In message , "dennis@home" writes
Who said anything about people being macho drivers - you're jumping to conclusions again
I bet they aren't as geographically challenged as you are though
imbecile
There's a very useful term for that: "unaware intelligence". It highlights the fact that some of our subconscious activity is actually complex, high-level thinking - far above the level of instincts and reactions (but with a good connection down to that lower level too). We only discover how complex it is when we bring it all to the surface, eg in a driving commentary.
Part of our unaware intelligence is that we can process information that we aren't even aware of having taken in, and this probably accounts for a lot of our "intuition" and "hunches". The Institute of Advanced Motorists tell of a classic example:
"... I'm slowing for this blind bend. Oops, braking hard - there'll be a horse!"
"How did you know?"
"Just before the bend, that pile of sh*t was still steaming."
If the graph was adjusted to account for the number of cars per mile of motorway it would be a different story.
Adam
Indeed. Birds flying up indicates human or predator activity, reflections in windows helps see round blind corners..
Wasn't it Stirling Moss who said 'as I came round the corner, instead of a sea of white faces looking at ME, it was a sea of dark heads pointing up the track..I slowed down instinctively and managed to avoid the crash that had already happened'.
WE are seriously good at pattern recognition. When the pattern 'doesn't fit' ..slow down and wake up. Something is going down..
We are very good indeed at pattern recognition. Magicians are well aware of it & take advantage of the fact frequently.
I haven't seen much evidence that this has happened in say the industries that have been privitized over the last couple of decades. Strong competetion is not the normal situation. We get dominanace by a single or a small group of companies and a semi-monopalistic scenerio.
Schools already do some marketing to ensure that they get enough pupils. Most private schools take out paid advertisements. And waitrose do advertise. I've seen some.
The danger is that healthcare for the less well off would get worse. Look at America for an example.
That's assuming that the poor do not do the "real" work. There are always going to be lower paid jobs and people are needed to do them. I'm not sure what you mean by the massive ranges of services you are referring to that the poor don't deserve, but I firmly believe that the poor are entitled to good healthcare and education to name but two.
It isn't a good thing for society. It is possibly a good thing for those fortunate to have loads of money. Social mobility is still fairly low and I can't see how it could improve without a fair system.
What is less? There is streaming of secondary schools where I live. I also know that there is a disproportionate number of children entering the grammar school than children from state schools.
What? No. I do work.
This is an extremely prejudiced view IMHO. None of the women I know are like this.
I agree with this.
There are quite a few PMs that have done a lot to seal the "worst PM" of a lifetime award. I'm not sure who I'd place as the worst.
There's a danger of replacing it with something worse. At least we have a small amount of democracy left and can get rid of governments.
So some people will still hold (almost) all the Aces.
Basic education would get worse. It may not have much effect on the schools that are already well below average. There are many factors that affect the latter (which can already be closed). However the "average" school would have less resources to use and would suffer as a result.
I'll bet there aren't 20 schools and hospitals though. And the situation you talk about is already here. I'm sure you can find a dentist that takes £100 off you every time you step through the door.
If the barrier to entry in terms of capital spend is not too high, then competition is a natural thing. Think scaffold supplires. all over the palce.
If it is high, like a power station, then yes, you do tend to get a limited number of suppliers.
A school is a typical example of an atomic unit that has no need to be state run.
So is a medical practice.
Hospitals ae less easy to chop around, but there should be no reason not to spin off large parts of them to private use.
Waitrose advertise centrally, I agree. But marketing for private schools is more about the glossy you pick up when you tote your snivelling brat along to see if its possible they could knock some sense into his demented brain..
Not a huge part of the budget.
I don't put that forward as a model for anything. I've recieved good medical acre overseas from private insurance. No reason for it to be any worse if publicly insured.
These days 'good' is taken to mean the 'best available' and since that is impossibly expensive compared with what public means can afford, the tendency is to remove the private element or price it so high that indeed, the state is the best available, Because it is the ONLY available.
I dont believe anybody is actually entitled to anything. If the country can afford it, and the public will is to have it, then it may be provided, but the right of everybody to equal treatment is fast heading into the realm of everyone gets crap, and nothing else is allowed. Bit like communist Russia.
It has been estimated that to provide the best possible healthcare available to everyone in the country would take 3 x the GDP of the nation.
So its pie in the sky.
The question then is, should we therefore prevent ANYONE from having it?
That's your problem then. Social mobility was higher when I was a kid than it is now. 11+ grammar school, Oxbridge..plenty of working class and ordinary low income kids made it. I was one. These days its virtually impossible to get to Oxbridge from a state school. The standards are just too low. And whereas I got a scholarship to a fee paying school, that is frowned on these days.
Look at the latest row over the drugs advisory board. That's what this government thinks of educated intelligent people. Shades of Mao's purging of the intellectuals.
I simply cant parse that ..
care to rephrase?
fair enough. Its an extreme case, but that one case makes more hassle and work than the 10 that don't. Its an ACTUAL case from my experience as an employer.
I could cite you many more. I used to strenuouosly argue the case every time the 'chaps'' wanted attractive young secretaries, and told them to get middle aged women instead. Far better output, far less hassle.
The point is, why take on someone who MAY be a problem when you can take on someone who definitely won't be? It all adds up into the decision making process.
If the state wants to subsidise pregnancy and motherhood, then let the state bloody well do it. Not pass the cost on to employers, that's all.
Ive never quite met such a blatant combination of incompetence, lack of leadership, activism, and downright cupidity as Bliar. G Brown is your more normal sort. Jusst basically incompetent, out of touch, and clinging to ideology as a substitute for thinking.
Look if you don't like B&Q, go to wickes, B & Q goes bust. That's REAL democracy. Leaving people to spend where they will s the best form of democracy.
Taking all their money and having a bureaucracy decide who gets what back, is Stalinist., They had elections too. For what difference it made to anything.
No, everybody holds some aces.
The pound in your pocket dictates the success or failure of the fish and chip shop. The million in your pocket dictates the success of the luxury yacht business. Who really cares if the rich spend their money on toys, especially if toys carry big taxes.. But Berowns Britain would make it illegal to but luxury yachts, and give you a nationalised fish and chip shop, that could only be changed by changing the central government..that's how stupid its got. Local elected authorities are merely implementers of central policy: They have virtually no freedom of action, so the elections are meaningless. Its even worse. Now central government is merely the implementer of Brussels legislation...
Actually there are at least 20 schools and about 5 hospitals.
And the
Indeed. The point is I can afford that. So I have that choice.
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