Comments on: The Glass Floor

By: The 2nd Down Under Feminists Carnival « In a strange land

The 2nd Down Under Feminists Carnival « In a strange land — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:14:52 +0000

[...] Reading lefty blogs all the time, you can get the impression that we’ve made some good progress with equal parenting – but then sections of the Law and media have other ideas. Why do people use the word “babysitting” when referring to a father looking after his own children? Blogger on the Cast Iron Balcony makes a grim point about which parent is held responsible for the deaths of children. She also writes a powerful post about a sole parent who is on the verge of losing all, because she simply cannot get care for her daughter during her work hours. [...]

By: Darlene

Darlene — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:20:44 +0000

That should have said, “you get two days”.

By: Darlene

Darlene — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:19:32 +0000

Thank you for this post. It illuminates very well the plight of the working and/or non-working poor.

I’d like to agree with Guido about the workers at Centrelink. They are bound by the rules of the Government of the day (and they are just people doing their job in an often frustrating and confronting environment).

It’s always best to be calm when you’re communicating with them, I think. You always get more flies with honey and all that. But I appreciate that’s really hard.

You know, you got two days to grieve your loved ones when you’re in a job. The whole system is insensitive. Such a sad post. Must be hard to watch this all happening, Helen.

By: matilda

matilda — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:19:08 +0000

Maybe these free market types are also in favour of unregulated syntax! Free grammar for everyone.

By: alister

alister — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:43:39 +0000

My mistake – on closer inspection, the clumsy wording is from the original post from Jason Soon, not by Skepticlawyer.

By: alister

alister — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:38:41 +0000

No problems. I think SL had a clumsily constructed sentence. If she’d said, “it is selling the idea that people should be comfortable with free labour markets and free product markets including prices and wages not being fixed”… while my preference – for accuracy – would be to replace the word “free” with the word “unregulated”. I read it the same way as you the first time round too.

By: matilda

matilda — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 02:24:50 +0000

Thankyou Alister, you have cleared it up: free labour= unregulated labour. Economicspeak frequently does need a translator, but often we’re afraid to ask!

By: alister

alister — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:04:41 +0000

Matilda/Helen (while definitely not agreeing with the sentiment), SL’s saying, “it is selling the idea that people should be comfortable with free labour and product markets including prices and wages not being fixed” – meaning, both the labour and product markets need to be free from regulation. Apparently this will magically fix everything. But SL’s not arguing for unpaid labour – just for very poorly paid labour.

By: Helen

Helen — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:09:53 +0000

Also the issue of T’s unpaid labour – a different kind of free labour!

By: matilda

matilda — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:26:27 +0000

“The most important part of the free market agenda isn’t imbuing people with a Victorian work ethic, it is selling the idea that people should be comfortable with free labour and product markets including prices and wages not being fixed.”

Please explain what you mean by free labour, because that’s exactly what work for the dole is, it may usually be pointless but it’s still workin for nothin. Surely the Victorian work ethic is part and parcel of the free market agenda: wearing us down till we’re too burnt out or consumed by fear to complain about our lot in life, specifically workplace conditions.