The Sum of One’s Obligations

Our country was founded by a bunch of dour Scot Calvinists.  There were other folks there, but the flavor was pretty well set.  Came here, set up, killed or ran off the old inhabitants, and then proceeded to work their asses off. 

That is what I want to talk about here.  The protestant work ethic and the amazingly unchristian way that it is used here in the USA.  I am speaking here of the health care system (or I prefer to refer to it, the health care market).  In good solid God-fearing America, the idea of health care being provided by the Government is a sign of abject failure.  Since the protestant work ethic says that if you work hard, God will provide for you, and if you don’t get what you want, then you either didn’t work hard enough of you don’t deserve it.  In other words, if you are poor and out of money and need medical care, you didn’t deserve it in the first place.

62% of all bankruptcies were medical related.

Now, when this kind of stuff happens in Kenya or Baluchistan, no one bats an eye.  These are poor countries and life is close to the edge there.  But I can’t think of another country in the top tier where this is allowed to happen.

Radish Seeds

The front garden is my seed garden. So today I wanted to bring you up to speed on my radishes.

I won't bother to show you radishes that you eat, go to the market and by some if you want to see them. The picture above is of the plants gone to flower.

Here is a close up of the little flowers
And here is a close up of the seed pods. You let these go until the plant goes brown and dry, then pull the plant and hang it upside down for a couple of weeks.

When everything is dry, then open the seed pods and harvest the seed. I usually store mine in paper envelopes in tupperware.

The use of the present indicative does not turn hypothesis into fact

This is a toughie. Lots of folks may not like this.

We have to become a lot less efficient. When you hear the idea of "worker efficiency" we treat it like it is a sacrament, this is an unfettered good. But when you think really hard about it, what it means is that the corporations who run the country's economy are stuffing more money into their rich shareholders pockets. They usually do that by saddling us with the work of one of our co-workers and then firing that co-worker.

Consider the following from Wikipedia

A cohort selected for punishment by decimation was divided into groups of ten; each group drew lots (Sortition), and the soldier on whom the lot fell was executed by his nine comrades, often by stoning or clubbing. The remaining soldiers were given rations of barley instead of wheat and forced to sleep outside of the Roman encampment.

Because the punishment fell by lot, all soldiers in the selected cohort were eligible for execution, regardless of guilt and innocence or rank and distinction.

The leadership was usually executed independent of the 1 in 10 deaths of the rank and file.^{[citation needed]}

So what we have every time that you see the "fabulous increase in American productivity" is more and more Americans being forced into shitty, low paying jobs because the big corporations have decided that paying an American a living wage isn't in the best interests of their "shareholders".

We have to recognize that the world does not have to be "red of tooth and claw" where we live. That is the whole purpose of civilization. If we are willing to cast out one of our own at the drop of a hat because our bosses tell us that it will help us keep our job, are we any better than the Roman Soldiers who beat their comrades to death at the order of superiors?

The corporations have become the new latifundia, returning greater wealth to the wealthy by forcing working wages out of the picture and populating the workplace with frightened slaves.

I just hope that your underwater house and your big screen TV are worth the price of your neighbors freedom.

Irony

I absolutely read "Some Assembly Required Every Day". It is bread and butter to me. I enjoy the leads that this daily compendium of stories gleaned from the net gives me. Today however, the ordering of the articles gave me a giggle. I cut and pasted the following directly from SAR#178

Eating the Seed Corn: Ultimately, recessions don’t end without rising employment, meaning consumers with money to spend. If the credit card companies keep raising rates, any gains in income resulting from the Obama stimulus will be swallowed by more usurious gouging of the indebted.

Paper or Plastic? Credit card companies are charging off over 10% of their balances as increasing numbers of Americans cannot make their payments. The country charges much of what it buys - think about 10% of that not being paid for. Plastic coated shoplifting.

Just another example of a multifaceted problem with no simple solutions.

Looking To Japan

When I look at Japan, I see a glimmering of things to come. As a beginning, please read the following article over at Jesses.

The Particularity of Japan from an Economic and Demographic Perspective

Now, when I read about Japan in current literature, I hear a great deal of sneering about their stagnant economy, their spoiled children, their rising militarism (they are talking about taking their military spending to almost 1% of GDP Gasp!!!) , etc. etc. etc. But when you think about it, they may very well be showing us the way.

In particular, take a look at this chart published over at Jesse's. If you click the chart you can see a larger image.

