Asking The Right Questions

In concept, I have no problem with robots.  The idea of having tireless machines doing the necessary labor to free up humans for higher pursuits sounds vaguely Star Trekky and Utopian.

Suppose robots tilled the soil, picked the fruits, delivered it to your door.  Suppose they built our houses, trimmed our lawns and rattled the pots in the kitchen.  Suppose they operated the generators, purified the water and produced our clothing.  Suppose anything we wanted or needed was delivered promptly to our doors around the clock every day of the year by machines that needed no sleep or vacations.  Suppose robots did everything for us so that we were completely freed of drudgery and able to pursue self-enrichment and art for the rest of our lives.

There'd be no need for money.  Who would you pay?  Everything is done by self-repairing and -replicating machinery.  The farms and factories would run themselves with virtually zero human input - oh, maybe the occasional check-in to see if the robots' self-diagnostics were sufficiently tweaked.  Maybe a handful of folks, on a rotating basis, to scan the error reports for problems the machines couldn't handle.

If there was no human labor, no person giving up a part of their life and talents to produce some necessity, and everything one could imagine came to the door within minutes of ordering, what would things cost?  After all, machines would mine the raw materials, refine them, recreate and train themselves, constantly maintain and upgrade the infrastructure of civilization - and all without a human even batting an eyelash in the direction of manual labor.  What would there be to pay for?

We wouldn't need governments because the machines would be self-regulating.  We wouldn't need banks or financial institutions.  There would be no markets to trade goods that are automatically distributed according to whatever is needed at any given location.

Machines would feed themselves and the rest of us with electricity that they produce as a matter of course.  They would refine, process and package our goods, collect the trash, recycle it and produce something else with the materials.

The machines would routinely maintain parks and recreation areas.  They would scurry out at night to repair roads, cars and aircraft every night, so that the next day, everything was in perfect operating order.  They would operate the amusement parks, constantly swim around the oceans clearing trash and pollutants.  They would fan out across the Solar System, using whatever resources locally available to pre-build colonies that we would blithely inhabit once they were fully operational.

Humans would thus be free to study and learn, think and create art, explore and aspire.  No longer constrained by government or labor, humanity would blossom into a benign race of hyper-intellectuals, focused entirely and for life on developing our minds and souls, each of us becoming demi-gods aided and abetted by semi-autonomous creations.

When you think about it, it sounds wonderful.  There would be no elites, everything we need and want would be provided in lavish amounts completely free of cost of any kind.  Money would vanish, becoming a quaint old idea.  Every individual would be free to consume the entire creative output of humanity and then add new concepts and ideas to the greater good.

It sounds wonderfully idyllic.  It sounds too good to be true.

We must assume two possible outcomes: 1) all of humanity, collectively and individually, grows to the next level of self-actualization, or 2) an elite determines that it is the sole beneficiary of this paradise and the rest of us need to be eliminated.

Given the history of humanity, I suspect the latter scenario is the most likely.

Whatever the outcome, we have taken the first steps towards this destination.  The EU has passed legislation granting robots "electronic personhood," and the concept of universal guaranteed income is being bandied about as a solution for displaced labor.

At some point on this path, money must become obsolete; after all, who needs cash when everything costs nothing?  Governments and corporations become redundant, because the production and distribution systems are completely automated.  Eventually, a whole bunch of people become unnecessary to those who fancy themselves the rulers - and certainly more valuable than the rest of us.

It seems to me the real conversation here is NOT what will happen to humanity when the machines take over, but what will happen to the elites?

If there is no need to governments, money or economy even vaguely resembling what we know now, doesn't that really make the elites redundant?  Doesn't the complete democratization of knowledge and necessities really mean there is no place for an elite?

Perhaps we are now witnessing the end of Controllers.  Perhaps the fear and loathing many of us have noticed on the parts of the elite is really the horrifying realization on their part that they are quickly becoming superfluous buffoons who are powerless to control resources, and thus the rest of us.  What happens when there are only a few thousand self-proclaimed and out-moded elites and a few billion of the rest of us who are suddenly freed from the day-to-day grind and have time to think, read and ponder?

Suppose the Neo-Populist movement sweeping the world is just the opening salvo across the bow of the elite class, and that at some level - mostly subconscious at this point - we all realize what is coming and what it could mean for all of us?

