23 december 2011

Djävulstomten video

Gjorde bland annat en video om gatuteatern som jag visst missat att lägga upp här.


Och filmen finns även upplagd på Vimeo för den som gillar den platsen bättre eller om Youtube börjar krångla.

20 december 2011

John Stuart Mill om tillväxt

Nu är det dags för lite idoldyrkan genom att citera ett längre avsnitt ur John Stuart Mills Principles of Political Economy with some of their Applications to Social Philosophy från 1848, men fortfarande brännande aktuellt.

Längst ner står att finna en översättning av en del ur samma kapitel, gjord av Valter Mutt för Carl Schlyters räkning i en folder om arbetstidsförkortning.
Book IV, Chapter VI
Of the Stationary State

§1. The preceding chapters comprise the general theory of the economical progress of society, in the sense in which those terms are commonly understood; the progress of capital, of population, and of the productive arts. But in contemplating any progressive movement, not in its nature unlimited, the mind is not satisfied with merely tracing the laws of the movement; it cannot but ask the further question, to what goal? Towards what ultimate point is society tending by its industrial progress? When the progress ceases, in what condition are we to expect that it will leave mankind?

It must always have been seen, more or less distinctly, by political economists, that the increase of wealth is not boundless: that at the end of what they term the progressive state lies the stationary state, that all progress in wealth is but a postponement of this, and that each step in advance is an approach to it. We have now been led to recognize that this ultimate goal is at all times near enough to be fully in view; that we are always on the verge of it, and that if we have not reached it long ago, it is because the goal itself flies before us. The richest and most prosperous countries would very soon attain the stationary state, if no further improvements were made in the productive arts, and if there were a suspension of the overflow of capital from those countries into the uncultivated or ill-cultivated regions of the earth.

This impossibility of ultimately avoiding the stationary state—this irresistible necessity that the stream of human industry should finally spread itself out into an apparently stagnant sea—must have been, to the political economists of the last two generations, an unpleasing and discouraging prospect; for the tone and tendency of their speculations goes completely to identify all that is economically desirable with the progressive state, and with that alone. With Mr. M'Culloch, for example, prosperity does not mean a large production and a good distribution of wealth, but a rapid increase of it; his test of prosperity is high profits; and as the tendency of that very increase of wealth, which he calls prosperity, is towards low profits, economical progress, according to him, must tend to the extinction of prosperity. Adam Smith always assumes that the condition of the mass of the people, though it may not be positively distressed, must be pinched and stinted in a stationary condition of wealth, and can only be satisfactory in a progressive state. The doctrine that, to however distant a time incessant struggling may put off our doom, the progress of society must "end in shallows and in miseries," far from being, as many people still believe, a wicked invention of Mr. Malthus, was either expressly or tacitly affirmed by his most distinguished predecessors, and can only be successfully combated on his principles. Before attention had been directed to the principle of population as the active force in determining the remuneration of labour, the increase of mankind was virtually treated as a constant quantity; it was, at all events, assumed that in the natural and normal state of human affairs population must constantly increase, from which it followed that a constant increase of the means of support was essential to the physical comfort of the mass of mankind. The publication of Mr. Malthus' Essay is the era from which better views of this subject must be dated; and notwithstanding the acknowledged errors of his first edition, few writers have done more than himself, in the subsequent editions, to promote these juster and more hopeful anticipations.

Even in a progressive state of capital, in old countries, a conscientious or prudential restraint on population is indispensable, to prevent the increase of numbers from outstripping the increase of capital, and the condition of the classes who are at the bottom of society from being deteriorated. Where there is not, in the people, or in some very large proportion of them, a resolute resistance to this deterioration—a determination to preserve an established standard of comfort—the condition of the poorest class sinks, even in a progressive state, to the lowest point which they will consent to endure. The same determination would be equally effectual to keep up their condition in the stationary state, and would be quite as likely to exist. Indeed, even now, the countries in which the greatest prudence is manifested in the regulating of population are often those in which capital increases least rapidly. Where there is an indefinite prospect of employment for increased numbers, there is apt to appear less necessity for prudential restraint. If it were evident that a new hand could not obtain employment but by displacing, or succeeding to, one already employed, the combined influences of prudence and public opinion might in some measure be relied on for restricting the coming generation within the numbers necessary for replacing the present.

