The Fast pace age of Creative Destruction

Businesses are essentially in business for the very long haul, in which, therefore, no business as part of their model, foresees a day or time when they will no longer be necessary, yet, businesses in today's modern era must be nimble and bold enough to change as is necessary in order to continue their success, or risk being put out of business, no matter how smooth the sailing may appear in the present-day age.  This does indeed make the management of companies a more challenging task, for if the future is always uncertain, it seems to be even more uncertain in today's quicksilver world.

Not too surprisingly, many people, including management, of course, have a tendency to want things to stay pretty much the way that things are currently, because they are comfortable with their circumstances, yet, it is that very same management, that needs to be most cognizant that businesses must change or adjust in order to maintain their place or to improve their hierarchy in business or else like the most carefully laid out plans, things will change, sometimes dramatically to their business.  That is to say, when management is aware that there are material changes in their business, which will necessitate substantial changes in how they conduct their business, employ people, and sell products but are reluctant to embrace these changes because doing so will fundamentally undermine what they had previously been doing, they are in a rather dramatic quandary.

In point of fact, many popular products, many popular ways of doing things, simply don't exist anymore, or if they do exist, exist on the periphery of the marketplace, for instance, horses were once used as a real means of transportation, but in today's world are primarily utilized as a rather expensive hobby.  So too, the cars that we utilize today look nothing like cars that were produced at the turn of the 20th century, and with technology pushing ever harder for the advantages and perceived safety of self-driving cars, a business that sells over 17.5 million vehicle annually, and mainly uses petroleum products as the fuel of choice, may indeed be at the cusp of real fundamental change for a product that costs thousands of dollars to buy and hundreds of dollars to insure, so that, the insurance as well as the production of such, is now facing fundamental and traumatic change.

While businesses have many choices in regards to perceive upcoming changes in their business, such as trying to protect their own with laws, or rules and regulations, the inefficiencies of creating a moat will not be enough to stop an idea whose time has come.  This means that management of corporations that fail to read the tea leaves of change correctly, are in danger of becoming irrelevant, retarding their growth substantially, and ultimately finding that their business is unable to maintain their accustomed profit, or their gross margins, or their best and brightest, as these things will as a matter of course, gravitate to those businesses that have better upside and have correctly seen the future and embraced it wholeheartedly.

This means, almost for a certainty, that the more governmental interference or alliance that is made between government entities and private enterprise, the less capable these entities are of actively embracing change because they have more of a vested interest in keeping things just the way that they currently are, which, done on a big enough level, slows creative destruction, slows economic growth, and reduces competitive and efficient effectiveness, making a country less competitive, less desirable, and less wealthy.

When Capitalism becomes Oligopoly

What makes America great is that it is the land of opportunity, but when that door of opportunity, essentially closes because there are certain industries that the barriers of entry have become so high or the door has been essentially closed, so that no other company can ever successfully enter, than dangerous territory indeed has been entered.  For instance, governments of all stripes have a symbiotic relationship with certain corporations, so that contracts that are ostensibly setup as open-bidding and competitive, are structured in such a way, that only one company can win, which is fantastic for that company which knows that it can booked that business consistently each and every year.

So too, there are many businesses, such as drugstores, grocery stores, aircraft, liquor manufacturers, health care insurance providers, tobacco, and so forth, in which at the inception of these businesses there are many, many players, but over time there is consolidation in the industry, especially consolidation in which the biggest players don't really buy out the smaller companies, but instead buy out their biggest and most formidable competitors in order to build up size, scale, and girth. While a successful argument can be made that bigger size brings efficiencies of scale that is than passed on to the consumer, it can also be argued that bigger size with far fewer competitors allows such competitors to price their goods at a price that gives those companies a greater margin because consumers have less choice in finding a meaningful competitor that is both convenient as well as cheaper in cost.

Capitalism taking to the extreme -- encourages companies to make it their purpose in life, to systematically increase their market share each year, to maintain or improve gross margins, and to win their marketplace which can mean, doing what it takes to damage or to minimize or buy-out other competitors.  So too, size makes a difference in the negotiation with governments or civil authorities in regards to taxation, as well as land usage or land set asides, along with labor usage or labor wage pressures, and so forth, because gainful employment is part and parcel of what every community desires for their residents.

Additionally, size matters in regards to the setting of rules and regulations, so that if your corporation is just a little minnow, the best and the brightest don't have any incentive to engage you in a conversation, because your company does not have the means or power to compensate those at the very top, but those companies that are big and powerful, and set to become even bigger and more powerful, are exactly the type of corporations that will be able to attain the highest echelons of power brokers that bridge the gap between onerous regulations and beneficial ones, as well as onerous taxation and beneficial ones, and so forth.

Everyone knows that money is a form of power, and concentrated money along with controlling employment opportunities, is a most vibrant form of power.  These corporations, unlike human beings, are structured to last perpetually, so that as their power and influence grows, they are able to assure themselves come what may that they will be the survivors and there will be none that successfully oppose them.  Businesses that have essentially only three or four competitors in which these "competitors" control fifty percent or above of the total business in play, have effectively bossed that business, because they often control or are able to heavily influence the price, the availability, and the usage of their products in a manner that benefits these corporations to the exclusion of their consumers.

Concentrated power by corporations is a very dangerous thing, while it can provide benefits to the consumer, the downside is that those that have control of the means of production as well as its attendant pricing and availability, can and will lord it over those that need these substances.

Price Manipulation of Goods Changes Behavior

In a free and open economy, price controls would be seldom used, and the price of goods sold would be essentially what the market would bear, and while it certainly makes sense for certain critical infrastructure commodities such as electricity to have some sort of basic pricing structure, the control and the exercise of such should be kept minimal and efficient.  So too, in order to have normalized pricing to begin with, economies need to have real competition, and the more competition, the more efficient and fair the pricing will be for consumers of such.  That is to say, if one is buying any commodity that is controlled by just one entity or a group of entities as in an oligopoly, or via governmental control, than pricing will not reflect the true cost of those goods and hence will unfairly benefit one party to the exclusion of others.

