In the late 19th century America focused on “Manifest Destiny” as justification of coast to coast imperialism. By the turn of the century manifest destiny morphed into American global imperialism that continued throughout most of the 20th century, under many political correct names.
While Americans deny they were ever an imperial power the rest of the world recognizes the United States as a global exploiter of under classes. During the late 20th century the United States encouraged the overthrow of governments even providing overt support to break nations. Having sown the seeds of foreign political unrest in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia the United States hasn’t reaped its expected harvest or resources and respect. Instead it has lost its ethical standing among States and engendered animosity among friends and foes.
The United States became an active combatant during the Arab Spring resulting in the collapse of several governments and continued civil conflict in other States. The U.S. intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign States impedes their ability to deal effectively with civil unrest. Having firmly established the principles of foreign interventions the United States may soon become the target foreign economic and political interventions in its own internal affairs.
The world now gleefully watches as the Arab Spring takes root on Wall Street and quickly spreads to other cities. A popular uprising of young and old expressing discontent. There is little focus of the popular discontent as long suppressed angers boil over into streets and public spaces. The reaction may have been triggered by economic missteps by financial institutions and governments but the popular movement expresses the frustration, helplessness and sense that the establishment is betraying the peoples’ continued trust.
The people are right to be fearful of losing their rights, benefits and future security already eroded by bad legislation and worse business practices. Arrogant politicians and business leaders have long dismissed the needs of the people in favor of the interests of wealth and power, forming an elite of self-interest. There is a term,” Rational Maximization,” which for the Elite has come to mean it rationalized that their maximum benefit is in the interest of the people. They further rationalize that high school dropouts and those than can only afford a community college education are two dumb to ever notice that they are on a downward spiral while the elite soars higher and higher.
The hard fought battles for labor reforms, higher standards of living, equality and equity before the courts is in danger and the people are noticing. When the cracks begin to form they quickly spread and great edifices tumble. The Elite answer, control the message suppress movements. It is interesting to note that a simultaneous crackdown on the popular movement occurred in several distant cities at the same time. An indication of central government or business control? The Elite should look to Roman, British and Soviet greatness, that was to last forever, their people also spoke.
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Laboring 102011
The industrial revolution of the 19th century was hardly a bloodless revolution. Similarly to the 21st century technological revolution the industrial revolution generated great wealth to the few, robber barons and their political supporters. The revolution also modernized serfdom for the many, cheap labor from poor whites, freed blacks Irish, Eastern Europeans and Chinese immigrants.
The western world’s industrial great leap forward came at a steep price of starving families, maimed and dead workers. Workers had no protections, no safety standards and no security. Children received no education often entering the coal mines and factories at six years old, their few pennies the margin of life for the family. Workers who questioned conditions were beaten, fired and replaced by even cheaper labor. By the turn of the 19th century labor movements emerged around the globe.
Management met labors calls for reforms with evictions, lockouts and guns. Management demonized workers as anarchists, communist and played to xenophobic fears. Management played power politics using thugs and official force to gun down labor leaders, even entire work forces. A few industrial giants, like Henry Ford, came to realize it cost money to train skilled workers and well paid workers bought the products they produced and slowly reforms came to be accepted.
Child labor laws were enacted, safety standards established but mostly it was the draw on a limited pool of skilled labor that advanced labor’s cause. Labor movements still had to fight many bloody battles throughout the first half of the 20th century. Workers were on the verge of victory but poorly chose their labor leaders. The open battles between labor and management conditioned labor leaders to warfare. Management however shifted its strategy to leverage its wealth to political power.
Legislation gave reforms and at the same time limited labor’s ability to organize. In 1938 the American Supreme Court upheld labor’s right to strike but added that employers had the right to permanently replace strikers. Labor was slow to realize that its back was broken but the latter half of the century saw its hard earned bargaining power slowly erode.
Labor is again under assault of money and power. Corporations leveraged its wealth into favorable legislation and court decisions that limits unions ability to support candidates but allows business to use its wealth to support business friendly candidates.
