Mining companies are looking to the ocean floor to extract rare earths and metals that are in huge demand but short supply. How will it work, and what are the risks?
The past month was a flashpoint in the future of deep-sea exploitation – a future inexorably linked to the transition to a decarbonized economy. Deep-sea exploitation is governed by the International Seabed Authority (the ISA), an intergovernmental organization established by the United Nations Co... Read more
A sprinkling of tiny beads recovered off the coast of Papua New Guinea might have come from a rock with a rather interesting history, having crossed light years of space from its origin around a star that’s not our Sun.
Its challengers apparently vanquished, the main threat to capitalism may now come from disorders that lurk within the system itself. Wolfgang Streeck diagnoses its crisis symptoms, from persistent stagnation to global anarchy, and asks what lies in store as they multiply.
As with the end of feudalism 500 years ago, capitalism’s replacement by postcapitalism will be accelerated by external shocks and shaped by the emergence of a new kind of human being. And it has started.
Information technology has brought about in the past 25 years. First, it has reduced the need for work, blurred the edges between work and free time and loosened the relationship between work and wages. The coming wave of automation, currently stalled because our social infrastructure cannot bear the consequences, will hugely diminish the amount of work needed – not just to subsist but to provide a decent life for all.
Without us noticing, we are entering the postcapitalist era. At the heart of further change to come is information technology, new ways of working and the sharing economy. The old ways will take a long while to disappear, but it’s time to be utopian
….. but The real-world practice of capitalism typically involves some degree of so-called “crony capitalism” due to demands from business for favorable government intervention and governments’ incentive to intervene in the economy.
What Is Capitalism: Varieties, History, Pros & Cons, Socialism
Agreed – Like many animals and all primates, humans form hierarchies of dominance. It is easy to recognize social hierarchies in modern life. Corporations, government, chess clubs, and churches all have formal hierarchical structures of officers. Where does it say we should strive to equal everything out so nobody has more than anybody else? And what would the cost be of trying to achieve such perfect equality?
In the spring of 1845, Karl Marx wrote, “… the human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of social relations.” Marx’s idea was that a change in the “ensemble of social relations” can change “the human essence.”
“In England in the seventeenth century, almost two-thirds of land was owned by landlords and worked by peasant tenants. The previous two centuries were characterised by violent struggles between peasant tenants and landlords over the rents and fines the latter could impose on the former. It was, Brenner observed, the victory of the landlords over the tenants that created the incredibly unequal property relations that would characterise English land ownership up until the present day.”
Right-wingers defend capitalism as a system necessitated by human nature, but the market emerged out of specific historic conditions – it isn’t hardwired into our species.
Agree. The Cold War produced new military alliances, including NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and led to nuclear proliferation and proxy wars between and within postcolonial states in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Without the threat of conflict, we wouldn’t have curbed our taste for weapons of mass destruction.
During World War II, despite mutual suspicion and distrust, the United States and Great Britain joined the Soviet Union in an effort to defeat their common enemy, Nazi Germany. The alliance began to crumble immediately after the surrender of the Hitler government in May 1945. Tensions were apparent... Read more
Here is the bad news for those idealists out there: relevancy is irrelevant. Not being relevant is about the best guarantee of the monarchy’s survival there is.
Sorry, Meghan and Harry fans, but the royal family is irrelevant by design
HER SERVICE IN WORLD WAR II
THE STABILITY SHE BROUGHT
TRANSFORMATION TO A COMMONWEALTH
SHE MODERNIZED THE MONARCHY
SHE MADE THE SUCCESSION MORE EQUITABLE
SHE WAS THE FIRST BRITISH MONARCH TO ADDRESS CONGRESS
HER VISIT TO THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND IN 2011
THE 1969 TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY
HER TIRELESS CHARITY WORK
SHE REFORMED THE MONARCHY’S FINANCES
SUPPORTING RACIAL JUSTICE IN THE COMMONWEALTH
SHE WAS THE LONGEST-SERVING MONARCH IN ENGLISH HISTORY
Queen Elizabeth II - Most Notable Accomplishments | Teaching Resources
RIP HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II Attached is a 40-slide PowerPoint about Queen Elizabeth II’s most notable accomplishments. . The PowerPoint is divided into the fo
It’s shite eh. Though I feel it respectful to complain on time each year to ensure they don’t face an unexpected busy period, that would cause a backlog and inconvenience to other users of the service.
