Putting the Nearly Intangible into Words

In our complex world and at this difficult time, we often confront problems that lie in territory that defies the imagination of many of us. Global finance can be just such a realm. Even when we break it down into the simplest terms, the vast majority of people completely tune out. We cannot all be macro-economic geniuses, right? I'm here to say, not exactly. We certainly cannot all be hornswaggled and misled by a cadre of folks who claim this discreet subject matter their indisputable territory and who expect us to trust implicitly the knowledge base that they claim to be privy to. It all boils down to choices. We must learn what they are and how they affect us. We also have to understand enough about the subject to not be taken in by those who seek to benefit from playing the odds at our expense while amassing fortune or status amongst wheeler dealers in this esoteric realm. Rest assured, it is much easier to understand than it sounds. Economics, both micro and macro, delineate two forces in the marketplace, supply and demand. Supply is the availability of certain things, demand is the desire for them. Supply is how much you have of a certain thing, demand is more about how much others feel that they lack or desire what you have.

Since Greece is in the news lately, let us consider for a moment a Mediterranean culture, Island culture, people and places that throughout history have been raided, ransacked and overrun with traveling merchants and hordes on their way to somewhere else. Just the increased money spent on fuel to hop from place to place along the many miles of coastline costs an inordinate amount. If the fishing is good and the fruit trees supply most of the food needs of those living there, why should they desire a debt burden to allow them all of the modern conveniences? I have friends who loved Greece because for a few dollars per day, they had fresh fruit several times each day, could drink a beer or two and they also found ample places to sleep along the shore at night. Unlike the rigorous climate in northern Europe, the people that my friend met were laid back and I don't like the term lazy, but less motivated perhaps. Like the Southern tier of states in the US, expecting someone to bolt out of bed at the crack of dawn to exert themselves all day in hot and humid conditions would just be unreasonable. Perhaps it is not so much laziness as perspective.

Trying to impose our standards anywhere else on the globe is both frivolous and short sighted. Many nations have been saddled with debt because the powers that be have determined that it is the best way to "help" in the process of "nation building". What it really assures is the animosity that comes from paying way too much for way too little. Think for a moment about the average American home, it may cost 100k, with taxes, interest and a thirty year fixed mortgage, that home will cost the average American 2 1/2 times what it was priced at by the time it is paid off. The only ones who come out ahead on a deal like that are the lenders. Say I do pay off my home and put it back on the market, having paid the 2 1/2 times the value, do you think the new owner cares how much I paid? No! They only see what it is "worth" to them. Similarly, when we look to international finance and programs whose loans are floated by the World Bank and IMF, or perhaps the EU, the overriding interest is in the interest. Those loaning the money don't really have need for all that they have, that is why they are able to loan so much. The rationale is not that it is good for the recipient of those dollars to have the money, but to spend it and then (this is a big leap of faith) be better off in the future so that they will be able to generate the cash flow to pay off the debt with interest.

I have always loved the catch phrase, the cost of money. This simple twist of language puts the burden on the least able to afford the cost, and makes them beholden to those who don't need the money in the first place. The wealthiest have shackled the poorest and the middle class with ever increasing debt. the instruments of which are legal documents that put one person into the service of another as effectively as slavery ever did. What is operating here and everywhere that interest is charged for the use of money today that the "customer" lacks, is greed and usury plain and simple. Why am I going to pay over $250,000 for a house that is valued around 100k? Because that is just the way it is done. Wells Fargo Bank has been assured that the vast majority of their funds will be returned in the first dozen years and that the remaining, nearly two decades, payments that I make to them will be pure profit. This is the approach that monied interests have taken for most of our modern times. How much more lucrative it has become when instead of loaning thousands, they can lend billions.

The calls for austerity that we are hearing from the right, from technocrats and from world leaders today completely overlook the most important part of history. When we were in world wide economic downturns in the past, it was increased government spending that paved the way to recovery. The sacrifice of those who could afford it made possible the sharing of resources with those who were finding desperate times and who would have been poor candidates for extending credit because they had no prospects for paying back any money that might have been loaned to them. We are now allowing people who know far too much about their own interests to tell us what is good for us and the time has come to look carefully at the reasons they give for tightening the leash on those who accepted easy credit when the sky was literally the limit. Like a family overextended across half a dozen credit cards, making minimum payments will only assure a lasting debt burden that will eventually absorb more and more of their energy. Cutting services and operations budgets can work for an individual or family unit, to free up money to pay down debt, but for whole countries, or governments generally it is the exact opposite of what is needed to overcome hard times. People need to see the results and the need for hard work and building capacity for a better life, right where they live, not in parts of the world that stand to gain only through siphoning off profits from around the globe.