§2. I cannot, therefore, regard the stationary state of capital and wealth with the unaffected aversion so generally manifested towards it by political economists of the old school. I am inclined to believe that it would be, on the whole, a very considerable improvement on our present condition. I confess I am not charmed with the ideal of life held out by those who think that the normal state of human beings is that of struggling to get on; that the trampling, crushing, elbowing, and treading on each other's heels, which form the existing type of social life, are the most desirable lot of human kind, or anything but the disagreeable symptoms of one of the phases of industrial progress. It may be a necessary stage in the progress of civilization, and those European nations which have hitherto been so fortunate as to be preserved from it, may have it yet to undergo. It is an incident of growth, not a mark of decline, for it is not necessarily destructive of the higher aspirations and the heroic virtues; as America, in her great civil war, has proved to the world, both by her conduct as a people and by numerous splendid individual examples, and as England, it is to be hoped, would also prove, on an equally trying and exciting occasion. But it is not a kind of social perfection which philanthropists to come will feel any very eager desire to assist in realizing. Most fitting, indeed, is it, that while riches are power, and to grow as rich as possible the universal object of ambition, the path to its attainment should be open to all, without favour or partiality. But the best state for human nature is that in which, while no one is poor, no one desires to be richer, nor has any reason to fear being thrust back by the efforts of others to push themselves forward.

That the energies of mankind should be kept in employment by the struggle for riches, as they were formerly by the struggle of war, until the better minds succeed in educating the others into better things, is undoubtedly more desirable than that they should rust and stagnate. While minds are coarse they require coarse stimuli, and let them have them. In the meantime, those who do not accept the present very early stage of human improvement as its ultimate type, may be excused for being comparatively indifferent to the kind of economical progress which excites the congratulations of ordinary politicians; the mere increase of production and accumulation. For the safety of national independence it is essential that a country should not fall much behind its neighbours in these things. But in themselves they are of little importance, so long as either the increase of population or anything else prevents the mass of the people from reaping any part of the benefit of them. I know not why it should be matter of congratulation that persons who are already richer than any one needs to be, should have doubled their means of consuming things which give little or no pleasure except as representative of wealth; or that numbers of individuals should pass over, every year, from the middle classes into a richer class, or from the class of the occupied rich to that of the unoccupied. It is only in the backward countries of the world that increased production is still an important object: in those most advanced, what is economically needed is a better distribution, of which one indispensable means is a stricter restraint on population. Levelling institutions, either of a just or of an unjust kind, cannot alone accomplish it; they may lower the heights of society, but they cannot, of themselves, permanently raise the depths.

On the other hand, we may suppose this better distribution of property attained, by the joint effect of the prudence and frugality of individuals, and of a system of legislation favouring equality of fortunes, so far as is consistent with the just claim of the individual to the fruits, whether great or small, of his or her own industry. We may suppose, for instance (according to the suggestion thrown out in a former chapter), a limitation of the sum which any one person may acquire by gift or inheritance to the amount sufficient to constitute a moderate independence. Under this twofold influence society would exhibit these leading features: a well-paid and affluent body of labourers; no enormous fortunes, except what were earned and accumulated during a single lifetime; but a much larger body of persons than at present, not only exempt from the coarser toils, but with sufficient leisure, both physical and mental, from mechanical details, to cultivate freely the graces of life, and afford examples of them to the classes less favourably circumstanced for their growth. This condition of society, so greatly preferable to the present, is not only perfectly compatible with the stationary state, but, it would seem, more naturally allied with that state than with any other.

