RUN THAT BY ME AGAIN? (Did I hear that right?)

85 comments

Posted on 18th November 2012 by Colma Rising in Economy |Politics |Social Issues

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I am going to go out on a limb and state that there are several pieces of rhetoric that, should their folly be ignored, will do little other than to lead to the destruction of credibility and in a broad and metaphorical sense, serve as nothing but a distraction which will capture the gaze of humankind as they march happily content with an empty image of beauty, head-long into an abyss.


“STOP BARKING, TOTO, I SEE SOMETHING SHINY UP THERE!!!”

It is no far cry to state that the majority of the readers of this site lean politically Libertarian, economically Austrian and bicker and banter about issues as these philosophies are inherently independent. I will insist, however, that many readers are not “purists” in the sense of these philosophies… with good reason. As much as many would like to believe, they are not decidedly Libertarian, Austrian, Republican, Conservative or any other socio-political and economic brand would have them. That is a good thing, as this allows for adjustment to real-life situations without a dogmatic view interfering with decision making that may have extremely bad effects on outcome given the environment we find ourselves living in…. the modern world. As much as many would cite these so-called “right leaning” (another misnomer) modes of thought in the rhetorical battle against “left-leaning” jargon, there are simply no all-encompassing flags any regular would rally under.


OH, I FORGOT…. SOME AROUND HERE STILL RALLY UNDER SOME ASSIPHANT

Alas, if one were to acknowledge that social science, as wishy-washy as it inherently must be, is still an attempt at rational thought and though “soft”, still a science, we have unwittingly arrived at a situation brought about long ago… perhaps even when the terms “economics” and “moral philosophy” were one and the same. That situation is best described when the theories that many like to cling to are in the process of transformation. The concepts of paradigms, their shift, theories and the assertion that often different modes of thinking cause folks to speak in effectively different languages, may cause them to wonder why they aren’t “getting through” to each other. In light of this phenomenon, it is no wonder many find different opinions to be idiocy.

LIKE TALKING EINSTEIN AT LAKE TARDICACA

For a good synopsis of the avenue I’m writing with in mind, have a look at: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationality-historicist/

From which I will take some key ideas regarding Kuhn’s paradigms, quoted in italics, and proceed to pummel over-used rhetorical phrases, discarding them in the proverbial trash as a bully would a nerd in the school-yard.

“According to Kuhn, scientific practice is divided into two phases, called normal science and revolutionary science. During normal science, the dominant paradigm is neither questioned nor seriously tested.”

Does this bring anything to mind? If it doesn’t, I ask the reader how often they find themselves adhering to the common and dominant paradigm of discourse…. That is the “Right wing versus the Left Wing”…. “The Liberal versus Conservative”…. “The Democrat versus the Republican”….. “The Capitalist versus the Socialist”

Get the picture? These are the phrases of the dominant paradigm of thinking as espoused by Political Science and, I insist, are so mired in redefinition, newspeak and serious flaw that I will have no remorse for shattering the rhetoric of otherwise very intelligent and respected commentators. It needs to be done. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that the world and the mood of the Country is at a crossroad where the decisions made now cannot be mired in the mud of those past. Before proceeding, reflection is due and the unraveled edifice of what many cling to for a guide will not serve to anchor the heart as it has before.


I WOULDN’T COUNT ON RUNNING WITH THOSE SPECIOUS THEORIES THERE BUDDY, WHADDAYA THINK?

“During a period of revolutionary science, the scientific community actively debates the underlying principles of the dominant paradigm and its rivals. Thus, the business- as-usual of routine problem solving is suspended until a new paradigm (or perhaps the old one) establishes dominance.”

So what exactly will establish dominance? I think it is safe to say that during the time of obvious transformation we live in…. whether one believes in linear history or cyclical generational history…. We are enduring a transmutation of ideas which, as time progresses, will engender a response from those who have arrived at the point of conclusion regarding socio-political and economic fundamentals which will reflect a sad clinging to old paradigm and further, fervent fighting for those bedrock ideals thought to be in danger. The result of this fight will result in dominant thinking, but at the same time, will yield a whole new way of approaching problems not necessarily reflected in the previous paradigm:

“The supposed result of these features is that the proponents of different paradigms will often be unable to communicate with each other, and that, even when they can communicate, their standards of assessment will always favor their own paradigms. Thus, there is no rational basis for choosing between paradigms: the switch from one worldview to another is not so much a reasoned matter as the scientific equivalent of a perceptual gestalt shift. On this view, the transition between paradigms is best explained sociologically, in terms of institutional might, polemics and perhaps generational replacement.”

If you doubt my forecast, as broad and general as it may be, by all means feel free to do so, but history and the ticking clock, I assume, will not be on your side.

Now enough of the beating around the bush, time to sink the pink into the silk purse: Following are some of the tired, dated misnomers that are full of shit, folly and deserve discarding:

“DARWINISM=SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST”

Oh, folks just love that one. It sounds great and creates visions of the great frontier where the lion is king of the jungle and all the rest of the animals line up to pay homage…. Further, built on this premise, people equate this bastardization as some sort of divine justification of the natural world regarding their wealth and societal status…. That somehow people are poor because they are dumb and these ever-growing masses will feel the cull while the wealthy, who are “smart” will ride into the sunset on the wave of the laws of nature.
Rubbish!!!

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
-Charles Darwin

That changes things a little. “Survival of the Adaptable” begins to take on a more somber tone and frankly means that only by being most able to respond to changing conditions will one prevail in the short and long term. That changes the rhetoric, and frankly that’s a good thing. Clinging to fallacy to fulfill some sort of fantasy will, in time, prove superfluous. For those who insist that this convenient change to the phrase regarding natural selection applies to the rugged individual carving his share of the spoils of life, I will leave the following truth in nature for you to mull over:

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”
-Charles Darwin


THAT KINDA CHANGES THE WHOLE CONVERSATION, DOESN’T IT?

