You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy night. You pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for the bus:
1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect man (or) woman you have been dreaming about.
Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing that there could only be one passenger in your car?
Think before you continue reading. This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of a job application.
You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first; or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back. However, you may never be able to find your perfect dream lover again.
The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with his answer.
He simply answered: "I would give the car keys to my old friend, and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the woman of my dreams."
Never forget to "Think Outside of the Box."
19 May 2011
18 May 2011
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Demand, Demand, Demand
Enterprises add jobs when business and consumer demand prove they will increase beyond current employees efficient capability to supply.
When uncertainties exist about demand, government regulation, economic stability, currency value, costs, disposable income, consumption, conflict, strife and combat; the lack of predictability discourages demand.
Weak demand, decreasing demand, artificial demand (subsidies), destroys jobs.
Artificial inefficiencies, like regulations and union rules are attempts to force added jobs for which there is no underlying true demand. Real jobs are created only by real demand for goods and services.
Real economic activity is driven only by the expectation of business profit and therefore the capacity to pay employees. If there is no surplus revenue, there is no added payroll, there is no disposable income, and then there is no money to express real demand in the marketplace.
Taxation lowers disposable income. Unpredictable future taxes and regulations add to economic uncertainty. Excessive government spending decreases the value of existing wealth, erodes the value of currency, and increases the price of all goods and services.
Governments do not produce excess revenue (profit); they take it. They do not have disposable income. They create very little demand with their commodity spending. They earn a little interest on your money, but they mostly confiscate your money. Governments discourage and destroy many more jobs than they encourage. Governments cannot create or sustain any real jobs. They just pay people with money taken out of the economy.
Business don’t pay taxes, you do. All of their costs are passed on to those who purchase their goods and services. So all the taxes, regulations, and fees that are imposed upon them by governments must be recovered in the price of their product or service when you buy it, or they are out of business and their investors lose their money, the employees lose their paychecks, and the government loses its tax revenue.
If you want more jobs, and I think everyone should find a job, you must:
1. Eliminate business taxes.
2. Significantly reduce individual taxes.
3. Send large tax rebate checks to taxpayers.
4. Seriously reduce the size and scope of governments.
5. Dramatically decrease regulations and hidden fees and taxes.
These steps will allow true demand to be expressed in the marketplace, and if predictable enough and sustainable, real jobs will be created.
Enterprises add jobs when business and consumer demand prove they will increase beyond current employees efficient capability to supply.
When uncertainties exist about demand, government regulation, economic stability, currency value, costs, disposable income, consumption, conflict, strife and combat; the lack of predictability discourages demand.
Weak demand, decreasing demand, artificial demand (subsidies), destroys jobs.
Artificial inefficiencies, like regulations and union rules are attempts to force added jobs for which there is no underlying true demand. Real jobs are created only by real demand for goods and services.
Real economic activity is driven only by the expectation of business profit and therefore the capacity to pay employees. If there is no surplus revenue, there is no added payroll, there is no disposable income, and then there is no money to express real demand in the marketplace.
Taxation lowers disposable income. Unpredictable future taxes and regulations add to economic uncertainty. Excessive government spending decreases the value of existing wealth, erodes the value of currency, and increases the price of all goods and services.
Governments do not produce excess revenue (profit); they take it. They do not have disposable income. They create very little demand with their commodity spending. They earn a little interest on your money, but they mostly confiscate your money. Governments discourage and destroy many more jobs than they encourage. Governments cannot create or sustain any real jobs. They just pay people with money taken out of the economy.
Business don’t pay taxes, you do. All of their costs are passed on to those who purchase their goods and services. So all the taxes, regulations, and fees that are imposed upon them by governments must be recovered in the price of their product or service when you buy it, or they are out of business and their investors lose their money, the employees lose their paychecks, and the government loses its tax revenue.
If you want more jobs, and I think everyone should find a job, you must:
1. Eliminate business taxes.
2. Significantly reduce individual taxes.
3. Send large tax rebate checks to taxpayers.
4. Seriously reduce the size and scope of governments.
5. Dramatically decrease regulations and hidden fees and taxes.
These steps will allow true demand to be expressed in the marketplace, and if predictable enough and sustainable, real jobs will be created.
16 May 2011
Flooding Louisiana and Mississippi
Western States Have Fill Dirt
Many cities in the region are near or below sea level. They are easily flooded every season of slightly more than normal rainfall and runoff.
This problem can be easily solved with fill dirt. In the West we have hundreds of billions of cubic acres of surplus earth. We could build up the entire states of Louisiana and Mississippi to unimagined heights. We could supply rock for barricades that could never ever be breached by hurricane or flood that would make the Great Wall of China look like a weekend backyard project.
The west needs water; they need dirt. It could be the basis for a good trade.
Levees and seawalls 200 feet tall and 5,000 feet wide can easily be constructed.
A square acre is 208.7103 feet on each side, area of 43,560 square feet. A cubic acre is 208.71 feet on all sides equaling 9,091,418.44 cubic feet. A cubic foot is about the size of a basketball in a square box.
Earthworks are usually measured in Cubic Yards, (27 cubic feet); about the size of half of an American refrigerator. So a cubic acre (9.1 million cubic feet) divided by 27 cubic feet (a cubic yard) is 336,719.20 cubic yards, let’s just say 336,720 cubic yards per cubic acre. I don’t know how earthwork is measured in the metric world, probably cubic meters; slightly bigger than a cubic yard, about 3.37 inches bigger in each direction.
Louisiana is about 44,066 square miles (28,202,240 acres). Mississippi is about 47,689 square miles (30,520,960 acres). A square mile is 640 acres.
So how many low lying acres in these two states are vulnerable to river or seawater flooding? Let’s say 7 million acres for Louisiana and 4 million acres for Mississippi, so 11 million acres would need to be raised considerably above sea and river levels; let's also say we would try to raise the land 208.71 feet. I know it's conveniently just one cubic acre high.
So, we would need 11 million cubic acres of good fill material to raise substantial portions of the easily flooded land in those two states so that it would never flood again. 336,719.2 CY times 11 million acres equals 3,703,911,200,000 cubic yards, (that’s about 3.7 trillion cubic yards). It would raise about 25 % of Louisiana and about 13 % Mississippi a couple hundred feet above sea level.
We have mining and earth moving equipment sitting unused because of the government caused recession. We have idle hauling and trucking assets sitting unused because of union contracts. We have an elaborate railway system with tens of thousands of freight, rock, and ore cars side-tracked to avoid rolling stock taxes, all around the rural west. Open pit mining in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and closer states produce huge volumes of waste rock. Much of it overburden removed to get to the valuable ore. It’s not economic for mining companies to haul it any farther than they must, but it could easily be trucked to the nearest rail-head. From there sent by freight trains to the vicinity where massive fill dirt is badly needed.
The saddest thing is we've had the technology and knowledge to prevent coastal and river flooding for more than 100 years. Not the history of incomplete solutions, ineffective projects, and storm-water mismanagement we have and are seeing.
Massive relocation of businesses, residents, and public infrastructure will be needed; and new storage, handling and shipping methods will be needed. Highways, railways, and port facilities will all need reconstruction; putting millions of people to work for a long period of progress for a very noble goal, unlike what we have had to endure since the 1970’s.
Sadly, no one with the will and imagination to undertake giant scale projects has stepped forward to eliminate the misery, opportunities for corruption, excessive public employment, and government entitlements that have grown up around frequent disaster and damage from flooding events.
No one with reputation and vision has ever proposed projects of this magnitude.
We need to find someone who actually wants to fix this.
Except those who truly suffer, nearly everyone will oppose solving this problem; environmentalists, politicians and political parties, the Corps of Engineers, Insurance companies, many government organizations and bureaucrats, Native Americans, several religious groups, recovery businesses and suppliers, media and philanthropy organizations will all strenuously rail against, misdirect, sabotage and roadblock any massive, permanent, long term solution.
We have the technology, knowledge, and resources to solve this problem forever. We certainly have idle people and equipment. We have mountain ranges of fill material.
We can move mountains. Let’s get started filling them in, they have suffered too much and too long unnecessarily.
The question is; do we have the will to solve this problem and actually help people.
Many cities in the region are near or below sea level. They are easily flooded every season of slightly more than normal rainfall and runoff.
This problem can be easily solved with fill dirt. In the West we have hundreds of billions of cubic acres of surplus earth. We could build up the entire states of Louisiana and Mississippi to unimagined heights. We could supply rock for barricades that could never ever be breached by hurricane or flood that would make the Great Wall of China look like a weekend backyard project.
The west needs water; they need dirt. It could be the basis for a good trade.
Levees and seawalls 200 feet tall and 5,000 feet wide can easily be constructed.
A square acre is 208.7103 feet on each side, area of 43,560 square feet. A cubic acre is 208.71 feet on all sides equaling 9,091,418.44 cubic feet. A cubic foot is about the size of a basketball in a square box.
Earthworks are usually measured in Cubic Yards, (27 cubic feet); about the size of half of an American refrigerator. So a cubic acre (9.1 million cubic feet) divided by 27 cubic feet (a cubic yard) is 336,719.20 cubic yards, let’s just say 336,720 cubic yards per cubic acre. I don’t know how earthwork is measured in the metric world, probably cubic meters; slightly bigger than a cubic yard, about 3.37 inches bigger in each direction.
Louisiana is about 44,066 square miles (28,202,240 acres). Mississippi is about 47,689 square miles (30,520,960 acres). A square mile is 640 acres.
So how many low lying acres in these two states are vulnerable to river or seawater flooding? Let’s say 7 million acres for Louisiana and 4 million acres for Mississippi, so 11 million acres would need to be raised considerably above sea and river levels; let's also say we would try to raise the land 208.71 feet. I know it's conveniently just one cubic acre high.
So, we would need 11 million cubic acres of good fill material to raise substantial portions of the easily flooded land in those two states so that it would never flood again. 336,719.2 CY times 11 million acres equals 3,703,911,200,000 cubic yards, (that’s about 3.7 trillion cubic yards). It would raise about 25 % of Louisiana and about 13 % Mississippi a couple hundred feet above sea level.
We have mining and earth moving equipment sitting unused because of the government caused recession. We have idle hauling and trucking assets sitting unused because of union contracts. We have an elaborate railway system with tens of thousands of freight, rock, and ore cars side-tracked to avoid rolling stock taxes, all around the rural west. Open pit mining in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and closer states produce huge volumes of waste rock. Much of it overburden removed to get to the valuable ore. It’s not economic for mining companies to haul it any farther than they must, but it could easily be trucked to the nearest rail-head. From there sent by freight trains to the vicinity where massive fill dirt is badly needed.
The saddest thing is we've had the technology and knowledge to prevent coastal and river flooding for more than 100 years. Not the history of incomplete solutions, ineffective projects, and storm-water mismanagement we have and are seeing.
Massive relocation of businesses, residents, and public infrastructure will be needed; and new storage, handling and shipping methods will be needed. Highways, railways, and port facilities will all need reconstruction; putting millions of people to work for a long period of progress for a very noble goal, unlike what we have had to endure since the 1970’s.
Sadly, no one with the will and imagination to undertake giant scale projects has stepped forward to eliminate the misery, opportunities for corruption, excessive public employment, and government entitlements that have grown up around frequent disaster and damage from flooding events.
No one with reputation and vision has ever proposed projects of this magnitude.
We need to find someone who actually wants to fix this.
Except those who truly suffer, nearly everyone will oppose solving this problem; environmentalists, politicians and political parties, the Corps of Engineers, Insurance companies, many government organizations and bureaucrats, Native Americans, several religious groups, recovery businesses and suppliers, media and philanthropy organizations will all strenuously rail against, misdirect, sabotage and roadblock any massive, permanent, long term solution.
We have the technology, knowledge, and resources to solve this problem forever. We certainly have idle people and equipment. We have mountain ranges of fill material.
We can move mountains. Let’s get started filling them in, they have suffered too much and too long unnecessarily.
The question is; do we have the will to solve this problem and actually help people.
08 May 2011
You Do Get Paid
What You Are Worth
All enterprises pay their employees what they are worth to that enterprise. It is a natural law of economics.
People are paid what they prove they are worth. It’s a marketplace for effort, contribution, skill, talent, experience, judgment, wisdom, congeniality, and appearance.
Employees can work wherever offered more pay or desirable working conditions.
The free will of workers and open competition for human resources make it imperative they are offered pay, benefits, or conditions that will obtain their constructive contributions.
It’s a negotiated transaction. If you won’t contribute your skill and talent for the money offered, then you don’t agree to take that job.
Enterprises, businesses, and organizations evaluate each task for skills, talents, and energy required to meet their needs. Then, of course, they try to get an employee that will make the required contribution for what it’s worth to the objective.
Sometimes the enterprises objectives do not produce enough excess revenue (profit) to sustain it, to grow it, to pay more to employees aggressively sought by other organization in open competition; so they lose their under paid employees to others willing to pay more.
Those who don’t feel or actually are not being paid what they are worth should ask to renegotiate for more pay, and are free to seek better compensation elsewhere.
Workers are sometimes temporarily paid more or less than they are worth. It’s a condition that doesn’t last very long in small and medium sized enterprises. In large organization it can last far too long. It is a zero sum condition. Over pay to some requires equal underpay to others or enterprise failure soon follows.
Employees usually don’t know how to ask for reconsideration. Frequently don’t list and explain the value of their contributions. When seeking new employment, don’t know how to advertise and market their capabilities and contributions well. Or, in many cases, have done nothing to improve their skills, contribute their talents, or exhibit their value to the enterprises objectives.
It’s not about your value as a human being. It’s about your value as an asset to the organization. Are you contributing energy and achievement beyond your cost; or are you draining, distracting, diverting, and wasting, absorbing or sabotaging accomplishment; costing it far more than your worth.
In the long run people are always paid what they are worth.