This is not lost on politicians and want-a-be who by dictate or anti-labor legislation are moving to bury the last vestiges of a century’s labor benefits. Pensions, health insurance, job security and collective bargaining are rapidly disappearing. Emboldened by prospects of cheap labor from an army of unemployed, deep pocket Corporations are funding renew labor demonization and elected officials who will repeal worker protections. “Look for the union label,” is museum nostalgia filed alongside the buggy whip industry.
The western world’s industrial great leap forward came at a steep price of starving families, maimed and dead workers. Workers had no protections, no safety standards and no security. Children received no education often entering the coal mines and factories at six years old, their few pennies the margin of life for the family. Workers who questioned conditions were beaten, fired and replaced by even cheaper labor. By the turn of the 19th century labor movements emerged around the globe.
Management met labors calls for reforms with evictions, lockouts and guns. Management demonized workers as anarchists, communist and played to xenophobic fears. Management played power politics using thugs and official force to gun down labor leaders, even entire work forces. A few industrial giants, like Henry Ford, came to realize it cost money to train skilled workers and well paid workers bought the products they produced and slowly reforms came to be accepted.
Child labor laws were enacted, safety standards established but mostly it was the draw on a limited pool of skilled labor that advanced labor’s cause. Labor movements still had to fight many bloody battles throughout the first half of the 20th century. Workers were on the verge of victory but poorly chose their labor leaders. The open battles between labor and management conditioned labor leaders to warfare. Management however shifted its strategy to leverage its wealth to political power.
Legislation gave reforms and at the same time limited labor’s ability to organize. In 1938 the American Supreme Court upheld labor’s right to strike but added that employers had the right to permanently replace strikers. Labor was slow to realize that its back was broken but the latter half of the century saw its hard earned bargaining power slowly erode.
Labor is again under assault of money and power. Corporations leveraged its wealth into favorable legislation and court decisions that limits unions ability to support candidates but allows business to use its wealth to support business friendly candidates.
This is not lost on politicians and want-a-be who by dictate or anti-labor legislation are moving to bury the last vestiges of a century’s labor benefits. Pensions, health insurance, job security and collective bargaining are rapidly disappearing. Emboldened by prospects of cheap labor from an army of unemployed, deep pocket Corporations are funding renew labor demonization and elected officials who will repeal worker protections. “Look for the union label,” is museum nostalgia filed alongside the buggy whip industry.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Taxes and death 101811
The old cliche is, “nothing is certain but death and taxes.” As more and more nations face bankruptcy taxes focus on certain. In one corner is redistribution of wealth and in the other corner taxation prevents growth.
These two positions probably date from the cave man era and in the millenniums since both positions have been tested. The American income tax debates of 1913 stated that the, “Power to tax is the power to destroy.” This slogan is well proven by feudal Europe, Lords taxed freemen and merchants into serfdom and the Dark Age. Post war England taxed its industry and landowners into receivership and ended up owning much of private industry and holdings. The bureaucracy and incompetence ran them into the ground ending British positions in world markets and draining public coffers. The British even attempted to squeeze the last shilling from the once rich by taxing the dead. In the United States the top tax bracket reached 94% (some sources state 96%) followed by disappearance of some great names, the rise of tax lawyers and masses of exemption legislation.
There are some lessons to be learned from redistribution school of finance. The poor doesn’t profit, national deficits continue to rise, the middleclass become downward mobile and tax lawyers become more creative. Expropriative taxation does destroy. Ultimately it destroys productivity; the financial structure and governments fall.
There is an axiom that governments will always miss-spend more than its income. Here lies a problem governments have no income. Every dime it spends is acquired directly or indirectly from its populace. During periods of growth governments are lavish in their spending, inflating expectations. During periods of readjustment high expectations are that central governments’ great wealth will fund continued lavishness. Frightened politicians appease the mob by borrowing money against the future and spend more not less. It is a great Ponzi scheme that eventually destroys governments.