The thing about governments is that for whatever reason, noble or not, they like to control prices from fluctuating or to manipulate prices so as to encourage consumption of one sort and to discourage consumption of another source, in which, perhaps though their intentions are right, the follow-through in application is often disappointing.  This means that the more manipulation that is made by authorities into free markets, the more distorted the economics of a given product is tilted and thereby the winners and losers will be changed because of this interference, and those that are beneficiaries of such manipulation, will now have a vested interest in seeing that business continues as usual, compounding the error of this interference.

People aren't stupid, so that if gasoline is taxed or priced at a certain high range, people will drive somewhat less, car pooling will increase, cars that achieve greater gas mileage will see their value go up, and alternative energy sources will be utilized, because most people do not have unlimited budgets and hence must adjust by using less gasoline.  On the other hand, when gasoline prices are held artificially low, such as in a country like Venezuela, the public will take advantage of this cheap energy by using a lot more of it, and in addition, since Venezuela borders Colombia, find a way to transport gas illegally and somewhat dangerously to Colombia, which is good overall for Colombians, good for the traders of such, as well as those receiving bribes to allow such a transport, but an overall waste of a precious commodity because it's price has been manipulated.

The bottom line is that the more wrong that a price is, by being held artificially low, because of governmental interference of all its many stripes, the more that the people will buy such a product for individual usage or for possible trade if circumstances allow.  So too, the more that a price of a good is artificially inflated, the less the public will use it, and they will instead search for alternatives that will serve as good substitutes. 

The problem that governments have in conjunction with vital corporations is that they are unable to see the invisible hand of the marketplace when they get together to determine what goods should be focused on and manufactured, what the prices should be, and this or that, making all sorts of assumptions and projections without recognizing that changing prices produces changes in behavior because man's mind and man's pocketbook is ever able to figure out correctly what collectively is their best move, upsetting master plan economies again and again.

Where does your mortgage come from and why you should care

The subprime crisis and meltdown took down many institutions in the 2007-2009, while also destroying the credit of numerous consumers of such, damaging investors that were fooled into buying securitized packages, devastating home values, and overall becoming a disaster for the American public.  Since that time, changes and laws have been made so as to preclude such an event in the future, but in reality, greed has overtaken caution, and a similar crisis is brewing.

For instance, as reported by the washingtonpost.com, in 2011, the top three banks went from providing 50 percent of mortgage loans to consumers have since seen that reduced to 21% in 2016, so that currently six out of the top ten mortgage providers are not banks, but non-banks such as Quicken Loans and PennyMac Financial Services, which have increased their corresponding market share considerably since 2011.

From a competitive perspective, you might think that this is a good thing, to see that banks finally have some real competition in providing the biggest loan that a typical individual will ever have in their life, but banks have special capabilities that they can draw upon, that non-banks do not, as well as banks typically have ready access to capital, whereas non-banks typically look to offload their loans to Fannie Mac and Freddie Mac, which seems like something that we have already previously experienced and that ended very poorly.

Banks are in the business of making money, and part of the way that a bank makes money is to take the time to perform their due diligence in regards to the ability of the loan borrower to pay back the money loaned, of which, there are several steps that a bank can go through to assure themselves that their default rate will not exceed a certain low level.  So that if banks have changed their game plan so as to go after specifically the best and the brightest, this means that those that don't have such pristine credit, or that don't have a substantial or prudent down payment, will have to look for other sources, of which, fortunately or not, non-banks have filled well that void.

The thing is that banks are able to utilize the Federal Reserve when they are cash strapped, as well as the fact that bank deposits are protected by the FDIC.  On the other hand, non-banks, depend upon their access to capital being abundant and plentiful, as well as the fact that they typically sell their loans to governmental agencies such as Fannie Mac and Freddie Mac, so as to free up more cash to make more loans, but if and when that cash runs low, non-banks will have to turn to their competitors, which are banks for ready cash, to wit, those banks and the cost of money would in times of crisis, cost a lot more, or even not be available for loans.

Banks got burned in the mortgage crisis of a decade ago and have since then made adjustments to their loaning standards, on the other hand non-banks have pounced upon the perceived lack of service to certain borrowers with their main play being to sell off their loans to governmental backed institutions and thereby book that profit.  The quality of these non-bank loans have not been significantly tested, and certainly have not been tested in a recession-like economy, of which, when that time comes, it won't end well.

One Child Families

In America as well as many other nations, family size has gotten appreciably smaller over the years, for a whole slew of reasons, which would include such things as: less marital commitments, marriages at a later age, first child being born at a later age, birth control, a commitment to having just one child, and so forth.  It obviously isn't an accident that family sizes have gotten smaller, it is the preference of many couples and the trend does not show any signs of slowing down, as children are both a big responsibility as well as expensive to have.

While the above does go a long ways towards explaining the rise of one-child families, what often isn't looked at so carefully is the fact that children without siblings are not growing up under the same circumstances as children that have siblings.  That is to say, children will deal with their parents on a level that is different than the level that children deal with their siblings, and when an only child has no siblings, they are missing the positive aspects and the common ground of having a sibling.  While there are substitutes for this lack of siblings in the sense of having cousins or friends or things of that sort, these substitutes cannot readily stand in for someone that lives in the same household as yourself and therefore experiences the same sorts of things that you daily experience and hence are able to confide in, one to another.

Parents think that their children love them, and often they do, but that love is simply not the same love as sibling love, because children do not think the same thoughts, or have the same priorities as their parents, because they are children and in the process of growing up, which has its own rules and complications.  This means that while a child can confide in their parents for all sorts of things, children with siblings, prefer to confide with those that they flock with, because there is a simpatico relationship between the two.  No doubt, some siblings don't get along, at least from time-to-time, but most siblings believe that the advantages of having a brother or sister far outweighs the sharing or selfishness or unfairness or reduction in privacy that they may perceive also from having a fellow sibling in the household.

