Time Does Not Exist

The other week there was this Big Mathematician on TV. He had a book published… no, not written for other Mathematicians, but one of those popular books meant to impress ordinary people. What caught my attention was that he was talking of the impossibilities of Artificial Intelligence, that “even cockroaches are smarter than robots”. Duh. For a phrase like that to mean what he intended it to mean, then it would have to be some kind of acknowledged truth that cockroaches are really very stupid. But they aren’t. Cockroaches are smart little devils. It would actually be a quite a complement to Artificial Intelligence if it were as smart as cockroaches.

So, already I was wondering about that guy.

He went on to say that Artificial Intelligence has trouble learning new skills, and that robots can only do what they are programmed to do. Again, I was dumbfounded. Even primitive programs have “If – Then” command structures. With “If – Then” structures running then the Program will run differently depending upon input data, that is, how it will go a new direction every time another “IF” gets triggered. So already at relatively low levels of programming we have computer programs operating independently from their Programmer, being data dependent. Again, I was wondering about this guy.

Then the TV interviewer asked the Author about Time Travel. “Oh, yeah, sure… it is only a matter of Time”… or some such statement. This guy was talking about repositioning in Time. Going back in Time. Going forward in Time… that is, faster than everybody else.

That was it. We had a certifiable Idiot!

There are things that every Philosopher Intellectual knows, but which most Mathematicians, in their Mathematician Caves, hide from, and that is that Absolutes do not exist. Why? Well, Absolutes are merely mathematical constructs – Imaginary Qualities. Take Infinity for instance. Mathematicians say that ‘Parallel Lines’ are defined as lines that meet in Infinity, that is, lines that never meet. They should just say ‘never’. By saying ‘Infinity’ they fool themselves into thinking there really is an Infinity out there. There isn’t. They made it up to illustrate a point. An imaginary point.

It’s the same for Eternity. Just because you can imagine it, or chart it, does not mean that it is really out there somewhere.

The same goes for Time. You see, time is just an imaginary thing we use to measure or perceive rate of motion. Something moves 10 meters per second, and so in ten seconds it moves 100 meters. That’s Time for you. It’s a function of Speed and Space. If nothing moved and if there were no Distance, then we would not need Time as a chartable axis.

So how could anybody possibly think Time had any independent existence subject to manipulation and transferal? Well, Mathematicians thinking mathematically. They chart Time so often that they fool themselves into thinking it is real. Infinity. Eternity. Time. Yes, they are all nouns and so they must exist. They whip up a new Chart, adding a Fifth or even Sixth Dimension, and because the Left Side of the Board equals the Right Side of the Board, they suppose it must all be Real. But, really, its just a Chart.

Drawing a Purple Unicorn does not mean Purple Unicorns are real. Charting Time does not make Time real either.

So, really, what we have is Now. Now is something we can be sure of. Yes, things move. Mental activity moves. We moved from a moment ago. We move into the next moment. The motion was real, but that Concept we used to chart the Rate of Motion – Time … well that is only a Heading on a Graph.

Oh, while I was able to thoroughly dismiss that Mathematician as a Complete Idiot… just imagine what I thought of the REALLY Stupid Media Interviewer.

Where do they find people stupid enough to be Journalists. Is there a Test they have to take and they can only be a Journalist if they FLUNK?

Debate and Who Wins and Who Loses

Ever since the Age of Reason, or even back to when Abelard faced Bernard at the Sorbonne, there has been the notion that the Winner of a debate would be he who had the most Reasonable Argument. Reason was supposed to win. Arguments were all about Reason.

That is what they said.

But all of the People saying such a thing were all being a bit disingenuous because, really, they all knew enough of Ancient Greek Literature and History to know that there has always been more than Reason involved in all such things. We knew about Sophists and Demagogues – people who made it their specialty to convince with Reason, or without it, to persuade according to the Interests of the Moment, appealing as much to prevalent tastes, likes and dislikes, and popular prejudices as to Reason.

Today we recognize them as lawyers, advertisers, politicians and Debaters.

Now, what they all have in common is that they are very results-oriented. Its all about Winning or Selling.

What if you only wanted to be reasonable?

You know, the thing about Reason is that it is self-evident. One knows how one does in a debate. And one knows whether the other guy has been reasonable or not. Now, sometimes it occurs that two people can be reasonable. It happens. One person has one set of facts that support one view of the Universe, while another person has another set of facts that present another view… a competing perspective of the Universe. In such a situation, well, both debaters have an opportunity to learn… to expand there view. Most importantly, there is not really a need for hostility or animosity.

I visited one Debate Page recently where I was told that I was lucky that another much better Debater rarely came to the Page as he would likely make my life miserable if he did. This made me wonder whether he was being spoken of in such a way because he was a particularly Reasonable or a particularly Obnoxious Debater.

