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Originally posted by AURaptor:Been told a lot of things, like how we all should have a 'free living wage, free healthcare, and doing away with ALL debt '. But there's still no solutions from the occutards, other than some 'random individual', who has a list of DEMANDS, which sure as hell doesn't sound like reasonable answers to the stated problems.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:On the flip side, the basic view of the TEA party is that the federal govt is too big, is already taking enough of our $ to run the proper functions of govt, and that we don't have a revenue ( tax ) problem, but a SPENDING problem. We just passed the 15 TRILLION $ mark for this country being in debt. That's ridiculously too high, and we need to lower taxes, stop wasteful spending, and get our economy back in gear, so we can generate more revenue which can be used to pay down the debt, and NOT continue being wasted on mindless pork projects and utopian ideals.

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Originally posted by m52nickerson:
...and a majority of the people in this country know that ultimaly that is not the problem. So the Teabaggers are offering a solution to something that is not the problem.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
That absolutely IS the problem. I strongly doubt your assessment that most don't see it as the problem. If that's the case, then we truly are doomed and will shortly be where Greece is today.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
One of the things I've been thinking about little Rappy is that he has a serious case of entitlement. I suspect he was one of those kids none of the other kids wanted to play with b/c of an unfortunate narcissistic personality. And now he has a grotch against society at large and wants a system where he can TAKE what he DESERVES by any means, but the crueler, the more angry, the better. And anything that seriously threatens him exercising his entitlement has him raging.

At least, so my working hypothesis goes.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
So you WERE one of those kids the other kids wouldn't play with!

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Good enough. No matter how you reply, I'm learning more about you and what basic emotions drive you.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
nickerson - Greece, like the US, owes far too much money. If we continue to spend money we DON'T have, like the Dems are suggesting, we'll end up exactly like Greece. But only worse. A lot worse.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:We're in better shape, though, as we don't have quite as many folks with a " gimmie gimmie " mindset. Not yet, at least.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:There are 15 TRILLION reasons why it's a problem.

If you're not bright enough to grasp that, please... don't vote. This country can't afford more ignorance like yours.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Thanks. Keep on posting.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
Little Rappy

I'm making a note of everything. Please keep posting. You're very helpful. Thanks.

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PLEASE, KEEP ON DOING WHAT YOU DO SO WELL.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
It's an arena he feels like he can 'win'.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:
It's an arena he feels like he can 'win'.

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I just wanna go my way.

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Originally posted by SignyM:

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I just wanna go my way.

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This guy who posts stupid videos and endlessly defends stupid statements (including his own) just wants to go his own way?


Well- there's the door, feel free. Nobody here is stopping you.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Oh, I thought you meant you wanted to GO your own way... just passing through, as it were. In and... out.

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Originally posted by Niki2:

Kiki, right on. Sometimes I try to imagine the HOURS he must spend here, vying for attention. Makes me shudder, but hey, when one has a compulsion, what can you do?

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
So little discussion on the original post...

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Originally posted by M52NICKERSON:

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
So little discussion on the original post...

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That is because the original post and the original poster do not warrant any discussion. Their ridiculous is evident.

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Companies can be left floundering in the wake of changing social values.

[WHO] Katherine Teh-White, managing director of corporate risk firm Futureye
[WHAT] Companies need to take account of community expectations
[HOW] Engage with people, and understand how issues connect with social norms.

BUSINESS is being buffeted throughout the industrial world. The most evident storm front is the Occupy movement, which has spread from Manhattan to some 900 cities, including Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

The movement is a broad, peaceful, nebulous protest against unfairness, lack of opportunity and the perceived role business plays in income disparity; executive remuneration growth has far outstripped that of workers' wages, notwithstanding lacklustre profits and share prices.
Advertisement: Story continues below

Beyond the Occupy movement, there are numerous examples of companies encountering public opprobrium. Qantas has hurt a precious brand by giving its chief executive a pay rise of more than 70 per cent only a matter of hours before it locked out its staff and grounded its fleet in a bitter industrial dispute.