None of the above, means that it is wrong for parent to just have one and be done with it, far from it, it is more meant to reflect that children like to hang out with other children that they relate to, and typically most children relate rather well with their own siblings because they pretty much have the same background and that makes their credibility appreciably higher when engaging with each other.  So too, having siblings, means that you have backup, not only when you are growing up, but also when you get older, which is beneficial to children, but also, beneficial to parents, as some children are more caring and more responsible than others.  So then, it isn't a fair expectation to believe that just one child can be it all, perhaps they can, but it might all be easier with that teamwork that comes from having more than just one.

The Battle of Good vs. Bad

Of course in our more secular society, that has crowded out God and religion, and replaced it with all sorts of material substitutes, there are people that try to convince themselves every day that those things such as right or wrong, good or bad, are somewhat subjective, but in reality, they are never that.  For indeed, inside each of us, innate within us, is a conscience that speaks directly to us, and as much as we would like to ignore that conscience, as much as we might like to silence that conscience through various drink or drugs and so forth, Truth can never be silenced, and it can never be defeated. This means, we know for a certainty, whether the actions that we have taken are fundamentally right or fundamentally wrong, and while there are indeed those gray areas and mitigating circumstances, the arc of justice is ever true.

Throughout each day, we are provided many opportunities to prove our worth, again and again, and day by day, so the choice of what we do is entirely ours as are its inevitable consequences, for wrong actions, when done, may often have no immediate consequences, but wrong actions, will be taken into account of who and what we really are, in addition to the fact, that wrongs done once, are far easier to do again. This signifies that a very wise person takes the time each day to reflect upon the things that they have or haven't done at the conclusion of their day, contemplating their acts of commission and of omission, so as to ascertain as to whether in the battle of good vs. evil, which side has won the day.  For those though that are not capable of honest self-introspection or honest self-reflection, they must instead spend time with their mentor or similar to receive vital feedback as to their progress or lack thereof.

While there are always going to be those that ignore their activities and deeds on a given day, ignorance does not change the results of such, and ignorance is hardly befitting a man who is trying to become something of merit and of real worth.  This means that it often isn't possible to become a better person without understanding foremost that this is actually your mission in life, that there are indeed just two paths to take in our material experience, one is the road taken, and the other the road not taken, to wit, if you take the wrong road you will have to battle your way to the right road while carrying the extra baggage of having been on the wrong road to begin with.

This spiritual battle of good vs. bad can be fought on many levels, because good and bad exist on all levels, and bad cannot be extricated from except when in pure communion with the God-spirit.  Part of the success of bad in this battle relies on its ability to convince the material part of ourselves that all we are is physical, and to thereby subvert our attention from the fruits of the spirit, replaced instead with the needs and desires of the body.  The battle that we face each day is very real; yet, those that pursue good have an overwhelming advantage, for they are in alliance with our Creator, recognizing that they have been created in His image, and therefore as His children embrace all that represents good, leaving no room at the Inn for bad.

Pro-Marijuana and Pro-Tobacco

Tobacco has been under constant assault for the last forty years or so, by governmental, medical, and private authorities as it tobacco usage in and of itself, is something akin to being in the league with the devil.  This means that smoking in public has been reduced to more and more being allowed only to smoke in private spaces that are under your direct control and pretty much nowhere else.  While on the one hand, tobacco has been on the constant defense for years, marijuana has made a brilliant end-around federal law and has somehow become legal in some States of the Union, even though it is still a federally controlled substance and thereby illegal under federal law, including so-called medical marijuana.  The fact that the federal government has chosen, at least in recent history, not to prosecute businesses and individuals selling and inhaling State-sanctioned or State-sanctioned medical marijuana would indicate that the federal government is somewhat weary about fighting a war in which the general population basically believes that marijuana is an adult activity and should be left to adults to decide upon.

While tobacco is not marijuana, and marijuana is not tobacco, they both have the same common cause, in which, smoking substances for generations upon generations of civilizations, has always been a social activity and typically a social norm, but recent laws passed having basically turned smoking into a private affair, sort of a privilege for those having private property, but sociability is part and parcel of any sane and sensible civilization and therein lies the rub, for there resides power in numbers and while people that smoke tobacco don't necessarily smoke marijuana and vice versa, they both pretty much are in the same sort of activity, which is smoking, and really being able to smoke in private, is sort of like being only able to drink in private, which is fine if you are a straight-up alcoholic, but for most people, it isn't what you want to do in the first place.  In actuality, people want to enjoy themselves, they want to be able to socialize in places of their preference, and engage in whatever activities appeal to them, which for some people, includes smoking.

Of course, there are all sorts of things which are bad for you, bad to eat, bad to drink, bad to smoke, bad to think, bad to do, and so forth, but really the role of government should be of the mind that adults are allowed to make their own decisions, because that is why God gifted us with our own mind.  While it is one thing for the government to suggest what we should or shouldn't do, it's an entirely different thing when the law compels one to do this or not do that, because the government says it's bad for you. 

Those that smoke marijuana should intuitively recognize that the more rights that tobacco smokers have, the more rights that marijuana smokers can aspire to, and conversely the less rights that tobacco smokers have, in all probability the less rights marijuana smokers will have access to.  This means that if you are pro-marijuana you have to be pro-tobacco, and if you are pro-tobacco you have to be pro-marijuana.  After all, smokers want to smoke.

Women, Freedom, and Economic Opportunity

America has come a long way in its history in according females the same essential and fundamental rights as men.  While there are a few that decry such a thing, believing still that a woman's place is in the home, or subservient to men; in general, most people have adjusted to the fact that all humans are created equally by the same Creator and it is comforting to see that American jurisprudence pretty much acknowledges the equality of women to men in today's society.

The bottom line is that within societies in which women are not accorded the same respect and opportunity as men, those societies , for the most part, are not progressive or fair societies.  A case in point is that women that aren't educated have far fewer good economic opportunities to afford themselves of, as well as if certain professions as a matter of course do not hire females, than females have less fair economic opportunity. 

