Every aspect of life is open to negotiations, not just working conditions and remunerations, but living conditions and financial rates, and because of this fact, misunderstandings are common place. Most of us are familiar with unions negotiating with employers for better working conditions and wage or salary increases, but very few of us know that employers constantly negotiate with unions for better returns on investment and the very survival of jobs. There is no good or bad as any one side would have you believe, there is workable and non-workable solutions, both sides must win. In discussions, focused on better living conditions and levels of taxation or inflation, we the people do not even realize that we are negotiating, we call it elections.It is a matter of fact that unions use the media better than employers to gather support for their position, while employers depend heavily on the courts to break impasses. It is also important to note that union leaders are elected or selected and paid by their members (the average worker), while employer representatives consist of highly educated and experienced managers hired based on a successful track record. Now, in matters of living conditions and managing the economy, how do we the people elect or select our representatives – is it based on how well the media is manipulated to win a campaign or court judgments, is it based on popularity or track records. The answers become clear when one examines the results – living conditions and the state of the economy.
Anyone who has been involved in a serious negotiation will know the first rule is to make absolutely certain that one is negotiating with the right person, the final decision-maker. Union leaders negotiate directly with the employers’ executive, but we the people, under a Westminster system of Government which does not allow direct election of an Executive or Head of State (except in they own constituency), are left to negotiate with junior office-holders only. So when living conditions decline and cost of living increases, the final decision-maker asks his numerous levels of juniors, “How many persons are affected?” as if one is not enough, because his future election to the top job does not depend on pleasing every voter.
While unions and employers go from one negotiation to the next, most politicians go from winning an election on a party card to surrounding themselves with high society types and forgetting about the people (mostly the common person) that put them in office, until the next election. This is mostly because of the structure of party politics, where one has to be selected by the few before elected by the many. Learning; from the most unlikely source (“Swing Vote” a movie), that every vote should and must matter. The need for a referendum on important issues, such as whether to elect an Executive by majority vote or to implement the power of recall with a predetermined number of signatures, will firstly give power to the people on that particular issue only without them using anger or protest to make a point and to finally put an end to the misunderstanding of how many people support a political party (on every issue) blindly.
Rationale
T.A.J & Associates Company Limited uses this occasion to comment on topics that have been covered, both academically and by the mainstream media, to add its opinion and point out investment opportunity, not to invoke any social action.