CAPITALISM and SOCIALISM

We’re just about at the point where these phrases should be all but tossed. People don’t even agree on their meaning and ascribe such differing definitions that mentioning “Capitalism” or “Socialism” are as vague as could be imagined. The only anchors to solidify these definitions are the terms “private property” and “Public Property”… with the terms “public” and “private” carrying even more definitions.
If you wish to be more accurate, the surplus between any income, minus expenditure put to the use of acquiring more income could be said to be “Capital”, but this situation has existed for millennia before the idea of “Capitalism”. Often, any sort of government run or implemented program of any sort is referred to as “Socialism”, but this situation too has existed for millennia.
Layer upon layer upon layer of idea and fervent emotional reaction has been ascribed to these terms, born of half-truth and obfuscation that I really see no viable option but to toss the phrases. Perhaps I can give some examples, mixed with the rhetorical nimrod-ery, so common that even I find myself guilty of their use:

1) “Liberals”
This is the biggest piece of newspeak rhetoric that ever became accepted amongst otherwise thinking people. Every time I hear “Liberal” I shudder to think that I hear nothing but a mid-1990’s talk-jock parrot…. And I’m correct. I know, as I’ve listened to talk radio for a very, very long time on the job and have the wherewithal and thankfully, the blessing of being wont to not study up on lines I’m being fed. Look further into this phrase and often one will find the user is full of shit and interest-driven.


LUDWIG VON MISES: A BIG GOVERNMENT LIBERAL

2) “Free Market Capitalism”

Rare indeed. There is a difference in economics between markets and that difference is blurred with ignorant impunity by so many that perhaps a review of survey-level economics is in order.
There are PERFECTLY COMPETITIVE MARKETS that generally exist in that never-land that actual communism does, meaning that it is a naïve and oversimplified situation and get this, in the long run, the firm will make only normal profit (zero economic profit). Be my guest and read up on it. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_competition#Basic_structural_characteristics )
There are MONOPOLISTIC ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_competition#Basic_structural_characteristics ) , MONOPOLISTICALLY COMPETITIVE ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopolistic_competition#Major_characteristics ) and OLIGOPOLISTIC ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopoly#Characteristics ) markets that are closer to reality and frankly, offer manipulation, inefficiency and dead-weight loss born by producer or consumer depending on the elasticity of the demand for the product.

So tell me, what is “Free Market” capitalism again?

“DUH MOTHERFUCKER ITS LIKE THAT SUPPLY AND DEMAND. FUGGIN MORANS.”

3) CORPORATION

A corporation is a proxy entity created for the purpose of distributing decision and the liability associated with it. It is a framework chartered by government, for government purposes and for some reason people confuse a corporate entity with individualism and private property. Somehow, along the way, people forget that the modern government is an incorporated structure itself, placed in the seat of ruler-ship, with its constitution being its charter wherein the rules for its directorship… or ownership if you will…. Are set forth and interpreted. To argue against this is beyond ignorant.

A “privately held” corporation is the incorporated manifestation of those who, according to the directive set in the corporate charter constituting the legal basis for the incorporation of the entity, carries out said objective while providing a shield from liability associated with the activities. There are privately held corporations and publicly traded corporations. There are corporations based on capital accumulation for its shareholders and corporations based on labor (unions). Hence the rhetoric behind the term being cloudy. Corporations versus unions. Corporations versus government. Corporations versus people.

Can we acknowledge that corporate structure itself is the antithesis of individualism? Can the rhetoric of the ideals of “Capitalism” calling upon “personal responsibility” really pass on people’s ears in the same sentence with a nod? I guess so, but don’t tell me the notion isn’t deceiving in all honesty. Perhaps the argument can be sliced and diced as to the voluntary and involuntary participation of ownership and clientele…. But I would again invite a read-up on market structures and an answer to just when is this participation voluntary? Really…. That in itself is a great paradigm to speak in tongues to each other in.

“IT WILL MAKE A FINE KING, AN ASTUTE BUSINESSMAN, AND FATHER TO MY CHILDREN!”

4) SOCIALISM

Socialism is the ownership of product producing corporations by those corporations chartered to govern. When and why this happens is open to good debates. Some say that the Government should be a small corporation and we should be governed by big private corporations via monopolies and oligopolies. These are the people the droolers and bird-watching agitators wearing Che shirts call “Free Market Capitalists”. Mussolini called them by another name, and he of all persons knew the meaning quite well as he basically invented it: Fascism. He was quite honest in the assertion that the State was the new Royalty and that the Corporate business interests were the new nobility. The people were the peons to the new Royalty, used for labor and warfare.

Some say that the corporation for government ought to provide for education, the eradication of pestilence, infrastructure, defense, courts, weight and measure, post offices, law enforcement and even the registration of vessels. Hell, even those areas of public interest that could not be carried out with sufficient profit to warrant a private corporation risking its capital (but not its owners liability) are called upon by some to be carried out by a government corporation. EVEN TAXATION!!!


ADAM SMITH, DYED IN THE WOOL SOCIALIST

5) Unintended Consequence

Yeah, I’m going there. It’s a law, right? That actions create not only desired outcomes but undesirable ones… lucky ones…. Unlucky ones. Welcome to cause and effect, folks. Sorry, but the people who use this term seem to forget that unintended consequences arise from not only government action (which I contend is corporate action) but from all action. Often, one may hear the old “doing nothing at all is the same as doing something” out of the other side of the mouths of the purveyor of “The Law”.

