Economics

Another guaranteed part of the capitalist system:

Grocery store secrets: Best-before dates tampered with, workers claim

Quote:

For five years, Mohammad Saffari has worked as a bakery clerk at a Loblaws store in Montreal. He says he was told to change best-before dates on fresh or frozen bakery items such as cheesecakes, muffins and pastries that were weeks or months past the best-before date.  Saffari says he was told to take cheesecakes that had passed their best-before dates and add toppings, so they would appear fresh.  He says cakes were then given a new best-before date and put back on the shelves for sale.  "I decorate it and I'm selling expired stuff for $13.99," he says. "I won't eat this cheesecake myself. But I sell it to you." 

Industry wide practice apparently.  We have absolutely no remedy for this within the given politics, which is also of the same system of 'economics.'

It seems to be a widespread problem.  I hear from enough union members to realize that many are completely demoralized by their 'representatives,' who seem to reduce themselves in plenary sessions to the role of explainers-in-chief for company initiatives to remove or reduce their compensation and benefit levels.  From first hand accounts, people feel as if the ongoing collection of monthly union dues are more important than standing up for bottom rung workers.  I've suggested to these workers that they might at least win back the status quo in their pay checks if they voted their good for nothing union out.  But they're like many people who continue to vote in elections, ie: they're afraid of what might happen if it all goes down the tubes, or, since the people who normally organize union opposition are the very same ones in bed with management, literally in some cases, effective opposition is non-existent.

from Andrew Gavin Marshall......

These financial institutions are major owners of government debt, which gives them even greater leverage over the policies and priorities of governments. Exercising this power, they typically demand the same thing: austerity measures and “structural reforms” designed to advance a neoliberal market economy that ultimately benefits those same banks and corporations. The banks in turn create the very crises that require governments to bail them out, racking up large debts that banks turn into further crises, pressuring economic reforms in return for further loans. The cycle of crisis and control continues, and all the while, the big banks and financial institutions engage in criminal conspiracies, fraud, manipulation and money-laundering on a massive scale, including acting as the financial services arm of the world’s largest drug cartels and terrorists organizations.

Welcome to the world governed by the global financial Mafiocracy – because if you’re not concerned, you’re not paying attention.

......while of course this judgement may be contested, otherwise...why are we pretending to believe that our so called democratic system is viable? by all our discussions, asif these puppets have anything to do with realpolitics?

What is relevant is how to proceed? recognizing the bankster control over the political system!

Sea Change In Spanish Politics As Citizens Reclaim the City

Madrid's city council recently broke the rules on its debts, prioritizing money for "social sustainability" over "financial sustainability" and diverting €500 million ($550 million) into public spending. Barcelona's city council meanwhile has reclaimed empty properties from banks and turned them into social housing.

The acts are not isolated, and reflect a sea change in Spanish local politics. May’s local elections saw a tide of citizen-led initiative reclaiming power across many cities. In December’s state elections, these initiatives stood alongside Podemos, lifting the party to third nationally and winning in Catalonia and the Basque Country....

Hi.  Sorry if this isn't the place for it but can you recommend any books that give a really good description of the different types economic systems, their historical (or not) development and what is their impact on workers, societies, environment and so on?