We are facing a trying time to be sure, but the path clear of this mess lies not in paying down pour debt, not in running an ever tighter ship and certainly not in dictating to others what their financial perspective, obligations and status will be, but rather working with people to find ways to succeed within their own parameters. We need to find ways to stop exporting the "values" of capitalism, the greed and deception, competitiveness and philosophy of lack that has added fuel to the raging fires of consumerism around the planet. We need to stop turning every square inch of the planet into a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate interests in other parts of the world and re-learn what makes the planet liveable is unique adaptations to local conditions. These are almost never found by multinational corporate interests and giant lending institutions muddling about in other countries, but by local people determining what they need to do and going about the process of getting to the bottom of what is important for them. I truly hope that in the very near future, we are able to reign in the unwelcome power that is associated with large corporate and monied interests, get straight on what they do well and what they have no business doing and come to a greater realization of the need for sustainability and unique approaches to development. Certainly, bigger dams will never make our lives better and we have seen that more lanes of traffic never shorten commutes. Making the planet more liveable and more sustainable go hand in hand, it is for us to decide what we need most and decisions like these are far too important to leave up to those who already own the lion's share of the power and who have the deepest pockets.

Desperation and the Trickle Down Effect

Having survived the "Reagan Revolution", and the ensuing decades of republican inertia has taught me a few things about education, politics, economics and our social fabric generally. We have been duped into thinking that the richest individuals are benevolent. The sickening refrain often spewed by those in power, "A rising tide lifts all boats." only applies to those wealthy enough to have a boat. Just this week I saw several things that drove home the idea that the only thing that has trickled down due to the enacted Republican Agenda has been desperation. We have seen the failed policies play out in nearly every field. Our schools, having suffered from endemic underfunding over the past generation are crumbling, poorly maintained and often nothing more than warehouses for our youth. Gone are the days of hope springing from educational institutions. Just yesterday I heard a story from a teacher that her Principal told her not to worry too much about a certain pupil. "You can't expect much from him he said."
"Why not?" she asked.
"Because he is black." responded the Principal.
I'm sad to have to relay this story on Martin's Birthday, but the truth is sometimes unsavory, and needs to be accepted and understood as fact to help us to move beyond the shackles of hatred and the tyrannical chains of oppression. No person is unable to develop, unless we prevent them from accessing the tools that they need to better themselves. The way we develop is often a response to factors that we do not see or understand. What we do see and make sense of is frequently the result of actions that remain hidden from view or misunderstood because the driving forces behind our lives know that they can be just as effective keepers of the wage slaves while remaining out of sight, or hidden behind the corporate shells that we think are in charge.
The many lies perpetrated upon the American People have no basis in fact, but repeated often enough, they have led to a total abandonment of good sense and decorum. We have been taught that there are "two sides" to every story. Truth has become a malleable term to be debated by the most reactionary people that the media can get their hands on. Now, we are able to distort fact and fiction until they not only represent one another but supplant one another when that becomes necessary.
Terms like "too big to fail" fly in the face of free market economics, but the same people who decry the need for massive bail outs also confer the laurel wreath of respectability to corporate raiders and the gambling house we call the stock market. Corporate welfare is class warfare, but the only time that the media uses the term is when the poor begin to fight back.

Late last week I saw a neighboring property with a gigantic heap of trash our front. The poor woman who lived there moved away, but her things were piled as tall as a person and both twice as high and three times as wide. More than a dozen people came and went from the pile, hoping to find something of value. One took every electrical cord they could find, another took a broken toy, still others took musty clothing and pots with missing lids. One fellow came early, before the pile had formed and removed every metal object this lady had amassed in the year and a half that she had lived there. In spite of all the rifling through the pile, it never seemed to get any smaller. The density of the pile was something to be amazed at. The density of crap that has been injected into the public debate is similarly dense.
Two decades ago, there were two old men who had junk pickers licenses in Green Bay, now there are several dozen people and many are young families with their children in tow. No longer are there other opportunities to make a living for these folks of meager means.

While I watched the endless parade of folks digging through the trash, another neighbor came home with a truckload of pressure treated wood that he will feed into his wood burner. In spite of the fact that he knows that toxic materials will be released when he burns it, the warmth is worth the cost in his mind. Ashes laden with poison will make their way into his garden and onto his dinner plate, but he needs the warmth to survive the coming cold weather. Life is preferable to the alternative, but he should not have to poison himself, his family or the neighbors just to get by.

