10 Quick Ways to Lose All Your Friends

Jeff Haden  April 12, 2014
TIME Magazine

This post is in partnership with Inc., which offers useful advice, resources, and insights to entrepreneurs and business owners. The article below was originally published at Inc.com.

Want to win friends and influence people? Here are 10 things that ensure you won’t:

1. You thoughtlessly waste other peoples’ time. Every time you’re late to an appointment or meeting says your time is more important. Every time you wait until the grocery clerk finishes ringing you up to search for your debit card says you couldn’t care less if others have to wait unnecessarily. Every time you take three minutes to fill your oversize water bottle while a line stacks up behind you says you’re in your own little world–and your world is the only world that matters.

Working hours: Get a life

Sep 24th 2013, 12:19 by C.W. and A.J.K.D. | LONDON

The Econimist

BERTRAND RUSSELL, the English philosopher, was not a fan of work. In his 1932 essay, “In Praise of Idleness”, he reckoned that if society were better managed the average person would only need to work four hours a day. Such a small working day would “entitle a man to the necessities and elementary comforts of life.” The rest of the day could be devoted to the pursuit of science, painting and writing.

Europe's Rising Social and Political Risks

Posted: 03/11/2013 12:13 pm

Daniel WagnerCEO, Country Risk Solutions
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-wagner/europes-rising-social-and_b_2853191.html

While income inequality has been falling globally since the 1980s, it has been rising in most of Europe. The Gini Coefficient, a widely used measure of income inequality, has risen since that time not only in Eastern Europe, but among Europe's wealthiest societies.

Victor Davis Hanson: Shrinking wealth is real enemy

Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013 | 12:00 AM

Why do once-successful societies ossify and decline?

http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/02/16/3177493/victor-davis-hanson-shrinking.html

Hundreds of reasons have been adduced for the fall of Rome and the end of the Old Regime in 18th-century France. Reasons run from inflation and excessive spending to resource depletion and enemy invasion, as historians attempt to understand the sudden collapse of the Mycenaeans, the Aztecs and, apparently, the modern Greeks. In literature from Catullus to Edward Gibbon, wealth and leisure -- and who gets the most of both -- more often than poverty and exhaustion implode civilization.

Will Your Mother Live in Poverty?

Victoria Pynchon, Contributor

FORBES

http://www.forbes.com/sites/shenegotiates/2013/01/26/will-your-mother-live-in-poverty/

A recent news release by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development predicts poverty for mothers in their elder years.

Economic change depends on culture and society

By Anne Applebaum, Thursday, January 10, 6:31 PM

Washington Post 

PARIS — For a brief moment before Christmas, self-doubt gripped France. The beloved French actor Gerard Depardieu — who recently played Obelix, an even more beloved French comic book character — announced he was moving to Belgium because President Francois Hollande had threatened to tax millionaires at 75 percent of their income.

Greece's only certainty in 2013? Predictions are futile

Forecasts of collapse, 'Grexit' and even civil war proved unfounded but Greek society is under immense pressure

Nick Malkoutzis

The Guardian, Thursday 3 January 2013 19.30 GMT

The classes drift apart

Can the rich save the American dream by preaching what they practise?

Feb 4th 2012 | from the print edition

… These people are not only rich but also exceptionally clever…

… They have less crime and more stable families…

… They drink wine and boutique beers (and can discuss them expertly)…