Many people on the fringes of the Debate World suppose that animosity and hostility are intrinsic to the Debate. For them I suppose it is. It is like people going to Auto Races to see the crashes. But Auto Racing is not about crashing… yes, crashing is a mistake that often happens and it attracts much of the attention. But Racing is mostly about driving very fast. Likewise, Debates are about Reason, and thinking Fast. Its not really about ‘crashing’ and all the animosities that some people think are so essential.


I’ve been debating for years. My best debates have been rather cordial. Reasonable people discussing an issue.

How does hostility ever get involved anyway?

Oh, there is the matter of Group Dynamics and of certain personality types using Hostility and Aggression to maneuver for Group Alpha Status – Roaring, Foot Stomping and Chest Beating. You know, as much as we would wish to be able to universally ridicule such unreasonable behaviors, still, for many people such Dominance Behaviors carry more weight than a subtly expressed thread of logic. And, really, we must realize that it is very possibly much more likely that most people better understand Aggression and Dominance than they understand the intricacies of Reason.

It reminds me of a Story. A Village in India was being lead into Rebellion by some big ruffian who pretended to quote the Vedas, in support of all his outrages. A Vedic Scholar from the Provincial Capital thought that it would be easy enough to go to the Village and challenge the man. When he got there he discovered that the Fake Scholar held his Vedic Scroll upside-down. He thought it was quite decisive when he pointed this fact out to the Crowd, that they would immediately reject the phony, if it was so obvious that the man could not possibly really know how to read. However, it was not to prove quite so easy. You see, the People themselves also did not know how to read, and did not realize that it was such an important matter of whether a book was right-side up or not. So the Big Dumb Rebel just laughed and roared out to People that for anybody who can ‘really read’ it doesn’t matter which way a book happens to be. And for most of the people this made perfect sense. Guess who they believed?

The Scholar for the City lost. But he wasn’t wrong. Sometimes we just have to settle for not being wrong…. And then send in the Troops.

International Communism Will Be American

Yes, the irony of History will continue. We have all seen relatively recently that Russia and China, former Behemoths for International Communism, had abandoned their Planned Socialist Economies in the rush for Privatization and Capitalism. But what will surprise us even further is that America will impose on the Globe a totally Planned World Economy. This will happen when the Dollar plunges in value to practically nothing and America uses its Military Might to forestall the usual results of a national bankruptcy.

Actually, it all might have already occurred, last year, if the Banks had been left to fall. But the World jumped in and used their Dollar Reserves to shore up the American Banking System. The Crises which had been brought on by the excessive Debt that the Dollar had been carrying was thwarted by the World eagerly running in to give the Dollar even more Credit… to the tone of several trillions more dollars. It saved the day, but worsened the prospect. The Dollar had been structurally weak enough already.

Why did the World bail out America? Well, most of the World at the time had organized their Economies so that the difference between their success or failure rested upon sales to the American Consumer. Yes, theoretically anyway, they would probably have preferred to extend credit to their own citizens… to give their own people something for nothing… than to give all sorts of undeserved Credit to strange and thoroughly selfish and hateful Americans. But in Europe and Asia the people are shy of debt and feel safe with Savings… so they wouldn’t take a Credit Card if it was given to them… with all kinds of special introductory offers. So if the World needed a Consumer Market to bail it out, then that Consumer Market would have to be American. If the Americans are anything at all, then they are Expert Consumers!

But the International Community must have realized how idiotic it all was, to make their own Populations work like slaves so the American’s could get it all in the end… and not even paying for it, but getting everything On Credit. And who says the American’s would ever pay? The first Crisis was about American’s not paying their Mortgages. What if they decided to default on those Credit Cards!?

Anyway, its been a year. I suppose that the World must be coming to realize that they could just as easily support their own Consumers as American Consumers if only they look into the structural reasons why so many people feel they need to Save instead of Spend. With Social Security Protections, Effective Pension Plans and a Tradition of supporting Senior Retirement in Dignity, then the rest of the World could be as casual in their Spending as any American Consumer.

Also, the International Economies might begin to suspect that dealing with their own Consumers would be better for them than dealing with American Consumers simply because their own Currencies may be more reliable than continuing to accept Dollars that are watered down by so much Debt.

I don’t know what will spark off the next Crisis, precisely. But in trying to figure that out we need to understand what exactly it is that supports the value of the Dollar. There are several important supports for the Dollar. The most important factor is that the OPEC Oil Cartel has informally made the Dollar the exclusive medium of exchange for Oil. As long as OPEC continues to accept ONLY Dollars for Oil, then the Dollar is effectively on the Oil Standard, the same way currency used to be backed by Gold or Silver. Any scarcity of Oil will keep the value of the dollar up in turn. But that all depends upon OPEC. We need to wonder what OPEC gets for their Dollars and whether they will continue to be happy with the deal?

