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Light Saber

Economists: Pay workers a living wage to increase productivity

poverty
Under what circumstances can raising the pay of low-skilled workers at large corporations lead to general improvements in productivity? Last month, Aetna informed the Institute of its plan to raise wages of its lower-paid workers. With this natural experiment in mind, Justin Wolfers and Jan Zilinsky decided to explore literature and theory on how pay increases influence productivity. The following note summarizes their findings for major private-sector companies in the United States in general (and does not address the implications for Aetna itself or for any specific company or sector).

Economists have long argued that increases in worker pay can lead to improvements in productivity - indeed, that it can actually be profitable to pay workers higher wages. As Alfred Marshall, the father of modern economics, argued almost 125 years ago, "any change in the distribution of wealth which gives more to the wage receivers and less to the capitalists is likely, other things being equal, to hasten the increase of material production." Since then, economists have compiled rich data validating Marshall's hypothesis that paying higher wages generates savings:

Comment: Economists and corporate CEO's rarely comprehend the costs to society of forcing people to work for slave wages, so they need to couch their recommendations in terms that make sense to them, i.e. how a living wage would benefit them. The idea that humans deserve to be treated equitably and with respect, and that excessive wealth inequality ultimately leads to the destruction of nations does not seem to concern these wealthy corporate psychopaths. Normal human beings, capable of empathy would not have allowed the poverty that we are currently witnessing to have reached such extremes.


Bulb

Charlie Hebdo co-founder says murdered editor 'dragged' staff to their deaths by repeatedly publishing provocative cartoons

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The founder of Charlie Hebdo said he advised the editor Stéphane Charbonnier (pictured) to not publish Prophet cartoons
A founder of the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo has accused its editor, who was killed by masked gunmen last Wednesday, of "dragging the team" to its death by publishing provocative cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed.

Henri Roussel, 80, who contributed to the first issue in 1970 when the magazine was known as Hara-Kiri Hebdo, had written to editor Stéphane Charbonnier - who goes by the name "Charb" - to say of the divisive drawings: "I really hold it against you."

Referring to the editor's decision to print a drawing of Prophet Mohamed on the front cover in 2011, Mr Roussel - who publishes under the pen name Delfeil de Ton - wrote in this week's French magazine Nouvel Obs: "What made him feel the need to drag the team into overdoing it?", The Telegraph reported.

Handcuffs

Flashback UK convict two men for inciting racial hatred online, for mocking Holocaust

tales holohoax
Simon Sheppard (left) and Stephen Whittle now serving prison sentences in Britain
A racist man has lost his appeal against the UK's first conviction for inciting racial hatred online. But the Court of Appeal in London did reduce Stephen Whittle's sentence of two years and four months by six months. Another man, Simon Sheppard, who was also convicted of inciting racial hatred, had his term of four years and ten months cut by a year. Whittle, 42, and Sheppard, 52, were jailed at Leeds Crown Court in July last year after they were charged, under the Public Order Act, with publishing racially inflammatory material, distributing racially inflammatory material and possessing racially inflammatory material with a view to distribution. Whittle, from Preston, was found guilty of five offences and Sheppard, of Selby, North Yorkshire, was found guilty of 16. During their first trial in 2008, they skipped bail and fled to California, where they sought asylum claiming they were being persecuted for their right-wing views, but were deported. The police investigation began after a complaint about a leaflet called Tales of the Holohoax, which was pushed through the door of a Blackpool synagogue and traced back to a post office box in Hull registered to Sheppard.

Comment: What?! Conviction for inciting racial hatred? For publishing cartoons ridiculing ethnic groups? But that is free speech! That is exactly what the world is protesting for by defending Charlie Hebdo and chanting "je suis Charlie"! Where is free speech if folks cannot publish offensive cartoons inciting racial hatred against minority groups?

Please excuse the sarcasm. But by these standards, the cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo should have been arrested long ago and convicted of incitement to hatred for their garbage. Now, instead, many of them are dead. Julius Streicher was executed for his involvement of inciting hatred against the Jews in Germany. His work was fair game in Germany in the '30s. CH's work is fair game now, in a time when Muslims are routinely demonized and we are heading to a repeat of the Holocaust. Only this time, it won't be Jews (ravings from nutty people like Netanyahu notwithstanding), it will be Muslims.


Family

Question police authority -- lose your Facebook friends

me gusta - facebook
© Desconocido
I'm gonna lose friends. I realize now it's inevitable.

Not real friends. The real stuff is forged from memories and adamantium. I'm not worried about that. No, the friends I'm destined to lose are the type that can simply click a button and disappear me from their timeline.

I've been on Facebook since Christmas - as in three weeks ago. I'm sure that's hilarious to some. But it was always a conscious decision not to partake, and I stand by it. In the end there were two reasons that finally got me to pull the trigger. One was the very simple fact that I've been homesick lately and Facebook seemed like the best way to get a fix. The other reason was much more analytical: I've been writing so much about social media I figured I owed it to myself to fully explore it.

Ambulance

3 killed in Charlie Hebdo protests in Niger

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At least three people were killed on Saturday in protests in Niger against French newspaper Charlie Hebdo's cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, police sources said, bringing the death toll from two days of violence in the West African country to eight.

Police fired teargas at crowds of stone-throwing Muslim youths who set fire to churches and looted shops in the capital Niamey after authorities banned a meeting called by local Islamic leaders. A police station was attacked and at least two police cars burned.

