Olive Subsidies

Posted on 17. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 11, 2011

subsidies – California farmer

I read a disturbing article about how our government has granted Morocco almost $700 million over the last five years toward improving their fruit tree farms, thus hiking salaries and employment in the region.

In 2004, our congress instituted the “Millennium Challenge Corp., a foreign aid agency headed by the secretary of state, to help developing countries reduce poverty” says the article, found here: http://www.sfgate.com/food/article/U-S-aid-to-Morocco-worries-California-olive-2309224.php

I looked into the Millenium Challenge Corp., which has been earmarked for over $7 billion in grants to help 23 African and Latin American countries.

It is a totally transparent system, with all the information you could ever want already on the web. The MCC got started with strong bipartisan support.

So what is wrong with wanting to help other countries? Nothing, except when our own country is struggling with poverty and unemployment. Just something to think about.

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Regulations

Posted on 17. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 10, 2011

Regulations – Glass Steagall – recession – depression – Dodd Frank – banking regulations

How did “regulation” become a dirty word?
Almost twenty years ago, I met an expat in the Netherlands from the United States who worked at Exxon. He lived in Montana and made most of his wealth trading commodities, as a result of his ties to farmers in the pork and agricultural businesses.
He said that if I wanted to make money in the stock market, it was a great way to go because there were regulations in place to prevent stock market fluctuations that were responsible for the Great Depression. He was talking about the Glass-Steagall Act, though at the time I had no idea the name of those regulations. The Act created a separation between investment banks and commercial banks effectively removing the conflict of interest between investment bankers who would have also served as officers of those commercial banks belonging to the same conglomerate. By repealing Glass-Steagall, it allowed Wall Street investment banking firms to gamble with their depositors’ money that was held in commercial banks owned or created by the investment firms.
Glass-Steagall effectively ended the boom and bust phenomenon from its passage in 1933 until its systematic disembowelment starting in 1980 and completed in 1999 by an aggressively pro-monopoly congress.
Now we are feeling the effects of a government who loosened regulations to the point where Wall Street had a field day with our money and their financial instruments, and we have yet to see the full extent of the carnage.
If we followed Dodd Frank in its entirety, it would be like Jenga: you pull one pin out and a whole bunch of things fall. Even Barney Frank said it would be difficult, if not impossible to enact Dodd Frank. It’s going to take a long time to unravel all the shenanigans that have happened in the financial industry sector.

In order for Dodd Frank to be effective, it needs to be implemented in its intended spirit, which is to:

1. Protect consumers by providing them clear information about their financial instruments

2. End too-big-to-fail bailouts

3. Create a council to warn the government when a company is taking untenable risks

4. Eliminate loopholes that allow over-the-counter derivatives, asset-backed securities, hedge funds, mortgage brokers and payday lenders

5. Allow shareholders a say in how much executives make in salary and bonuses

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Cultivators of the Earth

Posted on 15. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 9, 2011

“Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interest by the most lasting bonds.” –Thomas Jefferson, 1785

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Who Will Decide the Next Election?

Posted on 14. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 8, 2011

election – unemployed – students – internet – mobile devices

Political opinion-maker Charlie Cook, National Journal columnist thinks the next President will be chosen by Independent “swing” voters. I think the next election will be decided by two new groups of voters: students and the unemployed.

The reason they are “new” groups is that they became contenders within the last three years. The reason they will decide the next election is two-fold: 1. They have time to spend on the internet and 2. They care more than ever before about the outcome.

Students are social-networking savvy. They go to the internet as their source of information, often via cell phones rather than computer. If it’s tweetable, it’s readable. They have to start caring about politics more than ever because their futures are decided by people in Washington, and they had better care who represents them.

The unemployed in this country have become a formidable group of people. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of September 2011, 14 million people in the United States were unemployed. It’s probably higher, but even at 14 million, that’s enough to decide who will be our next President.

Why do they have “time” to spend on the internet?

