In my daily experience, I have encountered a phenomenon that really intrigues me and disappoints me at the same time. When I was younger, I thought that it was just me and my imagination. The observation was this, there seems to be a characteristic that most of the people that they don't care much about the world around them and only worry about living life until they ultimately cease living. It seems that the vast majority of these people have little or no curiosity, little to no ambition, are only interested in petty personal issues and the minutia that goes on in their lives.
This view of the world totally baffles me because in the past, information about the nature of the world around has been rather difficult to come by. If there was something that needed to be learned, effort, sometimes great effort needed to be expended to gather the raw information and even more time was necessary to sift through and process it because connecting with others with the same interest was not easy, so each individual had access only to his or her personal resources and knowledge. Now that general and specialized information is easily gained just by researching what is available on the internet, one would think that, since it is now easy to gain knowledge, people would flock to it like thirsty men to fresh water. The thing is, most people only focus on trivial things like gossip and porn, if they can get up enough motivation to even get connected.
This leads me to believe that philosophies expounded by those who I would have characterized as elitists, bigots of lazy thinkers that most humans are not much different that cattle, who wait patiently while the farmer fattens them until the time come to lead them to the barn to cut their throats and butcher them for this years meat. They never look up from the grazing even while their peers are led one by one to their fates. They never realize that their time will come and probably come soon.
There are a very few others that want to see things for what they are. In my experience, they are very, very rare. I don't know if there are others who have the true gift of curiosity and are willing to follow it to where it ultimately leads and don't discuss it or if what I see is an accurate picture.
Eric Burger, who writes a blog for the Houston Chronicle, has posted an article titled, A Majority of Americans are Intellectually Incurious"
http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2006/04/a_majority_of_a_1.html
His article is based on a Live Science article posted here:
http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/060419_omd_study.html
What is amounts to is that the vast majority of American just don't care about much.
Considering that we are living in the most dangerous period in the history of this world, it is shocking that most of the people that I meet have an abysmal understanding of what is going on here where they live and to others in this world, if they care to know at all. In some ways, I feel sorry for them, but at the same time, I don't have much sympathy for them when they face consequences that fall upon them, for they never had desire to make a difference or to even acknowledge their situation. It's a shocking indictment on the worth of the many that when they are gone, the world will be a better place.
When I hear that the elites believe that the world is overpopulated and that they believe the solution is to let them die off, I have to agree that in the long term its for the best. Their cold calculation of the value of their fellow humans is accurate. Most of us are nothing more than wasters of resources.
The world will be a better place when they are gone.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Saturday, May 5, 2007
The Race to the Bottom
This is a great artice from Global Research about the true effects of outsourcing and how it affects our working and middle classes written by Si Contino,
"Because so many notable business pundits appear to be bemused by America’s most recent economic vexation, specifically the collapse of the mortgage markets; I thought I’d take a crack at edifying your readers, to the extent I’m capable, as to its true nature and causes.
To begin with one must remember that all the statistics kept on our economy are bogus. They are contrived in such a manner, compiled explicitly for casual regurgitation, so as to never display anything less than full employment, wage growth and a serendipitous lack of inflation.
With that as a foundation, what’s actually occurring in this economy is the globalization of assets and wealth. That is to say, because the value of American labor is falling so precipitously, (due to the utilization of cheap foreign labor around the world), the value of the assets held by them is falling in direct correlation with their declining wages. It must.
Here’s why:
A worker formerly employed in a lost economic sector, (manufacturing for example), earned between $50 - 60,000 annually. That job gets outsourced. Now that worker takes a job paying $20 – $25,000 annually. All the tax cuts, cheap foreign goods, and low paying jobs being created by President Bush and globalization aren’t going to restore this worker’s former standard of living.
Presently, someone trying to pay down a debt service based on their former “un-globalized” salary, and prior level of affluence, just can’t do it. The fact is, now that America’s been globalized, that worker – along with all others of the same economic rank – can’t afford the assets they’ve purchased and are trying to hold on to.
Just as wages within their economic sector are being deflated; so must the value of their assets be deflated. This has to occur so that new members of their socioeconomic group, those just entering America’s global workforce, can afford to participate; including those living and working here illegally.
What we’re seeing now is just the beginning of a global revaluation; a downward harmonization of American worker’s livelihoods with the livelihoods of the world’s other working people. Furthermore, this state of affairs isn’t going to end any time soon; not until the descending worth (wages and assets) of America’s working classes, meets the ascending worth (wages and assets) of the labor they compete with globally.
Therein lays the rub. Most of the rest of the world’s labor works for nothing, or almost nothing, and holds no assets. Truth be told, the only country whose entire economy has prospered due to Globalization is communist China; where free market capitalism doesn’t exist [officially] and where every societal need is [supposedly] provided for by the government.
As Ross Perot so aptly phrased it during his debate with Vice President Gore in 1993, we’re in: “a race to the bottom”.
Exacerbating this crisis is the fact that, while the wages and assets of those forced to compete globally are deflating; the costs of goods and services they must purchase to subsist are inflating. The primary sources of this inflation being deregulation and President Bush’s lust for printing money; principally to pay for the globalization of Iraq.