The police sources said two charred bodies were found inside a burned church on the outskirts of Niamey on Saturday, while the body of a woman was found in a bar. She was believed to have been suffocated by teargas and smoke, they said.

Comment: This is exactly what the puppet masters in the West want. If the Paris attacks hadn't been carried out, this would probably not be happening, but the attacks did, giving the CH issue all the publicity it needed to spread the racist message around the world, insulting and angering more Muslims. That said, we wouldn't be surprised if even this protest was infected with agents provocateur. Niger may have avoided armed Islamist uprisings for this long, but that is probably seen as unacceptable by those who pull the strings.


Cow

'Pork or nothing': French mayor makes Muslim kids go meatless at French school

 Marcel Mortreau
© islamophobiawatch.co.uk
A secularism scandal is raging in France, after a mayor in a northwestern town introduced a "pork or nothing" principle at school, even for 27 students who will get no meat substitute.

The rule will apply starting from January 1 in the town of Sargé-lès-Le Mans, and may apply to Jewish pupils as well - though there aren't any in this particular school.

Mayor Marcel Mortreau bases his decision on the "principle of Republican neutrality."

"The mayor is not required to provide meals that respond to religious requirements. This is the principle of secularism," Mortreau told Europe1 radio.


Comment: This is not religious secularism.


The move was backed up by the Town Hall on the grounds that the food providers face extra work if they have to deliver meat substitutes, the Local reported.

Comment: Whatever you call this, this type of attitude is disastrous for any nation. History repeats...


Display

Taiwan man dies after playing online games for 3 days straight

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© ReutersTragic: The man was thought to be sleeping when spotted by other customers
The death is the second to hit Taiwan in just a fortnight after another man died on New Years' Day after 5 days of gaming

A man was found dead in an internet cafe after a spending three days straight on a marathon gaming binge.

It is the second time a man has died from excessive gaming in just over a fortnight in Taiwan

The man, known only by his surname Hsieh, was found slumped in his chair in front of a computer having spent around 72 hours playing 'combat' computer games at the cafe in Taiwan.

The 32-year-old had been spotted by staff and other customers lying motionless in his chair, but they all thought he was sleeping.

Handcuffs

'Neo-slavery' in America's for-profit prison system

For-profit prisons have created a "neo-slavery" in the US, according to award-winning journalist Chris Hedges. Inmates work eight hours per day for major corporations such as Chevron, Motorola, Nordstrom's and Target, yet only have the possibility of making up $1.25 an hour. In addition, companies that provide services like phone calls overcharge prisoners on even the most basic services, making hundreds of millions in profits annually. RT's Ben Swann speaks to Hedges, who explains how this shadowy system came into existence.

Comment: See also:

The prison state of America

Jailing Americans for Profit: The Rise of the Prison Industrial Complex

Private Prisons: The more Americans they put behind bars the more money they make


Dollar

Finland's pork industry reeling from Russian counter-sanctions, bailed out by China

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© XinhuaFinnish Agriculture Minister Petteri Orpo said the meat exports to China may, in the long term, offset the losses caused by import restrictions levied by Russia
After Finland's pork industry was dealt a major blow by a Russian ban on pork imports, another BRICS member China has authorized the Finnish meat industry to export pork to China.

China's Agriculture Ministry confirmed on Friday that Atria and HKScan, two Finnish companies, have gained permits to export pork to China.

Finnish Agriculture Minister Petteri Orpo said the meat exports to China may, in the long term, offset the losses caused by import restrictions levied by Russia. Finland's Customs statistics show that the country exported about 5,000 tonnes of pork to Russia in 2013.

Comment: The Finnish pork industry was looking at rising costs and lower profits due to international competition, and the Russian sanctions did not help:
The number of pig farms is set to decline by half in Finland by the year 2020. Of the 1,500 farms currently operating, just some 750 will remain in five years' time, according to the union.

Jukka Rantala of the MTK explained: "Costs are going up and product prices are static. It's clear that there's going to be trouble. Individual pig farms will get bigger and bigger, with production staying the same but with larger and more spaced out facilities."

Pig farm profitability has also suffered a downturn due to tightening international competition and to the sanctions trouble with Russia.
This goes to show just how out of touch with reality the EU has become, throwing more chaos into the system by following NATO's lead and acting aggressively towards their previous Russian allies. For more brain food check out:


TV

The Superbowl: Six examples of mass mind control

football fan
© NBC news
Anyone who is fully awakened to the agenda of the new world order and the globalist terrorists knows by now that they don't like to miss out on opportunities to push their lies and set up the general public for accepting their long-term agenda. It is therefore our duty to expose their lies before it happens in the hope that more people will see through their deception as it happens.

As we wind down another NFL season, let's turn our attention again to how the globalists rely heavily on the irrational sports (fanaticism) platform to pump their lies and deception to an already hypnotized audience waiting as empty vessels to have their minds polluted with any lie the globalists want them to believe.

First, let me say that there are few audiences in America which are as vulnerable to government propaganda as a football audience in late January. The excitement of the upcoming games and the anticipation of who will be in the Super Bowl is psychologically overwhelming for many. The excitement surrounding the chase for the Super Bowl leaves these zombie-like naive football fans wide open to subliminal messages, political suggestions, reshaping of paradigms, tweaking of belief systems, manipulation of perceptions and overall indoctrination on what one should believe.

Comment: For more on the dark side of the Superbowl see: