Fico & labour standards

Robert Fico seems to continue his moderate reign. He is pushing through some measures that amend the labour code so that it is not heavily skewed to favour employers. His labour minister said that this simply puts slovakia on the same level of labour regulation as capitalist darlings like UK or Ireland. Quite how giving slovaks mainstream standards in the workplace is being dangerously left wing is not explained.

I think that people who think that maternity leave is a threat to capitalism makes me wonder if some employers have any humanity left. Moderate social standards and capital can coexist and produce balanced & democratic societies like those found in Scandinavia and elsewhere where the fruit of capitalism is used to underpin enlightened societies and not go down the path of unstable militaristic taliban-esque regimes like the one plagueing the United States at the moment. The social ills that the US has accepted in order to gain a couple of percentage points of growth are an unacceptable trade-off. Only psychopaths can truly want societies that don't care about the fate of the individual i.e. without safety nets.

The richest irony of all is that in this century of the Self the checks and balances on capital that are being undermined everywhere, are the basic foundation upon which the social contract that allowed the prosperity of the past 70 or so years (i.e. after the war).

I also have a deep suspicion that most people who call for privatisation of healthcare or short-term contracts as the way of the future either are rich enough to not need the societal safety nets (and are therefore in a small atypical minority) or they are deluded fools who think they are the next Gordon Gekko... We are not all going to be rich.. Its impossible. Many will waste their life chasing these illusions and in the process they are creating a selfish cruel & consumeristic world to live in.