If you want to know how fucked the Anglo-Saxon nations are...

[johnny9fingers]

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/28/adjunct-professors-homeless-sex-work-academia-poverty

We really hate our clever and educated people, don't we? We pay them next-to-nothing to impart information or teach, and then quite rightly, ignore everything they may want to say, because they are essentially worthless people in a capitalist society. They must be worthless; they don't earn much, after all.

Knowledge is worthless. Expertise is worthless. Sense is worthless. The only thing that is worth anything is the medium of exchange.

It is right about now that I become the first communist democratic monarchist of modern times.

Comments

[garote]

Come work in the Silicon Valley :D

[johnny9fingers]

I thought Silicon Valley was paved with gold, or something gold-coloured anyway.

[peristaltor]

My folks (all five of them; long stories) finally asked me why I drive transit. The boat job they could understand; that's at least fun. But transit? Buses!?

I just told them my hourly wage. All five were teachers; they were pretty appalled, seeing as I was making double per hour what they did.

And they earned better than adjuncts, since they taught primary ed, and were at least guaranteed full time and bennies.

[johnny9fingers]

This is shaming to any academic system.

[peristaltor]

Both shaming and shameful… but quite profitable.

Where is Henry George when we need him?

[tcpip]

> It is right about now that I become the first communist democratic monarchist of modern times.


I'd vote for you!

(Always thought that there was some sense in an elected monarch)

[johnny9fingers]

Ah, but I'd vote for Her Maj. :)

But I would happily take a Ministry of Education and Culture under a sensible PM if Her Maj is HoS.

[peristaltor]

Wasn't there an elected monarch in Heinlein's Double Star?

[tcpip]

I'm not sure to be honest. There was certainly elections as a central plot (I recall the same in Citizen of the Galaxy, although that was corporate shareholder election.

Anyway, my thinking is about an elected position to guide public policy with long-term plans rather than short-term electoral cycles.

[tcpip]

Ahh, and here's an interesting example...

Somoan Chief of State
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_le_Ao_o_le_Malo

It is a five-year term now, but it was "elected for life"

[johnny9fingers]

BTW I wondered if you knew nwhyte on LJ?

He's quite a guy. Father, politician, Sci-Fi nerd (on the Hugo panel) and all round sensible bloke. Worth checking out, and at a guess worth meeting and buying a beer too.

[tcpip]

I have a vague recollection of the account. I'll check it out.