In the News (from Google News): “Hundreds of thousands of people, many waving red and white union flags, protested across Spain on Sunday against sweeping labour market reforms that make it easier to slash pay and lay off workers….

“Union officials said 500,000 people hit the streets in Madrid, 400,000 in Barcelona, 150,000 in Valencia and 50,000 in Seville.”

My Comment: This is only the beginning of the protests. They can be stopped by other reforms: by the fair distribution of income and the transition of the economy into reasonable limits. But this can be only implemented under the condition of educating all the population with explanatory programs for everyone.
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In the News (from Ekonom:east Media Group): “A day with a Greek overtone [Saturday, February 18] throughout Europe as thousands of citizens of the continent, armed with the slogan ‘We are all Greeks,’ mobilize hugely in support and solidarity to the Greeks.

“The pan-European call is addressed to all Western Europe citizens in response to the economic crisis and acute problems facing the Greek community.

“The protest is scheduled to take place at 14:00 outside the Greek embassies and consulates in various cities from Paris to Rome and Dusseldorf to Madrid.

“A similar mobilization has been planned in New York in Zuccotti park in which members of the Occupy New York movement have been camped for months.

“Social networks with the slogan ‘We are all Greeks’ indicate that the measures passed on Sunday February 12th are imposing major reductions in salaries and pensions while dismissals of civil servants are also planned.

“‘The Greek people need international solidarity and call for our support. Let’s answer their call. ‘We are all Greeks!’ states the announcement.”

Comment: As we see, a shared concern brings people together, and governments must take this into account; otherwise, they will lose the ability to manipulate the population. The unity of the unemployed and disadvantaged is dangerous, but the authorities in all ages underrate it, much like the government of Syria now. The authorities need to provide a clear answer to the question: “How are we going to fulfill the desires of the nation?” realizing that otherwise, the people will eat them alive. The only correct answer will be integral upbringing and reasonable distribution!
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In the News (from Postimees.ru): “Disconnection leads to the isolation of Europe. The debt crisis has highlighted the fact that despite the rhetoric of ‘unified Europe,’ we are ready to point at each other and blame others.

“Northern Europe accuses Southern Europe of being lazy and wasting money. Southern Europe, in turn, rebukes the North for gaining its wealth at the expense of others and now demanding that the others ‘live as sparingly as it does.’

“The West accuses the East of helplessness; the East accuses the West of narrow-mindedness. All these accusations have their own history and reason, many contain a grain of truth. However, if we concentrate on differences, it will not help solve the economic problems or stop Europe from marginalization in world politics.”

My Comment: All this is tied to a single action—integration, unity, above all the differences. Otherwise, Europe will be defeated on all fronts: economic, political, and ideological. This is how the evil of our nature is disclosed in each person, nation, and state. We only have to correct it—and happiness is so close….
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Opinion (Thomas Frey, futurist): “When I brought up the idea of 2 billion jobs disappearing (roughly 50% of all the jobs on the planet) it wasn’t intended as a doom and gloom outlook. Rather, it was intended as a wakeup call, letting the world know how quickly things are about to change, and letting academia know that much of the battle ahead will be taking place at their doorstep.

Power Industry

“These technologies will shift utilities around the world from national grids to micro grids that can be scaled from a single home to entire cities.

Automobile Transportation – Going Driverless

“Over the next 10 years we will see the first wave of autonomous vehicles hit the roads, with some of the first inroads made by vehicles that deliver packages, groceries, and fast-mail envelopes.

“Driverless technology will initially require a driver, but it will quickly creep into everyday use much as airbags did. First as an expensive option for luxury cars, but eventually it will become a safety feature stipulated by the government.

“The privilege of driving is about to be redefined.

Education

“The OpenCourseware Movement took hold in 2001 when MIT started recording all their courses and making them available for free online. They currently have over 2080 courses available that have been downloaded 131 million times.

