Listen to a reading of this article: The US military has seven branches of service: Army Navy Air Force Marines Coast Guard Space Force Mainstream Media ❖ It's hard to grasp just how badly humanity is handicapping itself by excluding all solutions that can't generate a profit. There's a whole vast spectrum of potential solutions to the troubles we face as a species, and we're limiting ourselves to a very small, very shitty fraction of it. By limiting solutions to ones that are profitable, we're omitting any which involve using less, consuming less, leaving resources in the ground, and leaving nature the fuck alone. We're also shrinking the incentive to cure problems rather than offer expensive, ongoing treatments.
You are speaking my language, Caitlin. I've been thinking a lot about how we can't even imagine how life could be different, if we didn't spend all our time making the rich richer. There's so so so much that we could do, and that doesn't mean under communism or socialism, under a decentralized system where we had power over our own lives and communities. It's possible and inevitable.
Great essay, so Black Rock is worth ten trillion dollars, Trump gave them 4 trillion as a gift, lately the IMF gifted them another 5, so you know capitalism failed and the only way they can save themselves is by killing us before we figure out that they already know that it was never anything other than an ever expanding Ponzi scheme. They're up against a wall if they can't rob Russia and China, and like very soon; it's kill or be killed, that's why they don't care about starting a nuclear, because they're all dead billionaires walking.
Profit legalizes killing people, the greater the profit, the greater the killing is tolerated. A smart capitalist learns the code: Grow spinach contaminated by raw, uncomposted sewage which they are paid to spray onto fields, face an occasional recall for the spinach when excessive deaths finally occur, cost of which is already covered by profit using consumers to treat sewage, no jail. Buy from wholesale firms baby rattles, faulty cribs, unsafe baby clothes that were already recalled because they killed a multitude of children to sell into poor / lower middle-class neighborhoods, and don't face a fine or jail when caught. The larger the profit, the greater the tolerance, right Sackler Family?
Profits actually are a kind of function of meritocracy and economic viability.
Asking for donations in this post is a kind of profit motive.
Imagine farming, for example. If you ran a shitty ass farm and lost money/livestock/etc. in fiat or barter deals, then you would go out of business while a more industrious and efficient farmer would pick up the additional business of your poor business and farming skills. These dynamics accord with the natural world whereby an animal that was a poor hunter relative to other such animals would not be able to pass on its genes, and so on and so forth.
Your lack of understanding of what true free market capitalism really is makes you constantly blame something that you are clearly not in full comprehension of.
I've noticed that accusing someone of being a Putin propagandist serves as a way of silencing dissenting views. Even the greatest haters of Putin are accused of being his allies by other haters of Putin and no one even asks the obvious questions: 1) if they are allies, what's the alliance about? and 2) how does hating Russian and loving Ukraine affect my life and my country?
The military record since the end of WWII is not inspiring. In addition to the vilest crimes committed against sovereign countries and populations, it has been the foremost producer of greenhouse gases, and a profligate money waster in unnecessary military hardware where fraud and price padding is the normal way of business. It hasn't made us safer and securer, but the very opposite, and we are on the brink of annihilation from several causes of our making, much of it involving the military in some way.
What we call a rational economic system excludes all human considerations: it is pure profit for its own sake, and for its own objectives and purposes. So it is irrational, a mad race to use up all resources as quickly as possible in a childish belief that some power will save us from our own actions. It didn't have to be this way. The answers were there and quite obvious, but we, or that is, our leaders and power wielders refused to look for, or recognize them. That is the saddest part of this mess, but it's worth a try to change it now that it can be denied only by the most perverse among us.
Round and round...I am so dizzy these days reading comments that it really shouts
out the magnitude of the problems we face. The rabbit hole l have chosen to
go down came about from a book I read not from a social back and forth tennis match.
Valcv Smil wrote a book entitled " How the World Really Works" . He is a scientist
by profession ..
"Vaclav Smil is a Czech-Canadian scientist and policy analyst. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba."
Who??
Since retired I believe.
