Saturday, June 01, 2013

Responsible Capitalism II


                                    Partial Solar Eclipse      Arizona


All governments do make work projects.  In ancient times, the use of surpluses created more population, which then must be employed creating, building, inventing, philosophizing....  What are our current make work projects?  I view a good make work project as one that has a chance to create something new, like the USA government funded research into computer technology after World War II, which with the help of world scientists has developed into our electronic communications and data storage and manipulation systems.  Wow!  What a return! 

Our government has built dams, bridges and highways, that benefitted agriculture and the growth of cities, a real boon for people and was money well spent that generated tax income and provided a living for people.  This was money well spent in the past but much of this infrastructure needs to be maintained, rather than expanded.  We need new make work projects. 

I see now that money could be used for military purposes in outer space.  We need a world militia out there, not a continuation of the hassling on Earth.  Why can't the world's military organizations contribute manpower and money to create an early warning system for asteroids and other dangers out there?  This early warning service cannot be religiousized or politicized or controlled by any other desire excepting that of to save the planet from another cataclysmic hit.  WE NEED TO COOPERATE.   

We need a world militia in outer space.  We need to establish world military outposts in orbit around Earth and on the Moon and on Mars.  Perhaps sensors could be located in orbit around Venus and in strategic places around the sun.  We are more naive than Aztecs waving hi to Cortez as he landed.  We need to protect ourselves. 

Maybe a lack of cooperation among groups will force a stronger economy to shoulder the burden of creating an early warning system, but a lack of total world cooperation will create problems for this project.  Sectarianism could cause failure of an important survival oriented initiative.  Can we quit fighting long enough to save our world?   

To counteract abuses of tax money spending, it is necessary to make sure that the voters retain the right to OK any debt incurrence, which would outlaw 'certificates of participation' that are nothing less than debt.  Gradually, the right of the voters to retain control over government indebtedness has been leached away here in Arizona, where debt remains supreme.  I think more debt has to meet some stringent criteria that would include solvency as number one.  Voting to 'raise the debt limit' on a Federal level is disgusting and a violation of the constitution.  The purpose of legislation is not to skip ahead of the law in a quasi legal runup of debt.  If the voter loses control of government debt, tyranny follows.   

Here in Arizona we have gigantic storm drains in a tiny town that has rain maybe every five years if at all.  The government sponsored union contract cost taxpayers $35 million on a dead end project that is not functional and that generates no income, but did give union construction jobs for a few months.  We cannot afford this kind of spending.  Here in Tucson, city politicians orchestrated the squandering of $230 million in tax money on expensive trips, architectural plans that were never built, and extended site preparation where nothing stands today.  This $230 million was supposed to fund projects that would attract people to the old town area.  Instead, a few self appointed elites skimmed off the money and now are raising parking rates downtown to raise more money. 

This is irresponsible government and certainly irresponsible capitalism, where the government forces taxes from the citizens and then squanders the money instead of returning it to the people in civic improvements.  It doesn't amuse me that big shots took free trips to Italy on taxpayer expense.  Now it's time to move on, they say.  Just forget we stole and got away with $230 million for them and their friends.  This is irresponsible because it causes a distrust of government and wastes precious resources.

To avoid decadence, we must maintain the infrastructure.  Tearing out good infrastructure to put in new is a waste of resources and that union tactic must be avoided.  Something that is hopelessly obsolete must be replaced.  Building more roads is counterproductive when you have enough.  It's time for the USA to recognize the limits to roadbuilding, as the Europeans have ages ago.   

As a nation and as a world we need to quit squandering our resources and focus on what is important.  On 31 May 2013 at 3pm where I live, a massive asteroid with a moon orbiting it passed by the Earth about 15 million kilometers away.  Today 1 June 2013 we are in the midst of a shockwave described on spaceweather.com

 "A G2-class (Kp=6) geomagnetic storm is in progress following the arrival of an interplanetary shock wave on May 31st. The source of the shock is not known; it might have been a minor CME that left the sun without drawing attention to itself."   

I've been following this asteroid which was first described as much smaller and on 30 May 2013 it was discovered to be twice as large and also had a 600 meter moon orbiting it.  This tells me that our detection systems are primitive and that research and development must be deployed to improve our detection systems.  We NEED to set up a defense system to prevent something like that asteroid from hitting the Earth again.  I think this asteroid set off that shock wave and the geomagnetic storm in progress.  It's obviously a traveling magnet.
 

We know so little.  We are like mice crossing the Interstate Highway and we don't even know how to watch for vehicles.