“Now, the 8,000 pound gorilla in the OpenCourseware space is Apple’s iTunes U. This platform offers over 500,000 courses from 1,000 universities that have been downloaded over 700 million times. Recently they also started moving into the K-12 space.

“All of these courses are free for anyone to take. So how do colleges, that charge steep tuitions, compete with “free”?

“As the OpenCourseware Movement has shown us, courses are becoming a commodity. Teachers only need to teach once, record it, and then move on to another topic or something else.

3D Printers

“Unlike a machine shop that starts with a large piece of metal and carves away everything but the final piece, 3D printing is an object creation technology where the shape of the objects are formed through a process of building up layers of material until all of the details are in place.

“Three-dimensional printing makes it as cheap to create single items as it is to produce thousands of items and thus undermines economies of scale. It may have as profound an impact on the world as the coming of the factory did during the Henry Ford era.

Robots

“We are moving quickly past the robotic vacuum cleaner stage to far more complex machines.

“The BigDog robot… is among the most impressive and potentially useful for troops in the immediate future–it’s being developed to act as an autonomous drone assistant that’ll carry gear for soldiers across rough battlefield terrain.

“Nearly every physical task can conceivably be done by a robot at some point in the future.

“All of this technology could make us fat, dumb, and lazy, and the problems we thought we were solving become far more complicated.”

My Comment: Robots will replace people anyway. Progress cannot be stopped. Besides that, the reduction of unnecessary production will free another half of the working population. But people will have to use the freed time for “producing” themselves—building an integral society of reasonable consumption. This will bring them to the next level of the understanding of the world, beyond the limits of life and death. This is the requirement of the law of our development, and we will be forced to obey it.
[69902] 

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Opinion (from The American Dream): “The tax increases and budget cuts that are being implemented right now in Europe will be felt for years to come. The tremendous economic prosperity that was fueled by unprecedented amounts of debt will now give way to tremendous economic suffering.

“The following are 20 signs that Europe is plunging into a full-blown economic depression.

#1 The unemployment rate for those between the ages of 16 and 24 is 28 percent in Italy, 43 percent in Greece and 51 percent in Spain.
#2 Overall, the unemployment rate for those under the age of 25 in the EU is 22.7 percent.
#3 Citigroup is projecting that the economy of Portugal will shrink by 5.7 percent this year.
#4 The total of all forms of debt in Portugal (government, business and consumer) is equivalent to 360 percent of GDP.
#5 The Greek “recession” is now entering a fifth year.
#6 The Greek economy shrank by 6 percent during 2011.
#7 It is being projected that the Greek economy will shrink by another 5 percent during 2012.
#8 The overall unemployment rate in Greece is now 18.5 percent.
#9 In Greece, 20 percent of all retail stores have been permanently shut down.
#10 The number of suicides in Greece rose by 40 percent in just one recent 12 month time period.
#11 According to the IMF, the amount of debt accumulated by the Greek government is equal to approximately 160 percent of GDP.
#12 In total, there are now more than 5 million unemployed workers in Spain.
#13 Bad loans in Spain recently reached a 17-year high.
#14 The overall unemployment rate in Spain is now a whopping 22.8 percent.
#15 The number of property repossessions in Spain has risen by 32 percentover the past year.
#16 When the maturing debt that the Italian government must roll over in 2012 is added to their projected budget deficit, the total comes to approximately 23.1 percent of Italy’s GDP.
#17 Manufacturing activity in the euro z one has fallen for five months in a row.
#18 The UK economy actually contracted during the 4th quarter of 2011.
#19 The German economy actually contracted during the 4th quarter of 2011.
#20 The Baltic Dry Index, often used as a gauge for the health of the world economy, has fallen a staggering 61 percent since October.

“Economic gloom is slowly spreading throughout Europe like a dark cloud. Some of the strongest economies in Europe are only just starting to slow down. Others are already gripped by tremendous economic pain. Much of the EU is already experiencing an economic depression…. As things fall apart in Europe, the political wrangling is going to become even more intense.”

