h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I know that when it's a sunny day I really don't feel like doing any work. I'd much rather have the day off, and go and enjoy myself in the sunshine. So if I lived in a country that regularly had sunny days, like say Greece or Spain or Italy or Portugal, then I'd probably want to spend most days not working and enjoying myself instead.

I guess that if everyone took that view, then there might be economic problems somewhere down the line, but hey, that's what we've got bankers and politicians for. They'll make sure that the country stays on an even keel.

Admittedly, they'll have to be the bankers and politicos of other countries, because ours wouldn't want to work either.

Am I being unreasonable?


Geggs

It also explains the efficiencies in the BBC moving everyone from London to Manchester.

True... lets face it when your living in Manchester, with 365 days a year rain, sitting in a warm office building probably seems like a good idea

....and of course, living in a sunny country where everyone's home is a snow igloo makes us industrious and frugal (if only to keep warm).

>> Am I being unreasonable? <<

Not at all. In fact you have touched upon the great
Truth of modern economics as practiced by the IMF
and Globalising Corporations.

Most of Central and South America are dependent upon
supplying agricultural products and mineral resources
run by American established companies - most notoriously,
the United Fruit Company of Boston and the oil and mining
companies. (Canada is no better in its exploitation of
aluminum and other natural resources - displacing native
populations and introducing (economic) slave labour
practices that currently include broad charges of robbery,
assault, murder and rape being brought in International courts.)

But I digress. To the specific point of working conditions
in hot climates the IMF has in the past couple of decades
forced most of these countries to outlaw the traditional
'siesta' and introduce work schedules that better correspond
with North American office hours to facilitate communication
with head offices (and stock markets) in the US (and Canada
and Europe too of course).

Those (peasants) who try to strike are beaten and arrested
by their own national police forces for 'contract violations'.

Meanwhile the IMF in exchange for extensions on national debts
enforces the dismantling of national farming infrastructures
which leave the countries dependent upon imported surplus
food-stuffs (powdered milk, beef, wheat, etc) as well as
most manufactured goods.

The dairy and cattle industries in Jamaica for example have
been gutted by regulations designed to allow McDonald's to
bring in their own frozen hamburger patties.

It's a cruel whirled.

~jwf~

"Most of Central and South America are dependent upon
supplying agricultural products and mineral resources
run by American established companies - most notoriously,
the United Fruit Company of Boston and the oil and mining
companies." [jwf]

This would not come as news to any reaosnably well-informed person, but still it is sad. In the film "The Inlaws," the main street in a banana republic's capital city is United fruit Boulevard.

"To the specific point of working conditions
in hot climates the IMF has in the past couple of decades
forced most of these countries to outlaw the traditional
'siesta' and introduce work schedules that better correspond
with North American office hours to facilitate communication
with head offices (and stock markets) in the US (and Canada
and Europe too of course)."

I didn't know that the siesta is now history. Noel ["mad Dogs and Enbglishmen"] must be rolling over in his grave, if only to scrounge for lyrics for a new song about human folly...

[In the last line of my last post, that should have been Noel *Coward.*

I can't honestly say that shitty weather and shortened hours of daylight give me the urge to work hard. This might be the flaw in your argument.

Some academics point towards the Protestant work ethic as a contributory factor in Western success, noting the apparent stagnation of less Protestant countries.

Slightly more seriously than that, some academics might point out that SAD is more common in latitudes with less sunlight - and that it doesn't exactly inspire a great work ethic.

Funny how Brazil and India are 2 countries that Britain's trying to sell stuff to. And Australia must be fd too..

Well, yes, wet days don't necessarily inspire me to work, but neither to they provide the huge disinclinaction that sunny days do.


Geggs

<<Am I being unreasonable?


I hope that you aren´t being serious. If you are ironic, fine, but if you mean what you mean, then I think that you simply are ignoring what´s going on in "those sunny" and catholics countries, as swl has well added to round up the cliché, the stereotype that says that folks there are lazy and only think of shagging and having fun.

In any case, consider that we are used to sunny days, so we don´t have to jump outside to absorb sun rays just in case we don´t have another sunny day in 60 days...

consider that those sunny countries are mainly agricultural. As everybody should know, that´s a extremely hard area to work.

In the case of Spain, it is the first productor of olive oil in the world (though Italians have the name with our oil), wine and vegetables are also among the first products we export.

More hard work: the coastline of the Iberian Peninsula (spain and POrtugal) tells that these are people who work in the sea (another hard area to work) and also in tourism.
Tourism is one of our main asset, not only of Spain.
Have you ever work as waiter? That´s also a hard work.

Most of what I´ve said applies to other countries.

If you want to know what is going on with those sunny countries economies, I´ll advise you to check how the ECB is managing this crisis in relation with its usanian counterpart, the Federal Bank, or get informed about the recent history of those countries , which managed to get out of dictatorships just recently.
Don´t forget also the role of the Deustchebank and the City of London.

There´s more, but I doubt that anyone will bother to check anything, it´s easier to buy the cliché, besides, the cliché justifies why the West Rules.

I'd have to agree with Maria. If you live in a sunny country, you know you can go enjoy the sun at the weekend. There's more temptation to skip work, if you know you might only get one day of sun and then two weeks of grey skies.

Yeah. You'd never seek the Greeks or the Italians or the Egyptians or the Turks or the Babylonians or the Persians building mighty empires, creating complex civilisations, or producing fantastic scientific advances. Too hot, see....

Okay, so the heat can't be blamed for the current economic problems of these countries then, given that there's always another sunny day around the corner, and that they have done great things in the past despite the glorious weather.

So what does account for their present economic woes? Maria has started to explain, and I for one would like to hear more.

Yes, I did start the thread with something of a joke, but it was in an attempt to provoke discussion, as I would like to see these issues debated.


Geggs

"So what does account for their present economic woes?"

Geggs, I get the impression that you are looking for a one-size-fits-all answer. But the question you're asking is a massive one involving a lot of different countries with a lot of different economies.

KB is right, so let´s start step by step.

lesson one by The Last Laugh:

http://youtu.be/pFmYIFk5i1Q

This isn't especially relevant, but quite interesting nonetheless.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/jun/07/what-makes-countries-rich-or-poor/?pagination=false

Robert Peston put the blame firmly on the Euro the other night. Countries like Greece, Italy, Ireland and Spain with historically poor tax collection rates and high levels of public spending were given access to loads of cheap money by virtue of their being members of the Euro. All of them went on a spending spree with money they couldn't pay back - Greece doing so in a "heroic" way (very droll).

According to Peston, if it hadn't been for the Eurozone seeming to act as guarantor, these countries would not have been able to borrow such huge amounts.