OK, now lets look at things from the long view….the really long view, well past the end of the boomers and the x-er’s and such, out to the point 80+ years from now. Japan will be sitting on a population about half what they have now. They will have reached it through tight immigration controls and natural deaths. The price will be a “stagnant” economy and an homogenous culture. I think that in the eighty years coming up the age makeup of the Japanese population will revert to the historical norms of a 7-10% aged population, which will strip away another 15 of so million folks, leaving a population around 50 million. This is a good population for that country, right around where it was prior to the turn of last century, and within the carrying capacity of the land.

But let’s take a look at their “stagnant” economy. They still have public health systems that easily outstrip those in the USA. Their standard of living is high. They have unemployment and underemployment, but who doesn’t? They don’t allow immigration, so the kumbaya folks call them racist.

So we are looking at a system in Japan that will effectively reduce the population to manageable levels in the time-frame that will also witness the end of fossil fuels as an economic driver. In my opinion,, every nation will have to address the population issue in this same time frame. It looks as though the choices being made by the Japanese will allow an orderly transition to a low-energy Weltanschauung with the culture and population intact.

Contrast this with the actions of the US. We are currently trying to restart a growth engine. Each time we manage to get it started again, we will run against the energy wall and go into another downward spiral. We have lost control of our borders and have mass movement of non-citizens within the country. These non-citizens have some of the most prolific population growth numbers. We contribute huge amounts of our energy in maintaining a military presence throughout the world.

So, if we are to begin to make the transition to the way that the world is inexorably headed, we will have to begin making the same decisions that the Japanese have already made. We will have to shut down our borders. We will have to reduce birthrates. We will have to bring our military to a rational point well below the 5% or so where it resides now. None of these are out of our reach.

Back Home

Well, it it 777.7 miles from my Mom's front door to my front door, no shit.

A week spent with a bunch of relatives is a great thing, but to be God's honest truthful, I was as glad to get home as I was to get there.

Anyway, today's little bit of writing has to do with guns and ammo and other such tidbits. Utah is home to a good number of separatist good old boys with a love of weapons and a nearly pathological distrust of any government. I like them a lot. So you know that you aren't in blue country when you see advertisements (big ones, with lights on main highways) inviting you to come in and fire automatic weapons. Good stuff.

So I went in and chatted, and liked the folks that I chatted with, but as I was driving home, I started to consider the wisdom of such advertisements in the political environment we are living in.

I think that the lid is going to come off soon. Just my opinion, worth exactly what you paid for it. When the lid comes off however, if everyone knows what you have, you may very well have a spot of bother keeping hold of it.

So my suggestion is to squirrel stuff that you think you may need away. But if I were you, I would keep a low profile and not advertise your capability.

Mom's Eightieth Birthday

Going to see Mom for her birthday and to get away from the grind.

Posts will be short and probably spotty.

Sunset here we come.

I gotta grow up

Got back yesterday from a debauched evening with college buddies.

I am such a wimp. I am also pushing 56 years and have never kept the ability to consume mass quantities of alcohol high on my list of “quality time”.

I rolled into camp around 1800. Unfortunately a bottle of Makers Mark was open on the the back tailgate of Locutius’ truck. Being of insubstantial, if not nonexistent moral fiber, I picked it up and did the expected. I hugged dear friends and acted suitably aghast at the intimation that there was a bet as to whether or not I would show up. Beer was offered as an aperitif and I ate a light dinner. Suitable intoxicants were offered. The unholy trinity of Locutius, Lucius, and Portia rode roughshod over a weak and completely insincere confession of my virtue.

Hours were spent pleasantly. Discussions of substance were made, old bonds were renewed. The bottle of MM nearly met an untimely end along with many beers and other such things.

After several pratfalls on my part, and after urinating on all the tires of Lucius and Locutius’ trucks (Loki the dog was not amused), I found my way to my cot. As I had went straight to bonding without making an adequate camp first, I crawled into the sleeping bag and pulled a tarp over me. Sleep (??) came quickly.

Waking up drunk, outside, with no idea where ones shoes are, and with a full bladder is disconcerting. As this occurred several times in the evening, my feet now bear scars of less than honorable origin.

I woke up in the morning to the groans and feeble complaints of a combined 193 years of less than stellar judgment. Everyone was civil, but an underlying misery was easily discerned. Lucius and Locutius made preparations for golf, Portia went to peddle wares at an arts fair. I was hung over, slightly sick, and thirsty. I made my way to town and drank a liter of water fortified with lots of B-vitamins and vitamin C (Thank god for those little fizzy packs). Felt better, got a book and went to see Lucius and Locutius begin their golf game at the rich nazi golf course out of town.

Big mistake here, went past a McDonalds, got a sausage mcmuffin with egg. Consumed same, continued toward golf course. As I turned into the course, my stomach went beserk…I barely had time to open the car door to leave a puke-deposit on the neatly manicured entry. At this point I said the hell with it and drove back home. Left a message on Locutius' cell phone of my departure.

During the drive home I had to stop three times and nap. Nearly a gallon of water was consumed. When I got home I napped for three hours, woke up, made a feeble attempt at laundry, then went back to sleep.

This morning I am partially present. A pot of coffee and two hard boiled eggs have stayed down. There is a message on my phone from Locutius. I am certain it is a detailed and accurate assessment of my lack of stamina and other outward signs of manhood. I think that I will wait a bit before reviewing it.

Can’t wait til’ next year.

Going Away for a bit

Gonna go hang out with college buddies.

Be back in a couple of days

Thank You Hermit Jim

Generations

My paternal grandfather was a truck driver. He fought with the Third Infantry at Château-Thierry.  

My maternal grandfather came over from Italy and worked himself to death in the coal mines and then the family farm.  He worked hard enough to buy a farm fee simple in the middle of the depression.

My father was a soldier.  He waded ashore at X-Ray and and took a tour of Italy, France, and Germany.  He ended up as truck driver when he retired from the military.

I spent some time knocking about SE Asia; Nakhon Phanom as a E-4 flunky made for an interesting education. Got reprieved to Germany for being a good boy.  Got out, did my GI bill and started to change the trajectory of generations by first being a scientist, now a government stooge.

My children will probably go back to the constraints surrounding the generations before me.  At first this bothered me, but then I started analyzing my thinking.  The arrogance of thought is that somehow I have a better life, that I am more worthy than my forebears.  The big house I live in and the stuff that I have are proofs of my virtue.  If I want to be a good father, I must provide my children with more stuff and greater "opportunities".  The technical geegaws are proof of my advance

But if you stand back and look at it, opportunities are defined by the person, not his families desires for him.  My ancestors didn't have the education that I had, yet they raised their families and had full lives.  They worried about the same issues and dealt with them the same way.  They went to work every day.

I am thinking is that we are a society of spoiled children.  We boomers may be the worst of the lot.  We have been told that were are special for so long that we believe it.  Average is an insult.  But the world is too fully populated with folks who cannot or will not realize the limitations of being alive.  Instead, they harp constantly about "unlimited" possibilities and "infinite growth.

When you look back and truly examine the tracings of lives in the past you will see that happiness was just as prevalent before the improvements wreaked upon our lives during the past fifty years.  Now we have a lifestyle, not a life.  We have a house that is an investment, not a home.  We will have to go in a new direction, I think that it is important to remember that we really won't be losing that much.

Medicine?

I have to agree with Obama on one thing.  The medical system in the US has to be fixed.  It is a train wreck.  It is too expensive, it delivers marginal results, it is run more like a medieval guild than like a cornerstone of a modern society.

But whenever you talk about changing the system, people start freaking out.  You mention that the government might want to have something to do with it and folks start screaming about creeping socialism.  If you let it be run by “free-market” principles and allow more freedom than what is current, you will get something like the banks. 

I agree that something has to be done, but the boyz in Washington are looking at no matter what they do, things won’t improve.  They will cobble something together where things will probably get worse.  They will do it this way because of the massive amount of money that the medical equipment, pharmaceutics, diagnostic, doctors unions, nurses unions, lawyers, etc, etc, etc pour into their system to keep the gravy train going.   What we are going to have at the end of this exercise is a streamlined means for the medical industry to get into our pockets.  They most certainly won’t make less, they really can’t deliver more, and they are going to lose revenue.

You see, we don’t really have a health care system, we have a health care market.  The elected government official takes in legal bribes from lobbyists in the form of campaign contributions.  He will make sure any law which passes will not upset the apple cart.  The non-elected government official will take his bribes in the promise of a revolving door in industry where he will be paid beaucoup dollars in a future job to look the other way as industry does what it wants.

So I truly wish BHO and the others the best of luck, but as we ensure that our politicians have their spines removed in the election process, I am not holding out much hope.