Hands up if you enjoy paying taxes? You don’t?! Well, you wouldn’t be alone. Taxation is about as desirable as tooth extraction for most of us, and rather less preventable. As Christians we might even be tempted to regard taxation as something from which we, as aliens (1 Peter 2:11), should be... Read more
…So Jesus says to them, “Well, then, pay to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and pay to God what belongs to God.”
So, Jesus did not oppose the payment of taxes. In fact, Jesus paid taxes. We turn to Matthew (who, by the way, was a tax collector before being called to become one of Jesus’ disciples) again. Matthew 17: 24-27 relates the story of a group of tax collectors asking St. Peter, “Does your teacher pay the … tax?” Peter’s answer, “Of course,” is followed by Jesus instructing Peter as follows: ” … go to the lake and drop in a line. Pull up the first fish you hook, and in its mouth you will find a coin worth enough for my tax and yours. Take it and pay them our taxes.”
Pay the emporor in fish, pay God in love, pay the church with money. Easy. Stop complaining!
Learn What Jesus and the Bible Say About Paying Taxes
I agree with your comment but noted that it’s also odd how sustainability, when mentioned in the same context as space, now refers to moving the crap we spread around the earth over the last 100 years, rather than sustainability of the planet and people themselves. Funny old, knackered world.
Sustainability is a universal problem, on earth and in space
As space technology and exploration develops, the health of the space environment must become a primary concern for space agencies and governments on earth
Answer (1 of 6): Anyone that can amass such a huge Fortune while he knows others are suffering greatly because he’s taking too big a chunk has lost his empathy for others which makes him a sociopath and they don’t care about anybody but themselves they don’t care about anything but getting mor... Read more
The richest persons today are Jeff Bezos and Elon Mus. However, if we look into the past, and try to take inflation into account, we can see that there have been even richer men whose fortunes accounted world’s half of the world’s GDP.
Even if they haven’t yet aligned, they sure are coming together nicely in time. Reading this from a while back, the planet won’t mind us leaving it, if we help heal the zounds we inflicted.
Earth Day is celebrated around the world on April 22. Since its early days back in the seventies, Earth Day has striven to build the world’s largest environmental movement to drive transformative change for people and the planet. As an engine of this transformative change, space tech supports the ... Read more
Ironic that our appetite for more/better communications (via satellites) paid for the early space economy. And that the internet and communications are what we give poorer countries, instead of food. Now they know why their kids are dying in pollution and disease at least.
Climate change, security and telecoms are among the key themes driving a boom in the space economy. Here’s a look at what’s behind the increased interest.
“A low and stable rate of inflation helps to create a healthy economy.
The Government sets a target for how much prices overall should go up each year in the UK. That target is 2%. It’s the Bank of England job to keep inflation at that target.
A little bit of inflation is helpful. But high and unstable rates of inflation can be harmful.
If prices are unpredictable, it is difficult for people to plan how much they can spend, save or invest.
In extreme cases, high and volatile inflation can cause an economy to collapse. Zimbabwe is a good example. It experienced this in 2007-2009 when the price level increased by around 80 billion per cent in a single month.
As a result, people simply refused to use Zimbabwean banknotes and the economy ground to a halt.”
Poor Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson — they’re going to poke a lot of fun at him for that first pitch he threw at the Mets game on Tuesday, May 27th. On the positive side, Carly Rae Jepsen should feel vindicated now: Here’s another 50 Cent joke: How crazy is hyperinflation in Zimbabwe? This Econ... Read more
Hmmm, but “Switzerland is the most innovative economy in the world in 2022 – for the 12th year in a row – followed by the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. China is nearing the top 10 while Türkiye and India enter the top 40 for the first time, according to the GII 2022.”
Global Innovation Index 2022 – Which are the most innovative countries
Britain-based Barclays (BARC.L) increased its bonus pool by 46% to 1.1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion), up from 749 million pounds a year earlier, while HSBC (HSBA.L) topped up its bonus pool by $900 million in the first half. Though the UK has nothing on the corrupt types in the US. Check this out from like 7 years ago. Not sure why there isn’t a list already somewhere(?)… https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/02/forbes-list-fat-cats-have-more-money-than-all-regular-cat-owners-in-america
Forbes list ‘fat cats’ have more money than all regular cat owners in America
“The remuneration committees which decide pay packages are made up almost entirely of other directors. This creates a self-serving system in which one group of directors pays another exorbitant salaries, and these then act as the ‘competitive benchmark’ for the next round. In other words, it is the power of directors as a group to set their own salaries that determines their level and growth.”
This would be handy if the people on the list were also listed by the company they worked for. It should include everyone who earns more in a day than the rest of us do in a year. I don’t care how clever their business idea was, another person isn’t worth 365.25 of me. Read this from the BBC.
