Three Changes for Civilization

(forgive me until I have time to edit this raw essay)

Actually the Modern World, that is, the World we know today, is not Civilized. Yes, there are laws and armies, jails and schools, roads and utilities; but the truth of the matter is that the Barbarians who run everything have just implemented enough quasi-civilized institutions and policies to suit their own needs, but that nothing about it is planned or sustainable when the entire World is taken into account. And if a Civilization is not sustainable, well, then its not really a Civilization, is it?

Our biggest clue is the barbaric economic policies. Globalization is mostly about competition between Growth Based Business Plans, on all of the continental, national and corporate scales. As I have pointed out in previous essays, the Capitalists, according to their most core principals, do not pay out to their workers nearly enough Money to buy what they produce, so every Capitalist Economy is necessarily Export Driven -- if you do not pay your own people enough to buy your Product, then you need to raid other Economies for its Customers and Consumers. Now, consider, if the World becomes One Global Economy, then there is nowhere left to export… unless one discovers Consumers on Mars or on the Moon. Therefore the least competitive economies are going to wither and die, one by one. This would serve them right, but I doubt that the weakest economies, also being the Strongest in regards to Military Power and Nuclear Armament, will go off and die quietly and peacefully.

Another problem with Growth Based Capitalism is that growth, in any venue, will eventually hit a saturation point. We live on a finite planet with finite resources. We can grow until we hit the Ceiling, but then what?

Look at the most resent Recession that still grips the World. The Propagandists all claim that it began with the Real Estate Mortgage Crisis in America, and this line of argument insulates from criticism the basic cause which was Growth Based Economics. You see, the first Cause of the mortgage crisis was that people could not pay their mortgages, and they could not pay their mortgages because Food and Fuel prices had skyrocketed – it was a Commodities Shortage Crisis! How soon everyone forgets, but remember the news stories about grain prices doubling and tripling because Grain Alcohol, which they called ‘Bio-Fuel’, was the New Oil and therefore locked in Price to the rising price of Petroleum.

The high price of premium Real Estate, that is, properties conveniently located where people actually work, forced most people to buy homes at great distances from where they worked, and shopped. And still these homes out in the middle of nowhere were still just barely affordable for Working Class People. So when the price of Gas and Food went up, people had to chose between driving to work, eating food, or paying their mortgages. A Crisis was inevitable.

Nowadays, we hear even President Obama talking of “Growing our Economy out of the Recession”. Really!? But if we were to recover from the Recession, well, wouldn’t we be exactly were we were before? We would fall immediately back into the Commodities Crisis – a severe Inflation which would pinch the Working Class back into either not paying for their homes, or buying Consumer Goods.

In short, the only thing keeping us out of Recession is the Recession we are already in.

And the Commodities Shortage Crisis will only get worse. India and China with their huge populations, dwarfing the American and European demographic numbers, are growing at a rate of almost 10% a year. Workers in India and China who were riding a bicycle 20 years ago, who rode a scooter 10 years ago, are now driving cars. They eat meat. They are beginning to buy consumer goods.

America’s answer is to have these Growing Economies appreciate their currencies, so that their money will be worth more. Duh!? If their money is worth more, they will be able to buy more of the stuff that is available on the Global Markets, and the Declining Economies will have to go through severe inflations in order to try to keep up. In plain terms this means that if the Chinese and Indian Currencies double in value, Gas in America will go up to $20 a gallon, Bread will be $20 a loaf, and the Economy will collapse and Law and Order will be a nostalgic memory from the past.

The Argument for devalued currency, which America wants for itself, is that if the American Worker could be paid Less Value for his productivity, then there would be more Export Customers. It’s a fine theory, but everybody forgets that America had effectively De-Industrialized. The Engineers and Skilled Workers of the Great Post-War Era are all in retirement. And the Universities aren’t turning out new Engineers. Everybody had gone into Business and Finance… the easy money where one didn’t actually have to learn anything or really study very hard. The Roads and Rails have fallen apart. America needs to face the fact that it is no longer an Industrial Nation, or even capable of being one any longer.

The problem of Skilled Labor is indeed a real problem, and one that can not be fixed by any Modern Democracy. You see, something of a Privately Confidential Report was issued by one of the Right Wing Think Tanks, and it correlated Low Education with Right Wing Voting Patterns, and likewise correlated Moderate and Liberal Voting Patterns with Higher Education. Therefore, one can immediately discern that in all of the World’s Democratic Nation, Every Right Wing Politician will be busy sabotaging Education. It is obvious in America. And without an Educated Workforce, their can be no serious Industrialization, or indeed anything of an intelligent and productive Economy.

So America’s devaluing their Currency will only give the Chinese more for what they produce without really furnishing any means for the Americans to jump in and fill in the capacity gap created by higher Chinese prices.