Bill Gates really likes the guy and reads everything by him. I do not suggest that is good or
bad. You decide. Most important though he offers no solutions to some very hard
observations from a scientist's perspective that are very hard to disagree with.
Reading a book is almost going back to horse and buggy days I know in comparison to the
immediate gratification and confirmation bias we can get via our digital handcuffs.
Do a Wiki on the guy before you all kick him to the curb. We can" t go back under our
current ideology living under capitalism....Infinite consumption on a finite planet is really
Alice in Wonderland.
He does not pull any punches and he will kick you out of your comfort zone, if anyone
has one these days, and perhaps
provide some clarity for you but no solutions because at this point there isn't any.
"How many times have you had an awesome idea and gotten all excited about it, only to do the math and figure out that it's unfeasible because wouldn't be profitable?"
If you're asking Americans, a more common affliction here is to have an awesome idea and get all excited about it, only to fuck up the math not figure out that it's a boondoggle, thus plunging ahead anyway and ultimately asking mom and dad for more money. The U.S. is often denied the credit it deserves for churning out colossal numbers of functionally innumerate adults.
I remember as a teenager in the '60, the phrase "love it or leave it," as protests against the illegal Vietnam War kept growing. Back then, however, even the press turned against the war. I can't see that happening again, as the press is now a part of the deep state and only the government's position is allowed in the MSM. Now the old saying "love it or leave it" has become fashionable again. Nothing has been learned from the Vietnam folly and the country is now more divided than ever with talk of a coming second Civil War.
The underlying foundation of Capitalism is human freedom.
As Adam Smith recognized, when individuals are permitted to pursue their self-interest through markets, they are amazingly good at finding ways of bettering not only themselves but society as well.
The fact is, while the accumulation of capital (profit motive) is a feature of a market economy, it is individual freedom and the innovation that arises from it that drives the engine of capitalism.
The "profit motive" helps individuals decide how they--individually--will expend their personal energies and time (lives) to most efficiently aquire what they--individually--need and want to sustain their individual values of their individual life and that of others that they personally value.
The alternative to the profit motive is for your Master to make the decisions.
These Notes from the Narrative Matrix should be read by 500 million people, at least.
You are speaking my language, Caitlin. I've been thinking a lot about how we can't even imagine how life could be different, if we didn't spend all our time making the rich richer. There's so so so much that we could do, and that doesn't mean under communism or socialism, under a decentralized system where we had power over our own lives and communities. It's possible and inevitable.
Great essay, so Black Rock is worth ten trillion dollars, Trump gave them 4 trillion as a gift, lately the IMF gifted them another 5, so you know capitalism failed and the only way they can save themselves is by killing us before we figure out that they already know that it was never anything other than an ever expanding Ponzi scheme. They're up against a wall if they can't rob Russia and China, and like very soon; it's kill or be killed, that's why they don't care about starting a nuclear, because they're all dead billionaires walking.
Profit legalizes killing people, the greater the profit, the greater the killing is tolerated. A smart capitalist learns the code: Grow spinach contaminated by raw, uncomposted sewage which they are paid to spray onto fields, face an occasional recall for the spinach when excessive deaths finally occur, cost of which is already covered by profit using consumers to treat sewage, no jail. Buy from wholesale firms baby rattles, faulty cribs, unsafe baby clothes that were already recalled because they killed a multitude of children to sell into poor / lower middle-class neighborhoods, and don't face a fine or jail when caught. The larger the profit, the greater the tolerance, right Sackler Family?
I actually knew Alexandra Chalupa, got to hear a taxi driver in Kiev tell her to "go back to Canada!"
I don't know where she is actually from, but in Ukraine, the "Canadian nationalist" was a stock figure in jokes.
Grant me the courage, dear Lord , to change the things I cannot accept
Wisdom to overcome limitations
Serenity to be free
And a way to play music
Profits actually are a kind of function of meritocracy and economic viability.
Asking for donations in this post is a kind of profit motive.
Imagine farming, for example. If you ran a shitty ass farm and lost money/livestock/etc. in fiat or barter deals, then you would go out of business while a more industrious and efficient farmer would pick up the additional business of your poor business and farming skills. These dynamics accord with the natural world whereby an animal that was a poor hunter relative to other such animals would not be able to pass on its genes, and so on and so forth.
