It might be quite a few. Then again, it might only be something hovering barely at any kind of significant percentage of Americans. How can we know? Especially when so much of what passes for social media has become so corrupted by purchased input of various kinds.
For my part, of course, it would help enormously if we took money out of the equation at the outset. Set things up so that people only do things because it is either a part what their community has agreed to as things needing to be done; or because it simply serves the self interest of the individual; as in making something they desire for their own use (which of course their participation in the community's upkeep ensures that they will have both the instrumentality required, as well as the materials, and assistance if needed, to accomplish the construction). And as corrupt social media outlets might not have much of a priority anymore (what with City State citizens talking so much amongst themselves--just to keep coordination up for accomplishing all of the community's many needs, you understand), we might have reason to hope that our communications would be a good deal more trustworthy.
There are also, certainly, other occurrences, and situations, that might suggest a strong probability that we are not so much of a "United States" of America any more. A convincing argument, it seems to me, could be made that we stopped being states of the "united" variety, a decade or two ago; once organized labor was convincingly defeated (after the heydays of the sixties and seventies) with the advent of free trade, and the true globalization of labor as a commodity (in lockstep with the containerization of cargo, and the advent of super bulk carriers), so that distance from either point of assembly, or point of sale, became less and less a factor than either labor costs, or just as bad, any kind of strident review of operations so that the, heaven help us, the environment, or some bread winner's life, might be saved.
So no, by absolute economic facts on the ground, we are no longer a "United States" of America. Make no mistake, though, we still need, absolutely, to be some form of unified whole. And that to me, could only be a more loosely based federation of semi independent city states (something at least akin to the old Greek mold). We can do this if we understand that Capitalism is broke anyway, and absolutely as well, cannot be fixed. So you see, there's really little choice in the matter no matter how you look at it; that is to say, however, that you do in fact keep a goodly number of facts involved in how you perceive things.
Sunday, October 29, 2017
Saturday, October 28, 2017
The Endless Bickering About Who Will Pay, And Who Will Benefit
The real hard part here is to come to realize that money itself, as well as the obsolete economic operating system that supports it, is just not up to the many tasks at hand now; critical tasks that just aren't getting done anymore.
We are destroying institutions simply because they aren't marketable any more. We destroy communities for the same reason. And, perhaps worst of all, we destroy people because they are only marginally marketable anymore. And then the competition from one crazy market to another only serves to make us, and the rest of the world, even more crazy desperate to protect what little each of us has left.
And all the while the planet reaps the whirlwind. The friction mounts. The oceans rise and the hundreds of thousands desperately on the move now becomes millions.
This will not hold. You know this. A completely new direction must be taken, and it must be taken soon. We do not have to look at things in terms of abstract "money" costs if we are willing to organize ourselves so that we can accomplish things in terms of "effort" instead. One system assumes the inherent economics of scarcity of private ownership, and a mechanistic model of production and consumption. The other assumes public ownership of everything, and production and consumption changed to a balance between public, and private need; with technology applied to the best benefit of both.
We can do this with the "Grand Compromise" that I have suggested in posts here between the Right and the Left. In this the Right would get a revised Constitution to allow for City States, in a more loosely based Federation, to have greater independence in the way they want to live. And the Left would get the elimination of Capitalism.
And we could begin this translation to a new type of government by first doing an employee buyout (where "employee" is all working hourly, and salaried--making say no more than a few million a year, workers) of all of America. We buy the whole damn thing, and issue a bond, to ourselves, from ourselves, to accomplish it. Then, not only do we have single payer for everything, as well as a managed economy (which will stay competitive enough, long enough, to allow us the time to organize, and plan, a proper change, and then help all the many communities to ease their way into it), all of the things we want to give to ourselves as benefits (as in paid healthcare, a true living minimum wage, real, effective education, an effective, well populated, well trained, and equipped military; as well as beginning all of the humanitarian, and ecological remedial efforts required to get this planet healthy again), we can assign as payments back to ourselves to service the bond we created to do the buyout in the first place. This way we can also give cash, and payment plans to all of those who do not wish to participate in the new system; by way of proper compensation for their property. We can even throw in the production, and construction of new, floating, habitat cities as an option for these folks to move to (it will be in our interest to try and part company on the best terms possible for both sides as we might need to borrow from them in the future--say in commodity to cash swaps so as to buy from other nations)
This can be done. It only take recognizing the true problem here, and then finding the will to make it happen.
We are destroying institutions simply because they aren't marketable any more. We destroy communities for the same reason. And, perhaps worst of all, we destroy people because they are only marginally marketable anymore. And then the competition from one crazy market to another only serves to make us, and the rest of the world, even more crazy desperate to protect what little each of us has left.
And all the while the planet reaps the whirlwind. The friction mounts. The oceans rise and the hundreds of thousands desperately on the move now becomes millions.
This will not hold. You know this. A completely new direction must be taken, and it must be taken soon. We do not have to look at things in terms of abstract "money" costs if we are willing to organize ourselves so that we can accomplish things in terms of "effort" instead. One system assumes the inherent economics of scarcity of private ownership, and a mechanistic model of production and consumption. The other assumes public ownership of everything, and production and consumption changed to a balance between public, and private need; with technology applied to the best benefit of both.
