RESPONSIBLE CAPITALISM 2014

 

 

I caught part of the new New York mayor’s inaugural address and heard a call for income equalization and a scheme to tax the rich to pay for pre-K child care and after school care for all the people who live hand to mouth, struggling to pay for the rising cost of child care due to increased government regulation, taxation and licensing fees.  Chain child care institutions can afford all the fees, so local businesses are struggling to stay in business and prices rise and rise.  The reasoning here is that the rich deserve to pay the costs through taxation for the children of the lower income people and the government is the intervening agent. 

Who should pay for someone else’s child?  Did they create the situation of higher and higher costs for these people?  Are they profiting off government subsidies for their businesses and do they fund suggestible politicians who will work for their goals?  Are their goals of the short term profit variety and be damned the consequences?  Or are their goals to perpetuate the free enterprise system and take profits that allow for the continuation of the economy?  People can’t pay higher and higher prices on a static income in perpetuity.  A social consequence of this apparent policy is the mentality that would use the government to take from the wealthy, process the funds to enrich themselves, then distribute the remainder to the poor in the form of subsidies and services.    

So Socialism and Communism rise when the megarich get richer and everybody else gets poorer.  Is that what is happening in the USA right now?  Who should redistribute their high income to the poor because they went to school and worked hard to increase income?  Yet if the rich are rapacious and insensitive and are cramming things down the throats of people, like crooked politicians and mandates, then they can historically expect social problems.  A voluntary investment policy that increases jobs created Microsoft and Apple.  Innovation creates demands and jobs to satisfy those consumer demands like cell phones, Ipads, kindles and other related gadgets that people really want.  People don’t want spending mandates.      

It’s interesting that Justice Sotomayor issued a stay against a portion of Obamacare that dealt with a mandate for hiring institutions to provide contraception insurance coverage, based on religious objections.  The objection was a violation of religious beliefs, not against the insurance purchase mandate itself.  My objection is against the purchase mandate of anything, insurance or otherwise.  My personal rights are being violated when I am forced to buy.  Buying should be my monetary decision, not the governments.  Are religious beliefs more important than personal freedom among the judgmental elite?  The real issue is the mandate, not the specific belief violated. 

How can free enterprise work at all if people are forced to buy?  And the insurance companies have pricing discretion but the purchaser does not?  The middle class money flow into the coffers of the insurance companies and the government is a tsunami of political change. 

So I’m not sure what consortium is behind the change in the money patterns of the economy but I can see the results: 

·         Low interest rates due to the institution of sliding interest percentage payments based on prime rate so small holders can’t get any returns on their cash deposits. 

·         Huge payments to certain banks from the Federal Reserve which has been labeled money creation.

·         A ‘target’ inflation rate of 2% imposed on the economic system which harms fixed income people.

·         The huge banks can be in debt far more than they have on deposit and will get a government bailout if they lose their gambling debts. 

·         Fake ‘products’ like derivatives tie up real money and produce nothing but gambling profits for a few.

·         Opportunities for opening a small businesses are dwindling due to zoning requirements, fees, taxes, payoffs and cutthroat competition from chain businesses who can take a loss for a few months until the smallholder goes broke. 

·         Obamacare insurance mandates will cost jobs and investment in the small business sector.

·         Zoning laws prevent people from operating small businesses on their home properties, forcing the use of expensive investors’ properties.     

·         Students are in debt for degrees that are either in saturated markets, closed markets, or are simply archaic and need more education to be economically viable.  Student debt is an economic nightmare but somebody made big bucks off it.  Instead of working to keep educational costs down, they freely made debt available and profited off it instead.  I blame the educators, lenders and the politicians for that one.  I don’t see social justice here.  If they don’t bring the educational costs down, student numbers will decline. 

 

I know the demise of the Glass-Steagall Act dates to the Clinton administration and the rich have definitely become richer at the expense of the rest of the citizenry since then.  I know it’s nice for a poor boy to make good but what about the long term consequences of the tip in the economic balance between the rich and the poor in this country?  What are the long term effects of the lower economic persons not being paid enough to afford the current high prices in child care, material goods and real estate?   Now tack on sky high insurance costs and deductibles, and more people will be marginal economically. 