‘Fat cat Thursday’ as top bosses’ pay overtakes UK workers’
A new report from the Education Policy Institute (EPI), commissioned by Wellcome, undertakes a detailed review of the evidence on the impact of teacher professional development. The study, which includes analysis from Ambition Institute, examines 52 randomised controlled trials evaluating…Read mor... Read more
Linking to this as it misses the point that it can just be a skive from lots of jobs. Who wouldn’t take a day out of work to learn stuff they could learn themselves if they gave a monkeys?
Any activity from which you learn or develop professionally can be considered eligible for CPD, though you should ensure that these complement your practice and enhance the service you provide.
I get an itemised summary of council tax spend every year – I agree, the central government should do this too if they want to be seen as more accountable. Good idea for the UK at least.
Smith has been debunked so many times already. You just got to read up on what has happened since his ideas were championed by those in power – and what happens to people who try to correct this basic mistake. Go Chomsky and others who bother learning and being compassionate, which is also something Smith had problems with.
Supermarkets sure reduce choice when they put local business out of business then offer a handful of options. Though not sure if Don is right on this one. Re this article:
Monty Don thinks supermarkets reduce choice — Adam Smith Institute
This is not a contention which survives any interaction with reality : Supermarket plant sales are reducing customers’ choice, says Gardeners’ World presenter Monty Don. Nurseries increasingly focus on plants that can be mass produced so the big stores can sell them cheaply, he says. “You h
Well said. and I quote “The stereotype of childless women as “having too much fun for their own good” has been around for centuries. Chrastil found an example in Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations.”
Low-paid working couples who receive benefits and whose children have left home will be denied a pay boost by the Chancellor, UNISON said today (Wednesday). Childless people on universal credit will be losers too despite the increase announced in yesterday’s Budget to the work allowance – the mo... Read more
The ‘two child’ policy was established on 6 April 2017, providing support through Universal Credit for a maximum of two children. From 1 February 2019, Universal Credit accepts new claims from families regardless of how many children you have.
Amazon and eBay both attract millions of UK shoppers every day and each has both fans and detractors. Stepping out of my shoes as a Tamebay writer for a moment and thinking as a consumer, I am firmly in the Amazon camp. Here is why. Convenience is a barometer of a successful trading body whether it... Read more
Cheaply store your car, motorbike, furniture or household goods with local storage hosts. Rent out garages, spare rooms, warehouses, parking spaces and more
” it is imperative not just to lift people out of extreme poverty; it is also important to make sure that, in the long run, they do not get stuck just above the extreme poverty line due to a lack of opportunities that might impede progress toward better livelihoods.”
Ending poverty requires more than growth, says WBG
While economic growth remains vital for reducing poverty, growth has its limits, according to new World Bank paper released today. Countries need to complement efforts to enhance growth with policies that allocate more resources to the extreme poor
Asgardia is the prototype of a free and unrestricted society which holds knowledge, intelligence and science at its core along with the recognition of the ultimate value of each human life.
My Name is Liam Hannon, Iâm 11 years old, and I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  I live in an ar⦠Scott Hannon needs your support for Liamâs Lunches of Love
Mining the oceans might provide the much needed minerals and resources, but it is likely to lead to devastating environmental consequences.
Sea and ocean mining might be come a reality in a few years, especially with the help of robots.
Mining the ocean will be very challenging, especially when determining territorial claims in the deep sea.
The sea and ocean floors are rich with very rare minerals that could shape the future of the world.
There may be trouble ahead…
As with the end of feudalism 500 years ago, capitalism’s replacement by postcapitalism will be accelerated by external shocks and shaped by the emergence of a new kind of human being. And it has started.
Information technology has brought about in the past 25 years. First, it has reduced the need for work, blurred the edges between work and free time and loosened the relationship between work and wages. The coming wave of automation, currently stalled because our social infrastructure cannot bear the consequences, will hugely diminish the amount of work needed – not just to subsist but to provide a decent life for all.
….. but The real-world practice of capitalism typically involves some degree of so-called “crony capitalism” due to demands from business for favorable government intervention and governments’ incentive to intervene in the economy.
Should have enjoyed it while you could – now it’s gone!
Agreed – Like many animals and all primates, humans form hierarchies of dominance. It is easy to recognize social hierarchies in modern life. Corporations, government, chess clubs, and churches all have formal hierarchical structures of officers. Where does it say we should strive to equal everything out so nobody has more than anybody else? And what would the cost be of trying to achieve such perfect equality?