If you want to get paid more, make yourself worth more:
Educate and train yourself;
Learn how to find desirable jobs;
Learn to market yourself well;
Look for ways to become a valuable asset to your organization;
Eagerly make valuable contributions beyond your cost;
Don’t ask for better pay until you are clearly worth more to them than they are paying you.
If you don’t put more in, don’t expect to take any more out.
You get paid what you've been worth recently; start making your contributions more valuable.
Negotiate your own deal. Don’t let the groups; Associations or Union contracts restrict your contribution and limit what you get paid. You want to be worth more as an individual; separate yourself from the uselessness of the group.
You get paid what you are worth; become the most valuable.
All enterprises pay their employees what they are worth to that enterprise. It is a natural law of economics.
People are paid what they prove they are worth. It’s a marketplace for effort, contribution, skill, talent, experience, judgment, wisdom, congeniality, and appearance.
Employees can work wherever offered more pay or desirable working conditions.
The free will of workers and open competition for human resources make it imperative they are offered pay, benefits, or conditions that will obtain their constructive contributions.
It’s a negotiated transaction. If you won’t contribute your skill and talent for the money offered, then you don’t agree to take that job.
Enterprises, businesses, and organizations evaluate each task for skills, talents, and energy required to meet their needs. Then, of course, they try to get an employee that will make the required contribution for what it’s worth to the objective.
Sometimes the enterprises objectives do not produce enough excess revenue (profit) to sustain it, to grow it, to pay more to employees aggressively sought by other organization in open competition; so they lose their under paid employees to others willing to pay more.
Those who don’t feel or actually are not being paid what they are worth should ask to renegotiate for more pay, and are free to seek better compensation elsewhere.
Workers are sometimes temporarily paid more or less than they are worth. It’s a condition that doesn’t last very long in small and medium sized enterprises. In large organization it can last far too long. It is a zero sum condition. Over pay to some requires equal underpay to others or enterprise failure soon follows.
Employees usually don’t know how to ask for reconsideration. Frequently don’t list and explain the value of their contributions. When seeking new employment, don’t know how to advertise and market their capabilities and contributions well. Or, in many cases, have done nothing to improve their skills, contribute their talents, or exhibit their value to the enterprises objectives.
It’s not about your value as a human being. It’s about your value as an asset to the organization. Are you contributing energy and achievement beyond your cost; or are you draining, distracting, diverting, and wasting, absorbing or sabotaging accomplishment; costing it far more than your worth.
In the long run people are always paid what they are worth.
If you want to get paid more, make yourself worth more:
Educate and train yourself;
Learn how to find desirable jobs;
Learn to market yourself well;
Look for ways to become a valuable asset to your organization;
Eagerly make valuable contributions beyond your cost;
Don’t ask for better pay until you are clearly worth more to them than they are paying you.
If you don’t put more in, don’t expect to take any more out.
You get paid what you've been worth recently; start making your contributions more valuable.
Negotiate your own deal. Don’t let the groups; Associations or Union contracts restrict your contribution and limit what you get paid. You want to be worth more as an individual; separate yourself from the uselessness of the group.
You get paid what you are worth; become the most valuable.
28 April 2011
London Daily Telegraph? Not
Note: this article falsely attributed to Alex Singleton was written by Jack Kelly Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade combines two previous articles headed by a quote from Alex Singleton; no matter, I still like the viewpoint.
"Let me be clear: I'm not normally in favor of boycotts, and I love the American people. I holiday in their country regularly, and hate the tedious snobby sneers against the United States. But the American people chose to elect an idiot who seems hell bent on insulting their allies, and something must be done to stop Obama's reckless foreign policy, before he does the dirty on his allies on every issue." (this quote may be correctly attributed to Alex Singleton)
One of the most poorly kept secrets in Washington is President Obama's animosity toward Great Britain, presumably because of what he regards as its sins while ruling Kenya (1895-1963).
One of Barack Hussein Obama's first acts as president was to return to Britain a bust of Winston Churchill that had graced the Oval Office since 9/11. He followed this up by denying Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on his first state visit, the usual joint press conference with flags.
The president was "too tired" to grant the leader of America's closest ally a proper welcome, his aides told British journalists.
Mr. Obama followed this up with cheesy gifts for Mr. Brown and the Queen. Columnist Ian Martin described his behavior as "rudeness personified.” There was more rudeness in store for Mr. Brown at the opening session of the United Nations in September. "The prime minister was forced to dash through the kitchens of the UN in New York to secure five minutes of face time with President Obama after five requests for a sit down meeting were rejected by the White House," said London Telegraph columnist David Hughes. Mr. Obama's "churlishness is unforgivable*," Mr. Hughes said.