Perhaps devaluation in prices is in order.  Pay the people the same but get less profit per widget by lowering the prices people pay for services, goods and real estate.  The recent JC Penny problem is a case notable by initial high prices, a lowering of prices by a large percentage and a much lower profit margin per item.  Not no profit margin or a loss, but a lower profit.  People actually shopped there because the clothing was of a reasonable price for fair quality, instead of super high price for fair quality.

The late real estate boom resulted in devaluation in the value of properties, but no devaluation on the debt owed on the real estate.  Inexpensive housing became palaces for sale on paper and if you wanted a home, you had to pay those inflated prices.  I know people who were left in debt for a home that was now valued at 40% of the debt on it.  People are now paying high rents due to high debt levels on the properties they rent.  Everybody buying was cheated, and the sellers made off with the money, leaving behind them tears, despair and a lack of value.

Recent trends point to a lack of morality somewhere.  Responsible capitalism is not a game of decimating your rival and making off with all the cash:  Responsible Capitalism is employing people, taking a reasonable profit AND perpetuating the system.  

History teaches that excessive profit taking and gambling on the part of the wealthy results in popular uprisings.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

 

 

 

 

Obamacare Insurance Debacle'

Having been buried in academia since the Paleoamerican Odyssey conference in Santa Fe 2013, I surfaced from the sea of anthropological data and constructing my Timeline to look around at the political scene. 

The ‘Obamacare Insurance Debacle’ amounts to a raid on the available cash of the middle class economic brackets and the growth of the power of the insurance companies that will surpasse the Federal government that enabled it.  The all bets are off freeforall that is occurring is not benefitting the consumer because of the ‘mandate’ to buy.  Insurance is once again confused with health care.  Huge deductibles and copays prevent people from obtaining actual health care while they are ‘insured’, which looks good on paper but is actually twaddle.  

Now the IRS is forcing more revenue out of people, having obtained the power to tax the ‘uninsured’ and I do believe that this amount is scheduled to increase.  The Supreme Court ruled the Obamacare tax fine to be a tax.  Is there a guarantee that this tax will be spent on healthcare or is the $ up for grabs by powerful politicians? So the Democrats rammed through a massive tax increase and screwed up the health insurance setups and took away our rights to choose.  The rich got richer and the poor are now poorer thanks to the Democrats.  I think it’s time for a change to Republican leadership who would restore our right to choose whether to buy any insurance or not, conforming to free market principles that would bring the price down.  It’s un-American to be forced to buy something from anyone, private enterprise or the government.  The exorbitant price gouging on the part of the insurance companies would definitely cease. 

As for the chronically ill, they should expect to pay more for insurance because they use the service more.  Payment schedules can be worked out which are fair, without putting undue burden on the healthy.  Insurance should be available to them, but they should have to pay for it.  The same goes for drug addicts.  Why should non drug abusers be forced to pay for coverage of drug addiction?  We have lost our ability to pick and choose what plan is right for us.   Pregnancy coverage should be available for those women in breeding mode but why should the rest of us pay for it if we don’t want the coverage?  Pregnancy prevention should be cheap and available and not subject to religious rants about the evils of birth control.  Job creation is not even keeping up with population growth and it seems a good economic move to slow the population growth. 

It appears that the heavily subsidized are the few that are signing up for Obamacare.   I heard an intelligent man on TV saying that the existing Medicaid could have been expanded to cover these people with far less expense and manipulation of tax money.  Or how about sending funds directly to the institutions that treat these indigent people and skip all those insurance middlemen and bureaucrats?

Obamacare is not about health care:  Obamacare is about a huge money grab, a loss of rights for the individual and higher taxes for the middle class.

 

 

Syria and the Putin Connection

Syria and the Putin Connection

The dictator of Syria has a grassroots challenge to his authority and income.  He responds with death to anyone who supports the opposition.  War between the two sides ensues.  The dictator of Syria is losing control of areas important to his authority and income and so he responds with poison gas. 

