The end of the world is nigh

I've just been for a walk in the glorious spring sunshine with the slightly cantakerous dog.

About half way round I was struck by the thought that things seem to be coming horribly unstuck on so many levels. TV ultimately brought down the russian empire because the serfs (sorry citizens) could see that the rest of the world wasn't completely grey but I think attitude will bring down the western empire (and probably already has - the chicken keeps running for a while after you chop of its head).

I'm 49 now and the work ethic (fear) was built into my upbringing. It's not there anymore. The world is full of BFT's (Big Fat Tarts) with an attitude problem. Don't even think about complaining because they don't have to sit and listen to that.

Every public "service" that you can think of is primarly concerned with its own welfare and survival (i.e. wages and pensions) and the ordinary punter is just going to have to keep paying for it. You might be an OAP with no pension becuase Brown swiped it but rest assured the public sector employees (also known as labour voters) will live very comfortably for the rest of their largely stress free lives. I know they think they are stressed but it is fundamentally impossible to get fired from a public sector job and money, or lack of it, is the main cause of real stress.

Big private companies have largely the same attitude. They have milions of customers and really don't care. The only possible way of dealing with them is to get them bad press when suddenly the attitude will change (at least while anybody is watching)

The underclass don't care because there isn't a cat in hells chance of their benefits being cut. The latest wheeze is to make single mothers get a job once their child is 12. All that will happen is that they will have another one when their offspring reaches 11 years and 3 months of age. and anyway what jobs are available to these people anyway in our so called knowledge economy where every job needs a degree because everyone has got one.

The goverment don't give a stuff. Huge pay packets, stupendous pensions and full of career politicians who have never had a real job. Here's a tip - a checklist or target doesn't make things happen, at least not what you expected. The idiot beauracrats which just manipulate the system to hit the target.

Computer companies like Microsoft and Sage either don't care, are incompetent or cynically manipulating the system (or possibly a combination of all three). The net result for the end user is the same either way.

It's a remarkable coincidence that my XP box has just started to play up like the good old pre Win2k days. I'm sure that is nothing whatever to do with a new OS being available but the only reason anybody upgraded in the past was in the vague hope that you might get something that worked. Once it works why would I want a new one?

As for Sage, I supect that they come under the incompetent category, combined with extreme avarice. I'm not surprised all the original founders have long since run away. They could probably see the writing on the wall.

The west is morally bankrupt and pretty soon will be in a financial sense as well. Better learn Chinese real fast.