We can do this with the "Grand Compromise" that I have suggested in posts here between the Right and the Left. In this the Right would get a revised Constitution to allow for City States, in a more loosely based Federation, to have greater independence in the way they want to live. And the Left would get the elimination of Capitalism.
And we could begin this translation to a new type of government by first doing an employee buyout (where "employee" is all working hourly, and salaried--making say no more than a few million a year, workers) of all of America. We buy the whole damn thing, and issue a bond, to ourselves, from ourselves, to accomplish it. Then, not only do we have single payer for everything, as well as a managed economy (which will stay competitive enough, long enough, to allow us the time to organize, and plan, a proper change, and then help all the many communities to ease their way into it), all of the things we want to give to ourselves as benefits (as in paid healthcare, a true living minimum wage, real, effective education, an effective, well populated, well trained, and equipped military; as well as beginning all of the humanitarian, and ecological remedial efforts required to get this planet healthy again), we can assign as payments back to ourselves to service the bond we created to do the buyout in the first place. This way we can also give cash, and payment plans to all of those who do not wish to participate in the new system; by way of proper compensation for their property. We can even throw in the production, and construction of new, floating, habitat cities as an option for these folks to move to (it will be in our interest to try and part company on the best terms possible for both sides as we might need to borrow from them in the future--say in commodity to cash swaps so as to buy from other nations)
This can be done. It only take recognizing the true problem here, and then finding the will to make it happen.
Five Issues That Could Sink the Trump-GOP Tax Plan
Sunday, October 22, 2017
No Matter What The Problem Is, It Probably Relates To Money
Amazon's Uneven Playing Field
See Also:
Extreme Weather, Climate Change Costing Taxpayers Billions
by ALEX SEITZ-WALD
Gwyneth Paltrow's Wellness Brand Uses Fear to Sell Snake Oil
by Timothy Caulfield /
LIVING THE LOW LIFE
23 diggs newyorker.com Long ReadsThe Sackler dynasty's ruthless marketing of painkillers has generated billions of dollars — and millions of addicts.
Pence Breaks Tie as Senate Votes to Kill Rule Allowing Class-Action Suits Against Banks
by ASSOCIATED PRESS
How Iowa Became An Obamacare Horror Story
SOMETHING ELSE TO BE TERRIFIED ABOUT
How Hurricanes And Climate Change Will Flood New York City
7 diggs theatlantic.com Climate Change
By 2030, what were once 500-year events could happen every five years.
7 diggs theatlantic.com Climate Change
By 2030, what were once 500-year events could happen every five years.
THE HIGHEST STEAKS
Beef, Climate Change, And The Future Of International Trade Agreements4 diggs psmag.com Climate Change
Beef consumption is seeing rapid growth worldwide thanks to industrialized agricultural global trade model that's been linked to a host of environmental impacts, climate change chief among them.
ALL-KNOWING, ALL-EARNING
Google Cannot Be Stopped
5 diggs theatlantic.com Google
The company's global ad business is now larger than that of Facebook, Alibaba, Baidu, Twitter, Amazon and Snap, combined.
Google Cannot Be Stopped
5 diggs theatlantic.com Google
The company's global ad business is now larger than that of Facebook, Alibaba, Baidu, Twitter, Amazon and Snap, combined.
U.S. Politics Are Rigged. It's Time For a Small-Donor Revolution
THAT'S A LOT OF ILLIONS
World's Witnessing A New Gilded Age As Billionaires' Wealth Swells To $6 Trillion
15 diggs theguardian.com Money
Not since the time of the Carnegies, Rockefellers and Vanderbilts
15 diggs theguardian.com Money
Not since the time of the Carnegies, Rockefellers and Vanderbilts
at the turn of the 20th century was so much owned by so few.
HMMMM...
FBI Probe Of Paul Manafort Focuses On 13 'Suspicious' Wire Transfers
10 diggs buzzfeed.com Donald Trump
BuzzFeed News has learned of a series of wire transfers, made by companies linked to Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, that federal officials deemed suspicious. Many of the wires went from offshore companies controlled by Manafort to American businesses.
10 diggs buzzfeed.com Donald Trump
BuzzFeed News has learned of a series of wire transfers, made by companies linked to Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, that federal officials deemed suspicious. Many of the wires went from offshore companies controlled by Manafort to American businesses.
WORKING HARD FOR NO MONEY
Heartbreaking Photographs Of Child Labour In The United States
10 diggs flashbak.com Histories
"There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profit only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work." — Lewis Hine
Manafort's Role in Democracy's Corruption Humiliates Us All
by TOM WINTER and PHIL MCCAUSLAND
10 diggs flashbak.com Histories
"There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profit only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work." — Lewis Hine
Leaked Documents Show Wilbur Ross Concealed Ties to Putin Cronies
WHO CAN YOU TRUST?
As the opioid epidemic continues to spiral, more and more people have reason to seek information about addiction and its consequences. But finding unbiased information is extremely difficult — maybe more so than people realize.
THE SECOND BIGGEST LEAK EVER
What You Should Know About The Paradise Papers
A massive leak of files shows how the world's ultra-wealthy hide their money — and has revealed links between members of the Trump administration members and Russian money.
DEATH BY DEGREES
The Great College Loan Swindle
How universities, banks and the government turned student debt into America's next financial black hole.
HARD TO STOMACH
The Gross Inequality Of Organ Transplants In America
There's a nationwide organ shortage, but how long patients wait for a transplant can depend on how much money they have.
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