“In England in the seventeenth century, almost two-thirds of land was owned by landlords and worked by peasant tenants. The previous two centuries were characterised by violent struggles between peasant tenants and landlords over the rents and fines the latter could impose on the former. It was, Brenner observed, the victory of the landlords over the tenants that created the incredibly unequal property relations that would characterise English land ownership up until the present day.”
It was just good practice for China! (and the other modern dictatorships we must subdue).
Agree. The Cold War produced new military alliances, including NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and led to nuclear proliferation and proxy wars between and within postcolonial states in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Without the threat of conflict, we wouldn’t have curbed our taste for weapons of mass destruction.
Here is the bad news for those idealists out there: relevancy is irrelevant. Not being relevant is about the best guarantee of the monarchy’s survival there is.
80 years ago the crown and church guided our entire lives. Not now, a relatively short time and the monarchy is already irrelevant.
Leave the entertainment to princes, politicians and other pro-entertainers.
So my god! Ive never had a king before I might give it a try.
The Queen will be. … a hard act to follow.
HER SERVICE IN WORLD WAR II
THE STABILITY SHE BROUGHT
TRANSFORMATION TO A COMMONWEALTH
SHE MODERNIZED THE MONARCHY
SHE MADE THE SUCCESSION MORE EQUITABLE
SHE WAS THE FIRST BRITISH MONARCH TO ADDRESS CONGRESS
HER VISIT TO THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND IN 2011
THE 1969 TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY
HER TIRELESS CHARITY WORK
SHE REFORMED THE MONARCHY’S FINANCES
SUPPORTING RACIAL JUSTICE IN THE COMMONWEALTH
SHE WAS THE LONGEST-SERVING MONARCH IN ENGLISH HISTORY
Everyone, and their mum hates the taxman, we should all unite against the common enemy! heh.
It’s shite eh. Though I feel it respectful to complain on time each year to ensure they don’t face an unexpected busy period, that would cause a backlog and inconvenience to other users of the service.
Thank God!
…So Jesus says to them, “Well, then, pay to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and pay to God what belongs to God.”
So, Jesus did not oppose the payment of taxes. In fact, Jesus paid taxes. We turn to Matthew (who, by the way, was a tax collector before being called to become one of Jesus’ disciples) again. Matthew 17: 24-27 relates the story of a group of tax collectors asking St. Peter, “Does your teacher pay the … tax?” Peter’s answer, “Of course,” is followed by Jesus instructing Peter as follows: ” … go to the lake and drop in a line. Pull up the first fish you hook, and in its mouth you will find a coin worth enough for my tax and yours. Take it and pay them our taxes.”
Pay the emporor in fish, pay God in love, pay the church with money. Easy. Stop complaining!
I agree with your comment but noted that it’s also odd how sustainability, when mentioned in the same context as space, now refers to moving the crap we spread around the earth over the last 100 years, rather than sustainability of the planet and people themselves. Funny old, knackered world.
Why improve people’s lives when you can instead be a captain of industry and hero of the galaxy?
Why didn’t any of the rich-list save anyone else? The problem isn’t just with ego, but with another sin, gluttony.
Even if they haven’t yet aligned, they sure are coming together nicely in time. Reading this from a while back, the planet won’t mind us leaving it, if we help heal the zounds we inflicted.
Ironic that our appetite for more/better communications (via satellites) paid for the early space economy. And that the internet and communications are what we give poorer countries, instead of food. Now they know why their kids are dying in pollution and disease at least.
True…. but the overall cost is much higher, than if you just kept a healthy rate of inflation. you can read more here https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/explainers/what-is-inflation
such as
“A low and stable rate of inflation helps to create a healthy economy.
The Government sets a target for how much prices overall should go up each year in the UK. That target is 2%. It’s the Bank of England job to keep inflation at that target.
A little bit of inflation is helpful. But high and unstable rates of inflation can be harmful.
If prices are unpredictable, it is difficult for people to plan how much they can spend, save or invest.
In extreme cases, high and volatile inflation can cause an economy to collapse. Zimbabwe is a good example. It experienced this in 2007-2009 when the price level increased by around 80 billion per cent in a single month.
As a result, people simply refused to use Zimbabwean banknotes and the economy ground to a halt.”
That may be true for an economist, but the easiest way for politicians to do it is by raising taxes. There’s your problem.
Sorry, had to add this pic to the idea
Hmmm, but “Switzerland is the most innovative economy in the world in 2022 – for the 12th year in a row – followed by the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. China is nearing the top 10 while Türkiye and India enter the top 40 for the first time, according to the GII 2022.”