As for the true health of America’s overall economy international spending is out of control; Iraq alone is costing American taxpayers over $412 billion! Yet the Washington oligarchs have no compunction.
Across the board Americans have experienced the steepest decline in their standard of living since the Great Depression, as America become a debtor nation. Bankruptcies, home foreclosures, and personal debt are at an all time high, as is our trade deficit; while concurrently, real wages and property values plummet.
Still Globalist fanatics boldly proclaim their manifesto: “Free Trade will promote a global ecumenism and provide us economic prosperity” All the while America’s two greatest exports remain her jobs and wealth.
With the mendacious predictions which brought about Globalism in the first place, (being implemented without the true consent of the governed), and with America’s economic power declining; here’s the real question. What type of country is America destined to become in the twenty-first century?
Perhaps the answer can only be found in the past. Perhaps in Charles Dickens in his novel, A Tale of Two Cities."
About the author: I’ve been a lifelong resident of Bucks County, PA and am a married father of two adult children. After pursuing undergraduate studies in the 1970’s, I’ve acted in various capacities within the corporate setting.
"Because so many notable business pundits appear to be bemused by America’s most recent economic vexation, specifically the collapse of the mortgage markets; I thought I’d take a crack at edifying your readers, to the extent I’m capable, as to its true nature and causes.
To begin with one must remember that all the statistics kept on our economy are bogus. They are contrived in such a manner, compiled explicitly for casual regurgitation, so as to never display anything less than full employment, wage growth and a serendipitous lack of inflation.
With that as a foundation, what’s actually occurring in this economy is the globalization of assets and wealth. That is to say, because the value of American labor is falling so precipitously, (due to the utilization of cheap foreign labor around the world), the value of the assets held by them is falling in direct correlation with their declining wages. It must.
Here’s why:
A worker formerly employed in a lost economic sector, (manufacturing for example), earned between $50 - 60,000 annually. That job gets outsourced. Now that worker takes a job paying $20 – $25,000 annually. All the tax cuts, cheap foreign goods, and low paying jobs being created by President Bush and globalization aren’t going to restore this worker’s former standard of living.
Presently, someone trying to pay down a debt service based on their former “un-globalized” salary, and prior level of affluence, just can’t do it. The fact is, now that America’s been globalized, that worker – along with all others of the same economic rank – can’t afford the assets they’ve purchased and are trying to hold on to.
Just as wages within their economic sector are being deflated; so must the value of their assets be deflated. This has to occur so that new members of their socioeconomic group, those just entering America’s global workforce, can afford to participate; including those living and working here illegally.
What we’re seeing now is just the beginning of a global revaluation; a downward harmonization of American worker’s livelihoods with the livelihoods of the world’s other working people. Furthermore, this state of affairs isn’t going to end any time soon; not until the descending worth (wages and assets) of America’s working classes, meets the ascending worth (wages and assets) of the labor they compete with globally.
Therein lays the rub. Most of the rest of the world’s labor works for nothing, or almost nothing, and holds no assets. Truth be told, the only country whose entire economy has prospered due to Globalization is communist China; where free market capitalism doesn’t exist [officially] and where every societal need is [supposedly] provided for by the government.
As Ross Perot so aptly phrased it during his debate with Vice President Gore in 1993, we’re in: “a race to the bottom”.
Exacerbating this crisis is the fact that, while the wages and assets of those forced to compete globally are deflating; the costs of goods and services they must purchase to subsist are inflating. The primary sources of this inflation being deregulation and President Bush’s lust for printing money; principally to pay for the globalization of Iraq.
As for the true health of America’s overall economy international spending is out of control; Iraq alone is costing American taxpayers over $412 billion! Yet the Washington oligarchs have no compunction.
Across the board Americans have experienced the steepest decline in their standard of living since the Great Depression, as America become a debtor nation. Bankruptcies, home foreclosures, and personal debt are at an all time high, as is our trade deficit; while concurrently, real wages and property values plummet.
Still Globalist fanatics boldly proclaim their manifesto: “Free Trade will promote a global ecumenism and provide us economic prosperity” All the while America’s two greatest exports remain her jobs and wealth.
With the mendacious predictions which brought about Globalism in the first place, (being implemented without the true consent of the governed), and with America’s economic power declining; here’s the real question. What type of country is America destined to become in the twenty-first century?
Perhaps the answer can only be found in the past. Perhaps in Charles Dickens in his novel, A Tale of Two Cities."
About the author: I’ve been a lifelong resident of Bucks County, PA and am a married father of two adult children. After pursuing undergraduate studies in the 1970’s, I’ve acted in various capacities within the corporate setting.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
From the Twilight Zone
Hello, I'm Anthony Morrow. I'm not a Texan but I was born and raised here. An alien from whence I came. I imagine this blog as a place where I can share my insights from within with a viewpoint from an outsider. A blue stater who has never lived in a blue state, Hopefully, I can bring something new to the vast conversation known as the blogsphere.
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