Ah yes. Nice of you to leave out her name. But here is the more detailed information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Readers here can now verify your claims.
So many Gypsies in Eastern Europe live in poverty because those countries are, by European Union standards, quite poor themselves.
That is a common misunderstanding, touted by the government and other parties responsible, to excuse their own behaviour.
"The World Bank report indicates that Roma in Romania are "poor, vulnerable and socially excluded" (28 Feb. 2014, 5). A report produced by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) that "draws on the results of the UNDP/World Bank/ European Commission regional Roma 2011 survey [4]", reports that approximately 81 percent of Roma are at risk of poverty compared to approximately 41 percent of non-Roma (EU and UN 2012, 24).
The US Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014 indicates that Roma face systemic discrimination by society, which affects them in the areas of education, housing, health and employment (US 29 June 2015, 1).
Amnesty International (AI) reports that the actions or lack of actions by local authorities have resulted in segregation of Roma on a wide scale (18 June 2013). Lunca states that "policy makers have not hesitated to enforce social exclusion by physically separating the Roma from the rest of the population" (FXB Center 8 Apr. 2015).
Sources report that there is systemic segregation of Roma children in the area of education (ERRC 16 Feb. 2012; WHO 2013, 2). The European Commission indicates that 26 percent of Roma encountered segregation in mainstream schools (EU 2 Apr. 2014, 3)."
Those things only make sense for people who are replaceable.
So for the majority of people it makes sense to unionize:)
Also, collusion in Silicon Valley makes a lot of sense: the opportunity loss of not gaining a new employee you really wanted is much lower than the cost of paying all those other people a lot more than you otherwise have to under no-poaching agreements. Remember: people find it extremely hard to judge competence when someone is more competent than they are themselves. Are they 2x as competent or 10x, or just 1%? They have no basis to judge this. So collusion keeps costs down, and they'll take the risk of losing a desirable software engineer because it works both ways (they also get to keep someone that would otherwise pack up and move).
In other words, the potential for collusion is a huge and certain cost saving, while not doing it is risky and uncertain. Guess what managers like and don't like?
Let me just state one thing: at the end of the Civil War, over 90% of the Bolsheviks that were members before the war started, were dead. What remained was a party where less than 1000 party members had to lead over 100000 civil servants that had grown up within the Tsarist empire. That alone made it nearly impossible for any form of socialism to survive. The struggle between Stalin and the old bolsheviks was basically the struggle between what was left of the revolution, and the people running the show as civil servants. In the end they won out by sheer weight of numbers.
An oversimplification, I know. But it's really not as simple as "oh, revolutions don't work". That doesn't even take into account that many revolutions are not revolutions but uprisings or coups. And some revolutions are not socialist revolutions. And don't get me started on counterrevolutions.
The only reason I can freely change jobs is because unions have made that possible. Otherwise, company stores and forced purchases would still have enslaved many workers, making a change of jobs impossible. Collusion between employers to not hire uppity folk would not be something they would try to avoid because of fines, but standard practice.
A good union (and not the guild-type of union the US is riddled with) defends the legitimate interest of all workers in a branch or sector. Even the "smart" ones that think they can handle lawyers and corporations on their own - while not realizing that that only works because there is an overheating economy and a labour shortage.
Loads of Romanians are not part of the ethnic group of gypsies or "Roma". And it's been racists like you who have contributed to a lot of the problems with the ones that are gypsies, or Roma. Members of those groups are doing quite well in a lot of countries. But they are thoroughly marginalized in Romania and other Eastern European countries where they are living below subsistence level and are forced to be criminals just to survive. As this has been going on for centuries, it's become a vicious cycle: they are discriminated against for being criminal when distrust and exile forced them into it in the first place. Or vice versa - who can tell after centuries?
The people I know there work hard, but not twice as hard. 60 hour work weeks, sure. But not much more. This changes with people in small shops or those store ladies that they have dozens of. They work double shifts and basically live in the office.
What I see is that skilled labour is approaching Western style wages. The unskilled labour force, however, is still struggling to get by.
The era of cheap labour is already coming to an end. In Shanghai and Beijing the wages are currently exceeding those in the EU, for freelance jobs at least. This isn't a general trend yet, but there is a real labour shortage starting and Chinese are very pragmatic: if they competition pays 1 cent more, they up and leave.
Well, for a short time you can kill off everyone and the survivors will eat quite well, on average. It tends to end badly.