Expropriation does not work. Modern cultures need transportation, water systems, sewers etc. These must be paid for out of tax revenues, the crumbling infrastructure must also be maintained by tax revenue. New needs must be met; can revenues also support popular nice to have agendas? Every citizen should support needs by fair share taxation, but what is a fair share? Tax none of the income of one and all the income of another is it fair? Confiscation of all the billionaires’ income may make a short-term interest payment on national debt but won’t reduce that debt. Then what about the the next payment?
Governments must determine what expenditures are necessities and cut the fat. What are realistic fair share taxes? Politicians must remove the public’s and their own rose colored glasses. They must create a realistic budget and live within it, as does most households. Leaders must become responsible, governments are not bottomless money buckets to be dipped into for electioneering. The risk is revolution and national collapse. The model is Eastern Europe, Africa and the Mid-East.
These two positions probably date from the cave man era and in the millenniums since both positions have been tested. The American income tax debates of 1913 stated that the, “Power to tax is the power to destroy.” This slogan is well proven by feudal Europe, Lords taxed freemen and merchants into serfdom and the Dark Age. Post war England taxed its industry and landowners into receivership and ended up owning much of private industry and holdings. The bureaucracy and incompetence ran them into the ground ending British positions in world markets and draining public coffers. The British even attempted to squeeze the last shilling from the once rich by taxing the dead. In the United States the top tax bracket reached 94% (some sources state 96%) followed by disappearance of some great names, the rise of tax lawyers and masses of exemption legislation.
There are some lessons to be learned from redistribution school of finance. The poor doesn’t profit, national deficits continue to rise, the middleclass become downward mobile and tax lawyers become more creative. Expropriative taxation does destroy. Ultimately it destroys productivity; the financial structure and governments fall.
There is an axiom that governments will always miss-spend more than its income. Here lies a problem governments have no income. Every dime it spends is acquired directly or indirectly from its populace. During periods of growth governments are lavish in their spending, inflating expectations. During periods of readjustment high expectations are that central governments’ great wealth will fund continued lavishness. Frightened politicians appease the mob by borrowing money against the future and spend more not less. It is a great Ponzi scheme that eventually destroys governments.
Expropriation does not work. Modern cultures need transportation, water systems, sewers etc. These must be paid for out of tax revenues, the crumbling infrastructure must also be maintained by tax revenue. New needs must be met; can revenues also support popular nice to have agendas? Every citizen should support needs by fair share taxation, but what is a fair share? Tax none of the income of one and all the income of another is it fair? Confiscation of all the billionaires’ income may make a short-term interest payment on national debt but won’t reduce that debt. Then what about the the next payment?
Governments must determine what expenditures are necessities and cut the fat. What are realistic fair share taxes? Politicians must remove the public’s and their own rose colored glasses. They must create a realistic budget and live within it, as does most households. Leaders must become responsible, governments are not bottomless money buckets to be dipped into for electioneering. The risk is revolution and national collapse. The model is Eastern Europe, Africa and the Mid-East.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Corrupt world 101611
There is a new popular movement garnering media attention. Originally it was tagged as the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement but as it quickly spread around the world by many names. Movements have a couple common threads: people are unhappy with their condition; and they blame the corruption of the rich, powerful, banks, politicians, etc.
With little organization and so many targets there is a real danger that the movements will fail to score hits on the central cause of their fury. The causation is not banks, politician or the wealthy it is systemic global corruption. Ethics, integrity and honor have been eroded to the point that corruption has become the societal norm.
It is easy to understand corruption as a bribe for an immediate act that benefits the individual, like a small “gift” to the official that stamps passports. Modern corruption however is much more subtle and pervasive.
An otherwise honest policeman becomes corrupt when he fails to report criminal police acts. Other honest cops become corrupt when they punish one that breaks the protective blue wall of silence. A national leader openly lies to the electorate and publicly brags about getting away with it, sends a clear message that un-ethical behavior is not only condoned but rewarded. Scholars that exploit and plagiarize the work of students teach more than their subject. Dealers that sell hurricane immersed cars as new. Auto and oil industry giants who destroy public transport. MBAs that sell personal their gain as good for the consumer and company. The entire marketing industry that sells dreams instead of reality. Corporations that dump failed pharmaceuticals in foreign lands or toxic waste near playgrounds. Brokers and businesses that manipulate numbers to deceive. Extreme cover-ups to prevent exposing embarrassing conduct or incompetence. Adult’s that teach kids to beg and encourages bad behavior trains the next corrupt generation.