In situations in which females have no or little economic opportunity, or no or little freedom once then become married, than they are sacrificing freedom for what may, in the best of cases, be security, and in the worst of cases, a peculiar sort of slavery.  When women are incapable of being able to have freedom of choice, freedom of movement, freedom of education, or freedom of opportunity, than they are to a large extent, significantly limited in what they can or cannot do.

For instance, without money and with limited opportunity to earn legitimate money, women are basically going to be either wards of the state, or enslaved to the men or families in their lives, neither of which represents equality or fairness.  While there is absolutely nothing intrinsically wrong with women that desire to simply find a husband and thereby to create a family, it should be a choice made by the woman, voluntarily, and further, should be a choice that is made, with the woman having had a fair chance to educate herself and to find fair employment at fair pay.

Mankind, for whatever reasons, seems to enjoy lording it over other people, whether it is the male over the female, or one race over another race, or one country over another, or the rich ruling the poor, but just because that is the way things have been, does not mean that it is the right way for things to be, for it is not.  The greatest countries are the countries that do not preclude dreams and opportunities being presented to all, because they do not prejudge a person based on sex, creed, caste or so forth, but are willing to engage others based on their individual merits and their unique character.

Women that are not free, and are given limited educational and economic opportunity, are no credit to any society that allows such to occur.  Those that wish to oppress others in all of its many forms, can find all sorts of so-called authoritative writings or voices to justify their actions and behaviors, in addition to a whole slew of reasons why such and such benefits or protects the person in question, but few of those crying the loudest for such fundamentalist claims are willing to suffer personally from the same restrictions that they desire so richly to impose upon others, indicating the corruptness and emptiness of what they preach.

The Biggest Gamble of them all

When you go to a casino, or play the lottery, the money that you risk is real money, and that money when lost to the casino is lost forever and you cannot get it back, though many try again and again to do so, until the game finally ends.  In life, whether you recognize it or not, you are gambling, though, not with money, per se, but with your eternal destiny, making this the true gambles of gambles.  The first disadvantage that many people suffer from is in their non-recognition, that whatever that they do and perform on this good earth actually does makes an eternal difference.  Then there are those that believe somehow that they can cheat the final Judge by all the various types of sleight-of-hand, or legalisms, failing to recognize that there are no shortcuts to Heaven.

There are a fair amount of preachers that preach forgiveness and grace for sins that you have committed deliberately or not, which apparently, can be mitigated by loving much in return, or by sacrificing yourself to a greater good, and so forth; while this certainly has its merit, it is the height of foolishness to really believe that a lifetime of sin and wrong actions, can be made good in the final days or final moments of anyone's life by a few right actions and love, but that judgment is the Lords' only to make, but to rely on such to save oneself is pretty much misguided.

In point of fact, if more people were to be cognizant that everything that we do on a daily basis has consequences and kept this foremost in their mind in which by this knowledge they made better and more conscientious decisions, the world would be a better place to live in.  It just isn’t possible, that a world that demonstrates so vividly and so often man's inhumanity to man is actually filled with present day angels, because angels would not behave that way, therefore, we must see the world for what it really is, and endeavor to do our part to make the world a better place by our having been here.  Each of us has our part to play; each of us has their role to play, and the better that we are at our endeavors, the greater our joy and the fruits thereof.

Those that act and behave as if life has no meaning, as if life has no purpose, aren't typically going to make good or certainly not the best decisions, which is why it is so important to be educated that life does indeed have meaning, and that life does indeed have consequences, and that these consequences have a direct correlation to ourselves and how we have interacted with those that surround us.  This world isn't a "free ride" nor is it unmitigated misery for those that suffer much, there is purpose, of which perhaps because we know so little, we sometimes fail to see it as clearly as we should, but the clearer our vision, the clearer we will see what we should be doing.

Of course, knowing what to do is certainly not the same as doing, as many people have the rather bad habit of stating with confidence one thing, but enacting in actuality something entirely different and way too often that change is one that reflects selfishness at the expense of doing right.  This life is your legacy and that legacy lives on well after your life has run its course, to wit, you cannot undo what you have already done, whether right or wrong, therefore do right, for righteousness best gives tribute to He who represents both eternal truth and equitable justice.

American Indians on Reservations is Socialism in Action

There are politicians that spend all their time every day praising and advocating socialism, as if socialism will right all the wrongs, right all the divisions, right all the inequality that civil society has, sort of like some big, governmental magic wand.  But all of this talk, and there is plenty of talk, isn’t really necessary, so if you want to really see socialism in action, you can see it right here live and in-person, simply by spending time and observing American Indian reservations.

Although American Indian reservations are considered to be sovereign nations, at least in print, they are also considered to be, “domestic dependent nations”, so that the federal government takes a very paternalistic view of American Indians, essentially providing them with their sustenance, which means being under the umbrella and aegis of the federal government, and the result of such a dependence can be seen in your typical American Indian reservation.

American Indians, in substance, are the least educated, the most impoverished, and by far the most dependent upon federal largess than any other segment of our population.  As you might remember, socialism is essentially the elimination of private enterprise and capitalism, replaced by governmental control and regulation of the productivity and the planning of the means of the usage of man’s productivity and ingenuity.   Socialism, is in theory, the sharing of man’s productivity amongst the population, and at least as envisioned, the creation of an utopian society in which all needs are met for all.  The most significant issue with socialism is that in order to have such a thing, individuals must cede all of their sovereignty to those governmental officials, and must be subservient to them in all matters.

When you are no longer responsible, or considered yourself to be no longer responsible, or by fiat are not really responsible for your daily needs, than not too surprisingly your initiative to do anything of substance often diminishes, and for those generations following, any semblance of initiative is virtually stillborn.  American Indians living on protected reservations are little enclaves of socialism as it really is in the real world.   Since they don’t have to take responsibility for their livelihood, they soon lose any desire to apply themselves to anything of real substance, and instead depend upon the government, to provide everything for their day-to-day living effectively becoming permanent generational wards of the state.