The calories thing... needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Yes, the Chinese had a famine during the cultural revolution when the so-called Red Guards (aka morons with guns) instituted completely retarded programs. They cleaned house and it didn't happen again. Food security is actually the absolute first priority of the leadership and they will go to great lengths to ensure the "iron rice bowl" is filled to the brim.
No... he's a workaholic. Once you pry all the phones out of his hands he'll get some withdrawal symptoms but after a few days he'll be fine. Been there, done that:)
This reminds me of one of those dumb-ass corporate slogans that got handed down from management: "Everyone should work and act like an entrepreneur". My answer: sure, then how about paying me like one?
That actually was my trigger to leave my permanent job and start out as freelancer a decade ago. I never regretted it. But yes, you do have to act like an entrepreneur. Make your own customers, build relationships, work on admin and websites and taxes, work for customers, etc. But you work for yourself and you never feel as if someone is profiting from your hard work, except yourself. And the taxman, of course:) (*)
(*) I don't mind taxes. The local roads are the best in the EU, hospitals... we have had CT-scans by specialists that would cost 10000 euro and never pay more than 250 in total for everything (okay, I do pay insurance costs for around 1500 euro per year). My son is in the best school in the country for less than 200 euro per year in expenses for extra classes he's taking, regular classes are free. Dental care and health care is free for anyone under 18. Those taxes are well spent money. But sorry for drifting off topic.
People generally fail to understand that one day they might need you, the next you might need them. What comes around, goes around. So I treat my customers with the courtesy they deserve, and flexibility in hours, as long as they reciprocate. In general I try to work hard enough that they can see results, and have no reason to even think I would shortchange them on hours worked. And that means I don't mind crunch time, but when crunch time is done and deadlines have been achieved successfully, they better not give me any crap about coming in late the week after.
When they start being anally retentive about time and scheduling without any reason except bureaucratic idiocy, I generally feel that the business relationship is no longer on a footing of respect and equality, wrap up my work and leave. It seldom happens because I make my views on this topic quite clear up front.
My old boss used to say "if you work overtime, your planning was bad and it's your own damn fault. I never asked you to work overtime, I just asked for a realistic planning." It certainly taught me to plan better.
If he gives me an equal share in his company, I'll work just as hard. But until then, I'll work hard in my *own* company, thank you very much. And if I had to work for him, I certainly wouldn't voluntary lower my hourly wage just to increase his profit.
Just add those extra genes the Chinese researchers recently added to monkeys to the cows as well and have them be smarter about where their food is. Give them a smartwatch to tell the time and we're done. The ethics of milking and eating cows that have near-human intelligence are of course, up for debate.
"There are municipalities with laws against using/driving ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles in certain areas of their corporate limits."
Yeah, refineries sometimes do that. For obvious reasons. Municipalities in the EU do it too. But only for old diesels and very old gasoline-fueled vehicles that are too polluting. I think the council banning them from entering the city should also support those citizens that have an older car with exchanging it for a newer one, but they don't. Too expensive and this way it's just a few poor people that suffer. I hate the arrogance of those pricks, it's the main reason I'm not living in a student city anymore.
I'm completely in favor of the policy itself though. The damage to health of the surrounding folk is more important both in monetary terms for the rest and health terms for the victims, than someone's right to shave a few hundred bucks of their car payments. And ofcourse everyone cheered when they banned the yuppies with 25 yr old cars from fouling up the street. They have these cars because their "youngtimer" doesn't get taxed. Assholes.
The best education in the USA is likely the best in the world. And it's also quite different from the Chinese education. But... for the average high school student, I think Chinese education is doing a better job. Except in areas like Tibet and Xinjiang.
If we compare Beijing and Shanghai to New York, it's probably better to live in Beijing for your education right up until the end of high school. You will graduate high school with a lot more knowledge and academic skills than if you go to an average school in New York, if I look at the people coming over to study in The Netherlands (I've met quite a few Chinese and some American exchange students, and several people I know went to the US as exchange students). But if you can choose between a Chinese university or a comparable US university, it's more mixed. The good Western universities will teach critical thinking and the scientific method (which gives Chinese students a bunch of trouble once they get past the first year of their study here). The good Chinese universities will teach you the knowledge of the field in more depth, but you do more rote learning. This is IMO focused on getting skilled workers rather than scientists. In The Netherlands these universities would be considered vocational colleges more than universities.
And who said that they have been sent to these camps simply because they are of the wrong religion.