Actually, this is what he said, and his speech writers before him
Not so fast, and not at any cost though right?
Britain-based Barclays (BARC.L) increased its bonus pool by 46% to 1.1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion), up from 749 million pounds a year earlier, while HSBC (HSBA.L) topped up its bonus pool by $900 million in the first half. Though the UK has nothing on the corrupt types in the US. Check this out from like 7 years ago. Not sure why there isn’t a list already somewhere(?)… https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/02/forbes-list-fat-cats-have-more-money-than-all-regular-cat-owners-in-america
“The remuneration committees which decide pay packages are made up almost entirely of other directors. This creates a self-serving system in which one group of directors pays another exorbitant salaries, and these then act as the ‘competitive benchmark’ for the next round. In other words, it is the power of directors as a group to set their own salaries that determines their level and growth.”
Theresa May had a handy list of them all for herself. Not sure how she planned to use the list though. Not to have them investigated I guess?
This would be handy if the people on the list were also listed by the company they worked for. It should include everyone who earns more in a day than the rest of us do in a year. I don’t care how clever their business idea was, another person isn’t worth 365.25 of me. Read this from the BBC.
Teachers need it more than most. Misinformation spreads when not being checked. Read this https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/effects-high-quality-professional-development/
It is important in some jobs as it benefits the employer and employee, but does a binman or factory worker need it? No.
Linking to this as it misses the point that it can just be a skive from lots of jobs. Who wouldn’t take a day out of work to learn stuff they could learn themselves if they gave a monkeys?
Seek and you will find…..
Agreed, and they should link to resources like this so it is easier to understand.
I get an itemised summary of council tax spend every year – I agree, the central government should do this too if they want to be seen as more accountable. Good idea for the UK at least.
Corbin helped write their rule book, looks like they still stand by it.
It may happen (again) yet according to this article.
Not entirely Smith’s fault but he should have known his words would have been twisted by those with less scruples and more to lose.
more here, agreed btw.
I can highly recommend Jeff Madrick’s book “Seven Bad Ideas: How Mainstream Economists Have Damaged America and the World.” reviewed here https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-invisible-hand-conver_b_6590420
Smith has been debunked so many times already. You just got to read up on what has happened since his ideas were championed by those in power – and what happens to people who try to correct this basic mistake. Go Chomsky and others who bother learning and being compassionate, which is also something Smith had problems with.
You can do this and there’s an app for it.
Supermarkets sure reduce choice when they put local business out of business then offer a handful of options. Though not sure if Don is right on this one. Re this article:
Well said. and I quote “The stereotype of childless women as “having too much fun for their own good” has been around for centuries. Chrastil found an example in Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations.”
Having kids makes the country more money. It saves the country more money too. think about it.
Interesting idea, there has been much discussion on this tbh.
Since 2017, they have only been paid for the first 2 kids they have – oh, that’s ok then (?)
But wouldn’t business owners just pay themselves a low rate to dodge tax? It may create more loopholes than already exist. Don’t think it could work.
Consumption tax is what they are calling sales tax now, sounds better right?
Didn’t think of that, but the old idea of ditching income tax has its merits too. After all, it’s not a crime to make money, just to spend it.
Here’s why…
I remember when oil companies were hated this much. Now its digital overlords in the firing sights. Makes sense to dislike them I suppose.
It’s a set of group of people, not an ideology btw. but interesting how they think this could work, with no money in the system…
Good idea and good point. Ebay’s days are numbered, Bezoz wants the lot.
Use stashbee to find a slot near you and to rent your slot out.
” it is imperative not just to lift people out of extreme poverty; it is also important to make sure that, in the long run, they do not get stuck just above the extreme poverty line due to a lack of opportunities that might impede progress toward better livelihoods.”
Asgardia, the new “space nation” is a likely candidate, due to their focus on space exploration rather than wealth.
A space junk shame list
(5 upvotes)Make Space Peaceful Again – Disband Trump’s Space Force
(8 upvotes)Licences to set up new countries – supported by a global ‘nation’ tax
(1 upvotes)Create a nation that doesn’t strive only for financial growth
(1 upvotes)Socialism works though – join us
For the many, not the few
(2 upvotes)Labour Isn’t Working
(3 upvotes)Charity wishing wells in shopping malls
(7 upvotes)Respect your youngers
(22 upvotes)The child is father to the man
(3 upvotes)There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
(4 upvotes)Feed the world
(11 upvotes)