Ethical behavior is the victim of personal and corporate greed. Bureaucrats seek larger staff and bigger budgets for promotion and fail to oversea public good. Corporations, brokerage houses and banks freed of oversight focus on bottom line profits for larger bonuses. When financial corruption topple houses of paper profits, bankers scream for public money to save them while not exposing their fiscal irresponsibility. Corrupt legislation rewards self-serving incompetence with public money. Banks are saved; bankers pocket profits and the streets acquire more homeless.
The worst corruption of all is when movements become captive of corrupt leadership. Fragmentation and self-interest are already corrupting the much-heralded Arab spring revolutions of a couple months ago. Unions become victims of the same dynamic when collectives to protect the workers are corrupted to serving only leadership interests not the membership.
It is probable that OWS will fall victim to its success as power potential is seen as a gateway to corporate and personal profit. Shake hands but count your fingers.
With little organization and so many targets there is a real danger that the movements will fail to score hits on the central cause of their fury. The causation is not banks, politician or the wealthy it is systemic global corruption. Ethics, integrity and honor have been eroded to the point that corruption has become the societal norm.
It is easy to understand corruption as a bribe for an immediate act that benefits the individual, like a small “gift” to the official that stamps passports. Modern corruption however is much more subtle and pervasive.
An otherwise honest policeman becomes corrupt when he fails to report criminal police acts. Other honest cops become corrupt when they punish one that breaks the protective blue wall of silence. A national leader openly lies to the electorate and publicly brags about getting away with it, sends a clear message that un-ethical behavior is not only condoned but rewarded. Scholars that exploit and plagiarize the work of students teach more than their subject. Dealers that sell hurricane immersed cars as new. Auto and oil industry giants who destroy public transport. MBAs that sell personal their gain as good for the consumer and company. The entire marketing industry that sells dreams instead of reality. Corporations that dump failed pharmaceuticals in foreign lands or toxic waste near playgrounds. Brokers and businesses that manipulate numbers to deceive. Extreme cover-ups to prevent exposing embarrassing conduct or incompetence. Adult’s that teach kids to beg and encourages bad behavior trains the next corrupt generation.
Ethical behavior is the victim of personal and corporate greed. Bureaucrats seek larger staff and bigger budgets for promotion and fail to oversea public good. Corporations, brokerage houses and banks freed of oversight focus on bottom line profits for larger bonuses. When financial corruption topple houses of paper profits, bankers scream for public money to save them while not exposing their fiscal irresponsibility. Corrupt legislation rewards self-serving incompetence with public money. Banks are saved; bankers pocket profits and the streets acquire more homeless.
The worst corruption of all is when movements become captive of corrupt leadership. Fragmentation and self-interest are already corrupting the much-heralded Arab spring revolutions of a couple months ago. Unions become victims of the same dynamic when collectives to protect the workers are corrupted to serving only leadership interests not the membership.
It is probable that OWS will fall victim to its success as power potential is seen as a gateway to corporate and personal profit. Shake hands but count your fingers.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Watched 101111
Over sixty years ago George Orwell wrote 1984 about an oligarchical dictatorship with total surveillance and public mind control. The book is now considered a classic great book of the 20th century. Publics' concern as the year 1984 approached was quickly “spun” of similarities to Orwellian predictions by governments’ bureaucrats.
Orwell wrote his masterpiece in 1947 possibly drawing inspiration from exposed NAZI’s near total control of German thought. Governments loudly denounced German methodology but enviously studied their successes. Before the title year Americans were victims of government attempts at thought control. In the 50s there was McCarthyism persecution in the name of national defense. In the 60s and 70s police and military spied on citizens who voiced contrary opinions. Politicians kept hate list of journalist, scholars and citizens that rejected political correct thought. Criminal activities exposed the agencies’ excesses but left a massive archive of personal information in the dark bowels of government, to be leaked over the years for political leverage.