It's mostly because of being suspected of anything less than a huge and undying love for Kim... sorry, Xi Jinping. And treatment is VERY harsh in the camps. They don't get killed en masse, but they get beaten up and tortured for anything less than total obedience, even for things you cannot know or didn't hear.
That isn't the worst part though. The worst part is the practice of putting party members with authority in the homes of citizens. Especially families with teenage daughters and where the husband or both parents are in a camp, are quite vulnerable. More and more stories about rape and abuse are coming up. If that is supposed to endear people to the party, well, it's not working as intended. The women that are raped have little chance of a good life left, and are exactly the type of person I would recruit for suicide attacks. This ham-handed operation will come back to haunt the Chinese eventually.
It certainly stops everything inside your network from opening ports at will through the UPnP protocol. It's the first thing I disable on any router I control. If I open ports, it's because I want to do so, not because my TV or fridge decided it was a nice day to open up the gates.
I guess you got downvoted because people don't like where you're going with this:) But your experience mirrors my own. Although I would pay more, just to make the company more attractive and really get the best people in and make sure they're comfortable. In the long run, paying $15/hr is peanuts if it makes your employees really happy and productive.
If the data is coming from a database, anyone mucking about with their own sorting algorithm after retrieving it should be fired on the spot for incompetence.
The counter argument is that most rich people inherited their wealth. For instance, the 10 richest families in medieval Venice still make up the 7 richest families today. And while some people get rich by being a doctor, or by inventing brilliant stuff, or winning the lottery, most people just inherit it and if successful, expand it a bit.
Still, a lot of people who get very wealthy do act like sociopaths.
The thing is, you need to be on top of the whole process. Go move there. A friend of mine is running three external departments, basically small outfits they bought, in Sweden, China and another country. So he goes there regularly, sits with them on the floor a few days, has a video wall locally that is always on so their offices look like an extension of the home office. Questions can be asked by walking up to the wall, and waving.
You need to be thinking very hard on how to organize communication, much more so than when everyone sits next to you. But if you do, it can work out very well indeed.
Slashdot Mirror
Ah yes. Nice of you to leave out her name. But here is the more detailed information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Readers here can now verify your claims.
So many Gypsies in Eastern Europe live in poverty because those countries are, by European Union standards, quite poor themselves.
That is a common misunderstanding, touted by the government and other parties responsible, to excuse their own behaviour.
"The World Bank report indicates that Roma in Romania are "poor, vulnerable and socially excluded" (28 Feb. 2014, 5). A report produced by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) that "draws on the results of the UNDP/World Bank/ European Commission regional Roma 2011 survey [4]", reports that approximately 81 percent of Roma are at risk of poverty compared to approximately 41 percent of non-Roma (EU and UN 2012, 24).
The US Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014 indicates that Roma face systemic discrimination by society, which affects them in the areas of education, housing, health and employment (US 29 June 2015, 1).
Amnesty International (AI) reports that the actions or lack of actions by local authorities have resulted in segregation of Roma on a wide scale (18 June 2013). Lunca states that "policy makers have not hesitated to enforce social exclusion by physically separating the Roma from the rest of the population" (FXB Center 8 Apr. 2015).
Sources report that there is systemic segregation of Roma children in the area of education (ERRC 16 Feb. 2012; WHO 2013, 2). The European Commission indicates that 26 percent of Roma encountered segregation in mainstream schools (EU 2 Apr. 2014, 3)."
The list goes on.
Source: https://www.refworld.org/docid...
Let's just say they were a mixed blessing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The fact there is a whole folklore surrounding them, complete with protest songs, does indicate a few issues at the very least.
Those things only make sense for people who are replaceable.
So for the majority of people it makes sense to unionize :)
Also, collusion in Silicon Valley makes a lot of sense: the opportunity loss of not gaining a new employee you really wanted is much lower than the cost of paying all those other people a lot more than you otherwise have to under no-poaching agreements. Remember: people find it extremely hard to judge competence when someone is more competent than they are themselves. Are they 2x as competent or 10x, or just 1%? They have no basis to judge this. So collusion keeps costs down, and they'll take the risk of losing a desirable software engineer because it works both ways (they also get to keep someone that would otherwise pack up and move).
In other words, the potential for collusion is a huge and certain cost saving, while not doing it is risky and uncertain. Guess what managers like and don't like?
You miss quite a bit of Russian history there.
