[POLCAFE #2203] Waar kinderen krijgen financieel onrendabel is

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 02:15 schreef robin007bond het volgende:

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Boe!

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 02:54 schreef Friek_ het volgende:
http://www.volkskrant.nl/(...)bortuscampagne.dhtml

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 04:02 schreef robin007bond het volgende:
Ik kan niet slapen

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The auto industry is actually a terrific proxy for a trend toward short-term, myopically balance-sheet-driven management that has infected American business. In the first half of the 20th century, industrial giants like Ford, General Electric, AT&T and many others were extremely consumer-focused. They spent most of their time and money using new technologies to create the best possible products and services, regardless of development cost. The idea was, if you build it better, the customers will come. And they did.

The pendulum began to swing in the postwar era, when Harvard Business School grad Robert McNamara and his "whiz kids" became famous for using mathematical modeling, game theory and complex statistical analysis for the Army Air Corps, doing things like improving fuel-transport times and scheduling more-efficient bombing raids. McNamara, who later became president of Ford, brought extreme number crunching to the business world, and soon the idea that "if you can measure it, you can manage it" took hold — and no wonder. By the late 1970s, M.B.A.s were flourishing, and engineers were relegated to the geek back rooms.

In the U.S., the growth of the financial industry has only exacerbated the trend toward balance-sheet-driven management. Companies everywhere, but particularly in the U.S., where the banking sector wields the most power, are under tremendous short-term pressure to make their quarterly numbers. This often leads to planning that's reactive rather than smart: force the highest-paid engineers to retire, even if they are the best, and reduce payroll costs across all divisions rather than invest in the ones that are pushing the New New Thing through the pipeline.

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 08:26 schreef eriksd het volgende:
Slecht geslapen. Ik vond het te warm.

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 08:42 schreef betyar het volgende:

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Koop een goed dekbed.

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 08:43 schreef eriksd het volgende:

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Het was gewoon warm.

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 08:46 schreef eriksd het volgende:
JIj bent er altijd gloeiend bij.

Gloeiond op zijn Amsterdams.

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 08:48 schreef betyar het volgende:

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Maar ik ben vandaag wel lekker vrij.

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 08:51 schreef eriksd het volgende:

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Mislukt taalgrapje van me. Laat maar zitten

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 08:53 schreef du_ke het volgende:
Vandaar de censuur Koos.

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 08:52 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

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Jij een beetje links belachelijk proberen te maken met je kuttopic.

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 09:02 schreef dotCommunism het volgende:
Voor mijn anti-landje weet ik niet of ik moet kiezen voor het neerslaan van protesterende fietsers of meer geld aan de autoindustrie geven.


*edit* neerslaan maar, dat andere klinkt als staatssteun en dat mag natuurlijk niet.

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The Republic of Aristokratisches Preussen is a tiny, economically powerful nation, remarkable for its compulsory military service. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 10 million are ruled with an iron fist by the corrupt, dictatorship government, which oppresses anyone who isn't on the board of a Fortune 500 company. Large corporations tend to be above the law, and use their financial clout to gain ever-increasing government benefits at the expense of the poor and unemployed.

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The Issue

Parodico's TV soaps--famous around the region--have come under fire for their lack of ethnic diversity.

The Debate

"Every night my family and I sit down to watch 'The Brash and the Backstabbing'," says Chastity Wu. "But where are the Lilliputians like myself? Where are the Bigtopians? The Marche Noirians? People from those cultures can be just as brash and backstabbing, but we never see them on the screen. The government must act to remove this silent apartheid from our TV screens."


"Those Lilliputians don't know how good they have it," says Peggy Steele, spokesperson for the Tasmanians Against Ethnic Stereotyping. "Tasmanians are on television all the time, but always in crude, stereotypical roles. The answer is not to enforce ethnic quotas, but to award government prizes for the positive portrayal of minorities. That'll work better, and be cheaper, too."

This is the position your government is preparing to adopt.

"The government should do what now?" says TV studio executive Calvin Falopian. "You've got to be kidding. We make soaps here, not documentaries. I should be able to put whichever characters I want into my shows. Quotas! Government prizes! God save me! Hasn't the government got anything better to do? Why don't they just back off and let society work out these things on its own?"

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The Issue

A loose coalition of sartorially-challenged individuals known as "Let It All Hang Out" has called on the government to relax public nudity laws.
The Debate
1. "For too long, our bodies have been trapped in these prisons of cotton and polyester!" yelled protester Naki Mistletoe, while apparently developing a nasty case of sunburn. "We must repeal the puritanical laws that make public nudity a crime. My body--my choice to dangle!"


2. "I agree," mused sociology professor Tobias Broadside. "But I don't think the protestors are going far enough. Public nudity shouldn't be an option: it should be compulsory. Nudity is highly liberating. And it would put that disgusting "Hooters" out of business once and for all."


3. "Whoa, whoa," says noted accountant Faith Hamilton. "Are these people serious? The last thing I want to see when I'm out for a coffee is some lumbering, over-weight nudist coming down the sidewalk toward me. If people want to get naked, they can do it in the privacy of their own homes. Think of the children!"

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 10:05 schreef Cerbie het volgende:

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Die 2e

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 10:06 schreef KoosVogels het volgende:

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Ik neem aan dat jij daarvoor kiest, ouwe liberaal.

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 10:07 schreef Cerbie het volgende:

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Werkt wel tegen burka's

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Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 10:09 schreef GSbrder het volgende:
Ik ben het minst authoritarian

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The Issue

The increasingly militant Animal Liberation Front struck again last night, freeing dozens of chickens bound for delicious snack packs.

The Debate

"These nuts have got to be stopped," demands concerned consumer Gregory Utopia. "They need to face the fact people want snack packs, no matter how many innocent chickens must be sacrificed. Besides, chickens would do the same to us if they had the chance."


"These Liberationists are highlighting an important issue," pleads Sue-Ann Nagasawa. "Too often, animals are put through needless cruelty, just to make their flesh taste a little more deliciously succulent. I'm sure we could ban the more horrific abuses without putting too much of a dent in our national obesity figures. Couldn't we?"


"Animals have feelings too!" yelled protestor Faith Rifkin, before being set upon by hungry passers-by. "Free the animals! Ban meat-eating!"


Economist Konrad Dodinas has an alternative. "You don't need to take away the people's right to choose. You just need to build the costs of animal suffering into the price. A tax on meat-eating, in proportion to the amount of cruelty involved, would do the trick. Plus think of the benefit for the national coffers! Of course, poor people wouldn't be able to afford meat, but that's just more incentive for them to get jobs."