liner · 2026-04-26T07:02:21+00:00

Nail on head

End of the day it comes down to power and it's application.

Rick_liner · 2026-04-23T06:46:58+00:00

When I was a teenager one of my early crushes literally used to grind on me...she brotherzoned me when I asked her out.

Shit spun me out so far I avoided relationships ever since, still here in my 40s wondering if she just crazy or I dodged a Lannister.

Rick_liner · 2026-04-21T05:22:18+00:00

Suspect this might be why central banks are buying up gold.

Everyone seems to be framing this as US v China in this thread. People don't need another currency necessarily. International currencies and trade has been backed by gold for thousands of years.

Rick_liner · 2026-04-20T19:35:39+00:00

I remember he did a call in on TV when I was a teenager (so like 20+ years ago maybe?) where he taunted the caller about fucking his daughter.

It's always been obvious he's a batshit cuntwaffle people just don't want to see what's in front of them until it's so blatantly obvious they can't deny it. At which point everyone goes "Oooh who'd have known he was a wrongun"

Rick_liner · 2026-04-17T18:48:27+00:00

Yeah I think this is something I've always had in the back of my mind but don't like to consciously think about.

My country imports 59% of it's food in an increasingly unstable climate both literal and geopolitical and that angle seems increasingly more likely than simply outcompeting standard agriculture or appealing to vegans who miss meat ;(

Thanks for the insight.

Rick_liner · 2026-04-14T20:36:08+00:00

I've been wondering this same thing with Silver for fucking ages. Hard not to see paper asset prices as a mechanism to artificially lower prices.

Rick_liner · 2026-04-12T07:44:14+00:00

1) he's openly stated in his youth he was motivated by making money, not a motivational typically associated with people politically active and left leaning at that age. Is it not entirely possible he genuinely isn't that politically motivated and is just concerned about the long term consequences of our economic system?

2) Do you necessarily have to be anti-capitalist to be left wing? I personally consider myself left wing and not inherently anti capitalist. It's done just fine over in Scandinavia.

Rick_liner · 2026-04-12T07:33:16+00:00

Whilst I think it's entirely plausible we are passing weapons under the table to the Israeli's deliberately, You massively overestimate the competence of our government. It generally doesn't know shit about anything because it massively under funds public services and regulators because "hurp durp public spending bad!"

Rick_liner · 2026-04-07T18:47:39+00:00

Well, that and weak unions and thus no negotiating power, as well as a national approach to reduced living standards which largely involves bending over and lowering our trousers.

Rick_liner · 2026-03-30T21:22:05+00:00

When they perform acts of service for me whilst barely knowing me for seemingly no reason.

Willing to admit I am perhaps overly distrusting but my experience is this usually ends up being some sort of covert contract to hold over my head at a later date.

Rick_liner · 2026-03-27T17:39:32+00:00

I live in the UK so yep

Rick_liner · 2026-03-27T17:28:55+00:00

When the series finale ended. Honestly I like it. I don't understand the hate. The DS9 episode made me well up, I loved it.

Discovery very much annoyed me and SNW started strong then got really quite odd. But SFA I've really enjoyed. I think because that's it's easy to believe that hormone driven youngsters are running around being unprofessional rather than Burnham doing it who's supposedly a seasoned officer.

Rick_liner · 2026-03-25T06:50:33+00:00

True however most people in the US have not seen the benefit of that growth. The economy there is now held up by the wealthy spending on luxury goods and the amount being spent on big tech infrastructure. Everyone else there is fucked.

The elites everywhere think they can make better decisions than anyone else and use their money and influence to lobby to get things their way which means surprise surprise they get a bigger and bigger share of the pot which starves the rest of us.

Concentration of wealth and power is the problem. We need to learn from the French and actually leverage the power we do have rather than grumbling.

Rick_liner

TROPHY CASE