Brooks wrote:

Guild-type monopolisation of certain labour markets is one instance.

Bit too much Molyneux jism at the Tupperware party, yes.

I'm just not sure I'd act without prejudice in that lofty of perch either. Albeit - as I said - ever with good intentions.

Mod74 wrote:

JMW wrote:

Rough and ready way to sort the altruism issue: Set up a dual carriageway with a sign saying the roads merge, all the cars that shoot down the right trying to get in at the end are channelled into a fiery pit, the rest form a new communist society.

Isn't it all the people that take up the left lane as soon as they see the sign with the express intention of no fucking way are they letting anyone in from the right that need to go in the pit? They're the ones not being nice to others.

Not going on about altruism here but a while back I used to have to get onto the M6 to go to some job in the middle of nowhere, now there where roadworks where the M52 joined the M6 at the time that had been in place for months. As this was commute time of the day it is fair to say most travellers where aware of these roadworks and the 2 lane slip road that now merged into one then joined the M6. 
Everyday people would move over and form an orderly queue to get onto the M6 but of course there would always be some selfish cunt who deemed themselves unworthy of queuing with everyone else and the would tear down the outside lane and then aggressively barge their way in to the front of the queue, often beeping their horns and intimidating lady drivers. I think these people are scum and motos analogy is obviously a joke but somewhat prophetic. 
Well, one day sitting there in the queue for the M6 a lorry got fed up of other peoples shenanigans and decided to move into the outside lane but he didn't move forward he just kept pace with his place in the queue and deliberately blocked the outside lane to the selfish munts. When he got to the end the guy who was originally behind him let him back in to his original place in the queue. 
I am sure if it wasn't for the roar of traffic you would have heard a cheer. 
This guy should be Prime Minister.

G for Transport Min.

pantyfire wrote:

Well, one day sitting there in the queue for the M6 a lorry got fed up of other peoples shenanigans and decided to move into the outside lane but he didn't move forward he just kept pace with his place in the queue and deliberately blocked the outside lane to the selfish munts. When he got to the end the guy who was originally behind him let him back in to his original place in the queue.  I am sure if it wasn't for the roar of traffic you would have heard a cheer.  This guy should be Prime Minister.

 

That guy is a motoring hero. I fucking hate queue jumping cunts.

I'll be honest here. If I'm in a lane of traffic and I know that the other lane merges into mine, if someone comes alongside me I'll try to keep pace and make them slow down to come into my lane. They should have merged earlier IMO.

You guys would implode if you saw the way people drive in Cairo. Merging in the wrong place? I regularly see people riding motorcycles down the wrong side of the road.

Sasukekun wrote:

Well, one day sitting there in the queue for the M6 a lorry got fed up of other peoples shenanigans and decided to move into the outside lane but he didn't move forward he just kept pace with his place in the queue and deliberately blocked the outside lane to the selfish munts. When he got to the end the guy who was originally behind him let him back in to his original place in the queue.  I am sure if it wasn't for the roar of traffic you would have heard a cheer.  This guy should be Prime Minister.

  That guy is a motoring hero. I fucking hate queue jumping cunts.

This guy is not a motoring hero.

There's a hill between Halesowen and Birmingham with two lanes that merge at the top. At the start of the hill, halfway along and just before the merge, there are signs saying 'Use both lanes until merge'.
At rush hour both lanes are filled (edit: the right is only about half filled). If everyone used one lane the traffic would back up over two roundabouts and cause chaos. Using both lanes of the hill keeps the traffic limited to that one hill rather than cutting across everyone else's routes. 

Every now and again though you get some joker sat between the two lanes of traffic, slowing both lanes down to the speed of the left lane, probably thinking they're doing some sort of service to society by closing two lanes down to one. Somewhere along the line, these people have confused drivers who queue jump by driving up the hard shoulder , or over white sections on motorway turn offs, with people actually doing as they're told, and minimising the effect of large traffic volume. The right lane merges into the left, so yes then people do have to try and get back in. If you're doing anything other than sticking your indicator on and waiting to be let in, you're doing it wrong (and many probably are doing it wrong). 

Clearly, the BMW selfish, tory voting, aggressive bastards take the right lane too because its usually quicker. But if more people understood that you're actually encouraged to use the right-hand lane, there should be even amounts of traffic in each and there'd be no issue. I'm not sure what these people who sit in the left hand lane tutting as the traffic flows past them on the right are thinking should be happening or why. 

[/Peak time traffic management round the Halesowen area]

Edit: Basically what Matty said in one sentence.

There's a lot of misunderstood Marxism here, but it's a real fucking effort to try and steer people back on track so I'll only say a couple of things.

- Our understanding of human nature is [apparently] inseparable from the society we live in. 
- Perhaps it's cliche, but you can't really argue against Marxism based on historical events. His theories can't be falsified.

MattyJ wrote:

If people used both lanes fully though and did a one-for-one merge at the end, wouldn't that stop the traffic queue from going further back and causing more problems though?

Yes. It's how most countries do it.

They fielded six actually Mod. They got 947 votes between them. The Communist League put up two as well.

It's nothing to do with noone liking them i think, it's more a mix of, people thinking it means china and people thinking it's utopian airheaderry

How the hell do you implement a communist governance in the UK without a violent revolution that happens to go extremely well and everyone ends up being nice to each other and those organising the whole thing are infallible in their ideological drive?

Monster Raving Looney Party

The thing I never get about the Tories, and the right in general, is their mantra of "rolling back the state" .  So you do that then, and you're presumably left with the bare minimum of 'state interference', which is what, national defence? And then what? AND THEN WHAT? It just seems so utterly redundant a political philosophy. You shrink government to its smallest size, let the free market provide everything, health, education, employment and hope that, what, everything can be run in the public interest?    And that's ok because 'big government' is inherently evil and ruinous and things would be much better in the hands of business. OK.

It's the reductionist principle I don't get.  Aim for a 'smaller state' as possible and keep shrinking it until the private sector, driven by the pursuit of profit to deliver superior 'public' services, supplants all need for a big interfering government.

I just prefer the more hopeful message of the Left, which to me means government isn't inherently evil, public sector isn't inherently wasteful and bloated, and that collective action via democratically elected public bodies can like, you know, do some good.

I guess it's easy to bash the private sector just as much as it is to point out the deficiencies in areas of the public sector.  But it's the farcical way in which the Tories have tried to roll back government in the forlorn hope that the free market will be unleashed to save the day.  Check 'em out:

Renewal of the enterprise zones, a return to a Thatcherite policy, areas that give tax breaks to businesses to stimulate growth.  The reality?  Existing, not new, businesses move into these zones, just to enjoy a lower tax burden - creation of actual new jobs = fucking zero.

Tearing up of red tape in relation to construction industry, allowing it easier to build   on brown field sites.  Reality?  Everyone's shit scared of losing their jobs, so housing market is depressed and construction sector ain't moving at all.

Make the labour market more competitive by giving the option to SME employees to    exchange their workers' rights for shares.... Reality?  Remains to be seen, but this is going to encourage job creation. Give me a fucking break. 

I'm just a Keynesian guy at heart, give me stimulus.

Enterprise zones just move jobs around, look successful, turning less fashionable parts of cities into deadzones.