Unemployed people use the internet to do most of their job search activities, unless they don’t own a computer. And even if they don’t, Infographics reports that more than 50% of all “local” internet searches are done from a mobile device. When these two means fail to provide, libraries are a source where people can use the internet or other materials to find information.

In 2008, Obama used the internet heavily to influence voters, and it may have won him the election. The use of internet as a trend is only going to increase, so candidates be aware!

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Homage to Steve Jobs

Posted on 13. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 7, 2011

Steve Jobs – Apple – visionary – designer

I just watched an excellent speech given by Steve at Stanford University for a graduating class. Here it is: http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html

I remember crying the first time I watched it years ago, before I sent him a CD of some tunes that I thought he would enjoy because he’s a creative person who needs to reinvent himself over and over again, the way any good business person would.

If you ask me for the track names, I will give them to you. It was iTunes that got me started on that practice of putting mixed compilations together for my friends, and I had written a letter to Steve Jobs, asking for him to put a clip on the back of iPods so we consumers wouldn’t have to buy schlocky aftermarket cases or straps to carry them around.

Steve didn’t listen to me; Apple was his design shop after all, not mine. He was, above all else, a designer. People called him “visionary” and I guess that’s an even more flattering term, but first and foremost, he was a designer.

I wrote him a letter that I didn’t send, though. It was a more heart-felt version, and the clip idea took a back seat. I have that version in my diary, and it will stay private with me, but the gist of it was: please don’t die. You have a lot of living left to do; we need you here.

We were lucky enough to have him for three more years after I sent him the CD with the letter. I felt foolish doing it, but I was operating from my heart, which is to say: I really loved that guy. If you can love a CEO,  I guess I did.

But he makes me so angry. Why was he so selfish? Why didn’t he help people the way Bill Gates does with his money? It remains to be seen: did he design his will the same way he designed while alive: with great precision and thoughtfulness? I was hoping his successors would come down from on high and tell us what Steve’s ideas were for the whopping billions of dollars, that mound of cash they are sitting on. If he had no ideas for it, then what did he create, please tell me?

Then I watched the video this morning, and I realized: he doesn’t care what you or I experience. In fact, he sees hardship as a thoroughfare and a shaping for what you are about to become.

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Woody

Posted on 12. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 6, 2011

One of my favorite comedic lines of all time comes from WoodyAllen’s movie, Hannah and Her Sisters. I paraphrase here:

“If our founding fathers were alive today to see what’s being done in the name of Government, they would never stop throwing up.”

Watch the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlvA_dgf7Zc

When I saw this, I bust out with a loud belly laugh in the theater. Remembering it, I may have been the only one laughing. If only it weren’t so true!

Thank you, Woody. I’ve always loved you.

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Democracy or Plutocracy

Posted on 11. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 5, 2011

Democracy – Republic – Plutocracy – Oligarchy – Corporatocracy – Polyarchy – Central Government

A friend of mine made an interesting statement: he said that democracy and capitalism need to go hand-in-hand. Capitalism without structure (read: regulations) will run afoul, just as it has in this country and across the pond.

Anything taken to extremes is then extreme. The original plan or concept can not be sustained indefinitely when it tries to work to the exclusion of other options. As a side note, this is how depression occurs: when people see no other options, they become depressed.

That is why no single type of government will remain intact indefinitely. Originally, this country was designed as both a Republic and a Democracy. Republic, meaning a country where a majority of citizens exert control over their government, and Democracy, meaning all people have a say in their government.

Now it could be argued that our country fits more into one of these categories:

Plutocracy: ruled by the wealthy

Oligarchy: where power rests with an elite class, whether royalty or wealthy

Corporatocracy: where wealthy corporations are in bed with government

Polyarchy: where a group of people have most of the power

Central Government: the U.S. has a federal government, at the level of the nation-state, but without the ethnic identity of other countries

In my estimation, we are a mixture of all of these types of “governance” whereby wealthy corporations have undue influence in our government, which is run by the elected few. There is still a semblance of Democracy in the Polyarchy framework, but we have ceded power to those who would take it by numbing our sense of our own power as a collective majority. We can blame the media for this “numbing,” or a sort of brainwashing of the feeble minded, or we could blame ourselves for our complicit attitudes and behaviors.

