I like this weather at the moment, as while it is pretty cold at around -10°C (14°F ), it has also been weirdly foggy, which is unusual around here when so cold. But what it does mean, is everything is covered in a a fine, white coating of ice, including this spiderweb I noticed on our front porch, spread between a pylon and a downpipe. When I took the picture sideways, it reminded me of the Eiffel Tower, and the birch seeds of birds flying around the structure.
We see what we want to see.
They are pictures of the actual Eiffel Tower.
It wasn't a great day today, as another client company cancelled all external training, which has again taken a large bite out of my income. At this rate, I will soon be running at a loss, as I still have to pay my accountant. But there is very little I can do about it, other than stress, and that doesn't really help anyone. So, it is just grind away and hope that something changes for the positive. But it isn't looking rosy currently.
The situation is caused by a number of factors including current events, but ultimately, it has been due to very poor public policy and spending since the financial crisis almost twenty years ago. And in that time, they still haven't learned from their mistakes, meaning that now there are continued austerity measures, cutting even more jobs and services, creating more issues - so that Finland has the honour of having the worst unemployment rate in Europe. And that is saying something, because Greece and Spain are in the EU.
Finland has a lot of knowledge worker jobs, and well, they are getting cut all over the place. There are very few "junior" jobs out there, and everything requires years of experience, so a lot of the young people are going to struggle, not that a lot of them are trying. I was reading just today that only 20% of under-30s who have applied for a disability pension have ever had a job. And "mental health" is by far the leading grounds for disability. So they have never paid tax, but will try to live off of tax income for the rest of their lives.
I wonder if I qualify for a disability pension?
I am pretty disabled.
I reckon if I were to be on some kind of pension, I would quickly become even more disabled, as my mind rotted away, along with any will I might have left to live. And I suspect that come a decade down the track, a lot of those disability pension kids are going to be in all sorts of trouble, especially if they went on disability due to mental health problems. I just don't see how it is going to help them improve their condition.
But maybe that is the goal. Just to keep people surviving at the bare minimum until something else can be done with them. It is like a slow extermination program of anyone unable or unwilling to add value into the community. They are still a source of fuel for the machine, as they generate business activity, but they are kind of a set and forget resource. A write-off for the country, but still creating transaction volume through all the taxpayer-funded mechanisms pretending to help them.
And it is pretending.
If the government was serious about improving the economy of Finland, they would be implementing laws that ensure multinationals pay their full tax on local earnings in the country. No loopholes, no parent company loans with high interest rates to pay back - Full tax, every euro, no loopholes. It would run into the several billion, which could then be used to actually invest into the country in business and services that generate more business and service. Stop cutting, start growing.
Instead they will likely ban social media for kids.
Which should be the position of the social media companies themselves, since they know the damage it is doing, but they will not do that. The funny thing is, there are laws in most countries about advertising to children, which is what social media is, yet it falls outside the rules apparently.
Advertising to children in Finland is highly regulated and generally restricted, especially regarding direct marketing to those under 15. While not a total ban on all advertising, it is illegal to use "direct exhortations to buy" or aggressive, misleading marketing aimed at minors, who are considered a vulnerable consumer group.
All the social media platforms do it.
Start fining the platforms for every instance their advertising targets minors too. Because hat advertising is the responsibility of the platform, as it is they who are feeding them into the system through auctions, matchmaking with the recipient. They are media companies, curating content through algorithms that are designed to maximise ad revenue.
But, fuck all the companies that don't pay their taxes locally. Kick them out of the country and replace them with companies that will pay locally, or build companies locally that will. Fuck all the Microsofts and Googles, Metas and Amazons. Start replacing them now.
That would create some local jobs.
The current configuration of the global economy is a web of lies. It is a broken system that just keeps on getting more and more out of sync with reality, and we the people are the ones who have to not only keep feeling the pain of it, but also are paying all the costs for the privilege, and then the costs to bailout when it systematically collapses due to greed inherent and encouraged in the system.
And as an individual, I am tired.
This just isn't working for enough people to say that it is functional. There has to be better ways to operate, yet we keep on doing the same things over and over. The same small group get wealthier, and the same masses suffer more.
How tired can I get?
Taraz
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