In one sample of 65 CEOs, executives spent roughly 18 hours of a 55-hour workweek in meetings, more than three hours on calls and five hours in business meals, on average.This doesn't surprise me.
~ Who killed the climate?So, we have a precedent for how climate change policy should be determined, not by the bogus logic that any hint of uncertainty in any of the climate science should be grounds for doing nothing, but rather that the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence demonstrating the human link to climate change should frame our actions.The prosecution rests.
As Jared Diamond wrote in his book Collapse (Viking, 2004) a society begins to die when the economic elite divorce themselves from all loyalty to place, people, culture or principle and essentially disconnect themselves from the consequences of their actions. They feel no pain and therefore pain does not exist, for them. The pain of others is no fault of theirs or not important in the greater scheme of things as they see it. It is this sense of indifference on the part of the movers and shakers of the economic powers that drives all the ills of the world.
While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in nonviolently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They “fired” the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something different.The 1% fought back. There was a mortgage crisis. The conservatives instituted many of the same neo-liberal and regressive policies that have nearly destroyed the US. Political and police repression were tried, but ultimately failed. It took decades to achieve, but today they enjoy a healthy economy, nearly full employment, a strong social safety net, and broad prosperity.
Both countries had a history of horrendous poverty. When the 1 percent was in charge, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to avoid starvation. Under the leadership of the working class, however, both countries built robust and successful economies that nearly eliminated poverty, expanded free university education, abolished slums, provided excellent health care available to all as a matter of right and created a system of full employment. Unlike the Norwegians, the Swedes didn’t find oil, but that didn’t stop them from building what the latest CIA World Factbook calls “an enviable standard of living.”
We know that pumping oil out of the ground does not create many jobs. It does not foster an entrepreneurial spirit, nor does it sharpen critical faculties.A: Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi.
