Category Archives: wealth

78. The Problem of Work and the Rise of the Precariat

The Prob­lem of Work and the Rise of the Pre­cariat Work, as a life expe­ri­ence, has evolved greatly over his­tor­i­cal time. For most ordi­nary peo­ple, their job is not some­thing that they enjoy much. How­ever, with­out for­mal work many lose … Con­tinue read­ing

Posted in culture, economics, ethics, health, ideology, individualism, innovation, law, lifestyle, management, merit, motivation, philosophy, politics, reciprocation, refugees, regulations, rules, value, wealth, work | Leave a comment

77. Fakes, liars, cheats, deceivers, animals in the forest

It’s all around us. From face lifts to lux­ury cars on hire pur­chase, from inflated CVs to exag­ger­ated job titles, from com­pany pub­lic­ity mate­rial to the spin that gov­ern­ments put on their fail­ures and decep­tions. At what point does fak­ery … Con­tinue read­ing

Posted in competence, culture, economics, ethics, evidence, ideology, individualism, law, lifestyle, management, merit, motivation, reciprocation, regulations, religion, rules, truth, value, war, wealth, work | Leave a comment

76. Multicultures – communities of familiar strangers

Thor May Bris­bane, 2014   Pref­ace: This is a dis­cus­sion paper, not a researched aca­d­e­mic doc­u­ment. In par­tic­u­lar, it includes a fair amount of per­sonal com­ment. Where a topic is of broad gen­eral inter­est comes up with friends, I have adopted … Con­tinue read­ing

Posted in China, culture, economics, ethics, evidence, ideology, individualism, intellectuals, Language learning, law, lifestyle, merit, politics, reciprocation, refugees, regulations, religion, rules, value, war, wealth | Leave a comment

75. Property and Life Choices

How does own­ing (or not own­ing) real estate, and mort­gage debt, influ­ence the behav­iour of indi­vid­u­als in their wider lives? What are the con­se­quences of these pat­terns for whole nations? Thor May Bris­bane, 2014 Pref­ace: This is a dis­cus­sion paper, not … Con­tinue read­ing

Posted in culture, economics, ethics, ideology, individualism, innovation, lifestyle, motivation, politics, regulations, rules, value, wealth, work | Leave a comment

72. Crime without Punishment – the journey from means to ends

Sooner or later every­one – indi­vid­u­als, gov­ern­ments, com­pa­nies – has to make choices about whether to put aside cer­tain val­ues to achieve a desired end. Michael Pas­coe, an Aus­tralian finan­cial jour­nal­ist, has recently dis­cussed this at http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/abandon-principles-and-pay-the-price-20140331-35tz4.html Image credit: Hugh … Con­tinue read­ing

Posted in competence, culture, economics, ethics, evidence, ideology, individualism, law, management, merit, motivation, politics, proportion, regulations, religion, rules, teaching, truth, value, war, wealth, work | Leave a comment

68. Are We Too Wealthy?

Do we demand an unsus­tain­able and unre­al­is­tic qual­ity of life? Does our desire to be wealthy place too much pres­sure on the econ­omy and on the envi­ron­ment? Is it pos­si­ble that we may have to think about accept­ing less?  Thor … Con­tinue read­ing

Posted in culture, economics, ethics, ideology, individualism, intellectuals, lifestyle, merit, motivation, philosophy, politics, proportion, refugees, wealth, work | Leave a comment

66. What will be the dominant ideologies of the 21st Century?

The 20th Cen­tury revolved polit­i­cally around com­pet­ing inter­pre­ta­tions of Cap­i­tal­ism, Com­mu­nism, Social­ism and Fas­cism. These are all ways to orga­nize the lives of peo­ple on a large scale. Are real alter­na­tives or new inter­pre­ta­tions likely to emerge in the chal­leng­ing years … Con­tinue read­ing

Posted in China, economics, ethics, ideology, law, merit, motivation, politics, regulations, religion, rules, truth, war, wealth | Leave a comment