The administration went beyond snubs and slights last week when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed the demand of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, a Hugo Chavez ally, for mediation of Argentina's specious claim to the Falkland Islands, a British dependency since 1833. The people who live in the Falklands, who speak English, want nothing to do with Argentina. When, in 1982, an earlier Argentine dictatorship tried to seize the Falklands by force, the British with strong support from President Ronald Reagan expelled them.
"It is truly shocking that Barack Obama has decided to disregard our shared history," wrote Telegraph columnist Toby Young. "Does Britain’s friendship really mean so little to him?” *One could ask, does the friendship of anyone in the entire world mean anything to him?
"I recently asked several senior administration officials, separately, to name a foreign leader with whom Barack Obama has forged a strong personal relationship during his first year in office," wrote Jackson Diehl, deputy editorial page editor of the Washington Post, on Monday. "A lot of hemming and hawing ensued.” One official named French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but his contempt for Mr. Obama is an open secret. Another named German Chancellor Angela Merkel. But, said Mr. Diehl, "Merkel too has been conspicuously cool toward Obama."
Mr. Obama certainly doesn't care about the Poles and Czechs, whom he has betrayed on missile defense. Honduras and Israel also can attest that he's been an unreliable ally and an unfaithful friend. Ironically, our relations with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have never been worse. Russia has offered nothing in exchange for Mr. Obama's abandonment of missile defense. Russia and China won't support serious sanctions on Iran. Syria’s support for terrorism has not diminished despite efforts to normalize diplomatic relations. The reclusive military dictatorship that runs Burma has responded to our efforts at "engagement" by deepening its ties to North Korea.
And the Chinese make little effort to disguise their contempt for him.
For the first time in a long time, the President of the United States is actually distrusted by its allies and not in the least feared by its adversaries. Nor is Mr. Obama now respected by the majority of Americans. Understandably focused on the dismal economy and Mr. Obama's relentless efforts to nationalize and socialize health care, Americans apparently have yet to notice his dismal performance and lack of respect in the world community. They soon will.
Jack Kelly, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade
"Let me be clear: I'm not normally in favor of boycotts, and I love the American people. I holiday in their country regularly, and hate the tedious snobby sneers against the United States. But the American people chose to elect an idiot who seems hell bent on insulting their allies, and something must be done to stop Obama's reckless foreign policy, before he does the dirty on his allies on every issue." (this quote may be correctly attributed to Alex Singleton)
One of the most poorly kept secrets in Washington is President Obama's animosity toward Great Britain, presumably because of what he regards as its sins while ruling Kenya (1895-1963).
One of Barack Hussein Obama's first acts as president was to return to Britain a bust of Winston Churchill that had graced the Oval Office since 9/11. He followed this up by denying Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on his first state visit, the usual joint press conference with flags.
The president was "too tired" to grant the leader of America's closest ally a proper welcome, his aides told British journalists.
Mr. Obama followed this up with cheesy gifts for Mr. Brown and the Queen. Columnist Ian Martin described his behavior as "rudeness personified.” There was more rudeness in store for Mr. Brown at the opening session of the United Nations in September. "The prime minister was forced to dash through the kitchens of the UN in New York to secure five minutes of face time with President Obama after five requests for a sit down meeting were rejected by the White House," said London Telegraph columnist David Hughes. Mr. Obama's "churlishness is unforgivable*," Mr. Hughes said.
The administration went beyond snubs and slights last week when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed the demand of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, a Hugo Chavez ally, for mediation of Argentina's specious claim to the Falkland Islands, a British dependency since 1833. The people who live in the Falklands, who speak English, want nothing to do with Argentina. When, in 1982, an earlier Argentine dictatorship tried to seize the Falklands by force, the British with strong support from President Ronald Reagan expelled them.
"It is truly shocking that Barack Obama has decided to disregard our shared history," wrote Telegraph columnist Toby Young. "Does Britain’s friendship really mean so little to him?” *One could ask, does the friendship of anyone in the entire world mean anything to him?
"I recently asked several senior administration officials, separately, to name a foreign leader with whom Barack Obama has forged a strong personal relationship during his first year in office," wrote Jackson Diehl, deputy editorial page editor of the Washington Post, on Monday. "A lot of hemming and hawing ensued.” One official named French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but his contempt for Mr. Obama is an open secret. Another named German Chancellor Angela Merkel. But, said Mr. Diehl, "Merkel too has been conspicuously cool toward Obama."
Mr. Obama certainly doesn't care about the Poles and Czechs, whom he has betrayed on missile defense. Honduras and Israel also can attest that he's been an unreliable ally and an unfaithful friend. Ironically, our relations with both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have never been worse. Russia has offered nothing in exchange for Mr. Obama's abandonment of missile defense. Russia and China won't support serious sanctions on Iran. Syria’s support for terrorism has not diminished despite efforts to normalize diplomatic relations. The reclusive military dictatorship that runs Burma has responded to our efforts at "engagement" by deepening its ties to North Korea.