The bottom line is that when you change the mindset of the individual from one in which they are sovereign onto themselvesinto one in which they are not, behaviors and incentives will change, and the fewer people diligently applying themselves to accomplishing something of merit, results in a shrinking pie of prosperity, mediocrity at best, and rather than some sort of socialistic paradise, it makes for a life filled with little purpose, little productivity, and an endless belief in entitlement, in which, the living conditions and life itself, resembles life on present-day American Indian reservations, which are often hopeless, bleak, and demoralizing.

My Money and Other People's Money is not the same thing

Governments on local, State, and Federal levels utilize taxing, fees, and other charges in order to extract money from the general public and provide necessary infrastructure as well as other benefits to the population.  The thing about money is that the way that you typically treat your own cash is not the same way that you treat it when you are the steward of it, even when you believe your intentions are admirable.  For instance, when the money is yours, you are going to be more cognizant of how and why you spend your funds, as well as at least attempting to prioritize and to budget your monies.  On the other hand, those that work in government agencies, or in fiduciary duties, may indeed want to make prudent and sound decisions, but simply aren't going to put forth the same diligence and devotion to the usage of such money as if it was their own, because it isn't, and that mindset makes a material difference.

This would imply strongly that the more that governmental stewards are removed from the money that they have to spend being directly extracted from themselves or even from people that they have a direct relationship with, the less concerned that they are with it, or about the result or impact of that money.  After all, if you really don't know where the money came from, it is far less likely that you will treat it with the same meaningful concern.  So too, the usage of other people's money, especially when you're doing all of the taking and all of the talking, makes it rather easy to request more, or to spend more, and to expend a lot more than what you really need to do, because you do not personally feel your wallet becoming lighter.

This is why stewards of money, no matter how governance is setup, no matter how convoluted and confusing the structure is, must be much more transparent about how they treat and expend monies provided or allocated to them, for if you do hold your governmental and other fiduciary figures feet to the fire, they will have a strong tendency to be less than responsible in doing the right thing for those that they are serving.

There is risk, and there is risk with other people's money, and they are not the same thing.  For instance, those risking their own money make it a practice to be involved and cognizant of it, whereas those, playing with other people's money, care more for not being embarrassed about their use or misuse of funds, rather than being overly concerned about the performance or utilization of it.

The bottom line is that efficiency drops substantially the more removed the money is from where it actually originated from.  This signifies that the best politics and best spending, are done on a local and not on a national effort, for those on a local level, will best understand the things that they really need to get done, whereas those on a federal or far-removed level, are perhaps more concerned with spending as much as possible, wherever that they can, because throwing lots of money around, looks like you're doing something, which you are, but not very efficiently and not with all due respect and consideration of the people that you ostensibly serve.

Broadcast Warning before a Religious Program

There are television programs that before airing will as a matter of courtesy, information, or broadcast modus operandi, provide a warning to the audience that the following content may not be suitable for younger audiences because of mature content, or violent images, or strong language, or various other reasons.  Therefore, these warnings are perhaps a last chance for parental authority to change the channel to something less controversial or more desirable.

Then there are warnings that pretty much are nonsensical or even annoying in the sense of misplacement of such a warning. For example, a warning in front of a religious program, in which the preacher of such, is about as innocuous, about as upbeat, about as positive, as a person can be, in which one broadcaster displays a warning that the following program is not endorsed by the broadcaster,  nor expresses the viewpoints or reflects the sentiments of the broadcaster which is okay for what it is worth, but then follows this with the temerity to add that the following views are not endorsed by any of its employees, which would imply, or actually states, that none of their employees are Christian, or have Christian sentiments, or endorse Christian ideas, as if, Christianity is some sort of unmitigated evil.

It would be one thing, if the broadcaster, for whatever reason, stated their viewpoint and left it at that, but it's an entirely different thing, for a broadcaster to basically aggregate onto itself, what its employees are or are not, especially if what they are stating isn't even true, that is to say, that at least some of the employees are, in fact, Christian or have Christian sentiments.  Additionally, the warning seems quite misplaced, especially if America has degenerated into a country in which some broadcasters, or at least one broadcaster, believes that Christian sentiments such as love, grace, graciousness, charity, and so forth, are somehow something to be avoided like the plague.

While America has striven hard to become more inclusive, it is an entirely different thing to take positive attributes, and disavow oneself of them, solely because they are associated with a particular religion, but not exclusive to that religion. The mistake being made, is to take religion, as something that should just be shut inside a church, or a building, as if, human beings should only express religious sentiments in private, as if somehow to speak of their faith, or to act in accordance with their faith, is inimical to civil and secular society.

If broadcasters truly believe that they should warn patrons over the watching of wholesome programs, than one might ask as to what they aren't going to warn against.  There was a time when it was considered to be good stewardship to encourage Christian values, and if today those Christian values should instead be hidden like a lamp inside a closet, how far the mighty have fallen, and if those that use to be the beacons of the proverbial hill, have turned those beacons off, how mighty their fall shall be

Market Volatility and Panics

According to visualcapitalist.com, the total value of all the stock markets in the world is around $69 trillion dollars, of which, the United States markets represents about $26 trillion dollars, in which in any given year, America's economy as represented by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is about $18 trillion dollars.  All of these above numbers are absolutely massive and difficult to comprehend on just about any human level.  The pundits, financial programs, as well as media of all sources, basically like to present the stock market as inherently stable, in fact, there are those that actually believe that stock prices pretty much represent a fair reflection of their real value because equity markets are efficient.

While there may be truth in the sentiment that markets are efficient, relatively stable, and surprisingly quite liquid, there are times, though, that these circumstances aren't true, whatsoever.  This then is the very thing that should worry people as well as the institutions that have significant investments in markets, whereupon they assume that there isn't any real risk, whereas these investments which appear stable, can in fact, become unstable within a very short period of time, which will create the type of havoc that brings down governments, nations, and devastates lifetime savings, all essentially accomplished in the blink of an eye.

