Hard Dose of Reality

I think the blog stereotype would be to spend this entry whinging on about how unpleasant it is being back at work, and how I'd like to win the lottery. On the latter point I would, but getting up today and going in was fine - helped no end by allowing yesterday for recovery and catch-up.

Having carefully managed my inbox remotely, I have had a relaxing morning back, and found time to continue work on my business plan yesterday evening at long last. Working on the plan remains my absolute top priority; nothing else in my life right now provides a glimmer of hope from escaping the daily grind of commuting into the office like this. Work is stale, and I am yearning to inject change into my life once more - however in a controlled way, without impulsively quitting and costing myself dearly.

On the plus side, the holiday really has been inspirational after my chance meeting with Peter, as I mentioned previously. Even if my site does not take off as planned, I will persist with the venture and look at what needs to change to make it work.

Once married in October, I am seriously looking into travelling to Asia and Australia for 3-4mths next year with L, although the site might make that impractical. It's really quite simple though: if we don't do it now, we won't do it in the next 15-20yrs assuming a family, as logistics will simply prevent it. The cost is of course lost income, which is a big draw that works so effectively in preventing most of us - another reason why unexpected job losses in a recession can be a blessing.

Anyway the other fun event looming next week will be the G20 economic summit here in London. Given the sheer level of anger towards the City and Wall Street these days, not least over the various bonusgate scandals, I expect to see the kind of violent protests that haven't taken place in the City for a decade or more. Last time, I recall stories of traders coming back from lunch with a dozen eggs ready to pelt protesters from the office windows - and know several who got involved in fights out on the streets. Ideological conflict of the more direct kind, I suppose.

This time I suspect we'll see none of that. Given my bank is arguably the highest profile, we'll go to usual rear-door entry only procedures while the protesters waste everybody's time with this pointless nonsense. If anybody going believes they will actually change anything then they are naive.

"Down with capitalism!" they scream.
"And replace it with what precisely?" we reply.
"ANARCHY!" yells a lone teenager bunking school.

Silence from the hopefully more mature masses, because unless there is a manifesto I am yet to see, these protests are not sure what they want - only sure what they don't want.

When driving around the United States, the world's richest and most capitalist country, it seems inherent that there will always be significant wealth imbalances throughout the population. Some is hugely unfair, but some is quite right, even if those worse off cannot see it.

Governments need to ensure opportunities are provided for everybody and restore genuinely unfair imbalances. However it is critical to have a system where those who innovate, create and/or work hard - for example on a business plan and website - deserve to be much better off than the majority who choose to sit around watching TV or playing on their XBox 360's every evening.