(2011) Despite the investigations of the 70s American governments are now in personal data collection and targeting of citizens. The State Department is seeking data on your mother address before your birth, name of her natal doctor and nursing staff at your birth before honoring your right to travel.
The New York Police are running covert information collection on citizens including those outside New York, with no crime alleged. Other law enforcement agencies copy down license numbers of every car parked on streets. Police surveil the population with access to cameras affixed to buildings and street corners. Data filed in massive computers saved for future police leverage. Some PDs have co-opted neighborhood watch into neighbor spy groups. Some jurisdictions have passed laws against recording police brutality and corruption. Why doesn’t federal government do something about these constitutional violations?
Federal agents are collection personal information in friendly foreign nations on their innocent citizens. A U.S. Representative is running his own voter watch list, complete with surveillance photos, and advises other congressmen to establish their own list of those who question “correct’ thought. The U.S. Air Force is experimenting with methods to overwhelm humans’ ability to think, fry our brains and make us a little dumber.
Can we get any dumber? We load social media with random thoughts while government auto-tags emails, Facebook, Twitter and phone conversation for buzz word. Key words are linked to surveillance tapes and individuals are GPS tracked. Governments now know where you go, what you buy and whom you meet. Business and medical DBs add to government covert collections. Big brother’s eye is on you, be frightened.
You have democratic freedom, the dictators tell you so. The Orwellian oligarchical dictatorships are here and tightening grip on your thoughts. This is real terror, State terror.
Orwell wrote his masterpiece in 1947 possibly drawing inspiration from exposed NAZI’s near total control of German thought. Governments loudly denounced German methodology but enviously studied their successes. Before the title year Americans were victims of government attempts at thought control. In the 50s there was McCarthyism persecution in the name of national defense. In the 60s and 70s police and military spied on citizens who voiced contrary opinions. Politicians kept hate list of journalist, scholars and citizens that rejected political correct thought. Criminal activities exposed the agencies’ excesses but left a massive archive of personal information in the dark bowels of government, to be leaked over the years for political leverage.
(2011) Despite the investigations of the 70s American governments are now in personal data collection and targeting of citizens. The State Department is seeking data on your mother address before your birth, name of her natal doctor and nursing staff at your birth before honoring your right to travel.
The New York Police are running covert information collection on citizens including those outside New York, with no crime alleged. Other law enforcement agencies copy down license numbers of every car parked on streets. Police surveil the population with access to cameras affixed to buildings and street corners. Data filed in massive computers saved for future police leverage. Some PDs have co-opted neighborhood watch into neighbor spy groups. Some jurisdictions have passed laws against recording police brutality and corruption. Why doesn’t federal government do something about these constitutional violations?
Federal agents are collection personal information in friendly foreign nations on their innocent citizens. A U.S. Representative is running his own voter watch list, complete with surveillance photos, and advises other congressmen to establish their own list of those who question “correct’ thought. The U.S. Air Force is experimenting with methods to overwhelm humans’ ability to think, fry our brains and make us a little dumber.
Can we get any dumber? We load social media with random thoughts while government auto-tags emails, Facebook, Twitter and phone conversation for buzz word. Key words are linked to surveillance tapes and individuals are GPS tracked. Governments now know where you go, what you buy and whom you meet. Business and medical DBs add to government covert collections. Big brother’s eye is on you, be frightened.
You have democratic freedom, the dictators tell you so. The Orwellian oligarchical dictatorships are here and tightening grip on your thoughts. This is real terror, State terror.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Extra Extra 100811
The excited cries of paperboys on street corners are rapidly fading American oldsters’ memories. Late night movies occasionally refresh memories of a time when newspapers were breakfast staples as important as coffee.
Cities and towns across the country had several competing papers that published multiple editions. Hot news rated extra editions that were hawked to readers on the street. Newspapers were devoured on streets, busses and subways as well as the breakfast table. The movers and shakers of the period read several daily papers.
