Republished: Some Thoughts on Life

This content was originally posted to benscomputer.no-ip.org 17 April 2006

Although more than a step away from the usual technology theme of this site, and not wanting to turn this site into yet another blog on an Internet already clouded with peoples feelings, I have some thoughts on life.

It is quite well known that people in the US work the most hours for the smallest pay (at least in developed countries). They are a heavily capatalist society, but is the UK now walking down that path?
Life at the moment is not good, I don't mind working to support myself, in fact even if I won the lottery (might need to buy a ticket first) I would probably carry on working. But it seems that more and more is getting demanded from us, without wanting to cause any offence, I truly believe that our generation is being worked harder than the last. Admittedly it is not all jobs that are like this, I know people who get paid more than me for much less work, but in all honesty I probably wouldn't employ them. My current workload far exceeds that of my job description, and I am not the only person at work in this situation. Yet there are people I work with that do bugger all, and have been getting away with it for a long long time. Through being responsible, and working hard (as anyone could be expected to do) we seem to have made life harder for ourselves.
Our society is already being run by corporations (and has been for a long time) but only now are the changes becoming really obvious. Look at the legislation being forced upon us, the DMCA in the US. The software patents directive in the EU (Which thankfully was rejected). Not to mention the many DRM based laws that are appearing all over the world.
Companies are making us work harder and harder for our money, but they are also putting prices up (Which the governement is also partially responsible for) so not only are we working harder but we cannot afford what we could

I am at the point when I am not at work, I cannot get it out of my head, and when I am at work I just want to get through the day. I cannot sleep properly at night. Myself and my colleague are currently so flexible in when we can work, we are constantly covering shifts so other people can take time off. Our 'flexible' contract is only flexible for the others, we can never be sure when we will next be working.

In the last few days, I have become aware of just how short and fragile life already is. Two of my school friends are dead already, and we only left 3 years ago. Life is too short to let it be controlled in the way it is. I have no issue with giving people the money they deserve, but prices seem to be rising at an unbelievable rate. Recently the amount of tax I am paying has been a substantial portion of my gross pay. I do not mind paying taxes, but the government seems to be doing very little with that money, at least in terms of things that benefit us. Our troops are still in Iraq, and no-one can deny that the general consensus in the UK is that the war is and was wrong. To make matters worse the government is now intent on National ID cards, something that Tony Blair previously spoke out against. If we have to have National ID cards then fine, but I am not willing to pay nearly 90 Pounds (Current estimated price of a single card) for something that is not going to benefit anyone. Passports get forged, Driving Licenses get forged so it stands to reason National ID cards will get forged. Unless there is a massive redesign from the ones currently available (which I see on a regular basis), 5 year olds will be able to forge them on their computers.

Everyone I know seems to be depressed at the moment, I currently feel miserable, which is partially work related, but not entirely. Even people who are normally always on a high are low at the moment. Things have to change!

The world has gone mad, and corporations are now ruling our lives. Things have to change, the media corporations are already imposing unfair restrictions on honest consumers, and prices are spiralling out of control. It is time that society realised that we are no longer free. Even now it may be too late to change that, but at the current rate things are going, there will no longer be a society as we know it in 50 years time.


As mentioned before I do not wish to turn this site into a blog so thats all my thoughts for now

Shifty_ben - 17/04/2006