Let me just state one thing: at the end of the Civil War, over 90% of the Bolsheviks that were members before the war started, were dead. What remained was a party where less than 1000 party members had to lead over 100000 civil servants that had grown up within the Tsarist empire. That alone made it nearly impossible for any form of socialism to survive. The struggle between Stalin and the old bolsheviks was basically the struggle between what was left of the revolution, and the people running the show as civil servants. In the end they won out by sheer weight of numbers.
An oversimplification, I know. But it's really not as simple as "oh, revolutions don't work". That doesn't even take into account that many revolutions are not revolutions but uprisings or coups. And some revolutions are not socialist revolutions. And don't get me started on counterrevolutions.
The only reason I can freely change jobs is because unions have made that possible. Otherwise, company stores and forced purchases would still have enslaved many workers, making a change of jobs impossible. Collusion between employers to not hire uppity folk would not be something they would try to avoid because of fines, but standard practice.
A good union (and not the guild-type of union the US is riddled with) defends the legitimate interest of all workers in a branch or sector. Even the "smart" ones that think they can handle lawyers and corporations on their own - while not realizing that that only works because there is an overheating economy and a labour shortage.
Loads of Romanians are not part of the ethnic group of gypsies or "Roma". And it's been racists like you who have contributed to a lot of the problems with the ones that are gypsies, or Roma. Members of those groups are doing quite well in a lot of countries. But they are thoroughly marginalized in Romania and other Eastern European countries where they are living below subsistence level and are forced to be criminals just to survive. As this has been going on for centuries, it's become a vicious cycle: they are discriminated against for being criminal when distrust and exile forced them into it in the first place. Or vice versa - who can tell after centuries?
The people I know there work hard, but not twice as hard. 60 hour work weeks, sure. But not much more. This changes with people in small shops or those store ladies that they have dozens of. They work double shifts and basically live in the office.
What I see is that skilled labour is approaching Western style wages. The unskilled labour force, however, is still struggling to get by.
The era of cheap labour is already coming to an end. In Shanghai and Beijing the wages are currently exceeding those in the EU, for freelance jobs at least. This isn't a general trend yet, but there is a real labour shortage starting and Chinese are very pragmatic: if they competition pays 1 cent more, they up and leave.
Well, for a short time you can kill off everyone and the survivors will eat quite well, on average. It tends to end badly.
The calories thing... needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Yes, the Chinese had a famine during the cultural revolution when the so-called Red Guards (aka morons with guns) instituted completely retarded programs. They cleaned house and it didn't happen again. Food security is actually the absolute first priority of the leadership and they will go to great lengths to ensure the "iron rice bowl" is filled to the brim.
No... he's a workaholic. Once you pry all the phones out of his hands he'll get some withdrawal symptoms but after a few days he'll be fine. Been there, done that :)
This reminds me of one of those dumb-ass corporate slogans that got handed down from management: "Everyone should work and act like an entrepreneur". My answer: sure, then how about paying me like one?
That actually was my trigger to leave my permanent job and start out as freelancer a decade ago. I never regretted it. But yes, you do have to act like an entrepreneur. Make your own customers, build relationships, work on admin and websites and taxes, work for customers, etc. But you work for yourself and you never feel as if someone is profiting from your hard work, except yourself. And the taxman, of course :) (*)
(*) I don't mind taxes. The local roads are the best in the EU, hospitals... we have had CT-scans by specialists that would cost 10000 euro and never pay more than 250 in total for everything (okay, I do pay insurance costs for around 1500 euro per year). My son is in the best school in the country for less than 200 euro per year in expenses for extra classes he's taking, regular classes are free. Dental care and health care is free for anyone under 18. Those taxes are well spent money. But sorry for drifting off topic.
People generally fail to understand that one day they might need you, the next you might need them. What comes around, goes around. So I treat my customers with the courtesy they deserve, and flexibility in hours, as long as they reciprocate. In general I try to work hard enough that they can see results, and have no reason to even think I would shortchange them on hours worked. And that means I don't mind crunch time, but when crunch time is done and deadlines have been achieved successfully, they better not give me any crap about coming in late the week after.
When they start being anally retentive about time and scheduling without any reason except bureaucratic idiocy, I generally feel that the business relationship is no longer on a footing of respect and equality, wrap up my work and leave. It seldom happens because I make my views on this topic quite clear up front.
My old boss used to say "if you work overtime, your planning was bad and it's your own damn fault. I never asked you to work overtime, I just asked for a realistic planning." It certainly taught me to plan better.