The OPEC Trillionaires don’t need to buy Oil from anybody. To receive any value for their Dollars they must resort to Equities and Properties priced in Dollars. As long as they can buy neat stuff priced in Dollars then they will be happy.

So we find that the Dollar ultimately depends upon the Perceived Value of Dollar priced Assets and Equities – American Real Estate and Stock Prices, Bonds, Military Hardware, Fancy Cars and Such. Hmmmmm. But isn’t all this relative to what can be bought with other World Currencies? What exactly is worth so much in America nowadays that can’t be bought with the Euro, or the Yen? Maybe the best thing going for America is that most Foreign Investors in American Products and Securities aren’t very well traveled in America, and don’t know how really shaky their investments are.

When the International Community finally begins to doubt the Dollar, the slide will occur relatively quickly. We will know the End is Near when OPEC announces a preference for some other International Currency instead of the Dollar.

Oh, and then there is the matter of China fixing their Exchange Rate onto the value of the Dollar – “pegging” their Currency to the Dollar… which America endlessly complains about, claiming that this keeps China’s currency artificially low helping their exports and increasing the Trade Deficit. But China will be able to follow the Dollar’s downward spiral only so far. We will know that the Dollar is close to being finished when China cuts loose from it, and ‘pegs’ its currency instead on Japanese or European Values.

Dollar reserves from around the World will be dumped into the Equity Markets that will not be able to digest them. There will be a hyper-Inflation in dollar based Stock Prices and Real-Estate as dollars are dumped half-heartedly anywhere that some residual value can be found. As Businesses collapse they will sell out to foreign owners and then use their Buyout Receipts to pay off their Banks in cheap Dollars, and then they will close out their accounts, effectively shutting down the Banks. After all, with Dollars being dumped so aggressively, even if every Debt is fully Repaid, there will be no Market left for any future loans. And the next time the Banks fall there will be nobody willing to jump in and shore them up. The World won’t be so taken by surprise next time, and will have another Plan besides extending more Credit to America.

Oh, and this reminds me that the very act of trying to support the Dollar Economy may lead to its collapse. If Foreign Reserves are used to buy up American Properties, Businesses, Real Estate, etc, all in an effort to establish some value in the Dollar, then it might set off a Political Reaction in America. America is after all a Democratic and Democracies cannot always be relied upon to be so fair and square, intelligent and civilized about things. Anyway, Legislation could be introduced and passed in the American Congress insisting upon American Ownership of American Properties and the restricted use of Dollars by Foreign Nationals. Such a law would sound great to many Americans but it would spark a Dollar Dump from every Currency Reserve in the World. People wouldn’t be able to dump out the ‘useless paper’ Dollarssadf fast enough.

A millions dollars would be great, right? But not if it couldn’t buy you a pack of cigarettes.

Well, can we guess what would happen if America were to treat this kind of Economic Catastrophe as simply a purely Economic Event? Confronted by a Collapsed Dollar, America would no longer be able to buy Energy in the International Energy Markets. Indeed, America would not even be able to use its own Domestic Energy Sources, as Private Owners would sell off their stores and stocks in exchange for either super-inflated quantities of Dollars (trying to stay ahead of the Hyper Inflation Curve) or they would sell their wares for International Currencies that are actually worth Money.

With its Energy Markets in total disarray then every other business in America will shut down. Workers will not show up for work if their contractual wages are effectively worthless. Oh, and so much of America depends upon people going to work. Food, Water, Power, and all the things that support the huge sprawling Metropolitan Areas and then reach out to support the Vast American Desert and Wasteland Communities – 98% of Americans live hundreds of miles away from any viable sources of food and water for the population densities being considered. If Truck Drivers and Rail Way Workers do not report to work on Monday Morning, and if the Check-Out Girls do not show up for their shifts at the Super Markets, then people die by Friday night. There is nothing more fragile than the Modern Economy. It keeps 300 Million people eating, drinking, warm and dry. We know what will happen if it grinds to a halt. During the Great Depression, America was still largely Agricultural… most people were farmers. A lot of people were able to fall back on the Land when the Economy collapsed. But the Next Big Catastrophe will hit an America that has become a Huge Concrete Jungle. Any Fall will be rock hard and fatale… for millions of people.

So, anyway, if America simply follows the Economic Rules, when its Economy finally collapses as it surely will, well, it will be devastating beyond words. Oh, and not just with passive starving and such. On the News I heard that for the last several years the American Ammunition Industries have not been able to keep up with the Demand for Rifle and Hand Gun bullets. The Gun Nuts are stocking up. The Gun Nuts suspect something! When they no longer have dollars to spend, we suspect what they will be using to get by. So we can estimate that Small Regional Wars for local resources might kill more than the Starvation and Exposure itself.

