Are Norwegians so really deadly effective at work that they can afford to work the short hours and weeks they do? Or are they purely floated on oil so-to-speak?  What can other countries and employers learn from Norwegian "arbeidskultur" ?

Well the pico blog says this: It is not so much a fact that Norwegians are so much more effective minute for minute in actually executing "value added activities" and " critical processes", it is just that they spend far less time on BS: blunt and simple, they do not jump through hoops- they don't read general, long winded e-mails often and tend to skim read them when on a flight for example. They are often late out with all but absolutely critical information or even tenders for jobs.

Pico nano femto blogg

I apologise to my few followers and random Googled interlopers that most all my good intentions on doing a PICO blog series as WIP for later articles, or just for the hell of it, have foundered on stormy waters of tourette economics.

So this is a midi blogg for now, I will try to maybe make it into more a maxi-tweet with links out to the actual disjointed ranting in future.

USA as a Social Democracy and....Genetics!

The pico blogg is simple: The USA is where Europe sent the dispossesed optimists, opportunists, con men and religious freedom seekers. I mean to say that in the various depressions, recessions and spells of attractiveness to move to the USA (like the gold rush, the napoleonic wars, the pogroms,  the persecution of lutherine or catholics by their opposites) got people who had a different attitude to the risk-benefit than those who chose to stay behind. In other words, the cautious types who were somewhat satisfied with their lot on Terra Europus chose to not go to the USA or at least postpone the decision until it evapourated away in reports of carnage or disease visited upon immigrants to the new land.

Genetically speaking then, the braver, stronger and crazier and above all, those who see more positive outcomes in higher risk behaviour have moved on mass from various societies, races etc over the ponda del medio: this is a genetic which has been depleted in all these different societal strata, or maybe rather you can say the obverse: the genetic composition which have been concentrated in the USA.

So you have a lot of actually quite conservative types left behind in europe- conservative with the small "c". Those happy with the social order, even if that meant unhappiness, it was certainty and predictability. Also on a more posiitve note those who were more interested in building upon existing systems and societies against the forces of entrenched conservatism, like the french republicans, the English trade unions and the scandinavian farmers lobby. A more patient type, looking to reform and improve society in small, acheivable increments rather than rejecting society and governance and simply seeking to establish somethign new elsewhere, or find a more radical evolution they could ride into.

Saying this constitutes a psycho-genetic bias between two continents may sound far fetched, and you also say immediately that a major part of the USA is composed of decendants of slaves and more recent latin economic immigrants ( who are not faced with a hazardous sailing passage and hostile native tribes in so many words the last 100 years) However the ruling elite and the owning lobby are by in large from either oldish US money and the Ivy league or waves newer immigrants who have saught the meritocractic ideals and stabbed their way into money and power.

You could probabloy look at canada, which was / is a social democracy as an example of kind of the opposite: it was a safer ride for British and French ex pats to move to a colony rather than a newly constituted and un-amended land like the USA.

As genetic analysis reverals a picture of meta-genomic gene splicing and control, we will also continue to find individual genes and clusters of genes which relate to distinct behavioural tendancies: you can always exxaggerate/exaserbate these in environment but over a population with a bias to some inherited traits, then a genetic factor in the difference between two societies can be seen as the root cause of collectively different behaviours.

Take the highland clearances: the optimists fucked off : "right morag, theres a ship going tommorrow to the new provinces / USA , grab the kids we're on it!" Whereas the less brave or fool hardy you may say, decided to stay at home and be decanted out of highland hovels into languishing slums which have reinvented themselves in different parts of the Scottish cities over the last 170 years.

I wouldnt say we are left with a bunch of intrasient stick in the muds or proto conservatives in the EU: we have a different view though on society as needing planning and controls. "small government" is not so attractive - I mean look at Somalia where weak government and gun control are coupled to a rather mature yet aggressive attitude to free enterprise. Europe has radicals and optimists, but they want to do things through structure and open politics; not by destructuring to "small government" ie more anarchy, and lobby based politics.