Perhaps we are asking the wrong question here.  It is not what the elites will need with us when the future arrives, it is what we will need with elites when we are all members of that class?

Clenched Fist Holds No Water

For nigh on 30 years now, I've been hearing about "the end of cash" and the New Age of Digital Economics.  Folks have been wildly speculating on crypto-currencies for about as long.  All of this, however, assumes that most of the world wants to leave cash behind or even has the ability to access crypto-currencies.  The whole concept is doomed to fail from the outset.

It has been a staple of conspiracy theories that the banksters want to end all cash transactions for a long time.  There is no doubt that those folks would love to install a 3-cubed system (trace, track, tax) to control every single transaction on Earth.  At the same time, there are vast numbers of people and businesses who only deal in cash for one reason or another, usually because they are dealing in illegal trade or because they simply want to avoid the headaches of collecting and accounting for taxes.

Anyone who has owned a business knows that the tax compliance regulations are a bitch in any country.  Having to account and audit their books on at least an annual basis is not only a lot of work, but represents a fair expense itself to hire accountants and tax specialists, not to mention all the freaking paperwork that needs to be filed and stored for years.

For these reasons and more, certain parts of the economy operate almost exclusively in cash, particularly services and illegal trade.  Since services are not tangible assets, like inventory, and illegal trade doesn't want records of their transactions, cash is king in these areas.  However, large cash transactions are cumbersom at best, and storing large amounts of cash is particularly problematic.  Also, how does one convert large amounts of cash into the above-ground economy without raising too much suspicion?

At this point, the economy bifurcates, with "white" and "black" markets emerging.  Entire industries spring up that allow conversion of "black cash" into "white cash," so that it can be spent on traceable assets, like cars, houses and infrastructure to further build businesses.  The conversion services, generally called "money laundering," is a much bigger economic segment than most people realize.

Industries, such as food & beverage, hospitality and entertainment, are particular favorites for both receiving and 'laundering" large amounts of cash.  At some level, they all rely on self-reporting of transactions.  Server tips, room registrations and ticket sales all have some aspect of self-reported transactions involved.

Here in Jakarta, there are thousands of road-side food vendors who don't accept or use credit/debit cards, and they pay cash for their supplies directly to producers, none of whom are under any particular pressure to report any of their transactions, and without constant monitoring, government has no means to book the sales.  Since the transactions are cash from beginning to end, it would cost far more to monitor than is justified by the potential tax revenues.

This highlights the two primary reasons for moving to non-cash economies: 1) banksters want all money to pass through their institutions, so they can generate revenues from fees and loans, and 2) governments want to tax every single exchange to maximize their cut of the action.  In other words, it's pure greed on the part of the "leeches" who produce nothing but want everything.

What the "leeches" fail to comprehend is that economics are organic transactions conducted by organic beings.  Being inorganic, governments and banks must live off of the true economy of real people interacting.  Without the ability to track, trace and tax every transaction, they are wholly unable to function, as they cannot generate money of their own without crashing the organic economy.

The ultimate problem lies in that people and economics are organic.  Once the inorganic systems squeeze too hard, the organic world simply moves away from painful stimulae.  We commonly call this moving away "black markets," "barter" and similar names.  People begin to trade in other currencies or simply trade goods and services that they consider to be of equal value.

In the alternative currency markets, things like gold and silver, which are universally accepted and virtually untraceable if so desired, become the "money" of choice.  However, history tells us that sea shells, nails, salt and similar materials have been used, based on relative rarity in an economy.

In a barter system, the cobbler and the candlestick maker decide that a pair of shoes is worth X number of candles, and they happily exchange their products for each other's wares.  Barter is one of the oldest forms of trade known to us organics, followed closely by cash, which allows the cobbler to sell shoes without having to take immediate trade in other goods, and enables him to store excess output as "savings" for later purchases.

In the end, should state/bankster-issued cash cease to exist, a large (and growing) number of the organic economic actors would simply move to some alternative that everyone found mutually agreeable, whether is be barter or some new form of tangible asset that serves all the functions of "money."

Crypto-currencies are only fun while one has access to digital networks and electronic "wallets," but try buying necessities with Bitcoin in the jungle just a couple of hours from where I sit.  Ain't gonna happen.