So which is it?

It’s both, and that’s life. Take action and there is reaction. Take no action and there is still action reacting about your decision (or lack of). It simply becomes a question of activity or passivity. Until one can boast omniscience, no decision lacks unintended consequences. When spouted by the anarchistic, I laugh heartily. Rarely does one understand the consequence of a lack of orderly society…. Or of governance. Sorry folks, you may not be a cretin with the foresight of a mole, but that doesn’t mean that a lack of collective action on your part won’t result in that very same cretin rolling a pile of shit on your head and the heads of those around you.

I understand that this may be blasphemy to the anarcho-capitalist and the purveyor of the theory that things sort themselves out, however, what are the unintended consequences of being passive?


“I DON’T KNOW, MARTHA…. WHAT ABOUT UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES?!”

So you see, that it is with great perplexity that the modern political and economic forum is awash in newspeak and confusion. Truly, I am often at a loss for words at the belligerent use of such confused paradigm and theory…. Not only in others but certainly, first and foremost, in myself. By what admission or challenge can be set forth that at the very least, people can be conceptually honest and explore different rhetorical terms without sounding like a gibbering sod, drooling about in a world of phantasm and dishonest discourse, all the while bearing the plastic badge of honor among their peers of similar disposition?


“YEAH!!! PUSH IT!!!!”

Riddle me that, and perhaps we can ride the shift in language, in understanding, definition and ultimately the mode of thought that the future will inevitably thrust on us all.

After all, if the only certainty in the universe is its transitory nature, isn’t the greatest of sentient folly that of remaining content in the fleeting moment that “having it all figured out” truly is?


SO WHO’S ASS DO I HAVE TO PUMMEL FIRST?

CAN ANY “ISM” WORK IN THE LONG RUN?

21 comments

Posted on 8th September 2012 by Administrator in Economy |Politics |Social Issues

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Socialism has failed. Communism has failed. Fascism has failed. Our form of Capitalism is failing. Can any economic system created by man work or are we doomed to failure because human nature will always destroy whatever system is created?

“Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones.

The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature.

The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education).

It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.

Albert Einstein, Why Socialism? 1949

CAPITALISM WITHOUT CONSCIENCE LEADS TO COLLAPSE

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Posted on 3rd July 2012 by Administrator in Economy |Politics |Social Issues

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Farrell and Grantham are dead on. We don’t have free market capitalism in this country or anywhere in the world. Politicians in the pockets of mega-corporations and powerful banking interests have attempted to manipulate the worldwide economic system to benefit the few at the expense of the many. They have created a Frankenstein’s Monster and it has escaped. They use their control of the corporate media to try and use propaganda and misinformation to keep the masses sedated and ignorant of the danger. They are incapable of stopping the monster at this point. There are not enough courageous people in positions of authority to stop the self destruction of the worldwide economic system. The efforts of those in power to keep the ponzi scheme going are becoming increasingly futile. The fake solutions and creation of new debt to replace bad debt have a half life of about two weeks. Then a new leak develops in the dyke. The end is drawing near. There will be revolution. There will be blood. You know the enemy. They inhabit the top floor executive offices on Wall Street and the offices in the Capital Building in Washington DC.

 

10 explosive bubbles that will kill capitalism

Commentary: Slow-motion train wreck in store for U.S.

By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — In mid-2005, three years before Wall Street’s credit meltdown, the Economist warned of the “Biggest Bubble in History.” In five short years after the 2000 dot-com crash property prices across the world had risen an unprecedented 75%. Real estate had become the new dot-com.

In his April 2007 quarterly newsletter, Jeremy Grantham, founder of the $95 billion GMO firm, reinforced the warning: “First Truly Global Bubble, impacting all countries, all assets worldwide.”

By midyear 2007, a deeply concerned Grantham was “watching a very slow motion train wreck.” By October, the “train hits end of track at full speed.” A year later, on schedule, Wall Street’s credit train did crash.

Flash forward: in Grantham’s early 2012 newsletter he saw a bigger train accelerating: When he focused on the “common good, it became quickly apparent that capitalism in general has no sense of ethics or conscience. And probably its greatest weakness is its absolute inability to process the finiteness of resources and the mathematical impossibility of maintaining rapid growth in physical output.”

This we call the Myth of Perpetual Growth, the pseudo-scientific justification for modern capitalism.

Grantham concludes that capitalism’s flaws are so deadly that while it does “a thousand things better than other systems,” it fails in those three crucial areas. And “unfortunately for us all, even a single one of these failings may bring capitalism down and us with it.”

Get it? Capitalism is committing suicide and destroying America too. Here are 10 explosive bubbles that warn of this trend’s accelerating trajectory:

1. Health-care Bubble: Forget court, elections — health care will implode

Dr. Marcia Angell, of the Harvard Medical School, writes in HuffingtonPost: “Why the Court’s Ruling Is Bad for Obama and Bad for American Health Care.”

“The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Obamacare puts me in mind of the old proverb: Be careful what you wish for.” Why? Angell warns that “with or without Obamacare, the American health system will continue to unravel, quickly if Romney is elected, slowly if Obama is re-elected.”

At 15% of GDP, the highest of all developed nations and destined to go higher, heath-care costs will remain a drag on the economy, especially with 3,300 lobbyists fighting to keep the cost rising.

2. Government Bubble isolates Washington from real America

When will this bubble explode? In a Time feature the “Bubble on the Potomac,” Andrew Ferguson warns, America’s massive debt has created “new affluence flooding the nation’s capital” making Washington society “a world apart from the country it governs,” adding that “this insularity has consequences for the rest of the country.”