And the Chinese make little effort to disguise their contempt for him.
For the first time in a long time, the President of the United States is actually distrusted by its allies and not in the least feared by its adversaries. Nor is Mr. Obama now respected by the majority of Americans. Understandably focused on the dismal economy and Mr. Obama's relentless efforts to nationalize and socialize health care, Americans apparently have yet to notice his dismal performance and lack of respect in the world community. They soon will.
Jack Kelly, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Toledo Blade
25 April 2011
Imagining;
It’s What Happens First.
All of the creations of mankind were first imagined, envisioned, thought of, by someone. They were bought into existence by those who saw themselves doing the things necessary to make it. They were made available by someone who envisioned how and why users would want and use it. Users imagined what it would do for them or how it would make them feel.
In our daily lives everything we do we've seen ourselves doing before we've done it. Forethought's lead us from anticipating reasons for needing to do it, or seeing ourselves doing it and inventing reasons why we should, to actually trying to do it.
Regardless of good or evil intent, very few things are done by reflex or habit completely without planning (forethought).
Occasionally, things happen while intending to do something else, like “sticky notes” an accident that happened while attempting something else. Fortunately, it was recognized as something useful before it was casually discarded as trash. An accident that would not have occurred if one had not been trying to accomplish something else that had been imagined.
Imagining and doing, attempting, failing, learning and accomplishing; these are the things that make up the stuff of human existence and achievement.
Imagining is not just inventing a new thing, or new process, or new idea. It’s also seeing you or others doing something in a role that currently isn't a reality; fantasying.
Visualizing being something different than you are now; an entertainer, a politician, helping the sick, being wealthy, preaching to the masses, riding a mad bull, loving someone completely, climbing Mount Everest, successfully robbing a bank, getting away with murder, leading a revolution, surviving Armageddon, stopping a holocaust, falling to your death, it doesn't really matter; nearly everyone has imagined themselves doing something interesting, troubling or dangerous. It is the first most important ingredient needed to accomplish or avoid anything.
Either way a fantasy begins to become reality when we do something; take action, making the conscientious effort to accomplish.
Doing creates the opportunity for success. Stopping makes failure very likely. Learning and persisting creates success, something helpful, useful or good. Succeeding at harm, waste or evil can be achieved as well. Hopefully, those who might chose other than good will imagine the injury, harm, and penalties to their victims and themselves along with their evil fantasy before they chose to act.
Imagine yourself being something good.
See yourself doing the necessary steps to achieve it.
“Endeavor to persevere,” Chief Dan George’s line as the character “Lone Watie” in the Clint Eastwood movie The Outlaw Josey Wales.
All of the creations of mankind were first imagined, envisioned, thought of, by someone. They were bought into existence by those who saw themselves doing the things necessary to make it. They were made available by someone who envisioned how and why users would want and use it. Users imagined what it would do for them or how it would make them feel.
In our daily lives everything we do we've seen ourselves doing before we've done it. Forethought's lead us from anticipating reasons for needing to do it, or seeing ourselves doing it and inventing reasons why we should, to actually trying to do it.
Regardless of good or evil intent, very few things are done by reflex or habit completely without planning (forethought).
Occasionally, things happen while intending to do something else, like “sticky notes” an accident that happened while attempting something else. Fortunately, it was recognized as something useful before it was casually discarded as trash. An accident that would not have occurred if one had not been trying to accomplish something else that had been imagined.
Imagining and doing, attempting, failing, learning and accomplishing; these are the things that make up the stuff of human existence and achievement.
Imagining is not just inventing a new thing, or new process, or new idea. It’s also seeing you or others doing something in a role that currently isn't a reality; fantasying.
Visualizing being something different than you are now; an entertainer, a politician, helping the sick, being wealthy, preaching to the masses, riding a mad bull, loving someone completely, climbing Mount Everest, successfully robbing a bank, getting away with murder, leading a revolution, surviving Armageddon, stopping a holocaust, falling to your death, it doesn't really matter; nearly everyone has imagined themselves doing something interesting, troubling or dangerous. It is the first most important ingredient needed to accomplish or avoid anything.
Either way a fantasy begins to become reality when we do something; take action, making the conscientious effort to accomplish.
Doing creates the opportunity for success. Stopping makes failure very likely. Learning and persisting creates success, something helpful, useful or good. Succeeding at harm, waste or evil can be achieved as well. Hopefully, those who might chose other than good will imagine the injury, harm, and penalties to their victims and themselves along with their evil fantasy before they chose to act.
Imagine yourself being something good.
See yourself doing the necessary steps to achieve it.