But we need to ask ourselves whether America would be willing to face all of this dreadful apocalypse while still retaining the largest and deadliest Military Apparatus in the World. America now has more weapons then the rest of the World put together. Indeed, it is more like TWICE the weapons of the rest of the World put together… if you don’t count Israel. So will the American’s continue to play by the old capitalist rules – Winner Take All, even after they have clearly lost the game? Or will the American Leadership find some pretense for establishing a Planned World Economy, just coincidentally in time to catch themselves before they fall in the Abyss.

If I were to guess, it would be that America will suddenly find the prospects for Global Warming to be totally unacceptable and will decide to implement and All Inclusive Plan for International Fuel Rationing… the Free Markets will be effectively shut down. Once Fuel is rationed, then everything else would need to be rationed in turn. Remember, the Price of everything in today’s world revolves upon Energy Costs. Leave Energy Costs undefined and suddenly nobody knows what anything is worth.

So that would leave us with Rationing. How many People are there and what do they need? Yes there can be a lot of corruption in the details, but in Theory it is not all that difficult. And people do not need to necessarily be Corrupt. And since it is the Computer Age, the quantitative figuring required for coming up with a Rationing Plan really would not be all that difficult. And Computers might prove less Corruptible than People. We do know that Computers drink less Vodka.

Anyway, there were Planned Economies before the Computer Age. And they got by. Now, just hit the Enter button. There is no reason to believe we could not do so much better Today.

Oh… how much would the rest of the World be dragged in? Could the Non-Dollar Economies remain Capitalist even if the Americans were to move in and monopolize the Energy Markets? I don’t think so. America would certainly cut into each Nation’s typical Energy allotments, and if prices were to be allowed their natural movement, they would all skyrocket, hitting the poor and middle classes hard enough that they would complain to see the Rich walk away with everything, however much they had to pay. Getting a lot of Stuff because one has a lot of Money would no longer seem as fair as it does today. And most of these Countries had some history of Socialism in their backgrounds and they all survived. Abandoning Capitalism would break very few hearts around the World.

You know, Karl Marx never supposed there would be some big violent Communist Revolution. Yes, many of his friends believed it and pushed for it (“You have nothing to lose but your chains!”), and after a while Old Karl stopped arguing quite so much with his friends on the issue. To ‘get along’ sometimes one has to just ‘go along ‘, and all of that… living by consensus is sometimes easier than always fight-fight-fighting with everybody all the time, no? But his views as an Intellectual and Historian remained about the same, and that was that Capitalism would end up concentrating almost all of the World’s Wealth into a relatively very few hands, and then there would be Some Problem and then the Government would merely step in and Take Over. Overnight a kind of Absolute Private Ownership of Everything would become a Public Ownership of Everything. The only change would be in Public Responsibility versus Private Responsibility.

Who can be trusted more? Public Magistrates or, well, admittedly selfish entrepreneurs? I know, I know, living under Selfish Entrepreneurs is FREEDOM, and how can we all live without that?

I suppose we will all simply have to do our best.

Aesthetics Versus Reason

On a certain Debating Page I had received some criticism that my essays were overlong, and it was suggested that I could serve my readers better if I were to simply list my ‘bullet points’ – a quick summation of my most important ideas and conclusions, without the bothersome arguments, and then my readers could quickly see whether or not they agreed with me.

Hmmmmm.

Gloss over the Arguments and get straight to the Conclusions.

That is not Reason. That is not really even debate. It is Aesthetics – appreciation based on appearances, impressions, feelings.

Its what lawyers, advertisers and politicians nowadays specialize in.

It is the guy at the Art Show who says that he ‘doesn’t know Art but he knows what he likes’. Really, he has a point. In regards to the Things that fall well within the Realm of Aesthetics – wall paintings, neck ties and what not – then not much more matters than simple ‘I-like-it’ or ‘I-don’t-like-it’ feelings and impressions.

But on a Debate Page…!?

The larger problem is that it is not just a problem here. Our entire Society is forgoing Thought in favor of Feeling. There is no longer any compelling duty toward Rationality. The Propaganda of the last Hundred Years has focused on building up Aesthetics and modeling a Public that could be manipulated solely on the basis of their tastes and emotional preferences.

Why would the Policy Masters prefer Aesthetics to Reason? Well, Reason is inexorable and inflexible. But tastes can be guided and influenced. Propaganda works best on Tastes, where it simply falls blunt upon Reason.

So, really, People need to STOP trusting their feelings when it comes to Public Policies and Complex Social Issues. They need to STOP evaluating Arguments on the basis of Aesthetic Appreciations. It needs to be understood that such Aesthetic Appreciations are not personal. They have been Systematically Implanted. Whether from Market Street, or Washington D.C. there have been ranks and files of Expert Manipulators whose Life Purposes it has been to establish Public Taste and Acceptable Opinion. And Reason has had very little to do with it.