Maybe the American Working Class needs to promise the Right Wing that in exchange for adequate Educational Resources, that they will vote like absolute Fascists and Nazis. Sarah Palin will beam with delight. But as long as College Educated and Skilled Labor vote Democratic, Education will be under a blight in America. If you are smart enough to vote Right Wing, which is pretty basically stupid, then that’s as smart as you need to be… according to our present set of Policy Makers.

Another thing we need to consider is Global Warming. The Wild Cancer of Growth Capitalism has created this situation where the Planet is now obviously burning out and going into a phase of instability. More Growth is clearly not the answer.

What needs to happen is that we slow down Growth and concentrate only on the Essentials. So much could be saved. Capitalist Competition duplicates almost every effort a hundred times. We do not need the duplication of hundreds of Corporate Staffs, hundreds of Factories working at a fraction of their capacity. Concentrate Production.

What about all the Workers who will be fired. Well, simply give them Free Money for Obeying the Walls and keeping up with their Education so that they will be useful when and if they are called back to Employment.

Really, if Modern Technology and Automation does not NEED everybody to work, then why is everybody still expected to scratch and claw out a Job?

And we have to consider that the most costly and wasteful aspect of this Growth Capitalist Model for Social Economy is that forcing Everybody to get jobs also forced Everybody to drive back and forth to work, everyday.

Look at what saved us from the last Commodities Crisis. Just 10% Unemployment, that is with just 10% of the people staying home from Work, relaxed the extreme demand on Gas Prices (and Bio-Fuel prices that linked directly to Food Prices).

So the answer is not More Work, but Less Work… but to still provide a rewarding income for those who obey the rules and do what they had been taught to do.

Another aspect in this category of Unnecessary Work is the Criminal Justice System. The Lawyers and Judges have learned to treat Repeat Offenders like Return Customers. The Lawyers and the Judges cannot remain in charge of their own Funding… they demand more each year and give back less and less for it. We can reduce much of the expense in the Criminal Justice System simply by executing criminals proven to have set up a career in Crime. And no costly appeals. Proof is proof. Hang them the next morning the way it used to be done.

Of course, in years to come, when Civilization again hits a comfortable patch of Stability, then one can look into Rehabilitation Programs for Professional Criminals. I would expect Good Peer Group Immersion Therapy to work the best. You see, ordinary stupid people are influenced more by their Group than by any other factor. Put these Followers in with good people and they will become Good People themselves. One only has to look at the Mix and Proportion. The Good People of the Group must be by far the greatest influence. Too many Bad People in the mix and one will only have Sub-Groups developing. Anyway, let the Psychologists work out the fine details. But in any case, while our Society is heavily burdened by Crime, it probably makes as much sense to summarily execute Criminals as it is to summarily execute the people we label as ‘Terrorists’… and perhaps even more, as when was the last time we had a car stolen, our house burgled, or were mugged by a ‘terrorist’?

Without Repeat Crime, and certainly less living Criminals, the requirements for so many Prisons and Jails will decline. You know, now, in America there are more Prison Guards than School Teachers, and because they have a more effective Union, they even make more money. A ‘Dumb Screw’ makes as much as a High School Science Teacher. These Guards are the first we would want to be put on Simple Pay. The Job of Guard is more than any other De-humanizing. Nice People do not stay Nice People and continue working as Prison Guards. The Mean Streak comes out more and more.

There is another Change that should be made, and this is perhaps the most profound. Organizing Society around the Nuclear Family – Mom and Dad and the Children – in isolation; well, its been a disaster. You know, it has never always been like that. What is more typical is the Extended Family, where Grandfather and Grandmother could oversee the less experienced parents, and show a more benevolent kind of Love, and where Aunts and Uncles could show a broader view of the World’s Opportunities than just Mom and Dad. And perhaps even better than the Extended Family is the Clan or even a Tribe-like Organization.

I’ve read that the optimum number in a close Social Organization of from about 100 to 150 people… after that you start seeing the Group break down into competing Sub-Groups. This would largely eliminate the occurrence of so many dysfunctional families. Yes, there could be dysfunctional Groups, but with careful administrative oversight, transfers in and out could keep a good enough balance of good people in every group.

Of course, no change is possible while we still live under the tyranny of Democracy, where Special Interest nominate nearly every candidate and sponsor their campaigns. Just because we get to Vote on the small offerings given us by the Israel, Gun and Banking Lobbies doesn’t mean that we have True Representative Government. And even with the Voting, in most modern Elections close to 49% of the Voters actually LOSE, that is, they are completely disenfranchised and the New Rulers become their sworn enemies. Democracy can be vicious.

It would be so much better if we threw over Democracy and adopted some form of Professional Government Bureaucratic Meritocracy. Kids go to school and if they want to serve in Government, they take the Test, which decides the Upper Limits of their Service Capacity. No Special Interest Influence at all. Indeed, one of the requirements for Government Service would have to be complete transparency of their finances and property.

Government would be helpful and honest because there would be no interest in being otherwise.