“Endeavor to persevere,” Chief Dan George’s line as the character “Lone Watie” in the Clint Eastwood movie The Outlaw Josey Wales.
24 April 2011
Wrong Leader
This letter was written by Porter Stansberry, Financial Advisor, Editor and Publisher. He granted broad permission to distribute with its posting. I provide it here slightly modified by error corrections.
Dear Mr. President,
Welcome to the ashbin of society.
With the speech you gave last week, you have firmly and permanently put yourself in the same garbage bag as all the other communists and socialists of the 20th century.
Your speech sounded like the faint echo of a speech Lenin gave in an icy square in Moscow 100 years ago.
The promises you made, Mr. President, about the government giving people things they can’t provide for themselves – a better income, reliable health care, an advanced education, cheaper mortgages, a “shiny, happy” life – have been made time and time again… sometimes by speakers even better than you.
And they have always been lies.
While the government can demand obedience (and taxes), it can’t mandate dedication, creativity, or innovation. The fact is, the government itself is nothing more (or less) than the organized ambitions of the people.
Promising something to the people that they don’t already have is a logical absurdity. And therein lies the timeless flaw of all collectivist theory: Governments cannot deliver benefits to the people that the people cannot deliver to themselves.
To demonstrate this truth, consider this example… Governments cannot simply mandate higher tax revenue. Any substantial increase to tax rates will reduce total collections, an economic phenomenon known as the “Laffer Curve.”
This has been proven countless times in our country and many others. Any sensible person will immediately understand why. Taxes are a disincentive. The higher the marginal rate of tax, the more powerful its impact.
That’s why, over many decades (and many different tax structures), U.S. tax revenues have been remarkably stable at around 20% of GDP. That’s why, as you surely know, Mr. President, changing the tax code will not result in increased tax revenue.
Taxing only the rich simply doesn’t work. It never has. And it never will. To increase the government’s revenues, we must first increase the size of the economy. The government cannot tax what the economy doesn’t produce.
In another time, most Americans might have simply ignored your speech as the ignorant remarks of yet another handsome, Ivy League-educated, dilettante president. But at this point in our history, my bet is people are going to take you far more seriously than you expect. In fact, I think you’re going to get what you deserve – the trash heap. Why will Americans turn on you so rapidly and so completely?
Two things have changed – forever – about American politics.
The first is the media and access to critical information. It’s no longer possible for a president’s administration to control what people read, see, and think by simply managing the evening news broadcasts.
Thus, all your lies are now exposed almost instantly and broadcast to millions of people via websites and services like the Drudge Report, Twitter, and Facebook. Socialism cannot possibly survive over any long period of time in a society with a free media – because socialism is based on a lie. Facebook means the “half-life” of socialism is now weeks instead of years.
Even mainstream publications like the Wall Street Journal have called you a liar recently. They have no choice. Your lies were broadcast to the entire world long before their op-ed pieces appeared.
Your advisors told you none of these “bloggers” mattered. All you had to do was promise more benefits to more voters and then force fewer voters to pay for it all. I’m sure you did the political calculus… You believed your power to bribe and bamboozle the poor and the ignorant was stronger than the resentment you’d engender among the “rich.” And I must admit… since at least World War II, that’s been a safe bet in American politics.
But you forgot one critical factor: We simply can’t afford this nonsense anymore…
Immediately after your speech, the price of silver went from $39 to a new high above $42. Gold went up, too.
These are signs, Mr. President, that the world is losing confidence in our currency. If our foreign creditors were to call in our debts, America would suffer an economic cataclysm unlike anything we’ve ever seen in our entire history.
Americans now owe a total of $56 trillion. Without the Fed’s money-printing, it’s unlikely we could afford even the interest on these existing debts… much less the $1.5 trillion or more in debt you continue to rack up year after year by promising benefits we haven’t earned.
Sooner or later, our foreign creditors are going to decide our money-printing amounts to a default, and they will stop buying our bonds. On that day, everyone who trusts you, everyone who believes in your lies, will be wiped out.
But that won’t be as many people as you expect.
Almost every American knows in his heart what made this country great for the 200 years between 1776 and 1976. It wasn’t the lies of our presidents. It wasn’t our ability to print money and rip off our Chinese creditors. It wasn’t the modern crybaby mentality of our school system or our unions. It wasn’t the baby boomer’s dream of a 40-year retirement with free prescription drugs.
And it sure as hell wasn’t a suave, made-for-TV version of Karl Marx promising everything to everyone, but with no way to pay for it.
No. What built America was her people’s unwavering faith that they were free to enjoy the rewards of their accomplishments.