The average American may be struggling, but government is “for sale,” in this center of the trillion-dollar government-contracting business, where the federal budget is sold off to the highest bidders. Lobbying is the city’s “biggest business,” with more than 20 lobbyists for every elected official, all publicly advertising the huge benefits they generate, often hundreds of times over an “investment” in their lobbying fees.

3. CEO Pay Bubble up 20% while bank stocks sink as much as 61%

That same mind-set isolates Wall Street. While the average American flat-lines, bank CEOs are doing great. Bloomberg Markets reports that bank “CEO compensation jumped 20.4% in 2011” while “most bank stocks declined.”

Biggest loser? Citibank’s shareholders. Their stock has dropped 61% in three years while CEO Vikram Pandit was paid $14.9 million.

More evidence of America’s growing inequality gap: The Fed says that in the past three years the top 1% gained 2% while our vast middle class lost 39%. In fact, family net worth in 2010 was about the same as 1992.

4. Inequality Bubble now at 1929 level, warning of end of capitalism

Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz shines in his new book “The Price of Inequality:” “America likes to think of itself as a land of opportunity,” he writes in Project Syndicate. But while we all have individual examples “what really matters are the statistics: to what extent do an individual’s life chances depend on the income and education of his or her parents?”

And unfortunately, today the “numbers show that the American dream is a myth … the gap’s widening.” Since 2008 “the top 1% of U.S. income earners captured 93% of the income growth. … The clear trend is one of concentration of income and wealth at the top, the hollowing out of the middle, and increasing poverty at the bottom.”

5. Debt Bubble: Debt-ridden college grads selling burgers, lattes

For more evidence of the gap see the amazing cover on Utne, a cartoonish Albert Einstein serving a McDonald’s hamburger special: “Fries with that? What’s a college degree worth these days?” Not much.

And in Good magazine’s “Minimum Rage,” many stories about grads handicapped by college debt. We’re killing our competitive future: 27-year-old NYU grad “Emily Sanders has been a waitress or bartender, on and off, for almost a decade. … She has no health insurance, no 401(k), and a pathetic savings account. Most days, she gets to her first job at noon and leaves her second after midnight. If she’s sick but a little short on cash, she downs some DayQuil and goes into work anyway.”

6. Global Jobless Bubble: Governments warned, revolutions coming

In “The Fallen,” Rolling Stone’s Jeff Tietz gives us another snapshot of capitalism’s accelerating train wreck: A “sharp, sudden decline of America’s middle class … They had good stable jobs, until the recession hit. Now they’re living out of their cars in parking lots.”

Time used a wider-angle lens on the new global “Jobless Generation” where “tens of millions of young people are unemployed.” This is bigger than Arab Spring and OWS. Governments are warned: Figure out “how to get them jobs before they become unemployable — and erupt in fury.”

But if Grantham’s right, governments won’t act till it’s too late, and anticapitalism revolutions sweep the planet.

7. Oil Bubble: New oil crisis will trigger new Arab Springs

Financial advisers say invest in emerging markets, the “new normal” for U.S. stock returns is too low. Maybe not: Foreign Policy’s Steve Levine warns that petro-rulers worldwide are watching the price of oil “plunge at a rate they have not experienced since the dreaded year 2008. Industry analysts are using phrases such as ‘devastation’ and ‘severe strain’ to describe what’s next,” possibly a “fresh round of Arab Spring-like” revolutions, “the nightmare scenario” for oil dictators.

8. Risk Bubble: U.S. recovery threatened by global economic risks

Writing in Project Syndicate, Stephen Roach, former Morgan Stanley chairman, warns that since 2008 “the U.S. economy has been on a weak recovery trajectory.” Why? The American consumer went cold “in the aftermath of the biggest consumption binge in history.”

Since then “exports have accounted for 41%” of America’s rebound, with a whopping 83% of our export growth from Asia, Latin America and Europe. But since all three are now “in trouble, the U.S. could be quick to follow.”

9. Slow-Growth Bubble: New normal is anemic returns, austerity

Listen closely: Over 200,000 financial advisers across America already heard this report. Advisers have been warned to start “preparing clients for a low-return reality,” code for a new normal and austerity: “Slow economic growth, modest and selective improvements in equities, and interest rates remaining low.”

Get it? “Anemic growth in the second half,” with huge risks ahead. In fact, individual investors and American capitalism alike will face three doomsday scenarios in the near term: The Euroland crises, America’s post-election “fiscal cliff” and the risk of global recessions in emerging markets.

10. Capitalism Bubble: selfishness weakens our role as a leader

“The world is in a state of drift, transition or even increasing chaos,” writes Brent Scowcroft in the recent National Interest. Scowcroft’s a retired Air Force General and Bush-41 National Security Adviser.

In an update to his 1998 book, “A World Transformed,” Scowcroft says, “once we were viewed as trying to do our best for everyone: now we are seen a being preoccupied with our own special interests,” a myopic vision that reflects the trend among many politicians to govern using Ayn Rand’s extreme capitalism.

Now you know why Grantham warns of capitalism’s total lack of “ethics or conscience” and “its absolute inability to process the finiteness of resources and the mathematical impossibility of maintaining rapid growth in physical output.”

No moral compass. No vision of the future. No grasp of the consequences of their short-term thinking. These three threats are merging into a critical mass that will trigger a scenario that will “bring capitalism down and America with it.”

Bottom line: America’s new Ayn Rand style of extreme capitalism is self-destructive.

