Joe Scarborough  said "The President said nothing in his speech tonight. But
he said it so much better than Mitt Romney when he said nothing in Tampa."





 

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of de Bivort
Lawrence
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2012 6:02 PM
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION
Subject: Re: [Futurework] In Australia Donald Trump is a fat, ugly woman
born to wealth

 

I just looked at the video the article referenced. Actually, I think my idea
of her dating Mitt Romney is terrible. my apologies. She would rightly find
Mitt superficial and boring, devoid of substance.  Sigh. Matchmaking is so
hard, these days.

 

Cheers,

Lawry

 

 

On Sep 7, 2012, at 3:00 PM, Ray Harrell wrote:





 


World's richest woman lauds $2-a-day wages


<image001.jpg>

Paul Kane / Getty Images

Easy for her to say. Gina Rinehart, chairman of Hancock Prospecting and
listed as the world's richest woman, has put her silver foot in her mouth
again, lauding African miners' willingness to work for $2 a day.

By Martha C. White, NBC News contributor

An Australian mining heiress who courted controversy last month for
suggesting her countrymen were just
<http://www.cnbc.com/id/48842456/Drink_Less_Work_More_Aussie_Billionaire_Tel
ls_Non_Rich> too lazy to be rich is at it again.

Gina Rinehart, thought to be the world's richest woman, chastised miners for
being "too expensive," saying, "Africans want to work. Its workers are
willing to work for less than $2 per day."

 

In a 10-minute recording  <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3CcxRbFiLg>
posted on YouTube to the Sydney Mining Club, Rinehart lambasted the domestic
mining industry, saying it couldn't compete in a global marketplace. "Not
with Australian
<http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/06/13706124-worlds-richest-woma
n-lauds-2-a-day-wages?lite> prices," she said. She also railed against the
country's carbon tax and regulatory "red tape."

But Rinehart's most inflammatory statement by far was the comparison between
Australian miners and those who work in developing African nations. "Such
statistics make me worry for this country's future," she said.

 

Rinehart's remarks drew a sharp rebuke from Australia's Prime Minister, and
it is doubtful that even those African mineworkers would agree with
Rinehart's endorsement of a sub-two-dollar daily wage. Violence flared at a
South African platinum mine three weeks ago after workers demanded what
media outlet
<http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ihrkPpRq8AgVOKIdbupms8o3
2bVg?docId=CNG.b0ede9cb45db95a21ea4cc730fbf1a8b.511> AFP characterized as a
near-tripling of their monthly wages to roughly $1,500 (12,500 South African
rand).

 

This isn't Rinehart's first jab at Australia's working class. In a recent
article, she wrote, "If you're jealous of those with more money... spend
less time drinking, or smoking and socialising and more time working." That
remark touched off its own media firestorm, with politicians and pundits
alike pointing out that Rinehart acquired the source of her wealth simply by
being born into the right family.

 

Rinehart inherited privately-held Hancock Prospecting, a company founded by
her father. Forbes magazine has listed her net worth at $18 billion as of
March.

The Australian press reported that the company made a $225 million after-tax
profit on revenue of $738 million in 2009, and that Rinehart was fighting a
regulatory order to make public more recent
<http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/06/13706124-worlds-richest-woma
n-lauds-2-a-day-wages?lite> financial records. This isn't Rinehart's only
legal battle; she is also involved in an ongoing dispute with three of her
four children over family assets.

 

Blaming Australian wages for "uncompetitive" export prices on iron ore is a
fallacy, said Gary Burtless, an economist at the Brookings Institution. It
oversimplifies in that it fails to take into account better technology and
transportation infrastructure and worker skills that could offset higher
labor costs or make a smaller number of workers more
<http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/06/13706124-worlds-richest-woma
n-lauds-2-a-day-wages?lite> productive.

Rinehart's hypothetical $2-a-day workers also might not have comparable
education and skills, Burtless pointed out. A report by Australia's National
Institute of Labour Studies for the Minerals Council of Australia predicted
that the mining industry will need an additional 86,000 workers by the end
of the decade. Prompted by the report, the Council launched an adult
apprenticeship program "developed to specifically address the growing
shortage of workers in the minerals and energy sectors."

 

Burtless said Rinehart also ignored what he called "the most obvious factor
that makes Australia an attractive place to do business" - a legal and
regulatory infrastructure that protects private property, assets and
<http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/06/13706124-worlds-richest-woma
n-lauds-2-a-day-wages?lite> investments. "They enjoy an outstanding
international reputation for fairness and transparency," he said. "For how
many countries in Africa can we say the same thing?"  

 

Then you might want to check this out.
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-rich-people-think-differently-from-the-po
or-2012-8?op=1

 

This is the world that economic theory has given us.    Robert Coles it's
not but it is the world of Strategic Thinking about money and giving which
makes "Free Riding" the ultimate public good.   

 

REH

 

 

 

 

 

 

_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework

 

_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework

Reply via email to