As our country tumbles into bankruptcy and crisis, the people are going to want their prosperity back, Mr. President. And deep down, they all know… even your most fervent supporters know… you don’t have the goods. You don’t have the foggiest idea of how to deliver prosperity to America because, really, you don’t understand what America is all about.
Regards,
Porter Stansberry
Dear Mr. President,
Welcome to the ashbin of society.
With the speech you gave last week, you have firmly and permanently put yourself in the same garbage bag as all the other communists and socialists of the 20th century.
Your speech sounded like the faint echo of a speech Lenin gave in an icy square in Moscow 100 years ago.
The promises you made, Mr. President, about the government giving people things they can’t provide for themselves – a better income, reliable health care, an advanced education, cheaper mortgages, a “shiny, happy” life – have been made time and time again… sometimes by speakers even better than you.
And they have always been lies.
While the government can demand obedience (and taxes), it can’t mandate dedication, creativity, or innovation. The fact is, the government itself is nothing more (or less) than the organized ambitions of the people.
Promising something to the people that they don’t already have is a logical absurdity. And therein lies the timeless flaw of all collectivist theory: Governments cannot deliver benefits to the people that the people cannot deliver to themselves.
To demonstrate this truth, consider this example… Governments cannot simply mandate higher tax revenue. Any substantial increase to tax rates will reduce total collections, an economic phenomenon known as the “Laffer Curve.”
This has been proven countless times in our country and many others. Any sensible person will immediately understand why. Taxes are a disincentive. The higher the marginal rate of tax, the more powerful its impact.
That’s why, over many decades (and many different tax structures), U.S. tax revenues have been remarkably stable at around 20% of GDP. That’s why, as you surely know, Mr. President, changing the tax code will not result in increased tax revenue.
Taxing only the rich simply doesn’t work. It never has. And it never will. To increase the government’s revenues, we must first increase the size of the economy. The government cannot tax what the economy doesn’t produce.
In another time, most Americans might have simply ignored your speech as the ignorant remarks of yet another handsome, Ivy League-educated, dilettante president. But at this point in our history, my bet is people are going to take you far more seriously than you expect. In fact, I think you’re going to get what you deserve – the trash heap. Why will Americans turn on you so rapidly and so completely?
Two things have changed – forever – about American politics.
The first is the media and access to critical information. It’s no longer possible for a president’s administration to control what people read, see, and think by simply managing the evening news broadcasts.
Thus, all your lies are now exposed almost instantly and broadcast to millions of people via websites and services like the Drudge Report, Twitter, and Facebook. Socialism cannot possibly survive over any long period of time in a society with a free media – because socialism is based on a lie. Facebook means the “half-life” of socialism is now weeks instead of years.
Even mainstream publications like the Wall Street Journal have called you a liar recently. They have no choice. Your lies were broadcast to the entire world long before their op-ed pieces appeared.
Your advisors told you none of these “bloggers” mattered. All you had to do was promise more benefits to more voters and then force fewer voters to pay for it all. I’m sure you did the political calculus… You believed your power to bribe and bamboozle the poor and the ignorant was stronger than the resentment you’d engender among the “rich.” And I must admit… since at least World War II, that’s been a safe bet in American politics.
But you forgot one critical factor: We simply can’t afford this nonsense anymore…
Immediately after your speech, the price of silver went from $39 to a new high above $42. Gold went up, too.
These are signs, Mr. President, that the world is losing confidence in our currency. If our foreign creditors were to call in our debts, America would suffer an economic cataclysm unlike anything we’ve ever seen in our entire history.
Americans now owe a total of $56 trillion. Without the Fed’s money-printing, it’s unlikely we could afford even the interest on these existing debts… much less the $1.5 trillion or more in debt you continue to rack up year after year by promising benefits we haven’t earned.
Sooner or later, our foreign creditors are going to decide our money-printing amounts to a default, and they will stop buying our bonds. On that day, everyone who trusts you, everyone who believes in your lies, will be wiped out.
But that won’t be as many people as you expect.
Almost every American knows in his heart what made this country great for the 200 years between 1776 and 1976. It wasn’t the lies of our presidents. It wasn’t our ability to print money and rip off our Chinese creditors. It wasn’t the modern crybaby mentality of our school system or our unions. It wasn’t the baby boomer’s dream of a 40-year retirement with free prescription drugs.
And it sure as hell wasn’t a suave, made-for-TV version of Karl Marx promising everything to everyone, but with no way to pay for it.
No. What built America was her people’s unwavering faith that they were free to enjoy the rewards of their accomplishments.
As our country tumbles into bankruptcy and crisis, the people are going to want their prosperity back, Mr. President. And deep down, they all know… even your most fervent supporters know… you don’t have the goods. You don’t have the foggiest idea of how to deliver prosperity to America because, really, you don’t understand what America is all about.
Regards,
Porter Stansberry
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