 

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde Part II

9 comments

Posted on 2nd February 2011 by Reverse Engineer in Economy |Politics |Social Issues

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Back in Part I of this thread, Claymobile asked the following question:

RE, the beautifull picture of the one room school house with the wood stove, where is that school located at and where did you get the picture? My sister who is 57 & a widow, was laid off from her job as a purchasing agent 2 yrs. Ago. She worked 31 yrs. for this company. She has not been able to find another job. RE, how is she going to survive in this 1750′s lifestyle that you predict is coming??? How are the millions of home owners going to pay their mortages on subsistence income??? Are all the sub-divisions going to become ghost towns??? Please answer these honest & sincere questions. I find your vision of the future extremly frightening!

The traditional School Room  picture I posted is of the Mt. Zion One Room School House, kept as a Museum in Maryland.  It was in service from 1869 until 1931.  For the most part through the latter part of Age of Oil and Industrialization, such one room schoolhouses disappeared from the educational paradigm, to be substituted for by the Warehouse/Production Line model of the Public Schools.  Of the many mistakes made in moving into the industrial paradigm, this was one of the biggest ones.  I am engaged in the idea of raising the paradigm of the One Room Schoolhouse from the Ashes here on the Last Great Frontier.  As I try to reinforce, I do try to follow my own theories and to make some kind of positive effort IRL to fix things, not just deconstruct failing systems on the cyberspace pages of TBP.  I am a Builder of Simple and Robust Systems, and I design them to replace the failing system of Industrialization modeled by the Capitalist Destroyers, for the lower energy future I project as coming down the pipe.  The 2nd system I am engaged in building is a Geodesic Greenhouse project for my community.  I hope to do this with little to no money, in the tradition of Barn Raising that the Amish use.

 

The situation your sister is in is not unique, in fact it is being replayed by the millions all over this country and even moreso to greater immediate deprivation in places like Egypt.  As the industrial model fails, whole classes of workers in this system are being put out of work.  Our generation is living in the middle of a paradigm shift, the REVERSE of the paradigm shift the Luddites faced when they were put out of their work by the Industrial Looms of the Age of Oil.  Just like the Luddites, all the people who are in this situation are TERRIFIED of the future coming down the pipe.

Imagine yourself a 53 year old Weaver who has spent her entire adult life weaving cloth for a living, and one day she is told her work is no longer needed.  Is she going to be able to go back and retrain to be a Mechanic who fixes industrial looms?  Likely not at that age, particularly back in the 1800s.

What happened to all those people?  Back then there was little to no social welfare network, but at the same time the population was still mostly agrarian.  My guess is that most of the older folks who were displaced out of these types of work retreated back to farms, and/or they endured poverty and deprivation for the rest of their lives.

 

The thing is here, once it is realized that the Industrial model has failed, many of the types of work that have been taken over by machines will return, and there actually will be MANY jobs to do. You could become a Shoemaker. Once Nikes stop being shipped over from China, it won’t be more than a couple of years before everybody’s shoes start wearing out.    Invest in a bunch of large Needles, leather punches and the like, and start putting new Soles on the bottoms of shoes.  There will be plenty of material to scavenge to make the shoes with, you can start with the vinyl in the car seats at your local junkyard.

 

MANY more people will be required in Agriculture, of the Permaculture variety.  However, every job in such a model doesn’t require a 25 year old 6’4” 350 lb NFL Linebacker to get behind a wooden plow to turn the sod.  You still need folks to milk the Goats (more efficient milk producers than Cows and healthier milk for people).  You still need people to churn the butter and make cheese.

 

Also, despite the fact because of conditioning the idea of eating Worms and Grasshoppers as a source of animal protein is pretty repulsive to Western people, these are WAY more efficient to ranch than Cows and Sheep are, and can be done on less acreage.  Many people are needed to collect up these little animals, and you don’t have to be big and strong to do it, just patient and organized.  These are DUMB creatures, even dumber than cows.  You don’t have to know how to ride a Horse to herd Meal Worms.

 

If indeed we did stop the energy intensive production of meat from large mammals and also stopped taking Corn and turning it into Ethanol to run cars with and stopped all the reprocessing of raw foods, I have little doubt we could feed every last person currently living on the earth for the rest of their natural lives.  Of course, we are not going to do that in an organized manner, so we are not going to be able to achieve an organized and peaceful paradigm shift to Power Down, and that is a sad thing.

 

MANY people, like your sister are currently terrified, and rightly so. However, like in the Bruce Springsteen song about My Hometown, you MUST accept the idea that “these jobs are gone boy, and they ain’t NEVER coming back”.  So start thinking about what kind of jobs WILL be available, or if you are the entrepreneurial sort, what kind of BIZNESS you might start.  One of my Uncles made it through the Great Depression as a Junk Dealer.  He did quite well.  Start Scavenging NOW and collecting stuff that will be valuable in the future.  Learn how to Bargain and cut a good deal on somebody’s Junk, buy low now, barter it well later.

 

Displaced from your home, with little money to go somewhere else?  I have written before how my Grandfather approached that problem, he WALKED from Spain to Portugal when his Homeland in Russia fell in the 7 Days in May of 1917, and he climbed the anchor chain of a Portuguese Freighter to make it to Amerika.  Of course, there are not too many places left to run to anymore, but a few still exist that are at least far from where the center of the collapse will be, and that is VERY easy to pick out.  The Big Shitties are TOAST.  Making such a cinematic escape takes a young acrobat, but even a 53 year old woman can still fill up her gas tank and make a final Run for SURVIVAL.

 

What will become of all the McMansions?  Yes indeed, many of the subdivisions they are now in will become Ghost Towns, if they aren’t already.  However, all of these places contain a lot of good stuff to be scaveneged, and eventually the better areas will be reclaimed.  This is already happening in some of the devastated areas surrounding Detroit.  Right on the shore of Lake Michigan, that is probably the best fucking farmland in the WORLD, with a source of fresh water likely to last for quite some time to come.  Somewhat polluted of course, but once the factories there shut down for good, it should clean itself up over a generation or two.