My Comment: The method of correction of man and the world attests to the need for a person to reach complete despair at his inability to correct his situation. Only then does the vision of solution become revealed in him: the transition to a new system of integral social and national relations (the principle of mutual guarantee).

However, the awareness of the trend and natural law of social development towards a unified integral kind and dissemination of this knowledge may accelerate in society the feeling of the need to correct our nature and start changing before the dramatic situation takes place, to “take the medicine at an early stage of the disease.” Just how can we reach people?
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Opinion (Robert Neuwirth, in his new book, Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy): “Neuwirth points out that small, illegal, off-the-books businesses collectively account for trillions of dollars in commerce and employ fully half the world’s workers. Further, he says, these enterprises are critical sources of entrepreneurialism, innovation, and self-reliance. And the globe’s gray and black markets have grown during the international recession, adding jobs, increasing sales, and improving the lives of hundreds of millions. …

“They see themselves as supporting their family, hiring people, and putting their relatives through school—all without any help from the government or aid networks. …

“In most developing countries, it’s the only part of the economy that is growing. It has been growing every year for the past two decades while the legal economy has kind of stagnated. “Because it’s based purely on unfettered entrepreneurialism. Law-abiding companies in the developing world often have to work through all sorts of red tape and corruption. … It’s also an economy based on providing things that the mass of people can afford—not on high prices and large profit margins. It grows simply because people have to keep consuming—they have to keep eating, they have to keep clothing themselves. And that’s unaffected by global downturns and upturns.

“Half the workers of the world are part of System D [the self-reliance economy, or the DIY economy]. By 2020, that will be up to two-thirds. So, we’re talking about the majority of the people on the planet. …

“[These goods] are sold through tiny kiosks, street stalls, and little informal markets. …

“The biggest flow of goods is from China. …it’s also easy to deal with China.

“… huge international corporations want to get their goods into informal markets.

“…They sell lots of products through the little unregistered and unlicensed stores in the developing world. And they want their products in those stores, because that’s where the customers are.

“Basically, they hire a middleman…—sometimes several layers of local distributors—to get the product from a legal, formal, tax-paying company to a company willing to deal with unlicensed vendors who don’t pay taxes.”

My Comment: A parallel economic system is created in the world, and this helps it to survive in an environment where corporations want to subjugate everything and grab all the profits. For the time being, these systems support each other, but gradually the formal economy will hang itself on its own rope.  And the shadow economy will work on the principle of reasonable income and necessary goods. For now.
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People today are afraid of the future. We know that many people today are losing their jobs, and even more people are afraid of losing them and are especially worried that they won’t find re-employment and be able earn an income to meet their needs. Many thousands in the USA lost their homes because of the real estate crisis, and we can only guess in what conditions they live and how difficult their situation is.

As part of my teaching activities, I visit many countries and see how people are oppressed by lack of work and income. There are two issues.

First: A person does not know how to provide for his family that could consist of a wife, children, home, debts, and aging parents. Perhaps, he is close to retirement age. He has to help his grandchildren. A number of people depend on the working family member.

The pressure is growing and becoming a common concern of the masses. As economists and sociologists calculate, soon the army of unemployed may be joined by hundreds of millions of people who will have nothing to live on. According to statistics, nearly half of the population of the USA require some kind of assistance for their livelihood, be it food stamps, hot meals, and so forth.

Second: People who lost their jobs do not know what to do with themselves. Areas affected by unemployment are transformed into centers of organized crime, prostitution, drug addiction, and so on. As a result, society pays a higher cost for this than it does for creating jobs.

As we know, after spending several years without a job, a person cannot return to the labor market. Even the educated, middle class loses its ability to work hard over time. They lose the right attitude. They no longer feel the need to leave the house every day and return after a workday to talk about their work, etc.