Fortunately, America is the market of markets, because it is global in nature, experienced, highly valued, and the touchstone, in addition to its being secure and most vigorous in its efforts and abilities to handle just about any circumstance, yet, it cannot handle every circumstance, especially things that are "black swan" events, and black swan events, most definitely, do occur.  For instance, as much as the stock market historians want to discuss ad nauseam the crash of 1929, the actual biggest crash in the history of the market, occurred on black Monday, 10/19/1987 when the Dow Jones dropped 22.61% in a single day, which means, that this crash occurred in the modern age, though, of course, the experts say, they've learned from this experience and so subsequently this will never occur again.

The thing about life which applies also to markets, is that for the most part people are fairly rational, but when a sudden and unexpected event occurs, such as a real fire occurring in a crowded theatre, the response can easily be a massive and hysterical panic and subsequently an overwrought tragedy caused by this reaction, as opposed to a more reasoned response that would reduce such to lesser and more manageable consequences. 

There is absolutely no reason not to believe that markets can and will become irrational in their response when some particular event occurs that upsets greatly the normal equilibrium of the market.  In addition, when institutions and investors are leveraged, or even overleveraged, and the market has quickly turned against them, these people are going to, whether automatically set or not, respond in a manner that protects themselves and their assets, which often means a flight from equity assets into liquidity, such as cash, in order to protect themselves, and as markets slide, these asset value drops cascade on top of each other, creating margin calls and further selling, and thereby a full-on panic ensues.  After all, when there are no buyers, or buyers who say to themselves, why buy now, when it's only going to go down lower, than the market drop on what you once thought was fairly stable, can be sickeningly fast and the ramifications of such a drop can destabilize anything and everything.

So you think big Corporations don't have real Power

The immensity of mega-corporations is hard for the average person to fathom, for instance, the biggest corporation by sheer sales size is Walmart, with fiscal year 2016 sales of $482.1 billion dollars, an amount that is absolutely staggering, in addition to the fact that Walmart employs about 2.3 million people, easily making them the largest privately-held employer of people in America, and second in employment only to the military.

Further to the point, sales of $482 billion dollars are so huge, that if Walmart was just its own country, its GDP would rank just behind Sweden, and ahead of Belgium, to wit, Sweden's GDP is 23rd highest in the world, signifying that Walmart sales are greater than every other country beneath Sweden, or over 80% of the world's countries in total.  All of this, doesn't necessarily mean that great size equates to great evil, but indicates that corporations that have massive sales and massive footprints around the globe, have inordinate amounts of influence upon people, countries, and governance, of which, Walmart is not a democratically elected representative in any government in any part of the world, yet, they hold powerful sway, in getting their way.

Size in all of its many manifestations, equates to power, such as the power to get roadway right-of-way and set asides, tax reductions and set asides, favorable infrastructure decisions, favorable laws, kickbacks or rebates of all sorts, pricing power over vendors and suppliers, and the list continues on and on.  This would indicate for a certainty that the playing field that mega-corporations are on is materially different than those that may have equally or better ideas, but are overshadowed nearly completely by lack of size, and connections to those that make and have influence.

While there certainly are advantages to consumers in buying items from large corporations, such as the pricing and breadth of items often being very competitive and extensive, in-stock, and of great value, there are tradeoffs to these benefits, which is, for instance, that local communities rather than being in a situation in which the money cycles and recycles within that community, find more often than not, that a percentage of the money circulating is essentially being siphoned off to corporations which have their headquarters in different cities, or even different countries, so that the necessary infrastructure that cities need to grow and to benefit its constituents is reduced, forcing either a reduction in services or a need for more federal or governmental assistance of various kinds.

Also, it doesn't seem right that the very biggest corporations in the world get the very best deals in the sense of their cost of money, their tax structure, their tax benefits, their land deals, and just their overall benefits, in a situation in which, these large corporations have already more than enough to take care of business in an equitable and even-handed manner.  The main reason why big corporations continue to throw their weight around is that they have an obligation to their stockholders and investors to always increase sales as well as to increase gross margins, and conversely to reduce expenses, so as to please those investors.  This means, that big corporations, again and again, exert pressure to get what is best for them, never once taking their foot off of the pedal, in consideration that being a good neighbor is the best policy of all.

Permanence and Impermanence

Those that dwell on things that are impermanent and treat them as if they are permanent, such as physical beauty, money, their status, and so forth, will never find true peace or equanimity of mind in this world, for if your treasure is on or within the temporal, than your treasures is subject to its inevitable rust and decay or outright thievery.  On the other hand, those that recognize that their greatest efforts should be in accordance with that which is permanent, and of these, they are invariably of the spiritual nature, such as the fruits of the spirit, which are: "….love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance… ".  (Galatians 5:22-23). 

The things of this world have their place but are superseded in preeminence by the advice, the wisdom, the peace, and the understanding, that you pass on one to another from one person to another in your day-to-day activities.  Those that, instead, dwell on creating their own kingly domains, have their gratification in having done so, but as much as they might try, they cannot hold onto such kingdoms, because they cannot control the material world, and lacking such control, all sorts of sins, disappointments, and wrongs create themselves.

We suffer, so often, not because we lack, though we might lack, but because we spend inordinate amounts of time, going after things that inherently will not bring us true happiness or even satisfaction, although they very well may satiate ourselves for a time.  For instance, there are those that want to look a certain way but cannot try as they might, forever turn back the ravages of time, because the physical body eventually reaches its point of no return.  So too, no matter how great the edifices that you create or have helped to create, they cannot without the vision as well as the workers present, continue to be developed and maintained far into the future, so too these great edifices will eventually decay back into dust.

However, for those that spend their greater effort making this world, making their family, engaging with their friends, in a positive manner, this demonstrates in thought and in action that they care, by devoting their energies in a manner that places service to others at a higher level, than demanding or expecting self-service for themselves.  The things that you do, the things that you say, the things that you influence, and the effort that you put into everything, will, whether desired or not, influence the actions of others impacted by what you have done.  These are indeed the things that are permanent, because they carry forth from generation to generation, for better or for worse.