Sadly of course, we are bound for a period of extreme dislocation here, and for many people who cannot find a way or a place to transition from the old paradigm to the new one, they will have a lot of problems.  The only hope to keeping those problems from spiraling out of control is for the people as a whole to accept that transition must be made, and then work together to make such a transition.  This is NOT going to happen at the Nation State level, and its unlikely to occur even at the State level in our country.  These political units are bound for failure, they are too large. All large centrally controlled paradigms like Capitalism and Communism are destined for failure in a low energy world.  Anyone who supports these systems now, confronted by their failure is simply a FOOL.  Any positive solutions here are going to have to come at the grassroots level, and becoming part of a community getting ready for this is the most important pro-active step anyone can take right now for themselves and their families.

 

I am PRECISELY the age of your sister.  I also was working in an Industrial Age job as a Big Rig Driver which I saw as having no future, so I left it to pursue other types of work.  At the time, I didn’t even realize exactly what was going on, I just knew in my soul I had to get out of it.  I can of course do many things, but at the same time in my late 40s when I had to reinvent myself again nobody would hire me in an entry level position in any kind of work I would accept as philosophically valid, and I was determined NOT to go back to teaching in the Public Schools, which I wrote off for DEAD when I left them in my 30s, 20 years ago.  They are a whole lot WORSE than that now of course.

 

So I started over yet again, this time on the Last Great Frontier, far from the Madding Crowd, but most certainly NOT isolated.  There are some 60,000 people living in the Matanuska Susitna River Valley of Alaska, and while that does make it one of the least densely populated places on earth by geographic area, by NO MEANS am I “going it alone” up here.  If I am going to survive this shitstorm, my community will have to survive, because by NO MEANS am I prepared to “go it alone” in the Wilderness.  I’d be dead inside a year out in the Yukon Territory if I trekked out there, of this I have no doubt.

 

What can I suggest to your sister, who is terrified of what is coming down the pipe here? I suggest first to get together with Family and Friends, and to Break the Ice, and discuss with them what will NOT be discussed in the MSM.  Take the LEAP, and say to your fellow Unemployed Friend or Relative, THIS is what is really coming down the pipe here.  Do not BELIEVE anymore that there is a “recovery” coming, because it is NOT coming.  Get together with as many friends and relatives as you can muster up, and CONVINCE them that this is the TRUTH.  If you cannot convince them, you are lost.  If you can, then POOL your resources and create a LIFEBOAT, somewhere as far as you can from the center of the Industrial Civilization, somewhere with good local resources and a relatively low population.  Make a TRIBE.

RE

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde: The Two Faces of Capitalism

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Posted on 1st February 2011 by Reverse Engineer in Economy |Social Issues |Technology

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In the fairly lengthy Google Image War LLPOH and I engaged in over in Part III of the Last Crusade series, the most interesting in my opinion are the Contrast Pictures LLPOH put up of his version of Schools under Capitalism (students sitting at computers) versus a primitive school out in the Bush country of Africa which is where he projects my philosophy will lead.  I countered with a photo of a trashed School Room in Detroit resulting from Capitalist Decay versus a Traditional One Room Schoolhouse with a Wood Burning Stove and Blackboard and Slates rather than Computers.

 

Here in a nutshell lies the differing world view that LLPOH and I have.  He sees what he perceives as the Benefits of Capitalism, modern technology represented by spiffy new computers and he believes that we can perpetuate this model and continue to grow it.  I see what I perceive as the Consequences of Capitalism, the decaying Industrial Cities of the Rust Belt with their failing schools and the polluted air and landscape from the Factories, now mostly over in China.

The image of those kids sitting at computers is from my POV just Propaganda.  You know, even when you drop a bunch of new computers into a school, it doesn’t really improve the education.  Lots of bells and whistles, but really you can teach Math with just a Blackboard and Chalk to kids with Slates and Chalk.  Well, you can if the Teacher knows Math anyhow. LOL.  Thing is, under Capitalism there wasn’t incentive for people who knew Math well to become Teachers, much more money to be made sitting at a Bloomberg Terminal of course.

 

Now, my classroom doesn’t REALLY look like the one I put up, but it is a classroom I would be quite comfortable teaching in.  To be honest, given the warm weather, the classroom he put up of one in the African Bush didn’t look too bad to me either.  At the moment though, I do use Computers and a Whiteboard with Dry Erase Markers  which are of course Oil products.  As long as this stuff is still up and running, I would be remiss in my responsibilities as a teacher not to use them, since in the event I am WRONG here I need to prepare my students to use these devices.    As I project out into the future though, I do not see us having the Energy to run a classroom full of computers, but LLPOH hangs onto the belief that we will, likely I suppose in his case by believing Nuke Power will ride to the rescue and save the day here.  LLPOH would like to see more Manufacturing Plants of the Industrial Model return to our shores from China, I am glad they are no longer here polluting our landscape in such great numbers.

 

LLPOH got moderately rich as a petty capitalist in the Industrial Model, and his World View is shaped by that experience.  Because it paid off for him, he believes his ideal can pay off for anyone who works hard, saves their pennies and gets a good education.  He doesn’t accept the idea the model is dying because it is based on copious amounts of cheap energy that no longer is available as it was while he built his little bizness.  He prefers to blame the problem on too much Goobermint Regulation and poor policies which drove Industry offshore to cheap labor countries like China.  He thinks that if we just fixed our Nasty Goobermint by having a whole lot less of it and let the Free Market operate unhindered, our problems would be substantially reduced, if not completely solved. If in addition to that we eviscerated the Social Welfare system the FSA would be forced to find Jobs and be Productive. I’m not sure of the next one, but he might also be one who thinks that if we had a monetary system based on Gold that this would prevent imprudent Goobermint spending and currency debasement.  If you are not a PMs advocate LLPOH, you can ignore this portion of my argument as not applying to you, but rather to the other Gold Bugs on the board.