My point from all this and the notes in this very non-pico rant, is that the USA is different than the EU for these type of reasons: socioeconomially, politically, culturally ...but maybe there is more genetic predisposition to these cultural differences ?

I see the conservatism in people all the time here because I am kind of frustrated ground-breaker: i never get accepted into the grey suit gang and so I never get to play with grey suit money in a way! However I know that my positivity and blindness often to negative outcomes would take me further in the USA where people would actually support me in my rants! Even in risk areas, in fact especially in risk areas of new company and product development, companies look for soft capital cushions and individuals look for plan B if things go wrong more than US would in my opinion.

So social democracy just wouldnt work unless actually the hispanics and negros voted for it en masse. The caucasian population is just too entrenched as a slice of european society who wanted to take risks, who did not want restrictions and who did not ask for safety nets.


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I don't believe actually that Barack Obama has presented very much evidence or real intention of the USA being moved towards a social democracy. The USA post revolution has been a place for oligarchs, it is just that the first founders of the state tended to have a more egalitarian slant on the power the seized and weilded.

Would social democratic policies work in the USA? Well no. I mean even actually creating a mechanism to change the market for healthcare and open it to millions is seen as counter-revolutionary. Car insurance can be a federal mandate, while buying yourself insurance in a new market place is interventionist. Intervention is okay as long as it is behind closed doors and done on the sly, like the securing of Iraqi oilfields in a total bluff about the actual threat Saddam presented to the "free world". A world free for lobbyists, PR and smear campaigns where dollars fight dollars in a war of branded catch phrases and ecconomic attrition.

So why wouldn't an EU or scandinavian social democracy not work in the USA?

Well we kind of have to think

1) Why it works so well in europe (until the eurozone and recession came)

2) the historical genetics which make the USA tick differently

3) how much money would be put against it

The Post Democratic Era

Oligarchy means governance by the rich, for the rich. They have even paid good money to buy out "democracy- the brand name".

Let us face it, they are wiining hands down in the PR battle in democracies while ensuring new democratic countries are just oligarchies.

Look at the UK: you have to pay to sue your (rich, corrupt,criminal- all of the above) employer for unfair dismissal. The latest Tory oligarchisk wheeze in shifting the last remnants of power over to the rich and would be rich weasels.

The finance catastophe aka crisis, is a chance for the imbalances to be addressed. Also for capital to show if it is organised or just anarchic. Things may get uglier. Capital may take even more of your tax money and share of monopolistic amenities as an extension to this virtual taxation of the poor.

Or just maybe you will admit to yourself that you are an employee, never going to be rich and get politicised on the left.

Dependancy on the drug of growth ånd capital

Social democrats and the step-to-the-left deomcratic socialists, are completely dependent on capitalism to deliver growth and investment. Hooked without reserve on the stream of taxes which flows from capital.

America on the other hand is a land where capitalism is dependent on social democracy and mechanisms of protectionism and how shall we put it, market access vi the gun and the might.

Capitalism of course by in large is not hooked on democracy, having actually managed to buy it as a brand name for mis-use some time ago. Without social democracy to temper, it is a pretty horrid place.

Greek default on democracy

In the post democratic era, greece is the first country to go fully bankrupt and unlike ireland, iceland and latvia, it is too big to bail out as a charity case.

In post democracy we believe we have a metademocratic parliament and quango network looking after our interests.

Instead they all hocked us into the the next millenium.

Irony that the crucible of the very term democracy is falling into a dangerous mix of oligarchy and anarchy.

The brand New reinvention of the imperialist wheel.

Iraq was the first imperialist conquest after American capital had been beaten into recession of power and ability to secure new major assets. The other symptom was the whole subprime pyramid: A corruption allowed by small, weak governance and a result of the parasites on the fringes taking over the whole assylum.

Now nationalism on the smaller scale is raising its head. First the confused mix in the middle east and then Argentina rattling its saber against the Falklands and Spain following suit. Both right wing attempts to distract attention from high domestic unemployment.

Funny how we never learn.