Are These People Barking Mad?

Lycanthrope

Lycanthrope

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The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) expressed concern on Tuesday over the loss of formal sector jobs and the growing number of discouraged work-seekers.

Seemingly unaware of the irony of its position, Cosatu said, "These figures clearly confirm Cosatu's view that we are in the throes of a national unemployment emergency."

This is, of course, absolutely true. However, one of the major reasons for our unemployment problem is the power of trade unions. Cosatu and its affiliates demand higher-than-inflation wage increases, insist on restrictive hiring and firing rules, and generally attempt to hobble and calcify South Africa's labour markets at every turn (for a longer discussion on these points, click here).

Continuing with its alternative universe narrative, Cosatu said, "All policies, from government, business and labour - and the SA Reserve Bank - must prioritise saving jobs and creating new jobs. This includes policy on economic development, tariffs, and interest rates, the expanded public works programme, community service delivery, rural development, etc. They must all now focus on measures to end the job loss bloodbath and create decent jobs."

The irony here is that the expanded public works programme (EPWP) doesn't provide so-called decent jobs (see full details here). It's bizarre that Cosatu, on the one hand, wilfully hobbles the private sectors ability to create jobs, and on the other hand lauds government for creating work that meets none of the criteria of decent work.

If a business tried to create the type of jobs government's creating with its EPWP Cosatu would be rioting on the streets. If the union were truly concerned with the plight of the unemployed, it would encourage businesses to hire, rather than to replace intractable and combative labour with machines.

Write to Felicity Duncan: [email protected]
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Source: MoneyWeb

Ah, some perspective :)
 
I agree.

This country fails to understand simple cause and effect. In a country where unemployment is this high you can't expect to have everyone in a decent job. First thing is first, jobs of any kind must be created then, and only then, can the work environment and remuneration be criticised.

Secondly this country is trying to build a social nation on the backs of 9m tax payers; that's less than 20% of the population. Socialism encourages all income to go to the government (or at least all members except the poorest of the poor to be taxed with maximum efficiency) to receive nation wide services that benefit all. As it stands, the majority of the tax payers receive relatively little for their money; whereas those that do not pay tax receive the most benefits. This is not sustainable.

The tax system must be reworked where all people above the bread line are taxed. In return they must receive subsidised transport, free education, free (and decent) health care and other benefits will actually increase their standard of living more than if they weren't paying tax.

Only then can we consider massive job creation and returns (from tax) on these jobs which in turn sustain further job creation.

Or we can hide or heads in the sand and pretend it'll get better on its own.
 
Unfortunately bad employers bring restrictive labour laws upon everyone. I've many times seen the extent to which employers abuse their less skilled staff. In many cases this abuse even extends to skilled staff where the employer thinks they can get away with it. In my experience employers with a genuine concern for the welfare of their employees are the exception.

Unions are necessary regardless of what free market worshippers might claim otherwise. They exist and came into existence because employers abuse their workforce. And there is no evidence to suggest they'd not go back to their old ways given the chance.

What is fundamentally lacking is a balanced system. There are many things that could be tried, but the extremes have equally bad outcomes.
 
noxibox said:
Unfortunately bad employers bring restrictive labour laws upon everyone. I've many times seen the extent to which employers abuse their less skilled staff. In many cases this abuse even extends to skilled staff where the employer thinks they can get away with it. In my experience employers with a genuine concern for the welfare of their employees are the exception.

Unions are necessary regardless of what free market worshippers might claim otherwise. They exist and came into existence because employers abuse their workforce. And there is no evidence to suggest they'd not go back to their old ways given the chance.

What is fundamentally lacking is a balanced system. There are many things that could be tried, but the extremes have equally bad outcomes.
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employees also abuse their employer......................

same same :p
 
timgaul said:
Secondly this country is trying to build a social nation on the backs of 9m tax payers; that's less than 20% of the population.
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Tsk, a rare lapse from TG. Tim the registered (PAYE & SITE) taxbase is just over 5 million. And its falling rapidly hence the projected 80 billion shortfall in collection.
 
TooFastTim said:
Tsk, a rare lapse from TG. Tim the registered (PAYE & SITE) taxbase is just over 5 million. And its falling rapidly hence the projected 80 billion shortfall in collection.
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Not according to the South African Info:

The number of registered taxpayers increased from 2.7m in 1997 to 4.8m in 2003, to nearly 7m in 2007, and is expected to grow to 10.5m by 2010.

http://www.southafrica.info/services/government/taxreturns-100507.htm
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That would put us around about 9m taxpayers.

The SARS statistics put the number at around 5.3m for individuals, projected to increase to 5.6m for 2009.

If we take into account 400 000 registered PAYE taxpayers and 3m non-individual taxpayers we get 9m taxpayers.

Am I missing something?
 
Social welfare nation is one thing but SA's companies are capitalistic, not socialist. Remove the excessive greed in the system and things will work out. I don't think there is another country in the world where two are mashed together with greed and excessive poverty because 'normally' society fixes itself but not in Sa.

Uhm.. you realise that education and health IS subsidised quite a bit? both directly w.r.t costs and indirectly with subsidies to universities etc the people u should be annoyed at the most are those that jump ship. Crime blah blah but end of the day you need good people to have a good society, jumping ship messes this up
 
I received this in a e-mail today

An economics professor at a local college made the statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

It could not be any simpler than that.

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for,that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931
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