Basically, the "end of cash" only implies the beginning of some other means of economic system, whether it is metals and minerals, shells, leaves, nails, or some other tangible asset that can be stored, is easily transported and traded for other items.

Here in Asia, we have several perfect examples.  Indonesia made it illegal to trade in anything but rupiah, and foreign investment dried up practically overnight.  India banned the two most common bank notes and the monied class immediately began moving their wealth out of the country.  South Korea is in the middle of a vast corruption scandal involving several wealthy families and the central government, causing folks to move their savings out of the country.  On the other hand, Vietnam has reduced taxes, made asset ownership and visas easier for foreigners.  Guess where all that moving wealth is going.

Money, or more accurately organic economic activity, will always move from restrictions to freedom.  It is the way of organic systems.  This is why things like TPP and TTIP are so desperately pushed by the government/bankster inorganics.  They want universal regulation that prevents people from doing what people naturally do with their money.  The theory is if there are no Vietnams, then there is nowhere for the organics to run.  Ultimately, though, the organics will simply shed the inorganics in what we commonly call "revolutions" and set up a new and more agreeable system to trade in.

You have to wonder at the idiocy of the inorganics.  They have spent centuries trying to plug the organic holes and prevent economies from leaking out, only to find there are twice as many smaller holes.  They never learn.  As soon as they make the inorganic system too painful to use, the organics simply walk away and find other ways to do things.

As the brilliant Thomas Merton observed, "The more you squeeze, the less you have."

Will the inorganics ever learn?

The Rising Tide

Today's theme song is Billy Preston's Will It Go Round In Circles

From my earliest memories, I have had a profound and abiding interesting in astronomy and space exploration.  At various times, I have owned telescopes, traveled great distances to observe comets and eclipses, and have long worked on a personal project to develop a clock and calendar for Martians.

Some people may think these rather unusual hobbies, but they have taught me a very valuable lesson: the Universe operates on the fundamental principle of Cycles.  By extension, human beings, as part of the Universe, also function on Cycles, and in fact, even a cursory study of history and economics proves this fundamental proposition.

Much smarter people than me have shown repeatedly that Cycles are the basic building blocks of Life.  Nikolai Kondratiev and his contemporary Edward Dewey built careers on identifying natural and economic cycles.  These men were inspired by the earlier work of Fibonacci, who described in mathematical terms an underlying spiral nature to both numbers and Nature itself, which we see vividly in the shapes of galaxies and nautilus shells.

Until recently, our clocks were round, our calendars cycle through 12 months and then start again, and the sky is full of objects that swirl around in highly predictable ways.  Even our DNA is composed of a helix - two strands that wind around each other and store vast amounts of information.

We are, in short, composed of Cycles living inside of Cycles, like so many Matryoshka dolls trying to understand our own composition.

It is important to note at this point that the Cycles do not create perfect circles.  They are, in fact, spirals or helices that return to an approximate location relative to a past Cycle, but it is never the precise location from which it departed.

Within human history, we also detect Cycles.  There is an approximate Cycle the length of an average human lifespan.  There is a slightly longer Cycle of roughly 100 years.  There is another with a period of about 250 years, and yet another of about 500 years.  Humanity oscillates between extremes on roughly periodic scales, with the Big Picture being similar, but the minute details changing enough that without a high enough perspective, one cannot discern the pattern.

Thus, most humans plod along, constantly being shocked and amazed by global economic and political developments.  However, a few detect the patterns and see the trends, and can begin to predict coming events with a fair amount of accuracy, though no one can calculate all the variables to say precisely how events will unfold, or what effect they will have at the scale of an individual.

In terms of economic cycles, it is certain that boom will turn to bust, and back again on a fairly predicable basis, as the men mentioned above have shown with exhaustive research.  The so-called contrarian, one who recognizes the peak of one extreme, will begin to prepare for the pendulum to swing back again.  At first, he is viewed as - to put it politely - eccentric.  Over time, however, the majority come to realize the wisdom of this position.  Once the majority has crossed over to the other extreme, the student of cycles will begin preparing for the opposite, and so the pattern repeats forever.