President Obama has said that the use of ‘chemical weapons’ is a red line in the sand, which is a colloquialism for “a point beyond which such behavior will not be tolerated”.  The UN team determined that sarin gas had been used on the victims and the dictator of Syria is the one who had the means to deliver the canisters to the target. 

Even before the UN team investigated, Sen. McCain was calling for the bombing of Syria, with Sen. L. Graham on a leash behind him yapping for the same thing.  The press picked the ‘red line in the sand’ story to headline the news for weeks now, calling for bombing Syria and some of the most vociferous are calling for bombing of Iran, Hezbollah, and anybody else living and breathing over there.  

A press harried President Obama calls for bombing Syria, then asks for congressional support for his position, which was a wise move that averted the new war McCain and so many members of the press were slavering for.  I saw commentators who probably get out of breath walking to their cars ranting for our best young men and women to be sent to another war.  President Obama is criticized by the press for asking for congressional approval for military action in Syria, many of the same press who criticized President Bush for doing just that.  So many of the press are war mongering about Syria, I wonder why past massacres of people in Africa received no press attention….

So warships converge on the Eastern Mediterranean and other areas, all in anticipation of a showdown over bombing Syria, a crisis manufactured by President Obama and the press manipulating national policy.  Fortunately, President Putin of Russia has the common sense to defuse all this war talk and to work towards a diplomatic solution to the enforcement of a ban of chemical weapons.  As a trading partner with Syria, President Putin has leverage over what power the dictator of Syria actually has over the future of his nation.  Assad is free to make his own decisions and any member of the press who reports that Assad is Putin’s boy is lying.   Assad is totally responsible for his own decisions, including the use of poison gas.  I suspect that President Putin does not want the use of poison gas anywhere in the world, including Syria as a means to prop up a failing regime.  I applaud Vladimir Putin’s common sense in defusing this phony crisis. 

President Obama is shown to be inexperienced for creating crisis situations with loose comments and threats.  Yes, threats!  Drawing a red line in the sand is an offer to fight, just like on the playground where one kid draws a line in the dirt and dares another kid to cross it.  He is also foolish to respond so much to goadings from the press and he allocates too much power to the war mongering press.  Certainly, the images of gassed people were horrible, but the response to the atrocities should not be more death of innocents, inevitable if Syria is bombed.  A diplomatic response is preferable, and I hope that President Putin’s offer to mediate is successful.  Too many people have died. 

The sector of the war mongering press has been forced to publish surveys of the American people, who do not want a war solution to the violation of the chemical weapons ban by the Syrian government.  Congress is suddenly aware that the majority of their constituency does not want more military involvement in the Middle East.  The time for peace is nigh. 

Corruption in Public Life

Corruption is an issue.  By corruption, I mean the subversion of the goals of Democracy  and Republicanism to preserve the freedoms and not inhibit the economy, without allowing the capitalists to damage the world in a blind pursuit of profit at any cost.  The mission is perpetuation and sustainability of our economy and thus our way of life, while assisting those in need.  This mission is the primary mission and the long term planning required is ongoing and intense.   So far as we can plan without the intervention of unforeseen events.....

The necessity of flexibility is seen as a survival tactic in politics and biology due to the unpredictable sequences of events that do appear, given the  histories of the worlds.  For a political system to be so encumbered with debt that flexibility in response to changing conditions is limited the system will eventually dissolve as it struggles with reality.  It's like the wave of revolutions that swept across the nations the past few years.  The finding of the future successful path is difficult, as some seek it through religion and others seek it through politics and economics.  A unified approach based on the secular Golden Rule would be enough to bring peace, but some of the world persists in the dark behavior that appeared after the great flood as the prior civilizations disappeared, leaving tattered bands of desperate humans to rebuild civilization.  The great religions of today appeared during these times, all proving to be a successful method of survival, all passionately defended by their believers.  Judging from the number of wars occurring today, the survival value of such behavior is questionable. 

My issue today is corruption, which brought down the Roman Empire and the Greeks who would kill Socrates, and other nations corrupted by prejudice and greed like Hitler's Germany, and some of the other bloody dictators of the 20th century.  The weakness of the Romanovs, the ravages of Stalin, the senseless wars over property and water rights.  Corruption caused the downfall of many and the deaths of many. 