What is necessary now is a reemergence of what we used to call good old common sense. The fact that we must lead, so that the leaders will follow has never been more critical than today. Ask those in charge any questions and there is a good chance that they will respond with canned answers that have been regurgitated for the better part of two decades. The same people who claim that they stand for "life" will let babies cry themselves to sleep from lack of food. Those who are opposed to sex ed. will blame young mothers for their difficult position and claim that somehow telling them what their sex organs are for made them use them. The same people who claim that government should not provide a safety net for those who fall through the cracks of capitalism wouldn't give a dime to help others whether it would be for education, homeless shelters, food programs or through a church. The crowd who focuses on "liberty" understand that word to mean that whatever they want should be theirs for the taking, whether or not it harms another or leads them to not have their own needs met. The "pursuit of happiness" crowd is similarly attentive to their own desires for freedom but without responsibility for fellow humans, future generations or the world around them. These ideals that have formed the basis of our culture for over two hundred years have never been as misunderstood as they are today and the ability of our schools to counteract the debilitating claims made by the media about what we are to make of the lies are both underfunded and under attack.

I continue to harp on the rampant beliefs of Calvinism, only because many believe them without even knowing where the ideas come from. The problem with common sense is that it has become far too uncommon. I heard an excellent saying today. The only thing that the poor lack is money. In the world that we have allowed to develop, this alone is enough for those in power to judge them as thugs, criminals and people who lack morals. Actually, the opposite is more often true. The oppressed under the current system are often the most benevolent. It has been proven time and time again that the poor give a greater percentage of their meager income to charity. The white collar crime that goes unpunished creates a level of mayhem and dislocation that far outweighs the petty theft and property crimes that poor people engage in to help them survive in our capitalist society. Rather than try to defend moral choices that people make, I will resist the urge to share what I believe and try to stick to what I know. wealthy or poor makes no significant difference in many moral choices, but the privileged classes seem to think that they have the right to justify any action whereas the poor often blame themselves for the bad behaviors of others.

Much as we might like to turn our heads away from salient facts, we are living in a time characterized by the lowest crime rates America has seen in thirty years, not because the criminals have all been locked up, but because no one thinks that they can get ahead through criminality. As desperate as we have all become, we know that stepping out of line will only rain more shit down on our heads. an entire generation of black youth has been imprisoned and the wealthy thieves are receiving bailouts paid for by the taxpayers whose children go to bed hungry, are failing in school and ready to pump out the next generation of folks who will have even less chance of their needs being met. What has worked along the way has been the deep and inspired outpouring of love that is not part of any party. The sense of community responsibility that many outsiders share. The thousands and hundreds of thousands of humble servants who operate homeless shelters, food pantries, after school programs and not-for-profits picking up the slkack that government feels is necessary to balance their books.

Anyone who studies the matter will tell you that governments are not like families or business. Austerity in hard times never works for governments, unless you are seeking to force dislocation and social break down on the populace. Austerity on the level of the household makes sense. We all need to survive until next month, so cutting expenses to pay the bills only makes sense. Government relies on deficit spending always. They are doing the work of improving infrastructure and services that pay off dozens and hundreds of years later, you have to borrow to do that kind of work. The far right, anti-tax crowd are cutting public good off at the roots. Without teaching our children, we will surely handicap our hope for the future. Cutting social programs hurts many more people than it could possibly help. By amassing more and more capital in fewer and fewer hands, we assure the continued exploitation of the greatest number of people. If we looked at taxes as the price we pay to live in a civil society rather than a penalty for working, things could change overnight. The nature of the debate could include issues such as caring for one another, the difference between wants and needs and how to find abundance through making sustainable choices. Changing minds is easier than one might think, the best place to start is by seriously questioning who is being served by the lies that are foisted upon us.

Austerity Measures Could Not Come At A Worse Time

We have seen what decades of neglect have led to in areas such as education, health care, infrastructure and energy policy. Cutting back is the last thing that governments around the world can afford to do at this moment in time. Anyone who knows about finance and economic systems will quickly realize that it is the moment of greatest uncertainty that one needs to dig deep and follow time tested and true methods of investing. Let me quickly clip the wings of your association between investing and the stock market, any stock market. Investing as I use the word depends on moral certainty about right and wrong, compassionate and despotic dispensation of our dollars. There is no usury involved when gifting is not rewarded with interest. Investment, like you might have expected someone to talk about is the antithesis of what I believe investment to be about.  Case in point, my sister invests through an organization that funnels micro-loans to mostly women in third world nations. She has recouped 100% of her investment on each and every loan, not because they are underwritten by a bank or municipality, state or nation, but by love and trust, true compassion. Her investing proves that if we trust one another, good things occur.

There has been a multi-trillion dollar effort to convince us that somehow the gambling that takes place on Wall Street matters. It does not, unless you are counting on the gambling house to pay out someday. Have you ever seen one that does? Just for one moment consider the difference between a loan that my sister might give a woman in the Sahara, enough for her to start a business and pay for her children's education. This perhaps makes positive changes for something on the order of twenty years, perhaps a lifetime. Now consider the Big Board, where the average share of stock nowadays is held a matter of seconds, traded at light speed by computers. Most of the algorithms that determine what is hot and what is not are based on things like raping the earth and maximizing profitability over the next quarter. This roughly translates to cutting jobs and no longer providing retirement benefits or insurance for workers. Those dollars are fickle and when accepted lead to greedier and evermore deceitful parlay. The sharks are always feeding, taking huge profits from both shell companies and legitimate ones while dodging any sort of regulation or penalty. It is truly sad that the news seems to struggle to bring us that one good story each night, but how the legal gambling house did is automatically and precisely reported without fail.

