America - the good life getting better...

An article on general conditions for working people in the States:
http://20somethingfinance.com/american-hours-worked-productivity-vacation/

My comment:

The key paragraph in this article is:
"Using data by the U.S. BLS, the average productivity per American worker has increased 400% since 1950. One way to look at that is that it should only take one-quarter the work hours, or 11 hours per week, to afford the same standard of living as a worker in 1950 (or our standard of living should be 4 times higher). Is that the case? Obviously not. Someone is profiting, it’s just not the average American worker."
Very few comments here take up this historical perspective.
Now, I read Reader's Digest back in the 50s (god help my soul) and every number was full of gush about labour-saving devices and the good life these promised. Lighter more enjoyable work, cleaner, healthier environment, more and better leisure. Getting better all the time. And for everybody, of course.
You'd think we'd feel the goodness if all this was the case. But we don't, cos it ain't.
"Labour-saving" devices have eaten jobs and increased pressure on their operators.
Work may be "lighter" in some ways, but that depends who you are and what you're comparing. Some of our deadlier jobs (body and bone breaking, toxic, etc) have been exported, along with some of our worst old working conditions and labour relations. And these conditions of slave labour are used in the most cynical fashion to
threaten us back home.
More enjoyable work? For Google employees, maybe.
Cleaner, healthier environment - for who? In inner cities? Near nuclear waste dumps? Noise pollution, light pollution? Go for a pleasant walk around your neighbourhood, any time you feel like it? Well, the Cuyahoga River doesn't catch fire as often now, but would you swim in it?
More and better leisure - HA. Someone mentioned better TV... Kids have a real choice out in the suburbs - drugs or the church. "I go out walking, after midnight, in the starlight..." - yup.
Getting better all the time - only today none of us feel we will have a better life than our parents did. And our parents damn sure don't envy us!
For everybody...
Americans right now are too traumatized and terrorized by the fear-mongering propaganda fed them day in day out to think straight. They imagine that however crappy their own conditions are, everywhere else is worse, hence more frightening. The imagined threats from foreigners - aliens - are just their own fears projected on to others.
It's a social, economic and political challenge, and needs dealing with outside "official", established areas of debate and policy-making.
So, good luck America.
And good night.

Förbättra skolan - improving schools

My comment in Swedish on an article about a school in West Sweden that magically improved its results over just three years.
http://www.sydsvenskan.se/sverige/article1262061/Nar-skolan-ar-som-allra-bast.html

Dagens ungdomar är morgondagens arbetskraft. Ju skickligare arbetskraft, desto större produktivitet. Ju större produktivitet, desto större profit.
Skicklig arbetskraft kräver vetenskapligt baserad tillverkning, alltså optimerade tillverkningslokaler (skolor, klassrum, bibliotek etc), optimerat handhavande av råmaterialet för att minska spill (inte halva råvaran kasserad eller klassat som andra sortering, som händer med ungdomsmaterialet idag), och optimerade processer fram till slutprodukten (alltså inte någon bäng höjdares drömpudding).
Borgarnas skolpolitik, som också är sossarnas för den delen, går stick i stäv med detta framgångsrecept. Investeringar i skolan minskar obönhörligt från år till år. Produkten blir dyrare och sämre.

Skolpolitiken klarar alltså inte ens av att frambringa produktiv arbetskraft! Kortsiktig vinstjakt minskar långsiktig vinstökning.
Det om det. När kommer de mänskliga aspekterna nånsin att diskuteras? Mera harmoniska, självständigt tänkande o handlande människor som är aktiva, skapande, ohämmade, medmänskliga o glada, som stimulerar sig själva o varandra att upptäcka o uppfinna nyttigheter o nöjen - detta ska vara målet med bildning o fostran för människor.
Vi glömmer hela tiden bort att vi lever i ett förhistoriskt samhälle när det gäller att förverkliga alla människor på likvärdiga villkor. Såväl i Sverige som i Indien.
Comenius visste mer om pedagogik på 1600-talet än våra skolpolitiker idag. Vi rör oss baklänges i tiden.

History is fables agreed upon. - Voltaire (1694-1778)

A short discussion about history and truth:

MB   History is fables agreed upon. - Voltaire (1694-1778)

CM   So is all truth, come to that...
Truth, like history, comes from the barrel of a gun. Vae victis.
Mind you, the more logical, economical and explanatory your hypothesis, the better your gun :-)

SSh   Are you saying there's no way of getting at objective truth? If so I shall have to ask you to step outside.

MB   there's no such thing as truth. but the history - fables/myth/fairy tales is. they're all the same story, and history is just as repetitive. I seriously do not understand why humankind hasn't found a less primitive, less destructive way of dealing with conflict over all those aeons.

CM   SSh, objective reality and objective truth aren't the same thing. By using reason we're gaining a better and better understanding of things around us and things within us. But our understanding of reality is an asymptotic trajectory -- it approaches closer and closer but never actually touches. Frustrating, really... Our understanding put into words is truer and truer the closer the statements cover the reality they're referring to. In other words, reality exists (yay!) whereas truth is pretty much a social thing. It didn't help Gallileo or humanity much while the Church forced a majority of people to vote for geocentrism. Just as it doesn't help the born-again maggots that most of us vote for a solar system that's more than 5000 years old.
Science is a social institution, and doesn't exist outside social constraints. Powerful social forces are at war to control this institution, its methods and output. So truths are different at different times in different places, even if reality is the same.