Right now a huge issue is the IRS scandal, where they were targeting non-profit political adversaries of the administration, even narrowing it down to those without lawyers in order to shut them down.  This is damaging to the credibility of the government, particularly at a time when the IRS is planned to be used to collect for Obama Care, which is certainly a new tax on the populace.  So now taxes are political?  The health care charges will be administered politically?  That's like the local supervisor getting tax break on her property, one not available to others.  This is serious corruption.  This is      

I mentioned prior civilizations that were destroyed.  Evidence is mounting that about 11,650 BP, a comet or asteroid hit the Earth, which caused a tsunami that caused a permanent sea level rise as the ice age was ending, which was about the time of the disappearance of Atlantis, according to Plato.  A comet hit the Earth around 6,000 BP and the island of Thera exploded about 4000 BP, all of which were devastating to the world. 

The world has changed.  The sea levels have been rising for 18,000 years and have suddenly risen more in the last few decades, a phenomena labeled global warming.  Whether this acceleration in polar ice cap melting is human caused or not is a topic of discussion with little action taken either way.  I guess we will learn if this is non adaptive behavior or not.  The configuration of land was vastly different 18,000 years ago, with shallow equatorial seas extending across the oceans, forming land bridges and island chains in places that are now submerged under 450 feet of ocean water.  Millions of acres of land was once habitable but is now submerged like Krishna's city and Atlantis and Yonaguchi.  Those civilizations had 35,000 years in which to develop.  Are we going to last that long? 

I recently read a book, Uriel's Machine, by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, an impressive 466 pages long and indexed.  Uriel's Machine posits the idea that the early writings in our current civilizations were an attempt by survivors of the flood to educate the people in the celestial arts in order to perpetuate the knowledge necessary for successful agriculture.  The megalithic culture of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa built observatories like Stonehenge at strategic points, all evidence of an earlier, high civilization that existed before the end of the last ice age about 12,000 years ago.  This is an interesting theory that is backed up by interpretations of ancient documents and scientific evidence.  Other interpretations are possible, but I lean towards reading ancient writings as fact embellished by the telling.  The Megalithic Culture HAD to be of long term duration, if the celestial knowledge demonstrated by the  observatories were of human origin. 

Other writers think the pyramids at Giza are far older than previously thought and that they demonstrate a technical use rather than a religious use.  Perhaps during the last warm period 60,000 years ago, a civilization developed as is ours in the temperate zones, but died out as glaciers covered the land and obliterated most of the remains some 25,000 years ago.   Is monumental architecture featuring huge blocks of precisely cut stone standing on Holocene sands?

What does this have to do with corruption in public life?  The Holocene Civilization endured until natural disasters overcame it, submerging it beneath the seas all over the world, and leaving little trace in the 'temperate' areas of the world.  Maybe Krishna fled to the Andes bringing his harem of mtdna haplotype B with him or the distribution pattern of haplotype B indicates it could have spread from the Andes to Asia.  Evidence at Tiahuanaco and Puma Punku and other Andean sites indicates a prior civilization to the Incas and others now living there.  Whatever it was that took them out, it probably was not something they had control over. 

The Judeo Christian Bible blames sin on the deluge and the destruction of civilization to be rebuilt by the chosen ones but the real reason for the deluge was a strike from outer space.  Now the Megalithic builders knew how to sight in something approaching the Earth on a collision course and the Book of Enoch described a comet or meteorite hit that rained burning rocks down on everybody and made the sea crazy and killed many.  Again, they had no control over it even though they could see it coming. 

Now if we can get by all the corruption and declare the Golden Rule the law of the land and stop killing each other in the name of religion, maybe we can begin to take care of our planet.  All nations should allot money and personnel to set up an early warning system to detect asteroids and comets on a collision course with Earth.  Set up a means to deflect or destroy threatening astral bodies headed our way.  The issue of corruption in public life remains, as the mission of governments should be perpetuation and sustainability of the economies, while assisting those in need.  At this time, the whole world is in need of protection from preventable natural disasters like asteroid and comet strikes and if corruption gets in the way of achieving these goals, then it's time for a change.     

 

The secular Golden Rule:  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.