Tag: Osborne

While sorting out mobile roaming for the trip to Italy (myself and John 1 are going to Milan and venice, hella expensive but what the fuck) was thinking about state & corporates vs individuals...which inspired a thought about the shift from local to global. Vodafone says it's not British and off-shore so gets away with not paying 6bn in taxes (not my mobile carrier I hasten to add, I boycotted it for that very reason) but they still sting you for roaming abroad when the very same companies or holding companies (for instance T-Mobile is Deutsche Telekom amongst others) are providing the service in those countries. So the concept of nationhood and state for the corporate is really when it suits them - when they can sting you for more money - but over the last 20-30 years a dangerous desire not to put back into the local community. Yes the concept of the jolly local bank manager is a bit of a suburban myth but the push to global non-accountability, the destruction of the middle class and upward mobility has lead to a strange contradictions when it comes to borders, countries, 'roaming' and the like. For instance the desire for Plug and Play modular business that could be taken anywhere...but in the case of Vodafone I'd have loved to see them take their mobile masts away. Infrastructure is always location specific - and such moves have many costs, and not just the equipment. The social cost is what the state has to pick up - probably The Fear that made Osborne give that money away - and like with the bankers and their bailout party corporations love to socialise their losses and privatise their profits. I'm alright jack. more than my jobsworth... Nations - more specifically the State - expect loyalty; so do corporations but even the expensive advertising can't really guarantee that, even for the likes of Apple. The steady erosion of the social contract - jobs for life, pensions, trust in police and management, education, health means that the state expects loyalty but is giving less and less for it. This as well as a possible radicalisation of the middle class as they realise that the hatches to 3rd class are being closed as the water rises, is what we see with the student protests. So are these connected? Well UKUncut would tell you so...I find it interesting that global corporations on one hand treat people as disposable global objects, on the other hand restrict their movement and work via countries. Which do they really believe in? I think the state should have told Vodafone where to go - even it can't afford to lose it's UK network or 3G license, nor move elsewhere because it's location specific, despite it's desire to be internationally roaming free. And states don't want you to give you that freedom, hence visas and immigration, but does that really help stop abuses of mass labour removal/relocation, or a Daily Fail type 'flood' - or actually keep you here to swallow their crap because you've got nowhere else to go and they are afraid that a large part of the population would just up and leave?

Tag: Osborne

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