The anatomy of true investment begins by giving something that is useful to another in need. An unemployed person a job, a hungry person a meal, a road filled with potholes a resurfacing, etc. From the filling of need great economies of scale can be realized and the results of living better broadly distributed across the landscape. Dollars spent close to home tend to stay in the region far longer than if they are spent even ten or twenty miles away. The same can be said for "development", for far too long there has been a systematic divorce between locations that are conducive to living, working and shopping. In addition to addicting our cultures to transportation, it has imposed an insidious tax of time spent, mostly in automobiles, that could be productive. Yesterday's news about the National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB, indicates that so many Americans are trying to be "productive" behind the wheel that tens of thousands of us will die at their hands. Talk about terrorists, they could strike anywhere at any time. The bad news, they are more likely to kill innocent Americans than Osama Bin Laden ever was. We have run our population so ragged that many are faced with having to do three jobs and still they need to cut back on essentials, or learn to do without. Energy prices continue to climb, yet we forget to invest in a continuous flow of electrons whenever the sun shines and are barely making tentative steps to secure even more electricity from the wind. The public has never wanted anything quite as badly as a diesel electric car, though the car companies never offered it. Investing in the next big thing should be a no-brainer right?

Not what the sharks are saying. This puts too many dollars out of the current system, too many into goods and not enough into the true shadow economy in which the public gets legally fleeced while they are told it is a "bad economy". The ever-increasing class sizes that our schools have had to deal with alone should tell us that something is wrong. Dumping of problem children and disruptive students into already over-sized classes has led us to disservice millions of young adults and the trends are continuing. We need to stand together around the globe to tell our leaders that we want services that are difficult to provide on our own. We do not want to bail out undeserving corporations no matter how painful it gets and we certainly don't want to cut back on essential work that only a government can do. Our leaders need to stop spending time posturing and trying to get re-elected and instead focus on cutting fraud and abuse, holding stock market thieves accountable for their despotism and reinstating the essential character of the American Dream, helping one another to achieve our full potential. heck, while we're at it, perhaps everyone could get bootstraps. I know that I have not been able to find mine yet. 

To What Do We Owe Our Deepest Allegiance?

In the deepest sense, we owe our very existence to our ancestors. With all their flaws, they gave us this chance at life. Intact cultures all exhibit some sort of ancestor worship. Under our current capitalistic system, "the banks" claim to lord over us some sort of power. Legalized thievery seems to carry the day. There are those who came up in the hippy era who are still peaceful loving people, some who carry the stories of our history, but we have become fond of giving them nothing but ridicule and innuendo designed to estrange them from us. Our political leaders, for the most part, fall flat for not only being undeserving, but antagonistic to our true desires or pressing needs. What parent can deny the allegiance we have to our children. If ever they present us with a need, we set ourselves to the task of helping them.
Many among us have a real and pressing desire to honor the next seven generations so that our bond with them can be as real, evident and as respected as possible. The vagaries of geography and the impending nationalism that can grow out of arbitrary lines drawn on maps has proven that we cannot abide these sorts of allegiances. Perhaps, as we approach singularity, our deepest debt lies with all of humanity. Yet in these times, we are forever pressed to play out the cowboy scenario, go it alone, be independent.

It would be funny if it were truly farce, but when we really begin to believe the schlock that passes for news, intellectual discussion, or political discourse, we have crossed a line into depravity from which return becomes unlikely, difficult and fraught with danger. The ad campaigns that have been funded to make up your mind for you are so deeply entrenched and subtle as to evade most of our perception. Remember the first time you saw an ad that made you want to buy something? chances are, you had seen thousands of commercials before that, they just looked like "real life", encapsulated into brief vignettes.
Finding out where the money comes from that seeks to drive our opinions and attitudes can be very enlightening, but the tangled webs of funding for certain types of speech are difficult at best. Spend some time, do your homework and you will find some very dangerous sources of funding for many of the biggest think tanks and speakers bureaus. When talking heads appear before you, remember that they are more adept at pushing an agenda than you can imagine and that their facts are presented to warp your mind around their goal, regardless of how it might affect you. Before you go lining up with anyone, get to the business of finding out where your own ideas and attitudes come from, weigh the truth between your own heart and soul, see if your own decisions and actions line up with an ethic that reveres the entire human family, then decide where to put your money, what to invest in and ultimately what sort of future we will create for future generations. Let's all get on with the business of beating a path back to wellness and an intact culture.