If he gives me an equal share in his company, I'll work just as hard. But until then, I'll work hard in my *own* company, thank you very much. And if I had to work for him, I certainly wouldn't voluntary lower my hourly wage just to increase his profit.
Just add those extra genes the Chinese researchers recently added to monkeys to the cows as well and have them be smarter about where their food is. Give them a smartwatch to tell the time and we're done.
The ethics of milking and eating cows that have near-human intelligence are of course, up for debate.
"There are municipalities with laws against using/driving ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles in certain areas of their corporate limits."
Yeah, refineries sometimes do that. For obvious reasons.
Municipalities in the EU do it too. But only for old diesels and very old gasoline-fueled vehicles that are too polluting. I think the council banning them from entering the city should also support those citizens that have an older car with exchanging it for a newer one, but they don't. Too expensive and this way it's just a few poor people that suffer. I hate the arrogance of those pricks, it's the main reason I'm not living in a student city anymore.
I'm completely in favor of the policy itself though. The damage to health of the surrounding folk is more important both in monetary terms for the rest and health terms for the victims, than someone's right to shave a few hundred bucks of their car payments. And ofcourse everyone cheered when they banned the yuppies with 25 yr old cars from fouling up the street. They have these cars because their "youngtimer" doesn't get taxed. Assholes.
The best education in the USA is likely the best in the world. And it's also quite different from the Chinese education. But... for the average high school student, I think Chinese education is doing a better job. Except in areas like Tibet and Xinjiang.
If we compare Beijing and Shanghai to New York, it's probably better to live in Beijing for your education right up until the end of high school. You will graduate high school with a lot more knowledge and academic skills than if you go to an average school in New York, if I look at the people coming over to study in The Netherlands (I've met quite a few Chinese and some American exchange students, and several people I know went to the US as exchange students). But if you can choose between a Chinese university or a comparable US university, it's more mixed. The good Western universities will teach critical thinking and the scientific method (which gives Chinese students a bunch of trouble once they get past the first year of their study here). The good Chinese universities will teach you the knowledge of the field in more depth, but you do more rote learning. This is IMO focused on getting skilled workers rather than scientists. In The Netherlands these universities would be considered vocational colleges more than universities.
And who said that they have been sent to these camps simply because they are of the wrong religion.
It's mostly because of being suspected of anything less than a huge and undying love for Kim... sorry, Xi Jinping. And treatment is VERY harsh in the camps. They don't get killed en masse, but they get beaten up and tortured for anything less than total obedience, even for things you cannot know or didn't hear.
That isn't the worst part though. The worst part is the practice of putting party members with authority in the homes of citizens. Especially families with teenage daughters and where the husband or both parents are in a camp, are quite vulnerable. More and more stories about rape and abuse are coming up. If that is supposed to endear people to the party, well, it's not working as intended. The women that are raped have little chance of a good life left, and are exactly the type of person I would recruit for suicide attacks. This ham-handed operation will come back to haunt the Chinese eventually.
It certainly stops everything inside your network from opening ports at will through the UPnP protocol. It's the first thing I disable on any router I control. If I open ports, it's because I want to do so, not because my TV or fridge decided it was a nice day to open up the gates.
I guess you got downvoted because people don't like where you're going with this :) But your experience mirrors my own. Although I would pay more, just to make the company more attractive and really get the best people in and make sure they're comfortable. In the long run, paying $15/hr is peanuts if it makes your employees really happy and productive.
If the data is coming from a database, anyone mucking about with their own sorting algorithm after retrieving it should be fired on the spot for incompetence.
The counter argument is that most rich people inherited their wealth. For instance, the 10 richest families in medieval Venice still make up the 7 richest families today. And while some people get rich by being a doctor, or by inventing brilliant stuff, or winning the lottery, most people just inherit it and if successful, expand it a bit.
Still, a lot of people who get very wealthy do act like sociopaths.
Well, even in China it is frowned upon to take something you're supposed to maintain, and then sell it to third parties.
The thing is, you need to be on top of the whole process. Go move there. A friend of mine is running three external departments, basically small outfits they bought, in Sweden, China and another country. So he goes there regularly, sits with them on the floor a few days, has a video wall locally that is always on so their offices look like an extension of the home office. Questions can be asked by walking up to the wall, and waving.
You need to be thinking very hard on how to organize communication, much more so than when everyone sits next to you. But if you do, it can work out very well indeed.