Your lack of understanding of what true free market capitalism really is makes you constantly blame something that you are clearly not in full comprehension of.
THANKS ---- Worth careful reading:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/09/15/russias-underperforming-military-and-our-own/
Russia’s Underperforming Military (and Our Own) – Andrew Bacevich (9-15-22)
I've noticed that accusing someone of being a Putin propagandist serves as a way of silencing dissenting views. Even the greatest haters of Putin are accused of being his allies by other haters of Putin and no one even asks the obvious questions: 1) if they are allies, what's the alliance about? and 2) how does hating Russian and loving Ukraine affect my life and my country?
I feel sane when I read your writing Caitlin. Thanks
The military record since the end of WWII is not inspiring. In addition to the vilest crimes committed against sovereign countries and populations, it has been the foremost producer of greenhouse gases, and a profligate money waster in unnecessary military hardware where fraud and price padding is the normal way of business. It hasn't made us safer and securer, but the very opposite, and we are on the brink of annihilation from several causes of our making, much of it involving the military in some way.
What we call a rational economic system excludes all human considerations: it is pure profit for its own sake, and for its own objectives and purposes. So it is irrational, a mad race to use up all resources as quickly as possible in a childish belief that some power will save us from our own actions. It didn't have to be this way. The answers were there and quite obvious, but we, or that is, our leaders and power wielders refused to look for, or recognize them. That is the saddest part of this mess, but it's worth a try to change it now that it can be denied only by the most perverse among us.
Round and round...I am so dizzy these days reading comments that it really shouts
out the magnitude of the problems we face. The rabbit hole l have chosen to
go down came about from a book I read not from a social back and forth tennis match.
Valcv Smil wrote a book entitled " How the World Really Works" . He is a scientist
by profession ..
"Vaclav Smil is a Czech-Canadian scientist and policy analyst. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba."
Who??
Since retired I believe.
Bill Gates really likes the guy and reads everything by him. I do not suggest that is good or
bad. You decide. Most important though he offers no solutions to some very hard
observations from a scientist's perspective that are very hard to disagree with.
Reading a book is almost going back to horse and buggy days I know in comparison to the
immediate gratification and confirmation bias we can get via our digital handcuffs.
Do a Wiki on the guy before you all kick him to the curb. We can" t go back under our
current ideology living under capitalism....Infinite consumption on a finite planet is really
Alice in Wonderland.
He does not pull any punches and he will kick you out of your comfort zone, if anyone
has one these days, and perhaps
provide some clarity for you but no solutions because at this point there isn't any.
"How many times have you had an awesome idea and gotten all excited about it, only to do the math and figure out that it's unfeasible because wouldn't be profitable?"
If you're asking Americans, a more common affliction here is to have an awesome idea and get all excited about it, only to fuck up the math not figure out that it's a boondoggle, thus plunging ahead anyway and ultimately asking mom and dad for more money. The U.S. is often denied the credit it deserves for churning out colossal numbers of functionally innumerate adults.
I remember as a teenager in the '60, the phrase "love it or leave it," as protests against the illegal Vietnam War kept growing. Back then, however, even the press turned against the war. I can't see that happening again, as the press is now a part of the deep state and only the government's position is allowed in the MSM. Now the old saying "love it or leave it" has become fashionable again. Nothing has been learned from the Vietnam folly and the country is now more divided than ever with talk of a coming second Civil War.
The underlying foundation of Capitalism is human freedom.
As Adam Smith recognized, when individuals are permitted to pursue their self-interest through markets, they are amazingly good at finding ways of bettering not only themselves but society as well.
The fact is, while the accumulation of capital (profit motive) is a feature of a market economy, it is individual freedom and the innovation that arises from it that drives the engine of capitalism.
The "profit motive" helps individuals decide how they--individually--will expend their personal energies and time (lives) to most efficiently aquire what they--individually--need and want to sustain their individual values of their individual life and that of others that they personally value.
The alternative to the profit motive is for your Master to make the decisions.