Re: Joy of this, Joy of that

On Tue, 10 Dec 2024, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 09/12/2024 21:53, Rich wrote:

The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 09/12/2024 15:28, Rich wrote:

ndeed,*very*  much so.  Which is why "enterprise" and "corporate" IT
environments are so rabid about having "support".  "Support" is their
buzzword for "someone else to blame so we can cover our assess when the
shit hits the fan".

 LOL.
 Most support contracts are not worth wiping your bottom on.
 They are just designed to make money out of.
 The sub prime mortgage crisis was typical of such.
 "We have shit loads of bad debt that we cant offload"
"Well package it up  with insurance against failure  and sell it as A1
guaranteed debt then"
"But what will happen if the insurance companies can't cover it"
"Oh that will be the government's problem, not ours"
  http://vps.templar.co.uk/Cartoons%20and%20Politics/story.jpg

 Nice...
 Although I doubt that anyone actually asked the "what if" question
about the insurance companies in the run-up to the explosion.

>
Oh they did. My then BiL was deep into finance and banking at the time and was literally shaking his head in disbelief. The financial times had grave doubts.
>
Cambridge city council bunged 8 million into Icelandic banks which was stupid. I asked whether the bursar had ever read the FT. The reply came back 'no, he is too busy'
>
My jaw has never actually returned to the correct place. A man in charge of investing millions of pounds of public money is 'too busy' to read the most important financial paper in the world?
>
Apparently the job consist in random picking of half a dozen investments from an apprioved list. On that list were several banks that needed rescuing ultimately..
>
How someone with no apparent experience in finance or accounting got that job I cannot say.
>
It was the same with GM bonds. GM bonds were - or should have been - junk. GM was essentially bankrupt.
>
And yet they were trading on the basis that the political fallout from letting GM crash and burn was such that the government would always bail them out

That is why I am in favour of having as a _requirement_ for senior public positions and political offices to
1. Have a degree.
2. Know english.
Ideally it would be nice to have them pass a psychological test to make sure they are not complete psychos, and perhaps an intelligence test or two as well. =)
I doubt I will see the above happen in my lifetime, although, if transhumanism is right, perhaps immortality is around the corner!
I also think that having an academic degree actually is a requirement in some countries. In germany senior politicians seem to be very fond of plagiarizing their way to Ph.D:s.