There is room in the world, no doubt, and even in old countries, for a great increase of population, supposing the arts of life to go on improving, and capital to increase. But even if innocuous, I confess I see very little reason for desiring it. The density of population necessary to enable mankind to obtain, in the greatest degree, all the advantages both of co-operation and of social intercourse, has, in all the most populous countries, been attained. A population may be too crowded, though all be amply supplied with food and raiment. It is not good for man to be kept perforce at all times in the presence of his species. A world from which solitude is extirpated is a very poor ideal. Solitude, in the sense of being often alone, is essential to any depth of meditation or of character; and solitude in the presence of natural beauty and grandeur, is the cradle of thoughts and aspirations which are not only good for the individual, but which society could ill do without. Nor is there much satisfaction in contemplating the world with nothing left to the spontaneous activity of nature; with every rood of land brought into cultivation, which is capable of growing food for human beings; every flowery waste or natural pasture ploughed up, all quadrupeds or birds which are not domesticated for man's use exterminated as his rivals for food, every hedgerow or superfluous tree rooted out, and scarcely a place left where a wild shrub or flower could grow without being eradicated as a weed in the name of improved agriculture. If the earth must lose that great portion of its pleasantness which it owes to things that the unlimited increase of wealth and population would extirpate from it, for the mere purpose of enabling it to support a larger, but not a better or a happier population, I sincerely hope, for the sake of posterity, that they will be content to be stationary, long before necessity compels them to it.

It is scarcely necessary to remark that a stationary condition of capital and population implies no stationary state of human improvement. There would be as much scope as ever for all kinds of mental culture, and moral and social progress; as much room for improving the Art of Living, and much more likelihood of its being improved, when minds ceased to be engrossed by the art of getting on. Even the industrial arts might be as earnestly and as successfully cultivated, with this sole difference, that instead of serving no purpose but the increase of wealth, industrial improvements would produce their legitimate effect, that of abridging labour. Hitherto it is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human being. They have enabled a greater population to live the same life of drudgery and imprisonment, and an increased number of manufacturers and others to make fortunes. They have increased the comforts of the middle classes. But they have not yet begun to effect those great changes in human destiny, which it is in their nature and in their futurity to accomplish. Only when, in addition to just institutions, the increase of mankind shall be under the deliberate guidance of judicious foresight, can the conquests made from the powers of nature by the intellect and energy of scientific discoverers become the common property of the species, and the means of improving and elevating the universal lot.

Den här översättningen av Valter Mutt är lite tydligare än ovanstående, då den bär ett rakare språk och till viss del är en kondensering av urkunden:
Redan socialliberalismens upphovsman John Stuart Mill ifrågasatte möjligheten av ständig tillväxt och skriver i sitt huvudverk Nationalekonomins principer (1848):

En ung J S Mill
Jag inser inte varför det skulle var något att glädjas över att personer som redan är rikare än någon har behov av att vara skulle kunna fördubbla sin konsumtion av sådant som ger liten eller ingen tillfredsställelse annat än som symboler för rikedom. Det är bara i mindre utvecklade länder som ökad produktion fortfarande utgör ett viktigt mål: i de mest utvecklade länderna behövs istället jämnare fördelning.

Och inte heller skänker tanken på en värld där inget lämnats till naturens spontana aktivitet någon större glädje; där varje stycke land odlats upp och där varje blommande vildmark eller naturlig betesäng lagts under plogen och där varje fyrfoting eller fågel som inte gjorts till husdjur utrotats och där varje häck eller överflödigt träd röjts undan och där knappast en plats finns kvar där en vild buske eller blomma kan växa utan att utrotas som ogräs av det avancerade jordbruket.

Om jorden förlorar sin ljuvlighet genom obegränsad tillväxt av rikedom och befolkning, bara för att kunna hysa en större men inte lyckligare befolkning, så hoppas jag innerligt för eftervärldens skull att människorna kommer att nöja sig med ett stationärt tillstånd, långt innan de av nödvändighet kommer att tvingas till det.