This world suffers through manmade disasters, which can change things in a blink of an eye, as well as natural disasters which can tear down things that have been created over generations, and even have stood their ground for millenniums; these can all disappear from the powerful fury of wind, water, and fire.    This world tricks so many because they see the things that are tangible and believe that these things are permanent, but material things, all have a cycle that cannot be changed no matter their form, because nothing of a material nature is eternal.  The art is in knowing, that the material is needed in order to live life on earth, so as to play our roles on this plane, while those that see the bigger picture, that we are spirit, will intuitively recognize that we are all one, therefore when we aid one another, we aid all

No one is left behind

This is America, but somehow over the years the Puritan ethic has been cast aside as the ideal and replaced with a "me-first" attitude, or an entitlement mindset demonstrated by so many, and in general, selfishness in all of its many manifestations is considered by some to be sort of America redefined.  While certainly there is something to be said about "looking out for No. 1", but to do so, in a manner that undercuts, cheats, or excludes others, because of your unseemly grab for wealth, power, or its equivalencies is not the proper American way. In America, there are way too many people that have selected a finish line that they are aiming for, without ever taking into careful consideration the consequences for others when or how they get there. 

All of us are indeed created equally by their Creator, which as defined does not mean that they are equal in talents, nor equal in circumstances, nor equal in mind, but equal in that each has the unalienable rights of free will, and a free conscience, so as to freely choose or not choose to find their way back to the First Source. Those that are actually successfully in reuniting their spiritual souls with God, are eternally grateful for having done so, but like a great ship at harbor, this ship will not sail again, till all, that is, everyone, without exception, is aboard.  That is why great souls that have no karma to work off, that have no rebellion inside of them, that have passed all tests given to them, come back to this earthly plane again and again, so as to lead by example as well as influence those lost sheep to return to the one fold that all originated, without exception, from.

God is our creator, and can our creator ever leave his creation behind?  He cannot.  He will not.  He does not.  Man, so often in his assumed wisdom, thinks he knows everything, but draw back the curtain all of the way, pour forth the illuminating scintillating light that is God, and man's wisdom shrivels up to an embarrassment of hubris.    There is one God, there is one river, there is one people, and one cannot ever be complete without all joined in together.

Those that lend a helping hand, those that sacrifice for the greater good, those that make the world a better place for having been here, are those that build the very steps that will lead us back to the throne of God.  It is a process, it does not happen overnight, there are starts and stops, there are mistakes and misdirection, but the overarching theme, the bend of justice, will ultimately become the straight and very narrow path back to God.

When the school bus stops so as to let the children out for a lecture at a park, or a day at the museum, or other activities, each student has been counted and identified, and that bus will never leave, until each student has been re-counted and identified, not once, but at least twice so that none will be left behind.  We are God's children, some are far astray, some are asleep, some are actively doing bad things, but then again there are those that are good, that care, that love, and that are tireless in pursuing the lost sheep on behalf of God. 

It may take time, but what is time to God, for none will be left behind, no, not one.

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: Where Everyone is Always Guilty

Government is power and government is force, and the laws that so many people think are set for their benefit, are always and without exception a two-edge sword, in which, laws poorly written and structured in such a way that the government can prosecute whomever that they want, whenever that they want, is nothing but tyranny upon the citizens of this great land.

Perhaps there were good intentions behind the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, perhaps not, but in any event it is the law of the land, and in a day and age in which virtually everyone that isn't debilitated or a disinterested Senior Citizen, or living in the outback, and thereby completely off the grid, than you as a matter of course are engaging with the internet on a constant basis through whatever smart devices that you prefer and therein lies the problem with this law.

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) contains a lot of verbiage covering all sorts of things, but essentially the most dangerous activities that it can foist upon the unsuspecting American public is that it prohibits access to a computer "without authorization" or "exceeding authorized access", so that all of those Terms and Conditions that you see on social media sites, or access to particular internet sites, and so forth, that nobody ever reads, contains language in regards to "conditional usage" of such a website, which, of course, ties into the CFAA.

While it certainly makes sense that you would want to stop unauthorized access to computers, such as those that are intimately involved in hacking activities, or up to a general no-good, the law as written is so broad, that just about anybody accessing the internet in the normal course of events, is potentially subject to having violated such access, because of the global nature of the internet, which invariably means that computers and information are connected to each other, and some computers and connections are government connected, or foreign connected, or cross State lines, in which any of these things can be construed by aggressive governmental authorities to have infringed upon this law.

The government's long and powerful prosecutorial arm as utilized today, has a insidious part to it, which is, by the very virtue of being able to reach out and to snag just about anyone off of this nebulous CFAA law, that this sort of indictment, allows the government to pressure those arrested or charged, to cooperate with the governmental desires or decrees.  This means that those that are an inconvenience to the government, or a pest to the government, and so forth, can deliberately be targeted, and effectively harassed and thereby silenced, which effectively is an abridgment of our freedom of speech.

To the government, it is a very nice convenience, to have this particular law in their arsenal as it allows them to pressure those that annoy them, to no good end.  For the people, this law is a version of being in constant danger, without really being aware that this is so, until they are the unfortunate one to become indicted for their "crime".  This law is most definitely used, it's very effective for its intended purposes, and it is a very dangerous power poorly written and chillingly oppressive.

Employment Age Discrimination

In America, there are laws, then there are the actual implementation of those laws,  follow by the interpretations of those laws, and finally the bottom line, which is that you get just about all the law you're going to get in proportion to the money and the quality of the legal council that you so engage.  When Congress passed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA),the purpose was to protect those age 40 and above from employment discrimination, because the bottom line when it comes to employees, is that younger employees are in general cheaper in labor costs, cheaper in health costs, have less family issues to attend to, and typically are more moldable by the employer, so if you are needing a lot of "Indians" but not so many "Chiefs", younger employees typically provide such a benefit.

In addition, because younger employees have a very strong tendency to exert downward pressure on labor costs, it makes it difficult for older employees to make all the money that they deserve to make, and if those older employees, know that finding another job with the same pay and equivalent benefits is more problematic for them, that makes them far more quiescent in pushing for higher pay rates or benefits. 

