Wednesday, April 7, 2021

A small rant




So the billionaires are doing well according to Forbes, whereas the Deliveroo employees not so.  Another company that swirls around in the useless world of the internet has met a sharp barrier of  rejection on its shares, as people begin to think, more ethically, maybe?  Deliveroo delivers food, mainly by bike, according to adverts, so it is probably why you don't see these young people travelling country lanes.

To put it less politely if you can't be arsed to get off the aforesaid, some poor person for a pittance will deliver you a meal of some description.  Well on the back of the successful Uber call, when 70,000 had certain conditions such as holiday pay and a pension, plus a national living wage.  The Deliveroo employees are striking today for similar conditions.

You can make big profits on the backs of the slave labour of the young, or some poor middle-aged man with his only asset a car to drive people around with. 

There seems to be three types of people around in the class system, those that can afford the little luxuries of life, the really, really rich class, and the poor, who can't afford to rent or eat properly.

There is the silly arguments in the media about flags behind Conservative members of parliament, plus of course the obligatory picture of the Queen, which is neither here nor there.  Though the question being asked is the party developing right wing fascism undertones may be of interest to some. 

But to return to food, in amongst all the wretched television I watch (yes I know) there are adverts for food, food, and more food prepared elsewhere. For elderly people (excellent) food for slimmers (maybe), but when you come in exhausted from work there is a nice little array of spices and sauces to put on the steak (you hopefully have in the fridge) and the rest of the stuff.

It is as if society has taken a downward plunge into nothingness.  Food programmes dominate the screen, food in all shapes and sizes can be delivered to your door according to adverts.  Is anyone in this country not living on the earnings of renting and service industry actually making something.  Anything??

End of rant from a would be socialist. 

20 comments:

  1. Food has become an obsession in this lockdown. Even I have become a little obsessed, but not to the extent I blog about it. I am sick of food-blogs (sorry foodies). People walking around with £3.50 cups of coffee and feeling smugly justified by the thought that they are helping cafes stay afloat is really pissing me off now. People with enough excess income to use Deliveroo and smugly justify that by saying they are helping to save the climate by having their meals delivered by bike deserve (and can afford) to lose money on the stock exchange. All these latest little changes in group behaviour are clearing the way for the more unsavoury aspects of what is considered socially acceptable in society. I am not going to say the F word, but that is the way it is going. End of my little rant.

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    1. I am not sure of the answer as to how we treat the wider issues of social change, but it looks like complacency to me that we accept so much without questioning the morality of what is really happening.

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  2. I was strongly advised to tone things down one day after a complaint when, during a lecture on the psychology of ageing, I got a bit carried away and said to the students that their standard of living would be reduced to pay for my pension.

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    1. Not perhaps the wisest of things to say, no wonder you have 'boomer boy' after you! The truth is those born in the boomer years and after had a great deal of certainty that the world would get better - it hasn't sadly.

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  3. When I steel myself to watch TV adverts it strikes me how brainwashed we are into being consumers who adopt a certain set of values want a certain lifestyle. The Soviet Union used to surround people with pictures of their leaders. We surround people with pictures of things they've been bamboozled into thinking they want.

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  4. Very true, the media sell lifestyles of course. We are perhaps almost blindly led into this. Unfortunately, like English summers, it doesn't quite turn out as expected.

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  5. I must say I try to avoid the channels showing adverts because they all auggest we must have the very latest car/curniture/clothes - and then they show magical brightly coloured dishes of food we should be eating - either buying it ready to eat or spendind a fortune on spices etc. we will use only once and then let the rest moulder away in the cupboard. I do sometimes wonder what happened to the old 'meat and two veg' way of life - most of what is shown in the adverts we don''t need but 'clever' people are paid to persuade us we really must have it.

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    1. Yes our range of food must make us the most cosmopolitan in the world. Also love the deserted roads and scenery when cars are being sold. One day, a bit like the boy who cried out after the king had passed "but he has no clothes on". All a nonsense.

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  6. My son has worked for Deliveroo [cycling] since he had to return home abruptly at the start of the first lockdown. It's been a godsend for him as he can work the hours to suit round his Masters. He's quite canny how he chooses when to work so he often benefits from the boosts they sometimes offer and his hourly rate has been pretty good. It would be hard to live off as the earnings are very erratic, but he's worked alongside pilots and many others who have found themselves sadly and unexpectedly jobless and this has kept them going whilst they sort out something more suitable. Ironically we only have takeaway as a rare treat. Arilx

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    1. Yes you are right Aril, those temporary jobs fill a spot for some but not forgetting that our young are normally living at home and have food and a roof over their heads.

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  7. And I have no television! I keep up with the escapades of the moneymakers by newsfeed, however, and it's not pretty.

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    1. Bully for you Joanne with no television that is strong willed ;)

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  8. Can you shove over and share your soapbox, sistah? Yes. You are right. I just have this crazy idea that when people work 40 hours a week, they ought to be able to afford to live of that. In my country, you've got people working multiple jobs to make ends meet, and then you've got some holier than thou that's going to complain about mothers not staying home with their babies.

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  9. It has mostly been like this unfortunately Debby. The man who delivers for Hermes turns up in his tatty van underpaid, there has just been someone on the radio being interviewed about how they manage to sell £5 dresses. What are the wages and conditions the workers experience?
    My grandchildren have the burden of university loans whilst working in jobs as well. How to keep a workforce? No contracts and low wages and quick dismissal.

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  10. I am with you Comrade Thelma! To the barricades!
    Then raise the scarlet standard high
    Beneath its folds we'll live and die
    Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
    We'll keep the red flag flying here

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    1. Very good. I would give you five stars. You have also stirred my next blog into being - doggerel!!

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  11. Here in America (and elsewhere) food cost have gone up over 20%! Food is an essential. It is not a luxury car or dark chocolate and we have a rich class not making the contributions they should.

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    1. 20% is an enormous hike, there would be an outcry in this country at such a rise. Taxing the rich is always a point of controversy but I see Biden is beginning to tackle all those who get away without paying a decent tax rate.

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