Woolworths

Last week there were reports of customers harassing Woolworths workers because the closing down sales bargains were “not cheap enough”. It is difficult not to feel for the workers, who, in addition to the imminent loss of their livelihoods, have to face such attitude from customers.

We all like a good bargain and feel we have conquered something when we get something ridiculously cheap. I can understand, however, why things are not being just given away at next to nothing by Woolworths. The duty of the administrators is to maximise the amount left in the coffers when the doors finally shut. This cannot be achieved by selling items at a massive loss, because then the loss becomes even bigger, as you are still paying staff, rent and other expenses.

If people expect things for next to nothing, then it may as well have been cheaper for Woolworths to put everything outside, with a ‘help yourself’ notice and shut its doors to minimise costs.

Beat the credit crunch!

Capitalism is great at exploiting the mood of the moment. Walk around any shopping centre and see how posters beckon you to 'beat the credit crunch'. In other words capitalism is happy to exploit its own misery. Such is its creative destruction.

Pakistan and cyberspace...

What is behind Pakistan’s drive to criminalise cyberspace by introducing draconian measures based on vague and indeterminate infractions? I can hazard a guess. Pakistan is currently led by criminals and liars; the president is the most corrupt in its history. He does not even have a façade to show how he became a billionaire. Lest you think corruption cases against him were fabricated, remember that they were taking place not just in Pakistan but in Europe as well, where the judiciary is more robust. The leadership wants to keep people ignorant about this. Hence the clampdown on cyberspace.

The honourable Prime Minister (or not so?) has his own reasons for cyber-bitterness. To find out, type Prime Minister of Pakistan and Sherry Rehman in YouTube and watch the esteemed PMs hands carefully! The fate of the nation lies in the selfsame hands! He protests and yet he protests not, if you know what I mean.

(Alternatively, just click here)

Welfare reform...missed opportunities

The Queen's speech on Thursday is likely to contain proposals for significant changes to the way unemployment benefits are paid, with a greater emphasis on using the stick, such as withdrawing benefits from those who refuse to cooperate with efforts to get them back to work. This is always a delicate issue, with on the one hand a populist desire to get 'scroungers' off benefits and the need to ensure people are not punished and left to suffer. One target is likely to be single parents.

Yet I find it strange that these measures are being considered during a recession, when the recently unemployed will be competing with the long-term and hard core jobless. I think the opportunity to make permanent structural changes to welfare have been missed. We have just come out of a very long boom, which included an abundance of jobs. That was the time to encourage the hardcore jobless back to work. Instead what happened was that most of the extra jobs were filled by those coming from abroad, which in turn helped to inflate the housing boom, thereby making it even more difficult for the jobless to join the property ladder and entrenching poverty and dependence further.

Now that we are in a recession, many of the (more scrupulous) private companies who are bidding for contracts to help people find work are beggining to have second thoughts about the contractual targets. Unless there is a quick, miraculous change of economic conditions, we could have another fiasco similar to the Individual Learning Accounts one.