Although, America does not have a law that stipulates that you cannot ask the age of an applicant, most employers as a matter of course do not do so, because that is almost prima facie evidence that they are walking the path of potential age discrimination.  Rather, and I suppose they think they are so clever, they work around asking the straightforward question, by sometimes requesting a picture to go with the online resume, which can open up an entirely new can of worms, or the favorite, which is for the applicant to place on their resume or follow-up questions, the year that they graduated from college.

The thing about the graduate year is that knowing such, doesn't mean that you know for a certainty that someone that graduated in 2015, is in the age range of 23-27, as there are older people that don't get around to finishing their education until much later in life, yet there is a reasonable presumption that most graduates at that time are young, whereas for those that state that they graduated in 1985, there is an absolute certainty that they are over the age of 50, and cannot possible be in their twenties.

Further to the point, since most resumes are now uploaded online, it is very easy for an independent party to create a program that takes those dates and segregates out those that are older from the desired targeted candidates without such a procedure actually being divulged to the client.  Rather, they might say, that the sophisticated analytics that are applied to resumes only produces the best candidates for further review.  Whether this is true or not in actuality, misses the point, the point is that graduation dates are especially for companies receiving boatloads of resumes a very easy way to separate out those that they have no real interest in interviewing, further if they have some sort of plausible denial in place, no one is the wiser.  Does it happen?  No doubt that it does.

Defeat can lead to Victory

In sports, the greatest accomplish is to go an entire season without ever experiencing defeat, becoming both unvanquished as well as the champion.  Of course, this doesn't happen often, and if was to be a routine occurrence for a particular team, viewership would actually go down, because if a particular team always wins, there just isn't much drama in that.  So too, in life, it is important to remember that if everything that you do comes rather easily for you, if everything always goes your way, and if the whole world seems to revolve around you, then you are either imagining these things or you have got to get yourself up and actually find some challenges that involve real struggle and real effort.

In point of fact, the people that always win, and that always get their way, aren't going to be especially empathetic to people that aren't winning, and aren't getting their way, because they will be at a lost as to how to identify with that.  Everybody needs some load or burden to carry, because only by actually knowing what it feels like to lose, or to get knocked down, or to not have the right answer, will you have the opportunity to appreciate the value of humility and the value of struggle.  It is in the losing and wanting to better yourself that allows a person to ultimately overcome defeat, and thereby attain victory.

So too, there definitely is value in being on the receiving end of disappointment, especially if in this disappointment there is created a fire in your belly, and thereby a vigor to do better so as to achieve more.  Many people do not know how much talent and strength that they have, until they are placed into a position in which they must assert themselves, or suffer dire consequences for not successfully doing so. 

In order to really appreciate health, you need to suffer poor health,  at least on occasion, so that you will take recognition that good health should not be seen as a given, but something to be appreciated, to be valued and to be grateful for.  You need to suffer sometimes, not so much because suffering builds character, but rather to better empathize with others going through similar situations, so that your strength and your experience will help to prop up another, who needs that helping hand.

Also, it is important to see physical life lost, so that you will better understand, that life not only has many stages, but that physical life on this earth can end suddenly and unexpectedly, therefore allowing you to appreciate more that time allocated to you and hence understand more completely that time has value, and it is up to you, to maximize it, not only for your own benefit, but for the benefit of others.

Your life matters, not only to yourself but especially to family and friends, and your experiences matter, because those experiences, either becomes stumbling blocks or building blocks, depending upon how you manage them.  In life, the objective is not to get a perfect score, the objective is to try and try again to overcome the things that prevent you from being the best that you can be, and your obligation to society is to lend a helping hand to others so that they can do the same

America: Overmedicated and Overprescribed

There isn't a country in the world that comes close to the amount of medications and pharmaceuticals consumed by Americans on a per capita basis.  It would be one thing if all this medication actually was a net benefit for the patient by improving the quality of one's life, or reducing the pain thereof, or for just making for a more humane and more considerate experience when dealing with medical issues, but in actuality, that often isn't the case, while medical doctors, medicine, and pharmaceuticals can most definitely improve the lot for certain diseases and ills, it can also create new problems, mask the real problem, and actually do material harm to the patient.

The day that America decided that it was okay to market pharmaceuticals to Americans via print media, advertising on television and radio, and now advertising on the internet, is the day that the growth rate of the usage of pharmaceuticals within this country began to achieve a much more pronounced trajectory.  The bottom line is that on any given day, you may experience a headache, a stomach ache, general aches and pains, not sleeping well, anxiety, or all sorts of things, which typically come and typically go in your life.  It use to be, if these things did not become chronic, or of a real hindrance, that people would just go about their business, but nowadays these advertisements are so ubiquitous and cover so many "conditions" and sell the promise that they provide what appears to be instant relief, that Americans are sucked into believing the hype.

It's bad enough that American adults take or are prescribed way too much medication for things that don't really need medication, but it is an entirely different thing for children, to be prescribed medication for being overactive, hyper, lacking in attention skills, or need an antihistamine, or need to relieve asthma, and so forth, in which these young children really don’t have much of a say on the matter, as they assume that their parents as well as their pediatrician know what is best for them, but alas this isn't always so.  So too, children that are prescribed drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), may easily start a process that never ends, that is to say, they are on ADHD medication all of their life, which doesn't seem like a good solution in the first place, or if a possible solution, should not be the first one to engage in.

While there are most definitely people that do require medication, and while there are situations in which medication is very effective as a remedy, it is also important to recognize that the body, is a well constructed and a well constituted machine, that incredibly can and will, under the right circumstances in many instances, heal itself, if only given enough time to do so.   There are times when urgency requires urgent responses, so too, there are numerous times, when patience and attentiveness in all of its many forms, is by far the best response, and the best thing for a person.  The bottom line is that even in the best of cases pills are two-edge swords which is why pharmaceuticals have their attendant disclaimers written in very small print that simply go on and on and on.