In political terms, the same is true.  People will jump on a political movement until it has swung far to the extreme, and then reverse rather dramatically to the other extreme.  In each case, the extremes are the same, but the "flavor" is different, as the existential variables surrounding the cycles greatly affect how they look and feel.  The astute thinker, however, realizes that when a majority has adopted one extreme or another, it is time to prepare for the swing back to center, and ultimately to the opposite position.

Thus it was, that about 30 years ago, I instinctively recognized the impending peak of the Empire/Utopia phase of the political cycle.  I couldn't adequately express what I was feeling at the time, but I knew that I should begin preparing for the inevitable swing to the opposite pole of Tribalism/Isolationism.  I understood in not so many words that civilization had moods in every way alike to the individual.  Subsequent studies and research gave definition to my instinct.

Around the late 1990s, I began to test my intuition.  I began to predict certain events in the political and economic realm, and found to my delight that I could accurately predict movements, though of course not the exact details.

Famously, in 1999, I told my circle of family and friends to sell their stocks and other paper assets, and buy gold.  I didn't know exactly when, but I knew the time had come.  Naturally, I was laughed at and pooh-poohed by most, but within two years, the stock market had crashed post-9/11, and gold had started its meteoric rise from $265/oz., to a recent peak of $1,800.

In a similar instance, I advised folks to join the Ron Paul Revolution.  It was inevitable and I had watched the core sentiments of that movement growing for years.  Ron Paul failed because he was successfully marginalized by society, it did not stop the fundamental impulse that was driving it.  Last Tuesday, that impulse expressed itself "bigly" with the resounding repudiation of the Empire/Utopian extreme, in favor of the emerging Tribalist/Isolationist meme.

These things can no more be controlled or stopped than the shift from summer to winter.  It is built into the Universe itself, and we are - regardless of our efforts otherwise - captured in its relentless Cycles.  Our best efforts may delay or modify the process, but the outcome is as certain as Destiny.

Just as Herbert Hoover ushered in the Progressivist Era, Donald Trump will usher in the Isolationist Era.  These two extremes have battled it out throughout human history, from the Roman and Mongol Empires, to the modern Globalist States.  Like passengers on a boat, humans rush to one side, and just as the boat to enjoy the view, and just as the boat is about to capsize, they rush to the other for balance, only to repeat the process over and over ad infinitem.

Trump is only the beginning.  The process will take decades.  At some point during the lives of our grandchildren, the process will reverse.  We would not likely recognize the terms used or the world in which this process reverses, but it is inevitable that it will happen.  A good education and attention to elders can prepare them for this, but it cannot be stopped.

If you think you can stop the Moon in her path, or the Sun's orbit about the galaxy, then by all means fight trend.  You will ultimately be frustrated at every turn, or die trying.  The astute observer, however, knows that it is time to prepare for the coming waves, and reading history will do just that.

All the labels and ridicule, tears and stamping of feet, will not change the course of the Cycles.  With erudite effort, one might be able to adjust the course a bit, but the destination is as certain as death.

I recall with great fondness attending Spalding Gray's amazing one-man show, Swimming to Cambodia.  In it, he relates an experience in Thailand, where he and an acquaintance go swimming in Phuket.  At one point, the current grabs them and sweeps them far out to sea.  Spalding panics and begins swimming furiously, fighting the current.  He companion yells over to stop fighting and ride the current.  When he does, he quickly observes that the current in circular and is slowly returning him back to shore.  He states that it was a profound moment for him, and in the audience, I immediately understood the revelation he had experienced.

Once we stop fighting and learn to ride the Cycles, we find that we expend a lot less energy and enjoy the ride a whole lot more.  Furthermore, we have the time to track the Cycle itself and see a minuscule part of the Grand Design, and no experience is more profound than that.

P.S. - I highly recommend Spalding's other show, Monster in a Box, as well.

Life, Liberty And The Pursuit Of...

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Liberalism went wrong when it started viewing rights as goody packages handed out by government like Halloween candy to favored voting/donor blocks.

Conservative went wrong when they started seeing business as nothing more than handing out advice with eye-popping price tags to up-and-coming Third World manufacturers.

Bernie Sanders is the ultimate expression of Liberalism.  He is a Socialist who believes that government should spend its entire time telling everyone how to live.

Donald Trump is the ultimate expression of Conservatism.  He is a Fascist who thinks that corporations should spend all their time telling government what to do.