So when it comes to First Impressions, there is practically no doubt at all that you will think, I mean FEEL, entirely as you have been conditioned to FEEL. This is why it is so necessary to THINK. This is why it is so necessary to formulate actual arguments for believing what you have no reason for believing, aside from your conditioned feelings.

Just ask yourself why it is that so many Debaters here resist any actual Debate? They see an Argument, and FEEL that they must disagree with it. Such a STRONG FEELING must be right. Such a STRONG FEELING couldn’t possibly be wrong. Could it?

The Ancient Greeks also believed that Strong Aesthetic Appeal could not be baseless… that Truth was Beauty and Beauty was Truth. But then they, like ourselves, found that what people thought to be Beautiful was by no means fixed, and that Tastes could be worked on, manipulated, shaped by public pressures and Speeches made by pretty faces and tall convincing men. It was found that people could be trained like dogs. And Civilization fell. Now the Greeks can’t build a good car.

Anyway, untrained Intellects should never decide Right from Wrong on the basis of their emotional preferences. Such tastes are not their own, but a sum total of their Social Conditioning, and can’t be reasonably trusted to serve their own best interests. They are not conditioning you for your own good, but for their own.

You need to make arguments for and against the most important propositions in your life and see on which side Reason sticks.

Don’t be surprised if you come up not feeling good about it. Reason will not often agree with your Social Engineering. Your consolation is that you can begin to realize you need to begin correcting all the Propaganda and Conditioning that has screwed up your head.

Legal Extortion Should Be Illegal

In America they estimate the 95% of civil lawsuits are settled before going to Trial. What exactly does that mean? Well, we do know that once a lawsuit is filed in America, that a person has already effectively lost, for whether the Lawsuit is ever decided in one’s favor or not, the legal charges for the necessary representation are exorbitant. And unlike in France where the losers must pay all legal expenses, in America everybody is required to pay their own way. Even if you Win, you lose. It is a country where it is completely obvious that the laws and legal procedures are completely at the behest and making of the lawyers themselves. The Legal System serves the Lawyers.

So whenever in America anybody is sued, the most sensible Legal Advise is to settle. It is cheaper and easier just to Pay. But there is a word for threatening people with trouble unless they should pay a sum of money, and that word is ‘extortion’. Well, extortion is ordinarily illegal, unless it is systematically implemented by judges and lawyers who are considered officers of the court. But whatever the legal status of extortion is, depending upon who it is that enacts it, it is definitely immoral. Whenever the Immoral is Legal, then it is Corrupt.

No Legal System should allow a case to be settled simply because there is some compelling interest to settle, because that is extortion pure and simple. Likewise, if any case is ever found to have been filed without substantial cause, then not only should all costs be assumed by whoever is at fault but there should also be criminal consequences. To use the Civil Law frivolously or for extortion or harassment should have the most sever penalties attached. Most importantly, such decisions should not be solely at the discretion of the Judges, as Judges are simply big lawyers, as much to be suspected of being a part of a corrupt system as the lawyers themselves. Juries should make such decisions.

Also, I should add, that at some point in Legal History the power of Justice went from the Juries to the Judges, with Judges now deciding everything. This is all wrong. If the People are to be made to suffer Jury Duty, then they should at least have a little bit of the satisfaction of wielding Absolute Power. The Jury should be able to order anything. Yes, the Jury should even be able to have the Judges tossed out or penalized. Right now there is nothing that keeps Judges in line.

No, I don’t really think that Juries should be made up of “people too stupid to get out of Jury Duty”, as they say. Juries should be made up of qualified people. What should qualify them can be put up to discussion, only they should not be lawyers or judges, that is, Juries should not be a part of the very system that we wish to correct. For instance, no Juror should ever be allowed to socialize in the same ‘Club’ as any lawyer or Judge. Indeed, it has been a horrible miscarriage that Judges and Lawyers have been allowed to fraternize socially with each other.

Indeed, it is probably sad that it does present us with a huge argument in favor of a Caste System and Social Untouchability, that is, that Society has an overriding need to assure that some Professions be beyond the influence of ordinary social and group influences. In our case we need to consider that Judges and Lawyers can never be expected to be impartial professionally if they live with the more pressing requirements of having to get along socially together at The Same Club. Also it is worrisome that most Judges and most Lawyers belong to the same Secret Society – the Free Masons. Again, we only wish we knew their true agenda, or who was giving the orders there. The only thing we really know is that Free Masons get the promotions and the advancements, All the Success in Life, where the Non-Masons must settle for the crumbs.

I honestly don’t believe that the Legal System can ever be reformed. Too many people are making too much money the way it is. Indeed, this brings to mind a study concerning how much Money the Italian Mafia was draining from Italy and Sicily. Yes, it was a hefty sum. But then we need to compare that to the amount of Money the Legal Institutions drain from American Society. It turns out that America pays more for its Lawyer and Judges then Italy pays out to its Crooks. Is anybody surprised? As bad as it is in Sicily, it’s a model of efficiency when compared to America at its best.

