Thursday, April 26, 2012

It's impossible?

  • Apparently there are too many ideologies to settle on one or accept modification of ours.
  • Apparently there are too few people who are willing to abide by the rules and accept the limitations associated with them or the opportunities guaranteed by them.
  • Apparently there are no truths to be self-evident or rights to be a agreed with in such a manner that everyone can come to an agreement or benefit by them.
  • Apparently the fact that fairness is subjective and inequities, both physically and intellectually, exist so much so that almost everyone has a legitimate gripe and which benefits no one and challenges everyone.
  • Apparently the personality, situation, and circumstances associated with the people, the place, and the time is not satisfactory enough to prevent envy, lust, greed, anger, gluttony, sloth, or pride.
  • Apparently the individual desire to practice faith, hope, charity, fortitude, justice, temperance, and prudence is insufficient to overcome our natural selves.
  • Apparently the opportunity for agreement, cooperation, and goodwill is impossible.
  • Apparently the consequences of our actions will be less than what is hoped for and greater than what is expected.

It's time

It is long past time for the leadership of this world to start explaining the financial realities to a population that has become to believe that money can simply be printed and that there are no consequences for overspending or not working.

It is time to quit pretending that the masses are too stupid to understand that their welfare is directly related to their willingness to obey the rules and earn enough money to buy the things that they want.

It may already be to late to avoid a financial collapse and the societal chaos associated with the resetting of  the world as has happened during the black plague when the world's population became out of balance with the physical realities of the time.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Work

There really isn't enough work for all of us, so what do we do to fix that?
Without work there isn't enough money for everyone either.
At the time of the black death it was approximately the same situation.  After one half of the population of the world died there was more work than people and the industrial age began.
Is it possible that a similar outcome is at hand. As the population of the world outgrows its available work and the conditions deteriorate to the point of unhealthy will a plague surface to destroy half of the population?

Where from here?

The fact that America is in a financial bind is finally coming to roost. The fact that printing money is not a solution has not yet come to roost but there are indicators that it might. The thing that has not come to mind for very many people is that the solution is the opposite of the problem.  We as a people and especially as a government need to stop spending more than we make. The misguided notion of being able to borrow money to pay for consumables has weaseled its way into the political lexicon as a means of getting elected and to avoid losing an election.  It makes good financial sense to borrow money to pay for a bridge or road which will last for multiple generations of users and tax payers. It makes less financial sense to borrow more than we need just to add aesthetics, impractical functionality, or replace a usable facility.  It makes no financial sense to borrow money to by groceries, sustain the poor, or pay people not to work.  The tough times are about to begin and there is no leadership coming from the political class. There are indicators that the public class are about to take responsibility.  The problem is that the pain and suffering will be great enough that I am not sure that the welfare class will not be joined by the apathetic class and elect a dictator.

Response to Tony Robins

Articulating the problem is only the start of solving the problem. Please make the next video to help everyone know how much the cut backs are going to be. How much social security, medicare, medicade will have to be reduced. Pot holes in roads, greater costs for all government services, closed bridges, over crowed schools, closed universities, longer lines at everything.  Then make a third video about how much the economy needs to grow and what resources need to be mined to supply sufficient capital to run the reduced operating expenses of the the new U.S. Help the American people to prepare for what is to come. Information is everything and the American people are capable of doing whatever is necessary if they just know what it is.  The fourth video will have to be a lesson on how to be good stewards of the planet so that we can use but not abuse it. How we can care for each other but not destroy incentive or consequences.

Monday, April 23, 2012

debt doesn't matter?

My two bits worth is this. Debt is the mechanism used to purchase things today at today's prices with tomorrows money at tomorrow's value. That is why interest is charged. It is also a method by which a government can rob money from it future residents when it current residents won't pay enough taxes or the economy isn't robust enough to keep the coffers full. An interesting side bar is that it is also a way to incentivize progress. If the average person were asked to donate some of his or her money toward the various causes that government wants to spend money on it wouldn't happen. Consequently our economy would be adversely affected because a lack of infrastructure is limiting in countless ways which in turn affects hiring, purchasing, and tax collecting.  Things like roads and school won't pay for themselves but yet they are critical to commerce and productivity. Consequently our politicians convinced themselves that debt was good and that more and bigger was better. Unfortunately social welfare was deemed to be a responsibility of government, because individually we failed to mange ourselves and were unwilling to donate to our local charities which resulted in the adoption of the social security and medicare Ponze Schemes.

With debt and welfare consuming everything in sight the liberal notion that borrowing money from the future to take care of the present is some how okay. It is okay even desirable because the future residents of America owe at least that to the proceeding generations of Americans who died founding it, who sacrificed to develop, who are continuing to die preserving it, and to all those selfless individuals who are protecting this great country for their children's benefit. They won't mind because the debt is really somehow owed to ourselves and it was purchased with money when it was worth something and will be paid back, if at all, with money that is worth much less. How could any self-respecting generation not understand and agree with that.

What a crock of crap that is.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Ruby Mountains, Lamoille Canyon













 An amazing geologic feature seen in a cross section of the Lamoille Canyon wall cut by glaciers. The feature is easily 50' tall. The canyon wall is metamorphic either mixed at the time of the original mud disposition or infiltrated after or during the metamorphic processess.  It is hard to imagine the pressures and processes required to bend and twist rock as if it were taffy or a marble cake mix.  It looks like someone put a spoon in and twisted it clockwise 125 degrees. This is in the middle of a 500 or 1000' cliff wall.
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Liberal Thinking

Liberal thinking seems to be an exercise in looking into a mirror and accusing conservatives of the lack of character, hypocrisy, and bigoted ideology they see. Example: the above mentioned hypothesis. Obviously the authors were looking into a mirror when they tried to attribute what their, so called, study reflected.

My response to Freakonomic Blog  Liberal Thinking

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Happiness Index

The numbers are contrived, the questions biased, the conclusions preconceived or preordained, and the data suspect because of sample size, attributions, assumptions, and methodology. Any and every national index is like every computerized weather model. Wrong.  The reason they are wrong is because as they become more meaningful to a larger constituency then the more complexities must be measured and the lesser the probability of its accuracy and applicability to a specific locale. Incidentally the economic climate has become national in scope and international in scale. To many policies are accidental in nature, prescriptive in process, and antithetical in intent. As a consequence the well being of an individual can't really be successively measured and the impacts of any decision made relative to the index is at best foolish and at their worst criminal. Stop with the indexing.

Freakonomics Blog: Happiness Index, April 10, 2012