Hillary Clinton is...well, Hillary.  All she cares about is getting rich and wielding power.  She spent her career using her husband as a meat puppet.  Once she stepped out into the light, folks were horrified - and rightly so.

Europe has been facing more or less the same choices, with ultra right and left battling it out in Austia and (so-called) Neo-Fascists rising quickly in France and Germany, as people are artificially limited to two choices - right and left - when dealing with profound social and economic problems.

The problem here is that for the better part of a century, we have all been taught that there are only two solutions to every problem - government runs everything and business runs everything.  This results in a myopic view of solutions that have boxed in the social dialogue and prevented real change for the better.  As the old saying goes, when your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.

One of the most profound and Earth-shaking philosophical changes of the past 500 years has been ignored, for the most part.  We have been so indoctrinated by the Left/Right paradigm and the mercantilist interests that we have forgotten the one major movement that created Western domination of global political and economic discussions.

I'm referring, of course, to the Age of Enlightenment.  This is one of those things most of us (who were awake) learned about in high school and college, but it was glossed over like a minor bump in the road to Hell.  This period of history changed everything to the point that most educated people can't even conceive of a world that is pre-Enlightenment, yet we have forgotten most of its important precepts and have even started moving backwards along the socio-political spectrum.

This radical shift in Western philosophy produced prodigious minds such as Francis Bacon, Adam Smith, Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau.  It created constitutional governments, separation of church and state, REAL tolerance, and individual liberty.  It was the philosophical underpinning of the great revolutions of the 18th century and was the beginning of the end of slavery and equality under the Law.  It also was the first domino that led to the demise of Western monarchies (for the most part) and the rise of the democratic republic, where everyone had a say in government except when it came to certain unaLIENable rights that could never be abridged for any member of society.

Radical.  Wide-ranging.  Profound.  Fundamental.

This movement was to sweep the world in the next three centuries.  Where monarchs survived, they gave up significant power to elected bodies.  Slavery as an institution died, though it has remained underground due to religious permissiveness.  Enumerated rights have become core elements of governance.  And the inseparable tie between religion and government has slowly eroded through much of the world.

However, many of these ideas have become deeply corrupted.  The issue of rights, for instance, have been muddled, probably by design.  Entrenched interests don't give up control easily.

As modern Liberalism has shown, many people think that rights are handed out by governments as rewards for political favor.  These are not rights, these are permissions that can be revoked just as easily.  Thus, rights have become optional packages, like power seats and windows in cars, that can be purchased for loyalty and donations.  All sorts of special interests clamor for rights packages, claiming minority or abused status, forgetting that rights are inherent (under the Enlightened view) in every human by virtue of birth.  Hell, there are even useful idiots out there fighting for animal rights when we still haven't settled what they mean for humans, or which are unaLIENable.

Conservatives, on the other hand are more concerned with the rights of corporations than with human rights.  They would have organizations become "persons" and fight to protect corporate interests over the individual.  The result has been a subtle form of neo-slavery where humans are captured by a society set up to feed corporations with wage slaves and where the Boards and Executives enjoy unfettered immunity while the rest of us suffer.

What the world needs is a return to the original ideas and back off the ridiculous and unsustainable interpretations that have taken over the Enlightenment.  The problem is that this reversal requires education, and that has been usurped by both the Left and the Right, with the former pushing social agendas, and the latter pushing mercantilist agendas.

People talk a lot about dropping off the grid and getting out of the matrix without really realizing what it is and how to get out.  The secret is education.  Get yourself and your kids out of the indoctrination mills and return to real mental development.

Efforts, such as homeschooling are one major way to get out of the matrix.  A return to the classic liberal arts education (liberal in its true sense) is vital.  Nothing, though, will work when we ourselves are not educated.  You can't teach what you don't know.  This requires an effort.

Begin by turning off the teevee.  This is critical.  You don't need anything on it - at all.  There is almost nothing of value there.

With the extra time not sucked up by the propaganda machine, you can turn to sites like Gutenberg, where the collected works of Rousseau, Locke, Smith, and Bacon are absolutely free to download.  Then spend a couple of months reading the philosophical foundation of the world we really wanted and thought we were getting with the Western Civilization package deal.  Once you've done this, you will suddenly see what has gone wrong with our world, and exactly what we have to do to fix it.