Thus, it is not personal, individual problems, but social distress that will hit the public like a boomerang, and society cannot cope with this problem. In addition, there may be unrest, riots, revolutions, and other troubles that arise when hundreds of millions are suddenly left behind.

This creates a wave that is rolling through the world like an epidemic. We see today that the problems that originate in one country, either accidentally or deliberately, are passed on and infect others like viruses.

Thus, the problems with the unemployed are not limited to the cost of living, hot meals, and second-hand warm clothes, nor can a society keep that up for years. One year passes or two at maximum, and a person is told, “Take care of yourself.” So far, there are not too many such people, but what will happen when the masses will be out of work?

The problem here is not so much financial, although they will not be satisfied with mere necessities. However, when there are plenty of them, they will gain power in the elections, as well as in demonstrations and riots. We have already seen what might happen. The examples are before us. The “Spring” can be not only Arab, but also European, American or any other.
[69426]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 7, 1/13/12

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In the News (from BBC News): “Unemployment in the eurozone hit a record high at the end of last year, the Eurostat agency has said.

“The jobless rate in the 17 countries that use the single currency was 10.4% in December, unchanged from November’s figure which was revised up from 10.3%. …

“Unemployment has been rising throughout 2011, as the debt crisis in the region has continued. In December 2010, the unemployment rate in the euro area was 10%.”

My Comment: You should immediately begin to create educational centers for the unemployed and those who wish to receive integral education and upbringing. This will calm society and create a good positive atmosphere. Otherwise, conflict is inevitable!
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In the News (from Reuters, the UK): “The downgrade of much of Europe’s credit ratings demonstrates in perhaps the bluntest terms so far the collapse of any lingering — if lazy — assumptions that developed states are somehow ‘safer’ than emerging counterparts…

“The only good news, some say, is that the recent downgrade means Europe and perhaps the wider West is finally confronting its true situation… ‘The main effect… could be more honest dialogue about the real reasons for the crisis… The accounts speak clearly for themselves – no progress, no real plans.

“Whether the political systems that served western states in decades or longer of economic growth can deliver that is another question.”

My Comment: It is very difficult for Europe to admit and accept defeat in a fight with a new wave of development. That it is still powered by its youth is all in the past. It cannot reject this for now. It needs serious re-education that comes from all the media and is welcomed and constantly supported by kings and thinkers, by fascists and socialists.

The task to get rid of the European complex “We are Europe” should be formulated in advance and put at the heart of a new system of upbringing (namely upbringing rather than education). It should be replaced with the goal—adapting to a new world. The restructuring is needed not in political and economic systems, but in the worldview of the Europeans.
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In the News (from Good News): “…According to a new study conducted by the Pew Research Center, 49 percent of Obama’s biggest fans—Millennials age 18 to 29—view socialism in a favorable light, compared to 43 percent who view it unfavorably. (Eight percent had no opinion at all.) What’s more, they like the sound of “socialism” slightly better than capitalism—46 percent of people age 18-29 have positive views of capitalism, and 47 percent have negative views. This is dramatically different from the country’s population overall: 60 percent say they have a negative view of socialism, versus just 31 percent who say they have a positive view. Young people are the only age group whose support for socialism outweighs that of capitalism.

“It’s telling that the number of socialism-friendly young people is on the rise from just 20 months ago, when 43 percent of Millennials favored the word. Between now and then, Occupy Wall Street has swept the country and the headlines, and there are more unemployed teens and 20-somethings than ever. It’s not hard to figure out why our generation isn’t so gung-ho about capitalism—it has disappointed and, in some cases, straight-up failed us.

“Of course, this doesn’t mean Generation Y is necessarily plotting a socialist revolution. It may also signal that socialism doesn’t have the same connotation for us as it does for older people. We’re the first generation with a new bogeyman threatening our democracy and our way of life: terrorism. …”

Comment: The new generation is more willing to accept integral education, than the old. The new generation is not afraid to remove the barriers that separate people, seeing them as obstacles to a safer and more secure future.
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