By the way, that reminds me of one of the most horribly Ethnic-Racist propagandas being tossed around in America, and that is the notion that various Ethnic Groups have “Organized Crime” Gangs that maintain ‘Protection Rackets’ and exploit their members with ‘extortion’. My God! It is exactly the opposite! These Groups come to America and are confronted by corrupt, indifferent, and ineffective Police Forces and Extortionate, slow and hit and miss Legal Systems. Their requirements for Security and Conflict Resolution still exist, and so they are forced out of necessity to create their own Community Security Organizations. They appoint their own Judges and Magistrates. And how does Mainstream America react? It is all labeled as Criminal Enterprise – Organized Crime! Is this a fair view of it, or is the Mainstream just lashing out to protect its turf?

Anyway, we should probably consider the good sense demonstrated by these Ethnic Groups, in contracting for their own Security needs. Whatever the occasional drawbacks of Private Security, their costs are a fraction of what the Mainstream pays for Judges, Lawyers, Jails, Prisons, Clerks, Guards, Police, cars, traffic tickets – America’s Police State costs a forture!

Just as Italy pays less to its Mafia than America does to its lawyers, so America could find that it also could decide on a Bargain. America should place a moratorium against its Civil Legal Systems. Freeze out those Judges and Lawyers who grow fat off of everybody else’s hard work. Private Security Consultants and Private Mediators could do the intended job, quickly, and much more cheaply. Our Communities would again become morally exemplary, whatever their purely legal status, and businessmen would once again become honest. Everybody respects the Men in the Black Suits and Sun Glasses. The Fruits of Justice become swift, certain, and best of all, affordable.

And we would have the satisfaction of knowing that we had stood up to those Judges and Lawyers who had taken the American Justice System, pillaged it and used it as a weapon against us.

Borrowing Term Papers Without Plagiarism

School Teachers from here and there have informed me that on several occasions a few of my Essays had been turned in as Student work. Well, that was naughty. You know, it would not have taken much work in order to turn them into an honest effort. Firstly, since it is so usual for people to disagree with me, I really can’t see that even the most blithely ignorant student would actually agree with me to such an extent that he could not imagine any area of dispute. But once a person is able to decide that he disagrees with me, then he basically has his own Essay. He can use my essay as a structural basis for his own, bringing up my points, even in the same order as they are presented, and then all he has to do himself is indicate how stupid they are.

But in a few instances the plagiarism of these students was uncovered because the subject matter of the Essay they had ‘borrowed’ was only tangentially related to their Assignment. This aroused the suspicion of the Teachers, enough for them to do a web search and to find me out. Really, the students involved could have side-stepped such trouble if they had only had the foresight to email me, or leave a Comment that they would appreciate it if I would take another shot at approximately the same Subject Matter, but from such and such a Point of View, that is, they should have given me their Assignment and then laid back to see what I would do with it. Once I was finished with it, then they could jump in themselves and disagree with everything I had to say. It would be as honest as the day is long. Many a Legitimate Paper has been written around a disagreement with other Scholarship.

And allow me to offer this hint, that the Facts of anything are always in flux. If you don’t like the other guy’s facts, then find facts of your own. In the Modern World lists of facts are collected in order to support various Agendas. If some argument seems too extreme or too convenient, but is supported by the “facts”, well, simply assume that the facts used to support it were rather specifically combed for and specially selected for their utility. There are likely other facts out there – shaded out, being hid behind some statistical corner, like the way they talk about the ‘Unemployment Rate’ instead of talking about the percentage of unemployed workers… they are really not the same thing at all. Anyway, simply use a few intelligent Computer Searches and you should be able to get your own list of argument friendly facts.

Yes, it is beginning to sound like some real work needs to go into your own Paper, no matter how much you honestly borrow from me or others. But it is all better than being flunked out for plagiarism. Teachers really have no other choice. Plagiarism is the High Crime in the Intellectual Scholarly World. Flunking you out for plagiarism is really the least they can do.

Growth Model Capitalism

The most important argument against pure capitalism would be that there would not be enough money available to cover for profits. For example, pretend for a moment we have one Global Economy with five or six major corporations. Each of these corporations have hired on their due percentage of the Global Population and what they pay out wages is basically the World’s Income – the money available for Consumerism. These Global Workers had received their wage in return for producing a product, but we can be sure that the Corporations figured that their pricing schedules would exceed their wage outputs. We all understand without having to be told that any profits would have to be in excess of what was paid out in wages. Okay, but in the Model just presented, where are the profits supposed to come from. The workers only have what they were paid. They can pay what they earned and not a penny more. So the only place where profits can come from is from the Wages paid out from the other Corporations, but only if their Products do not sell. In Pure Capitalism the Profits of some Companies equals the Losses to others. The Margin cuts both ways. In Pure Capitalism for there to be Winners there must also be Losers. Now, many would accept this in their stride, thinking that this is always how it has worked. Indeed, they might think that this is exactly how it DOES work. But not really. Not since a long time.