You might want to spend some time over at the Mises Institute, as well.  A little time here will give you a free education in what is wrong with the global economy and how we can fix it, as well.

Now that you've got a free Master's education in global politics and economics, you can focus your efforts on rebuilding the world and educating the next generation in how to continue fixing Mommy and Daddy's mishandling of things.  It's never too late, at least as long as all the tools are free at your fingertips.

Be warned, though.  These are dangerous ideas.  The vested interests have invested 300 years trying to repair the damage done by the Enlightenment and they won't give up easily.  With a little effort and courage, though, we can complete the work of those great thinkers and doers, and finish the creation of a true New Golden Age for Mankind.

If you think this is an impossibly huge and unatainable goal, just look at the vast changes just a handful of radical thinkers and writers created just 300 years ago,  Things like real sustainability, real tolerance and real freedom are just a few books and a bit of effort away.  All you need to do first is find that little OFF switch on the teevee.

Minimum Wage, Maximum Headache

приветствовать наших новых!  Many thanks to henrymakow.com for carrying my article! And tip of the hat to BeforeItsNews.com!

I hate to burst everyone's bubble (not really), but raising minimum wages does absolutely nothing to fix the problem.  Oh sure, it feels good the first paycheck or two when you see that extra $5 a week that the tax man left you, but it won't last long.

Here's the problem: when you raise the minimum wage, then employers have to raise prices or fire people to cover the additional cost.  Thus, the prices of all products across an entire region (covered by the minimum wage) go up, so whatever "extra" money you got from the tiny raise is now balanced out by higher costs.  You rather quickly find yourself back in the same place you were to start with, and in some cases, without a job, as well.

Minimum Wage is one of those feel-good issues that has almost exactly zero benefit to anyone.  Raising it only creates hardship and higher prices over the long run, and does not improve the lives of either employers or employees.  You are far better off negotiating with an employer for better wages and buying only locally produced products, whenever possible, as well as expanding and getting certified in new skills.

The crux of the problem is exported manufacturing.  When almost everything is imported, prices are entirely at the mercy of foreign exchange rates and foreign producers.  They have no incentive to reduce prices, since their prices have nothing to do with the costs of producing export goods.

On the other hand, a local producer has immediate feedback from sales.  If prices are too high, he can immediately adjust to balance costs with revenues, and match prices to the local market, which includes the average wage.

You may or may not know this, but there is a mathematical formula to calculate minimum wage:

Minimum Living Wage = (poverty line) * (household size) / (# workers in household)

If you take a minute to think about this formula, then like all algebraic equations, you will notice that by tinkering with any variable, you can change the entire outcome.

The biggie is the "poverty line."  How does one calculate an absolute minimum amount of money to live?  We need to know tax rates, cost of various goods, utilities, food, and transportation.  This is such a subjective number that folks could argue till the cows come home about where to draw the line.

For instance, someone in a cold climate will have higher heating and clothing costs.  Someone who lives far from their job will have higher transportation costs.  Utilities will cost more in remote locations.  In the US, some states will have higher taxes than others.  Suffice it to say, how do you calculate a one-size-fits-all "poverty line" for a large population?

Despite all these issues involved just in calculating a minimum wage, we are still left with the simple economic fact: when costs go up, prices go up.  Unless the minimum wage is raised every six months or so, there is no way for it to keep pace with the inflation it causes.  Even worse, in times of deflation, which are likely coming soon to a nation near you, who would be willing to lower the minimum wage?  Try explaining that to the great unwashed masses.  According to Wikipedia:

Effective January 1, 2015 there were 29 states with a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum. From 2014 to 2015, nine states increased their minimum wage levels through automatic adjustments, while increases in 11 other states occurred through legislative or ballot changes. The federal minimum wage peaked at about $10 in 1968, as measured in 2014 inflation-adjusted dollars.[1]

Inflation and deflation are tricky bastards.  According to the Inflation Calculator, that 1968 money has been inflated more than 500% by 2014, and we are still waiting to find out the nasty truth about the past two years.

In the end, all a minimum wage does is create false hopes and unreal expectations.  It all sounds so sweet and wonderful, but the subtle if not completely hidden effects are both destructive and self-defeating.