Keeping out unwanted noses

I have a real tendency toward the paranoid. No problem there. They may very well be out to get me.

So in my writings here, I tend toward not saying anything specific. DHS is in fact out there, they don't like folk who "think different", and they are not above snooping in private conversations. Anyone who thinks that this is going to change because Georgie and Dickie have retired to their respective bunkers is going to be in for a rude surprise.

An acquaintance of mine recently sent me an interesting proposal via e-mail. It was in clear text. Horror of horrors.

So now is a set of primers on information security. Posting doomy maunderings on a blogger page is one thing. Posting business, serious political, or writings of substance is another entirely.

Go out and get yourself some encryption software. If you don't, you are a fool. Use it if you are writing any e-mail that may be potentially labeled as seditious. Use it if there is money involved. Use it if you are cheating on your wife.

http://www.gnupg.org/ offers an open source solution that will offer you a great deal of protection. A quick overview and discussion on the installation is available here.

I would also strongly recommend that you get away from the windows operating systems as quickly as you can manage. Linux offers an open source system that is much more crypto-friendly than the highly suspect Windows platform.

You will also have potentially interesting material on your computer. There are folks out there who don't like the way you think. If you have written something on your computer, it is there for God and the world to look at. I would recommend that you look into TrueCrypt or other similar software.

Now for practical truths. If you are fomenting rebellion and the NSA decides to take an interest in your activities, they may be able to break these cyphers. But it would take a concerted effort.

What I am saying is that privacy in the digital realm is very easy to take for granted and in truth, is nearly non-existent unless you take serious measures to guard it.

Our old friend Claudius comes up with a great add on to yesterdays post.

"Biological Speculation"

by FUNKADELIC

From "America Eats Its Young" (1972)


We're just a biological speculation
Sittin' here, vibratin'
We don't know what we're vibratin' about

And the animal instinct in me
Makes me wanna defend me
It makes me want to live when it's time to die

Y'all see my point?
I don't mean to come on strong but I am concerned
I believe in god
Though I know that law and order must prevail

If and when the laws of man
Is not just, equal and fair
Then the laws of nature will come and do her thing

She does not think
She just rectifies
She come and balance the books
Y'all see my point?

We're just a biological speculation
Sittin' here, vibratin'
We don't know what we're vibratin' about
And the animal instinct in me
It makes me wanna defend me
It makes me want to live when it's time to die

Y'all see my point?
Some of you, you might not be aware
That some of us don't eat
Some of you don't, you don't even care

If and when the system
Creates hunger and hate
Then the laws of nature will come and do her thing

She does not think
She works by instinct
Survival is her thing
Do y'all see my point?
Y'all see my point?

Get real

First, you have to read this one.

So, no one is who reads the stuff on your humble correspondent's blog and the blogs which are frequented by the tin foil hat crowd are too surprised by what is written in the references piece. The idea that the growth fueled by overpopulation and mis-allocation of non-renewable energy sources is written about, but usually ignored, by all but the doomers. I have written about this in the past, here, here, and here.

What really begins to surprise me is how even doomer stuff gets folded into the current model. Mr. Wooldridge seems to think that political action and a good stiff talking to will convince the political elite that we can plan our way into a well executed societal collapse.

Huh?

More and more I am thinking about the world as a system we have been riding. It has taken us places far and fast, but we are getting close to the point where we have exhausted it. We will have to take a breather as a species and let the system come into a new balance.

Unfortunately, how we are going to arrive at the new balance will be a much smaller overall population. To arrive at a much smaller population, we will likely not be able to arrange a setting where excess population dies in their sleep after long, happy, and fulfilling lives.

The four horsemen are ever so much more efficient.

Just a simple request

Just try to be on time for your commitments.

Nothing else need be said.

I refuse to whine about it.

Drivin'

One of the most prevalent beliefs in America today is that one is a good driver.  You talk to anyone, they will inform you haughtily that they are a good driver. 

 

All evidence appears to refute this.

 

My car-pool partners appear to think that the daily drive is a means of displaying their prowess behind the wheel.  Speeding, tailgating, and cursing the misbegotten who actually are so spineless as to obey the posted speed limit are the norm. 

 

Picking a single lane and a single speed are beneath these would-be-NASCAR drivers. 

