Global News Journal
Beyond the World news headlines
Protect job, defuse demographic time bomb – have babies!
Worried about losing your job during the economic crisis?
Then make the most of Germany’s generous parental benefits and job protection for parents on baby leave, and take time off to procreate. That’s at least the message coming from a leading economist in Germany, who is urging the government to do even more for young families, and echoing loudly in the German media.
It may seem counterintuitive — traditionally, birth rates are seen falling during downturns, as people fear for their jobs, worry about a fall in income and seek to reduce costs — but some politicians and researchers say using the recession to have children could be advantageous for all: individuals, companies and the future economy.
Not only does parental leave help avoid being discharged, but you might also be doing your small part to defuse a demographic and economic time bomb, as low birth rates mean average ages are creeping up and putting pressure on the pension, health and welfare system.
Cattle Rustling, Pythons and Boogie Angola Style …. the best reads of May
Climate health costs: bug-borne ills, killer heat Tree-munching beetles, malaria-carrying mosquitoes and deer ticks that spread Lyme disease are three living signs that climate change is likely to exact a heavy toll on human health. These pests and others are expanding their ranges in a warming world, which means people who never had to worry about them will have to start.
Spain rearranges furniture as economy sinks
Moving a 17-metre high monument to Christopher Columbus 100 metres down the road is how the Spanish government is interpreting the advice of John Maynard Keynes. The economist once argued it would be preferable to pay workers to dig holes and fill them in again, rather than allowing them to stand idle and deprive the economy of the multiplier effect of their wages.
Picking up the pieces from Afghanistan’s war
U.S. gunners scanned a lush Afghan valley from their helicopter, as a white van containing a badly burned baby inched toward another Black Hawk waiting at the army outpost. Eight soldiers had flown into the heart of hostile eastern Afghanistan, in a convoy of one air ambulance and one “chase” helicopter for protection, to collect 18-month-old Amanullah who knocked a pot of scalding water over his legs, penis and scrotum.
In Brazil, extreme weather stokes climate worries
No one could say they hadn’t seen it coming. The sand dunes had been advancing for decades before they swallowed the houses of families in Ilha Grande, an island in Brazil’s Parnaiba river delta. Standing on a dune that covers his old home, one man describes the landscape of his childhood — cashew trees as far as he could see. Not a dune in sight.
from MacroScope:
Political poster child?
George Alogoskoufis is a hardly a household name outside Greece and EU financial circles. But the newly sacked Greek finance minister could yet become a poster child for politicans struggling to fight off economic decline and banking industry collapse. His demise was in large part due to a public perception that he was helping out the banks but ignoring rising joblessness.
Greece, of course, is a special case at the moment, still recovering from riots over the police shooting of a teenager. But finance ministers, central bankers and other responsibles are probably not immune from Alogoskoufis Syndrome. Balancing the need to bail out the finance industry with rising economic misery among everyday people is not easy. Fat cats are not exactly in favour at the moment.
This could, indeed, come to a head later in the year. Investment cycles tend to recover before economic ones. So what happens when Wall Street, the City and the like start bringing in the money again just as unemployment lines start getting even longer?
This article however opinionated it may be sums up one of the major problems in this world. How is it that America has become a debt filled bunch of embezzling chauvinists? The culture has trained us to take as much as we can and leave none for others. The solution to saving our economy isn’t having less children, its finding what we can provide for them:A. An education (technology is our future)B. Create a new system (ours is out dated hence it is failing)C. Referring to any other human civilization grow adapt and change.The idea that we are now being slipped hints through articles and such that if we have less children we will all be successful. America has reached a point where it can either be remembered or will fade into the pages of a history book, depending on its actions in the next century. In the past in times like these governments would go to war to finance and stimulate the economy, the whole of the people would back the cause and actually want to succeed. That being said, America if it were to go to war and be invaded there would be no spirit, the average human doesn’t honestly care about America that is not what the culture has taught us. Here is an idea…get people to rally around a cause, actually have faith in their government, because people can clearly see corruption. Until the individual person feels like they are making a difference, no progress will be made and we will continue to regress.