I don’t buy any of the above ideas as True.  Too much Goobermint Regulation and silly rules IS a problem, I face them myself.  We could not expand our school this year because of requirements that we take the McMansion we converted into a Schoolhouse and drop in a $50K Industrial style Sprinkler system into it.  The House is perfectly safe and doesn’t need a sprinkler system if a Family lives in it as a Home, but if we use it as a School, we gotta put in a sprinkler according to Goobermint Regulations on 2 story commercial buildings.  Right now we work around this just by using one floor of the house, but we have a whole other floor we could use to expand our classrooms, but its too expensive to put in the sprinkler system for us right now, because we try to keep our tuition very low.  None of the Parents think we need a Sprinkler system, their kids are as safe in this house as their own, and this House is just like theirs and they don’t have one.  However, Da Goobermint says we must have one if we are going to run the school on both floors of the House.

Anyhow, while this sort of shit is a problem, its not the real underlying problem.  The underlying problem for the factory production model and our complex society is the cost of energy.  As that input price goes higher in real terms it compresses the margins on what you can sell the products at.  If you start paying the workers more or hire more workers to use a less energy dependent production scheme, you drive an inflationary spiral in the price of the goods they produce that way.  This is the problem China faces in terms of trying to develop an internal Consumer market from low paid factory workers.

 

I don’t think eviscerating the Social Welfare system will solve any problems, it will just create WORSE problems.  There simply are not enough jobs available in ANY economy right now, and that includes China and Germany, the “successful” Industrial countries here.  Removing the Social Welfare system will not create new jobs, it will just create more people with nothing left to lose.  More Crime, more beggars out on the street, more Domestic Violence.

 

Gold won’t solve the monetary problems you have from commerce, because Credit develops regardless of what is used as money, and then speculation develops on the value of assets that credit is based on while interest charges build through the system.  These systems always go bust regardless of what you use for money, and metals are particularly easy to control in their market availability if you control their production.  Anyone who owns a lot of silver mines can slow down production and raise the value of the silver, or alternatively flood the market with Silver if they have a lot of it stored in warehouses.  Its not inherently stable as money as long as the supply is controlled by a few large holders of the means of production of the silver.  Gold/Silver arbitrage was a regular means for speculators to control economics under a Metals economy, and there is no reason that the same thing would not recur if you went back to such a  monetary system. Gold Bugs complain endlessly about the manipulation by JPM and Blythe Masters, but the reality is this market has always been manipulated because it is so easy to do so, and enormous profits to be made particularly when it is used as a currency medium and sovereign states are desperate for it.

The bottom line here though is not the money, it’s the ENERGY.  The energy to keep expanding the Industrial paradigm simply is not there anymore, so filling up more schools with computers isn’t possible, even if it was desirable, which I do not think it is.  Its certainly not possible in Egypt, where right now they are having problems just affording to feed a population where 40% of them live on $2 a day.  Where is the money going to come from in our society to drop new computers in classrooms all over this country, even if it was desirable?  From your Tax Dollars?

No matter how you approach this problem, it becomes clear that on a general level across the board, you cannot put computers in every classroom in the world, and you could only put a lot of them in classrooms here for a while by endlessly adding into the debt.  Where did the school systems get the money to buy those computers?  Since it generally was not from raising taxes, it had to come from Bond Issues adding debt to the system.  CA was a big Leader in this regard, they probably have more computers in their classrooms than anywhere on earth including China, but the way they put them in there was by endlessly adding new debt.

I don’t think we can afford the computers, so along with the HVAC I proposed in Part I to make illegal, I see them as going the way of the Dinosaur here. What CAN we afford though, and what kind of an economy can we create that is sustainable?

 

I don’t know exactly how far we have to REVERSE ENGINEER here in technology to get to a sustainable level, but I do suspect it is around 1750 era technology, which the One Room Schoolhouse I put up in the Last Crusade Part III represents for the most part.  The Cast Iron Wood Burning Stove heating the schoolroom is the most questionable, since to smelt out that metal likely took a good deal of Coal, and long term even that will not be available.  However, I think we still would have a few hundred years of time with Coal reserves if all we used them for was to run forges to take the Steel Girders of Big Shitty skyscrapers and reform them into wood burning stoves.

 

Can I teach Calculus on that Blackboard to smart and well disciplined children with Slates?  Of course I can.  Frankly, I can teach it just by scratching it out in the dirt with a stick long as the kid I am teaching it to will listen and follow along until he or she gets it.  So WTF do I need computers for this task? Thank God for Leibniz, because his notation is a whole lot easier to scratch out than what Newton came up with.  LOL.

 

Now of course, I LOVE my Laptop, and I sure will miss INUNDATING you all with my endless prose over the Internet when the Web goes the way of the Dinosaur.  But you know, for MOST of my life there was no World Wide Web, and I did not miss not having it then. It was perfectly fine for me at the time to read the Newspaper and communicate with others via Snail Mail.  Our current generation of children here with their Iphones and Ipads who have known nothing BUT this sort of technological life will suffer a good deal more dislocation than I will when the system craps out. However, they will adjust.and even if they don’t the NEXT generation born without any of these devices functioning will not miss them, because they never had them.  In a few generations, nobody will even remember that such things existed, but as long as Homo Sapiens survives, they will find other means to entertain themselves.