A better solution to this problem is an educated population with good negotiating skills, minimal regulatory interference for entrepreneurs and small business owners, and a solid monetary system that doesn't lose significant value year over year.  Most importantly, stop looking to government to solve the problems of daily life.  No matter what it does, it will screw up everything and make the situation far worse.  Self-reliance and education will always be the best approach to any problem.

In The Blink Of An Eye

I want to look at something that has been on my mind for some time.  It's a thought experiment regarding global energy and replacement technology.  The premise is that a new and amazing technology has come along that generates huge amounts of electricity without pollution and with small amounts of cheap, readily available raw materials.

For the purposes of this exercise, we'll assume that Dr. Rossi's E-CAT device is real and viable and commercially available.  We'll also use publicly available data showing that ExxonMobil has a total of 75,300 employees, and extrapolate on that.  We'll also use ExxonMobil's 2014 annual revenues of US$32.5 billion, as a data point.

According to the Wiki-bible, the world consumed 13,371 mega-tonnes of oil-equivalent in 2012, or 5.6 x 10e20 joules from all sources.  Total energy expense for 2011, was US$6 trillion, or roughly 10% of the gross global output that year (likely more each year since).

With these numbers, we see that ExxonMobil's 2014 annual revenues are but 0.54% of annual expenditures.  Using that as a guide, then ExxonMobil's 75,300 employees could be seen as roughly 1% of the global energy labor force.  This would mean that there are about 70 million people worldwide employed in the energy industry, which feels about right, since that is approximately 1% of the world's population estimate.  Taking a WAG (wild-ass guess), let's say the global average annual income of all those folks is US$10,000.  That's an annual total of about US$700 billion in wages.  A sizable chunk of change, if you ask me, especially when you grab 30% for taxes.

Now, along comes Alternative Fuel X (AFX).  It can produce 1Mw of electricity per year for a cost of US$10,000, with little or no maintenance, in a space about the size of a 40-foot container.  Using a conservative estimate for Western countries, 1Mw can supply about 750 houses.  So, AFX can supply electricity to 750 houses for about US$14/year, plus the cost of transmission lines from the generator.

Houston, Texas, to pick a random example, has roughly 718,000 houses.  That means we need 1,000 of our AFX generators to supply every family in the city.  Since the AFX can be installed just about anywhere, we don't need high-tension power lines, sub-stations, or any of that really expensive and high-maintenance equipment to deliver power.  Just 750 high-capacity lines running from the AFX to each of its houses from the parking lot at the local strip center where the box is installed.  Total cost: US$1 million plus cable to install, and about US$500/year to maintain.

Each house now has ample power that is clean, quiet, virtually uninterrupted, and can be maintained by one or two guys in the neighborhood working an hour each week.  Total cost to each house is probably around US$20/year, plus tax.  At that rate, the generator is paid for in one year (no bond issues or other financing needed) and the cost of maintenance is included.

This is a whole lot of data to crunch in your head, and we haven't even gotten into all the ancillary issues, such as power plant workers, linemen, truck and tool manufacturers, even secretaries, real estate, and the thousands of other variables involved in running the computer you are using right now.

Can you imagine what a shock something like the AFX would have on the global economy?  We've only considered home electricity, since AFX wouldn't replace internal combustion engines - at least not right away.  Even if AFX replaced just 10% of global power consumption in the first five years or so, the ripple effect would be enormous.

The price of oil would become almost meaningless to most folks.  Entire job classifications would vanish.  Alternatives such as solar and wind would become useless.  A number of very large global corporations would see their revenues slashed.  Huge government bureaucracies would become even more pointless than they already are.  Municipal bond markets, tax revenues, environmental conservation groups and their bureaucracies...all suddenly unnecessary.

Furthermore, using more or less the same reasoning process, add the economic disruption that will be caused by robots, 3-D printing, add high-temperature super-conductors.  All of these technologies, including AFX are real and are coming to market very fast.

An AFX device in every parking lot, and a robot and 3-D printer in every home would replace just about every service and blue-collar job you can imagine.  It wouldn't take long before there are 3 billion unemployed and angry people in the world, no matter how cheap and wonderful the technology sounds.

Given all this, and the many other technologies that are coming or haven't been invented yet, and we are looking at a mass economic displacement that will be studied for thousands of years if humanity survives it.