Katharine Teh-White will be online for an hour from noon for a live chat. Leave your questions here

Down in Tasmania, Gunns has been swamped for years by a fight over a pulp mill. Former asbestos purveyor James Hardie remains about as popular as a taipan in a lucky dip. News Corp's UK operations have become a pariah. BP will struggle for years to regain respect after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The list goes on, and will expand. A storm has engulfed Australia's coal seam gas sector, which is facing some deep-seated community resistance to its plans for massive expansion.

Simon McKeon, Australian of the Year and Victorian executive chairman of Macquarie Group, was here in The Zone recently lamenting that companies have failed to understand the need to do more to win community support, and so only have themselves to blame. He cited one of the world's leading business commentators, Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, who has been warning about the deterioration of public sentiment for years. McKeon is saddened by this state of affairs because he believes there are many good tales to be told about business. After all, most of our wealth and employment and growth come from the private sector, and most businesses operate legally and are run by decent people. But adhering to the law is insufficient to safeguard shareholders' funds. Today's guest is offering a model to help companies understand, anticipate and incorporate changing community expectations.

Katherine Teh-White is the founder and managing director of Futureye, a Melbourne-based firm that helps companies acquire what she calls a ''social licence to operate''.

''The Occupy movement is highlighting an issue that has been emerging for some time. The focal question it is asking society is, do we think that the company structure and the company mode of operating are effective for us as a democracy?''

The genesis of the corporate structure was to limit the liability of those who were prepared to invest capital and take risks. In return for that special protection, something not afforded average citizens, the companies generate economic wealth.

''As you see the idea [of a company] morphing over time, there is a sense that companies actually have a responsibility or obligation for that transaction - as in we have given liability protection and therefore there are some obligations.''

Futureye helps companies find long-term profitability by identifying and managing those obligations - that is, by gaining a social licence to operate. The chairman of Futureye's advisory board is Jerry Ellis, a former chairman of the world's biggest resources company, BHP Billiton, and a former chairman of Landcare Australia. Futureye deals in particular with resources companies, as the need to dig stuff up means they have very little flexibility about where they can operate and so must establish and maintain a good relationship with the locals.

In developing their social licence model, Teh-White and her team have spent almost a decade studying how issues emerge and evolve, finally becoming social norms. You can explore that process by following the link below, and through the full transcript of our interview, as well as a short video, at theage.com.au/opinion/the-zone.

''The social licence to operate is the sum total of what society might expect of your company or your industry in terms of how you behave, how you make your money and what contribution you make to the world.

''We call it the buffer zone to your regulatory licence to operate being under threat. If you are aiming to be a conservative organisation these days, you should be managing your social licence to operate, not only your regulatory licence to operate.''

Examples of issues that moved from being acceptable to odious include slavery, which some coffee and chocolate producers still perpetrate to their peril, and the financing of cluster bombs. But the main areas where changing norms have left businesses floundering are environmental and social responsibility.

Teh-White's interest in the apparent blindness of companies to the risk of community rejection started 25 years ago when she, as a reporter for The Age, covered a dispute in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.

''There was a group of people I was speaking to in Bougainville about their experience of resource development and the impact on them. And I was talking to the public relations people at [mining company] CRA, which owned the mine at the time, and the difference in their understanding of the issues was so vast I was staggered.''



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/an-eye-on-the-fut
ure-20111120-1np9g.html#ixzz1eKOrl7h8

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Originally posted by RionaEire:

Raptor, I liked your Jubal Early quote, putting Firefly quotes in things makes me happy, because its why we're all here after all. It is the one thing we all have in common, aside from the obvious ones about all being human etc. But its the one real thing of substance that we all have in common. :)

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Thanks. This is the one place I know of where I can drop a Firefly/ Serenity quote and have it known and appreciated by others. It lightens the mood, reminds us why we all got on this boat, and it's so damn easy to do.

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I do have to say that Anthony does do an excellent job of trying to understand what Raptor is saying and trying to point out inconsistancies that we all see in it, or which we see after Anthony points them out. Sometimes when I believe something it comes down to "This is how I believe, even if you don't agree." and I'm not afraid to say it. I think sometimes we could all say it and we'd get along better.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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