Rather than casting blame, I say it is time to put thoughtful consideration into the type of government we want or need. If we want to return to the original framers’ idea of a dual system, we need to move away from the other types listed above with methodical planning.

 

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Special Needs

Posted on 10. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 4, 2011

Special needs – developmental delay – parenting – parents of children with special needs

I just read a blog that a friend of mine wrote about her special needs daughter, and it helped me realize that I’m not the only one who struggles.

I love being a parent, but I must confess: it is difficult sometimes. Double that for parents with special needs children, because they have amplified feelings (the children, not necessarily the parents.) Children with special needs often get more frustrated, more depressed, more moody than typical children. I know what you might be thinking: your child is no piece of cake either. Well, imagine if your child couldn’t learn her ABC’s while all the other kids were racing ahead, learning how to read by 1st 2nd or 3rd grade.

The way education goes is thus: you first learn how to read, and then you read to learn.

My daughter is ten years old and she is still struggling with decoding words. She cannot write a word by herself, much less a whole sentence. She wants to play with other kids, but they don’t have the patience for her because she doesn’t understand the rules. She feels more at ease with children 4 or 5 years younger than herself, because they don’t expect much competency from her. And her interests skew young: she still watches Barney and Caillou, which are designed for 3- to 5- year olds.

The hard thing to understand is that she is very bright. She just can’t put it on paper, or put puzzles (like language) together. She is smart enough to know that she is not learning like everyone else. She gets mad, and asks me “when will I go to a regular school with all the kids (who live nearby)?

When she was little, we identified her issues before she was even 3 months old. We thought she would “grow out of it” and catch up.  Now that she is ten, it’s easier to see that she will never catch up, and that we will be lucky to see her reach a fully functional level.

The best way to handle the vagaries of being a parent of a special needs child is to let go of the drive for a specific outcome. It is crucial to only focus on the positive attributes of that child. For example, my daughter has the rare ability to be empathetic, and she reads social cues even better than I do. She gets along with just about anyone, especially if they are willing to go down to her level. And she will be an excellent cook or baker or pastry chef some day, based on her love of food.

Special needs kids change the people who work and play with them. Adversity has a way of improving a person’s character, making them more patient and understanding and sometimes more kind. It takes an extraordinary person to parent a special needs child.

I now have many friends who are incredible, amazing people in part because they are the parents of special kids.

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12-year-old Explains How to Fix Banking System

Posted on 9. April 2013 by admin

http://youtu.be/Bx5Sc3vWefE

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Capitalism is the Problem?

Posted on 8. April 2013 by admin

Originally posted at Writeindependent.org on October 3, 2011

Capitalism – extreme capitalism – monopoly – corporation – government

What does capitalism mean to me? It means selling a product or service or your self as an expressive artist. It can mean hanging up a shingle, or setting up a lemonade stand.

It also means cooperation: people working together for a common goal, whether selling products or services, or creating new medicines or astounding inventions.

It also means corporations, and all the complexity that connotation carries along with it.

Is capitalism the problem, then? Or if it is, when does it become a problem? Can capitalism become extreme capitalism? How about when a company gets so big that it becomes a monopoly?

Capitalism in and of itself is an important part of our society. But there must be rules to running a business, or chaos will ensue.

If two football teams tried to play without rules, it would be very hard to determine who was winning. But for the sake of argument, let’s say only one team had the ability to make up the rules, and the other team had to just accept them. And let’s say that that same team kept changing to rules, to suit themselves, whenever they wanted to score more points. And then the referees had to enforce those new rules. That’s what has happened with business in this country: some big businesses have used government to bend the rules in their favor. Guess who always wins? The ones using our government to set rules that favor greater and greater profits for themselves.

It’s not capitalism that is at fault here. It’s when businesses effectively “run” our government, not for the greater good, but to specifically rule out healthy competition.

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