Dutch McDo's 'wrong' to fire worker over cheese slice...
in [Europe]
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From: Mxsmanic on 31 Jan 2010 04:08 EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque) writes: > Depends upon your choice of food! If you can buy high quality protein > and fresh produce year-round, it is far from "cheap". High carbohydrate > foods, on the other hand..... (But of course, that's the point Mxxi was > making.) Food is an incredibly expensive fuel. In fact, it has recently occurred to me that riding a bicycle to work may actually be worse for the environment than driving a car. Extracting and processing the fuel for the car is less wasteful than growing food and consuming it to provide power for the bicycle. People think that cycling is "free" and thus doesn't damage the environment, but in fact it burns calories, and those calories are incredibly expensive to produce. For example, a glass of whole milk contains about 215 calories, but vastly more than that was burned just to produce the milk and raise the cows. The same is true for food made from plants--most of the energy goes to raising the plants, and the energy cost is very, very high. To get to the bicycle, you have to waste huge amounts of energy keeping both animals and plants alive.
From: Earl Evleth on 31 Jan 2010 04:09 On 30/01/10 16:06, in article 4B644B06.51D4B4DB(a)yahoo.co.uk, "Bill Bonde {Colourless green ideas don't sleep furiously)" <tribuyltinafpant(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote: >> I've already explained the inequality of the situation. >> > I don't see any inequality. There is a large one considering the non-unionized worker and the management. > >> In fact, it is precisely this inequality that gave rise to labor unions. > Unions are monopolies which remove the bargain from the employer > and employee relationship. They make everyone equal no matter what > effort they put in on the job or how good they are at the job. For the workers the company looks like a monopoly. A single union which represents most of the workers is functioning on equal grounds. In France, for instance the local transport workers are unionized but several unions. They all don't necessarily strike. There is long ongoing conflict between the CFT and the CGDT, and also the Force Ouvri�re. The latter was created after WWII proportedly using secret funds from the USA, in order to oppose the communist lead CGT which in turn was a mouthpiece for the USSR. You can't call French unions a monopoly since they don't have a unified goal. Unlike the USA, strikes here usually only last a day or two. If a transportation strike occurs the best thing to do is stay home since getting to an from work is a "parcours de combattant" Rarely do those kinds of strikes go for very long and they serve as warning the management. This in turns leads to negotiations becoming more serious. So the "social dance" is easy to figure out
From: Earl Evleth on 31 Jan 2010 04:26 On 30/01/10 19:46, in article xt6dnXdk4Onm4_nWnZ2dnUVZ8jti4p2d(a)giganews.com, "John Rennie" <john-rennie(a)talktalk.net> wrote: > And both those classes eat better food. American eating habits are somewhat influenced by TV advertising. Junk foods have high profits and get a big play. Poor kids see the ads and get their parents to buy the item. This brain washing even extends higher. We still remember when a new breakfast cereal came on the market when our daughter was young. It was called "Banana Wackies" and pushed by a crazy looking animal pushing in one one of the programs our daughter watched. She bugged us to get it and we did. One bite and she refused to eat the rest, its banana odor was too powerful. We tried to give it to our dog who refused it too! This was of course and experimental marketing try by whoever, and it failed and was off the market in a couple of days. Various junk food providers have to fight for shelf space in the markets, and if a product does not sell they lose their shelf space. So brain washing advertising is essential in the business. An American super market will have a large section devoted to breakfast cereal. Both Donna and my generation were brought up on Wheaties, Cornflakes, etc. which are eated with milk and lots of sugar. In retrospect it was a poor diet but basically breakfast is not that an interesting meal. Donna has it better than me, she gets a healthy slice of smoked salmon every morning, a good does of omega 3 and a low blood cholesterol. I have orange juice and a croissant with jam + coffee. When traveling in the USA we gorge on unhealthy bacon and eggs, but that is brief. We have not had breakfast cereals in 30 years or more and they don't represent to us a comfort food from our youths.
From: Earl Evleth on 31 Jan 2010 04:36 On 30/01/10 19:47, in article akv8m595gdmnhj7eoniuh9i7lifid23g8e(a)4ax.com, "Mxsmanic" <mxsmanic(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Highly > skilled workers don't generally have unions, since employers cannot afford to > abuse them. This is true in most places. But French doctors have always had unions to represent their interests. My wife just published a long article on the battle between the unions and the doctors in resistance organizations after WWII to control the French Medical Association. The unions won that battle and represented a powerful element in French medicine, and shaped just how the Social Securit was going to run health insurance. The unions were protectionist and conservative, not really wanting much change. I was a AFL union organizer on UC Santa Cruz campus for several years and had no luck in building membership. Yet the AFL teacher organization is strong in primary and secondary education in some parts of the USA. College Professors feel they are above all that and that they can negotiate individually. Some are in fact much more successful, and can move from one campus to another getting increase in salary. But the rank and file are not in that position, the top 5% are. In fact at the time I moved to France and got a better paying position and more research freedom. I did not need a union for that. But the union is necessary to protect the faculty collectively, not individually.
From: Earl Evleth on 31 Jan 2010 04:43
On 30/01/10 19:49, in article 9mv8m519cvpvucqp92pub4v4pohrigvd3k(a)4ax.com, "Mxsmanic" <mxsmanic(a)gmail.com> wrote: > People who jog are mainly just imitating others. I think it is a feel good exercise in that sense. They feel superior to others but also with themselves. Most exercise practiced alone is boring. I suspect that most home exercise equipment gathers dust after a few weeks. Games are interesting, human competition comes into play. Some games you have to be good at to enjoy however. I only played tennis a few times and spent most of the time chasing the ball. At least with ping pong the ball does not go far. Golf did not seem like that much exercise, except the long walk. And people escape the long walk now with golf carts demonstrating the most people do not play golf for the exercise. |