Motive (M&C)

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 28 Motive;

There are people who get themselves into position of power and spoil things that others do in order to maintain there own position. Why this comes about may not matter, you don’t always need to confront such people. Just ask for their consent and give praise if it gets the outcome you want so what? But direct criticism is necessary sometimes, just make sure that you are fair and accurate. This type of person is often very deferential to those that they see as their betters, There betters, who may not see or chose to see that, therefore not see that undue pressure is being used because it can be seem very productive.

Bus deregulation – If many passengers on one bus route can be pressed to switch to another route operated by the same company, the combine patronage on the other route may be more profitable even if some passenger abandon bus travel. If alternatively that other route is run by a competitor, but the first operator starts running buses which are smarter and cheaper then people invariably act in a short term way and will ride on the smarter bus, knowing when the competitor has been squeezed out of business and when the two routes are operated by a monopoly operator that operator will stop running the second route.

Conex trains (Train Operating Company TOC) – if there is a track failure, and in any case there is a rail infrastructure limitation, and the TOC apologises profusely, and in writing if written to in a day or two, and in the local paper. And if after the points have failed the replacement bus alternative information is given clearly sorted quickly and you’ve had a bad day so you complain and they apologise immediately. When that operator gives up the franchise, leaving you with some of the smartest air conditioned trains in the country to the next operator who has won? Actually we were lucky in Kent and Sussex that the successor is as good and Railtrack has gone so reliability has improved. Sadly the lesson here is for companies to largely ignore complaint because people will then give up making a fuss.

When a company operating in a monopoly puts it’s design engineers under-stress gets work carried out expediently, then finds itself analysing and patching up at leisure you wonder why? Would it not be better to aim for quality work rather than quantity work? The most obvious conclusion is that customers will replacing sooner in the hope that less than best will be improved on, the simplest explanation however distasteful is often the correct one.

An economist said people live for the short term because in the long term we are all dead. Actually he was wrong altruism can be selfish, and in any case that is not the only motive that drives us and depending on cultural forces does not have to predominate. But when all the slack is taken out of the system, cuts, efficiency drives, union bashing and you can’t get what is reasonable, then litigation is the only resort. Consequently the economist seems to be correct, but mainly because people have been forced to live for the present. Litigation tries to enforce social responsibility. The American culture of suing has infected the UK.

When there is a dispute involving unions in a company, who is right? The presumption is usually the management in deference to authority. But the chairman of large companies take such a large income that there is nothing that can harm them, but the workers rely on pay. So has the biggest vested interest in the company?

USSR was a competitor with better rocket technology measure by the much higher number launched and better success rate. Everyone had a right to jobs, homes but a poorer record on surveillance and political oppression, it was said. By eliminating this competitor capitalism and social responsibility is not kept in check so well. As ordinary people it was never in our interest to allow this to happen. It was misleading to claim tanks would roll and that we would better to be dead than red, because the Soviet Union invariable did the backing down, and promises given by NATO members to the Soviet Union were not always kept.

29 Inconvenient Truths and Self Interest; 

It is inconvenient that you need science and engineering to make many of the things we use daily. The stage prop. communicator used on Star Trek might be just a piece of painted wood, but no matter how hard you believe it won’t ever operate like a mobile phone. Some things are technically not possible, there is no technical fix however much you wish it were so. The only machine that can change the laws of physics exists in science fiction such as Dr. Who’s T.A.R.D.I.S. William Hartnell, as far as I remember, helped the Trojans, who wanted a machine like his Tardis, make a wooden horse that they rode in – thereby changing the cause of history – on other occasions such as “The Time Meddler” he stepped in to stop interference in the cause of history. Even in fiction time lords are fallible, but that is another point.

The adverse consequences of; Driving at speed, Climate change, Airmiles, Over Eating and relentless growth are all unavoidable issues.

I observe that the consequence of having a labour government is that what had become conventional acceptability or acquiescence of war, gluttony in banking, and MPs expenses is being broken and may be overturned. What had been forgotten, to some extent, is being recalled.