Newspapers had many lives; they were passed from reader to reader. At the end of the day street people gave discarded papers a last read then used them as blankets for the night, merchants wrapped fish in them and housewives cleaned windows with them.
Avid readers could be identified by the fresh ink stains on their fingers from hot off the press newspapers. News was not carved in stone; it was cast in lead, hot type. News hounds captured the facts on the backs of envelopes with stubby pencils. Walking into newsrooms on deadline was like entering a cacophonous tornado. It appeared as pandemonium, the constant crackle of teletypes added world news to reporters’ scribbled notes. Bells rang, typewriters rattled, editors shouted and processed information from backs of envelopes to hot type composing rooms. Presses roared in the basement and the buildings shook, this was news. From first editions to five star finals, with the sometimes extras, this was news.
Newspapers were the catalysis that made America. Reporters reported facts, ideas and words of the great. The people read, pondered, discussed and acted. Politicians studied voices of competing newspapers and crafted policies and leadership rolls.
In the post war era of television readers began to slip away to TV news as entertainment. Americans forgot how to read. Sound bites replaced incisive articles. Reporters no longer reported news they became journalists who were the news. Today without video there is no story. For great TV news no truth is required, keep talking, let there be no dead air. Speculate on speculation, but keep talking whether the words make sense or not. Social media with even less reliability is replacing TV news as the public’s source of information. Social media is great for inciting mobs but serves poorly as a reliable source of information.
Assaulted by electronic media, bad management and increasingly illiterate publics, American NEWSPAPERS are shrinking in size as well as readership until they will forever disappear. Future America will step back from its downward slippery slope and reach for a newspaper for explanations and reassurance. It will find a need for more than 25 words sound bites and its newspapers will be gone. Before it is to late Americans must slow down, relearn to read and think. The current social media trend as a purveyor of news is another flawed American model the world must not follow.
Cities and towns across the country had several competing papers that published multiple editions. Hot news rated extra editions that were hawked to readers on the street. Newspapers were devoured on streets, busses and subways as well as the breakfast table. The movers and shakers of the period read several daily papers.
Newspapers had many lives; they were passed from reader to reader. At the end of the day street people gave discarded papers a last read then used them as blankets for the night, merchants wrapped fish in them and housewives cleaned windows with them.
Avid readers could be identified by the fresh ink stains on their fingers from hot off the press newspapers. News was not carved in stone; it was cast in lead, hot type. News hounds captured the facts on the backs of envelopes with stubby pencils. Walking into newsrooms on deadline was like entering a cacophonous tornado. It appeared as pandemonium, the constant crackle of teletypes added world news to reporters’ scribbled notes. Bells rang, typewriters rattled, editors shouted and processed information from backs of envelopes to hot type composing rooms. Presses roared in the basement and the buildings shook, this was news. From first editions to five star finals, with the sometimes extras, this was news.
Newspapers were the catalysis that made America. Reporters reported facts, ideas and words of the great. The people read, pondered, discussed and acted. Politicians studied voices of competing newspapers and crafted policies and leadership rolls.
In the post war era of television readers began to slip away to TV news as entertainment. Americans forgot how to read. Sound bites replaced incisive articles. Reporters no longer reported news they became journalists who were the news. Today without video there is no story. For great TV news no truth is required, keep talking, let there be no dead air. Speculate on speculation, but keep talking whether the words make sense or not. Social media with even less reliability is replacing TV news as the public’s source of information. Social media is great for inciting mobs but serves poorly as a reliable source of information.
Assaulted by electronic media, bad management and increasingly illiterate publics, American NEWSPAPERS are shrinking in size as well as readership until they will forever disappear. Future America will step back from its downward slippery slope and reach for a newspaper for explanations and reassurance. It will find a need for more than 25 words sound bites and its newspapers will be gone. Before it is to late Americans must slow down, relearn to read and think. The current social media trend as a purveyor of news is another flawed American model the world must not follow.
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