Long ago the Banks got very tired of 6 to 10 percent of business loans defaulting every quarter. The inherent losses built into Pure Capitalism were simply too difficult to clean up after. Dead bodies can be so messy and stinky. So the Banks did away with the Gold and Silver Standards where the amount of World Currency would be for the most part fixed at a given amount, and they set up Monetary Systems that were designed around mechanisms for injecting new currency into the Global Money Supply steadily and constantly. Every Corporation could make six percent profits every quarter because the money supply was being pumped up by six percent over the same time period. Yes, Corporations could still run into Losses, but not simply because of the inexorable Math of Pure Capitalism.

Oh, how would such money enter into the Money Supply? Typically all this extra money flows into the Economy from Projects funded by Corporate, Private or Government Debt. Here we can see that America’s Trade and Governmental Deficits are therefore somewhat Institutionalized. Governments and Economies that are not running Deficits are basically relying upon their Trade Exports to Countries that do.

But it does get complicated. There is Inflation to consider. Banks hate Inflation. Dear Money is paid back in Cheap Money. Inflation occurs when an increased money supply bumps up against a level supply of goods and services – prices go up. Production must increase along with the money supply in order to establish a non-inflationary equilibrium.

Traditionally an increase in productivity could be achieved by increasing the work force. Nations encourage their birth rate or set in place policies friendly toward legal or even illegal immigration, which are equally beneficial as far as businesses are concerned. However, recently we have seen in all of the Advanced Economies that production can be increased by deploying the use of Automated Processes – Automated Robotics in the factories and Digital Intelligence in the Service Industries. Labor is being replaced by Capital Resources. I have read books that compare Automated Process to the way Free Labor had been replaced by Slave Labor in the Ancient World… just before the Collapse of Civilization.

It is almost completely certain, thought, that we will see the increasing use of Automated Processes in our Future. As every Region in the Global Economy becomes Advanced, as they call it, the Population Growth Rates will drop… it seems to be some kind of Law. What happens is that in Advanced Economies Women enter the Work Force in ever greater proportions, and apparently they feel they can work more comfortably if they are not pregnant or taking care of squalling infants. So Working Women stop giving birth, or at least fall short of numbers sufficient to generate Growth.

So it is that Female Labor presents this strange paradox to the Global Economy. It offered a huge boon to the Corporations at first, as women piled into the Work Force the Real Price of Labor plummeted, which in part explains why many Regions of the World may be a bit shy in endorsing Female Labor. If only giving Equal Rights to Women did not involve the effective cutting of Male Pay by 40%. But once Women have been thoroughly integrated into the Work Force they become just like men… demanding Living Wages (that they themselves were instrumental in depressing) and not having Babies, that is, drying up the Supply of future Cheap Labor.

Anyway, as the Price of Labor rises due to its contracting supply, the more it will be worth the expense of replacing that Labor with Automated Process. Then we need to consider that the cost of Automated Process decreases almost exponentially over time. As the Price of Labor goes up, the Cost of Process goes down. This transformation is now devolving in Japan, which at the moment has a more serious shortage of labor than anywhere else in the World, the highest wages, the strongest traditions of Industrialization, and the most serious prejudices against importing foreign labor to ease the strain of its inherent Labor Shortages. And perhaps most significantly, more than any other economy, they are extremely comfortable with digital technology. If anybody can design cheap and effective Automated Industrial and Service Processes, it is Japan. As Japan implements this Revolutionary Business Model of Replacing People with Machines, allowing them to totally reschedule their Costs and Pricing, then this very serious Competition will force every other economy in the World to follow suit. Even though these other economies may still have abundant Labor, still once the ‘tipping point’ has been crossed in regards to the Cost Effectiveness of Automated Process, then no Labor will be able to effectively compete, as even Subsistence Wages – just the bare minimum that could cover for an individual’s simplest food and shelter expenses – would amount to more than the Cost of the Process Machinery it would take to replace them.

At this point the Growth Model of Capitalism would no longer make much sense. Up to this point the growth in the Money Supply to provide profits was folded into the proportional growth in population. And even there the increase in Population needed to translate into there being more Workers and more Consumers. But if this Growth were to be cut short, then, well, Growth Capitalism becomes dysfunctional… unworkable.

But was ‘Growth’ ever really essential? Wasn’t pumping up the money supply was just a mechanism for assuring that everybody would effectively break even anyway? The System was created to give every Corporation a likely chance of a Pay Day without quite so many Bankruptcies along the way. Taxes were paid and Retirements were being funded. That is what Capitalism was achieving with its Growth Model. But, really, the same could be done with Break Even Planned Capitalism.