Det behöver knappast påpekas att ett stationärt tillstånd av kapital och befolkning inte innebär ett stationärt tillstånd för mänskliga framsteg. Det kommer att finnas lika mycket utrymme som någonsin för kultur och sociala framsteg; lika mycket utrymme att förfina konsten att leva, och mycket större sannolikhet för att så sker när kampen för överlevnad inte längre upptar all energi. Också det tekniska vetandet kommer att kunna utvecklas lika framgångsrikt, med den skillnaden att istället för att enbart tjäna syftet att få förmögenheter att växa, så kommer de industriella framstegen att minska behovet av arbete.

16 december 2011

Till Lars-Åke Norling, VD för Telenor

Här är ett brev till Telenor med anledning av att de avskedat två anställda för att de anmälde missförhållanden på sin arbetsplats. Brevet har jag efter min vän Johan B Löfquist och jag har skrivit om texten lite.

Min uppmaning är att sprida brevet till så många som möjligt. Se till att folk skickar in en kopia i sitt eget namn. Låt gärna Telenor veta att vi är beredda att försvara arbetsrätten genom att rösta med plånboken, men företagen måste också få veta varför de förlorar kunder. Konsumentsolidaritet kanske vi kan kalla det.

Vill du skicka brevet eller någon variant av det till Telenor, så går det bra via konsument@telenor.com eller den här länken.
Hej Lars-Åke,

Jag skriver det här brevet till dig eftersom du är VD och koncernchef för Telenor Sverige.

Jag är kund hos det företag som du är ytterst ansvarig för. Nu har jag tagit del av information som tyder på att Telenor behandlar sina anställda på ett ovärdigt sätt. Jag länkar här till min källa, LO-tidningen: http://lotidningen.se/2011/12/02/telenor-sparkar-personal-som-anmalde-hot/

Med anledning av den artikeln undrar jag hur det står till med er policy vad det gäller era anställda?

Jag vet mycket väl att artikeln publiceras i en tidning som drivs av er motpart i denna tvist. Som partsinlaga går det inte att ta som den enda sanningen och det är därför jag skriver för att höra den andra partens syn på saken. Jag tycker att det vore illa om ett företag som jag stödjer genom att vara kund hos behandlar sina anställda illa. Det kunde ju röra sig om något av mina barn eller någon vän. Har ni inte gjort fel så behöver ni inte bekymra er om min kundstatus.

Jag anser däremot att det är min skyldighet att meddela dig som ytterst ansvarig för Telenor att om det skulle visa sig att Telenor har behandlat dessa två f.d. anställda i linje med vad de beskriver i artikeln och att de avskedats på osakliga grunder, så kommer jag att säga upp mina förehavanden hos er för att istället anlita någon av era konkurrenter.

Jag kommer i så fall också via Facebook och Twitter och bloggar, insändarsidor och andra tillgängliga medier att berätta om mitt ställningstagande för alla och envar som vill lyssna. Ta det gärna som ett hot, för det är vad det är. Hur stort det hotet är blir upp till er att avgöra.

Det här är en viktig fråga för mig. Jag vill verkligen inte att våra barn ska växa upp i ett samhälle där de behöver vara rädda att bli bestraffade för att de vågar stå upp för något som de anser vara rätt och riktigt.

Det kan vara bra att veta att jag inte är omöjlig eller oförsonlig. Om ni vet med er att ni gjort fel i det här fallet och genast tar ert fulla ansvar genom att kompensera de avskedade med ekonomisk ersättning, en ursäkt samt erbjudande om att få tillbaka jobbet samt ser till att genast utbilda ansvariga chefer i arbetsgivaransvar, etik och moral, så kan jag mycket väl fortsätta vara kund hos Telenor. Då visar ni nämligen att viljan är god och att ni är seriösa med att försöka bli en bättre arbetsgivare.

Vänligen,
Joakim Pihlstrand-Trulp
LO-tidningen Aftonbladet