And you wonder why the elites of the world are so desperate to preserve the status quo right now?

Both Sides Agin The Middle

I spend a lot of time apologizing for Merica, even though I'm not Merican (I'm Texan).

Honestly, the world sees Merica as a bunch warlords out to conquer the world with bombs and McDonald's. The bombs may not work, but McD's has a fighting chance to destroy Life As We Know It (LAWKI).

To be fair, Mericans are completely bamboozled by Madison Ave. and modern marketing techniques. Since mass media is not a required subject in college, the unwashed masses have no idea what beast they unleash in their very homes every time they flip on the teevee. They don't consume media, so much as get consumed by it. The All Seeing Eye invades their domains and subverts their reasoning in ways they can't even imagine.

Politics is just one commodity that is stuffed down the collective throat of Mericans. How many times has someone said to you, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results?" How many times have you nodded and smiled knowingly, as if you agree with the statement? How many times have you voted for a republican or a democrat? Are you not, by definition, insane?

Imagine, if you will, that Merica is the Titanic. She's going down by the bow (republican). Someone yells, "Hey, everyone go to the back of the boat to balance it out!" So, you all run to the stern only to notice the ship going down the other way. And so this theater of the absurd continues, with everyone running fore or aft, trying to balance the ship out, while all the time the ship continues to sink. No one seems to be able to come up with any other plan but to run back and forth.

Last time, it was democrats who were sent to save us from Bush with pockets full of Hope and Change. We got neither in abundance. Before that, it was the republicans who were to save us from Clinton and return decorum (i.e.-keep the peccadilloes hidden). Look how well that turned out. Before that, it was Reagan, and before that Carter, and before that Nixon...it just goes on and on for decades.

Nothing ever changes. The ship continues to sink and eventually, it will snap in half, just like the Titanic, before it becomes an historical curiosity and hit film, with DiCapprio's grandson reprising the role of whatever the character's name was.

Whenever the subject of third parties comes up, the most heard response is, "But they can't win. I want to be on the side of a winner." Well, guess what folks? You lose. It doesn't matter who wins the titles, everyone loses because no one will get in the lifeboats.

I distinctly told everyone I knew to avoid Bush like the plague. He's evil, I said. He's braindead, I said. But no, everyone wanted to be on the winning side, and besides, he had to be better than Clinton, right? Your honor, I wish to present Exhibit A: History. Don't vote for Obama, I said. We know next to nothing about him and the marketing is just too slick and too Madison Ave. Oh no, had to be on the winning side, didn't you? And he HAD to be better than Bush, right? Your honor, I wish to present Exhibit B: History.

Do you see a pattern here? If people had memories longer than their pinkie fingers, this might be a different world. Heck, if they just installed a firewall that catches 85% of the BS that comes out of the All Seeing Eye, they might be able to reason just slightly better than now. I mean, look how this works...the global economy is tanking, there are wars and disasters raging everywhere, Obama is driving us straight into a train wreck, BP et al. are sliming the landscape, and there are cosmic cataclysms coming that would make your hair turn white overnight. What makes news? What, of all these horrors steals the headlines? Some Bible-thumping idiot in Florida who wants to burn some books.

I hate to say it, but it bears repeating. Mericans are INSANE.

The funniest part is he never burned them. His marketing was done, his flock swelled. He got global headlines. Didn't even need to whip out his Zippo.

Fools...idiots...clowns.

The whole freaking world is insane, really. Everyone snapped the BS, hook, line and sinker. I mean, it just seems so obvious to me. Why can't others see it? It's like a giant pep rally back in high school. Get everyone all whipped into a lather and then point to some manufactured enemy, then while everyone is busy jumping up and down over there, the crooks are emptying the safe and getting off scot clean. Is it just because I spent my first career making propaganda that I can see it? Or is it because I refuse tp pop doggie-downers? Maybe all those years of pot and shrooms actually protected my mind from being overrun by mediots (media idiots...if you use it you owe me).

It's so simple. It's a 3-step program, so it's even easier than AA. Unplug the teevee, stop doing what you're told and vote for a third party. That's it. So simple. Not a shot fired and yet the Earth will shake from the reverberations.

Think it will happen?

Pass the Xanax, dude. I almost woke up.