The advantage of Break Even Capitalism is that the World Population could be allowed to decline without creating the catastrophe that it would for the Growth Model of Capitalism. There are books being published nearly every day now by Economists who are intellectually stuck in the Last Century… the last Millennium … who are fretting about how to increase population and immigration even while the World’s resources are being pressed rather critically. How can we seriously plan for Growth when there is a shortage of nearly Everything. Every single one of the World’s Other Problems is screaming for Smaller, for Less, not for Growth, not for the traditional More More More. When dealing with all the horrible consequences of Global Warming, we need to build contraction into our Models. Growth would become just another word for Failure, for Doom. The sooner we implement Break Even Capitalism the better.

And it would not be very difficult. Already economists have grown rather comfortable with their ability to exactly manipulate the Money Supply. Branching out to controlling the other variables of the Economy would not be much of a practical or ethical leap for them to make. In for a penny, in for a pound. They are already doing the Job. They just need to do more of it.

Oh, there would be a problem with Distribution of Wealth throughout the World Economies. With Labor being replaced by Automated Process, what would be the mechanism used for providing people with their subsistence goods and services. We just can’t allow Billions of people to starve to death. Well, yes we could, but they would likely riot first. The lesson of History tells us that People do not go quietly into that Dark Night. If there cannot be Paychecks then there must be the “Bread and Circuses” made famous by the Policy Makers of Ancient Rome (who had replaced Free Labor by Slave Labor, if we will remember). Well, if people will not be given out their Money in exchange for Labor, then they must be given their Money for something. Why not give out Pay Checks in return for Social Compliance – for being Good. If People refrain from causing trouble, do what they are told, and follow all the Rules, well, they should be paid for it. For instance, on the news I had heard one expert explain that at least 60% of the Insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan would go back home and bother their wives if only they had even a modest Pay Check. Sooner or later the Policy Makers of the World will see the Wisdom behind Universal Paychecks, and that Crime and Terror have not really been much more filling the Gap presented by chronic Under-Employment.

Yes, those wed to the notions of Traditional Capitalism will see it as a huge waste – Universal Paychecks and Pay for Compliance. They will argue that if people do not ‘comply’ then simply toss them into jail, as has been done, well, since the emergence of Capitalism, as a matter of fact. Before Capitalism, prisons had not been such an essential social institution. I suppose Capitalism needed Prisons as a contrast to the Factories… the factories only had to be just slightly better than the Prisons in order for the comparison to work. Capitalism’s ‘Carrot and the Stick’. So, today they would insist this same policy continue. Why spend money on ‘carrots’, that is, giving everybody a Check, when the same ‘stick’ as before can still be used to beat them – just wait for the disenfranchised workers to break some Property Crime and then toss their asses into Prison. Well, there are practical problems with such a System, as Criminals become hardened and more difficult over time, and costs rise as more and more Lawyers learn to feed off the System.

But perhaps the best argument for Pay for Compliance is that we effectively have about the same thing now, though on a smaller scale then we will soon enough require. We already have money being pushed out into the economy in exchange for virtually nothing. It is Defense Spending. We are building Billion Dollar Submarines and Mach 3 Fighter Planes to fight a War against Goat Herders in Afghanistan. That can’t be for real, can it? It can not be justified in any other way then by supposing that it is all a kind of Busy Work, a way of handing out Pay Checks. And it is a kind of Pay for Compliance in the sense that no segment of the Population is better behaved than the Defense Workers – those dedicated to the creation of Weapons of Mass Destruction… another one of Life’s little paradoxes.

But we need to keep in mind that Weapons are potentially dangerous. I read a book last week by this little old man who actually believes that all these Weapons should be used so that America can do the only Logical Thing, and that is to Conquer the World. Bomb all the Capitals while we still have the means! Do unto Them before they do unto Us! Its all rather Nineteenth Century, and we could call it stupid except that it is being taken quite seriously in some quarters. And we need to remember that if America had elected George Bush Yesterday, who might they elect Tomorrow? The Danger of some Great Nut getting his hands on a virtually unlimited stockpile of Weapons of Mass Destruction is very real. And America has demonstrated that their Constitutionally configured Government is almost completely unable to block their President once Militarism and War is invoked. For Bush’s second term in Office, he was up against a Congress that was controlled by his Opposition. But it slowed him down not in the least! Yes, the Congress controls the Budget, but Weapons in a Stockpile have already been paid for. The Order to Launch is Free.

So Pay for Compliance would definitely be healthier and far less scary than ‘Pay for Useless but Dangerous Weapons that we all hope some other Future Nut from Texas won’t unleash upon the World”.

However, there might turn out to be some Industries which by their very nature do not lend themselves so much to Automated Process, where Labor could still play a role. Certainly Health Care can be expanded.