 

Far as what I need for my daily life, do I really NEED my car?  Well right now I use it most of the time, but it certainly is possible to get from my Cabin to the Schoolhouse on Skis in the Winter or a Bike the rest of the year.  Do we really NEED all our Houses here built with Vinyl Siding and Copper Wire and Electric Outlets?  They are certainly nice conveniences, but no we do not really need those things either, and they are VERY expensive, and getting moreso all the time.  There are still plenty of Trees up here, so you can still build a reasonable facsimile of my cabin out of the logs in the neighborhood.

 

Do I really NEED to be eating the Imported Olives from Greece and Avocados from Mexico and Cheese from France?  Well, I will certainly miss all of those tasty delicacies when they are GONE around here, but I certainly can live on Salmon and Alaska Grown Potatoes and Carrots. How much of all the things we have come to expect here are really and truly necessary for leading a decent and fulfilling life?  Very few of them really.  How much ENERGY did it take to make all those things available to me here on the Last Great Frontier though in the Age of Oil?  A HUGE amount. Its not sustainable, so it will not be sustained.  It is going the way of the Dinosaur, whether your want it to or not.  LLPOH does NOT want it to pass into history, I DO.  He based his LIFE on this paradigm, while I fought against it and repudiated it.  In the end, I will win, because no matter what LLPOH would like to see happen here, the truth is that available energy will continue to decrease until we are FORCED into living the kind of 1750s era lifestyle I project as inevitable now.

LLPOH is unable to see how his mind set is the proximal cause of the Riots in Egypt.  He does not accept the idea that the Wealth he sieved from the system came at the expense of impoverished people all over the world.  He doesn’t follow the economic chain far enough to see it. He sees himself as Righteous and Just, and the FSA as Leechfucks.  I perceive precisely the opposite.  I see the Capitalist class as the Leechfucks.  They sieved the wealth from the planetary resource and the labor of others into their own pockets, claiming it as their own.  Now that the resource base is so diminished, there simply is not energy enough to keep this model running, but he will just not let go of the idea that what worked for him in the era of cheap energy can work for the generation being born here that will experience the poverty that comes from resource depletion.  LLPOH is a Dinosaur, in more ways than one.

It is a very tough thing for someone who modeled their life under the parameters of the Capitalist system to be confronted by the real consequences of that system, which is what I do in my posting on a Daily Basis.  So LLPOH and I are Sworn Enemies here and in every Thread I originate he feels obligated to come in and Napalm the thread in some way, in the case of Part III by Googling up some images to undermine the arguments I presented there.  Fair enough, I know how to Google images also. I think LLPOH is a very bright fellow, but he is a seriously deluded and morally corrupt one as well who has not been able to grasp onto the fact the paradigm he lived his life by was a proximal cause for the collapse we are faced with now.  To admit that and REPENT for his sins is not possible for him yet, so he Lashes Out with Napalm.  It is likely that there is beginning stage Alzheimers involved here as well, so he is having trouble understanding these concepts.  I still hold out the HOPE that he can be SAVED though, and so I try to engage him in debate so he can understand the nature of his sickness better, and perhaps heal himself. If he cannot be healed, he will be condemned to Everlasting Damnation and Torment Burning in the Fires of Hell, but I do hope he can be Saved before this occurs.  When dealing with the Elderly you have to have a certain amount of patience. I will keep trying to help him in any event, no matter how much he Napalms me, since I still think there is a spark of Goodness there worth saving.  Anybody who buys Christmas Turkeys for his employees cannot be ALL bad.

 

In any event, the Immortal Soul of LLPOH notwithstanding here, the biggest problem we face in REVERSE ENGINEERING the Power Down is how to reformulate the economic system during that Power Down, since as of RIGHT NOW the distribution of wealth is SOOO skewed that without a proactive redistribution what we will get here is a few folks like Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon eating Cake while millions of J6Ps all over the world have no Bread in places like Egypt (and here too in the not to far distant future).  HTF do you DO that?  Answer is you really cannot, but the collapse of the system will eventually do it for you.  Eventually here, and its looking like sooner rather than later, all the Fiat money and the assets valued on that money will collapse in the Greatest Bonfire of Paper Wealth in all of Recorded History.  Communities will have to reform up with local monetary systems based on their own resources.  Accumulated Wealth from the Industrial Era will mostly Vaporize. There will be a variety of intermediary solutions in different locations, some neo-Feudalist economies, some Communist economies, some Fascist Economies and few Tribal ones in remote locations. Some of the same people may be in charge in some of those economies, but the dislocation will be so extreme that it will be very much in flux everywhere.

 

Out of the Ashes of that destruction, if a few manage to make it through the Zero Point, the Great Experiment that is Human Sentience on Earth will continue on a while longer.  It will not look ANYTHING like what we have now though, so if you hope to survive the transition and prosper, imagine what it likely will be like and prep for that existence.  Remember also, much more valuable in such a Transition is not MONEY, but FRIENDS and COMMUNITY.  Invest in them now, it will pay off well later. Give away what you accumulated here beyond your personal needs.  Help others now, they will help you later. Be generous of your physical wealth and of your spirit.  Place yourself in the shoes of the FSA, and realize that there you will go as well when the Fiat collapses. Demonize only those who attempt to secure themelves at the expense of others, as Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon are doing. Work together for the common good. Eschew Material Wealth and Value Spiritual Wealth. Be Kind, Generous and Forgiving of those who will Repent their Sins as the Capitalist Leechfucks who turned our planet into a Sewer. Allow the Repentant Sinners to spend the rest of their lives doing Penitence scrubbing toilets.   Dispatch  those who will not to the Great Beyond. Then we can move into a Better Tomorrow.

RE

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