 

I drive like a grandpa.  Fifty-five is just fine.  I like six or seven car lengths between me and the car in from of me.  I have actually been known to let people merge without cutting them off.  Needless to say, this aberrant behavior has earned me endless scorn and hails of derisive laughter.

 

Last week, I averaged the difference in time to target between my driving habits and those of the young buck who is the “best driver”.  In the eighteen-mile trip to work, his average time was 23:42.  In the prior week when I drove, the average time was 24:36.

 

I pray that there will be an early express bus soon.   

Nothing to Say

Mind is blank.  Pretty much normal.  Sorry

Costco Trauma

(Or, why one should never, ever, be polite to boomer scum)

Mom's eightieth birthday is coming up rapidly, and as we are going to have an everybody is there, serious family reunion with all the bells and whistles, I decided to renew my lapsed Costco membership so that we could go and buy all the vegetable, lunch meat, and fruit trays that the pack of ravenous jackals that I call a family can eat.

So, into Costco I went, fairly crowded, but I've seen worse. Got my card and went a shopping. It seems that the prices aren't really super exceptional, but they sell good quality stuff at a good price. Soups, lunch-meat, pizza fixins', and dental stuff went into the cart (won't need dental floss or Listerine for a while). The goods I bought we worthwhile.

What pisses me off is the people my age who are there. Boomers have now seemed to be more self-absorbed than usual in that store. They will stop dead in the middle of the aisle and stare intently at labels, oblivious to people behind them who are trying to get by. My favorite experience yesterday was a long-in-the-tooth trophy wife who had parked her cart across the aisle, blocking traffic in both directions. When I asked her "excuse me", her response was "I'll be done in a minute you can wait". Needless to say, I moved her cart myself.

But it got me to thinking about that ongoing embarrassment that is my generation. In a sense, a lot of the problems that we are experiencing is that this group of prima donna's has been promised far too much.

Social security is going bankrupt because there are too damn many of them getting ready to retire. Oh yeah, they paid in their money, but they were at the wheel spending the money in DC the last twenty years.

The financial mess is the baby boomers idea and problem. 4% steady growth by a well-managed firm wasn't enough for the boomers, they had to go out and invent the dot-bomb and the sub-prime mess.

Now just wait until this self-righteous, self-absorbed band of creeps queue up to the retirement line. They will start demanding tucks and cosmetic surgery from Medicare. They will demand that they be given special rights as senior citizens.

So, never, ever be nice to a boomer, because they fully intend to screw the rest of us to get what they want.

Part Two

The cat is clean, I am fed, the clothes are in the laundry. Need to clean upstairs.

State and Local Governments: This is where the shock will be in the near to medium term. These folks have been even more profligate than the FedGuv in ramping up their spending. They all want new offices, they all want to serve the downtrodden.

The trouble is, they have all been giving too damn much money to their employees and hiring too damn many people. They have all been sucked into the Federal governments little game of "look, we'll give you money if you play by our rules". They have initiated a gazillion little programs partially paid for by the Fed with the rest paid for by big tax revenues from the real estate boom. Well, looks like those days are gone. The effective governments will clear away the chaff and fluff. The ones doomed to fail will try to keep everything going.

There will be efforts made to increase taxes, but as most states are constrained by tax limitations, this will be difficult. Expect huge increases in "User Fees" for everything.

Education: Same game as state government. The teachers have pretty much overplayed their hand, and the corrupt and inefficient districts are siphoning away dollars to increase administrative overhead.

The schools tried to take on too much. They saw huge gaps in the social welfare of the children coming into their hands. They tried to make it good for those kids with the gaps. What they lost track of is their prime mission of education, becoming instead a poor substitute for parents who failed.

The schools will have to re-orient their mission. They will have to radically reduce their extra-scholastic programs and get down to basics. Class sizes will go up. Programs will vanish.

The higher education system is especially at risk. The ability to turn out spreadsheet commandos does not constitute and education. They will have to redefine themselves in order to survive. I expect to see a resurgence in trade schools and a serious winnowing of the small colleges. They don't provide a good enough education to make a difference.

Oddly enough, I think that liberal arts schools will probably do OK. These are folks who go to learn, not to get their ticket punched. The schools will get lean, but will manage.

Corporations: Corporations equal fascism. What we are looking at now is the hijacking of the state by big business. Taxpayers are being asked to save corporations. If this isn't stopped, and soon, prepare for hell. Always vote against the incumbent.

OK...work calls, and Monday is upon us. Be well.