You make your own hell

While mainstream western religious doctrines deal with hell in all sorts of different ways, they often make it seem rather straightforward that there will be those that will go to hell because of their unbelief, or because of their wrong actions which they have not been absolved of, or because of their ignorance, and so on and so forth.  However, looking at life, and you will see, that life is seldom so clearly demarcated, in fact, it is much more nuanced, more akin to shades of gray, and that it is thereby too simplistic that there are certain people designated as being so good or so pure or so forgiven that they will get eternal benefits, whereas there are other people that are so fundamentally bad and so unrepentant that they therefore go to the eternal damnation of hell, all of which indicates that sort of doctrine or belief must be fundamentally flawed and misguided.

In point of fact, like the selling of indulgences, back in the day, which in theory, would provide even the worse of sinners, a place in Heaven, that isn't the way our eternal afterlife works.  God is love, justice, and fairness, so being clever in this life, or following religious rules as interpreted by those on this earth, as if this will for a certainty provide you with either Heaven or hell is not correct, and those that point to this or that scripture or saying as if they know, for a fact what will happen, do not know what they are talking about, for to face God, is to face Truth, and Truth does not and will not bend to manmade rules or doctrines.

God has provided each one of us, no matter the circumstances, good or bad, fair or not, the freedom to do whatever that we so desire to do, within our given circumstances, whatever they may be, on this planet.  It is in those actions, in our words and in our interactions that define who and what we really are.  These then serve as the building blocks that either bring us closer to God, or take us further away, and things such as hate, angry, selfishness, and envy, are not the attributes of God, so that, in consideration of these things, we create our own hell by our actions that we have to overcome, meaning that in order to get right with God, we accomplish this by being kind, considerate, loving, and patient.

Those that have the true knowledge of God, with their contemplative insight, recognize intuitively how far they are from the perfection that represents our God, and therefore they are the most humble of servants.  It is these people we should listen to, for their voice of calmness, wisdom, and gentleness speaks to the truth of what God represents and who God really is.  God is love, and our Creator has granted us freedom, of which, this freedom is our opportunity to say yes to God and His beatitudes, or to say no to God, and suffer through the consequences of wrong actions and wrong thinking.

When your mind is not right, when your actions are not right, when you have been selfish, unfair, and wrong, these things, may indeed be forgiven by our gracious Lord, but in recognition that we have failed in our demeanor, we have created our very own hell, for hell is not eternal fire and brimstone, but instead is our inability to fully re-unite with the Godhead, because of our impurity, and until such time as we successfully burn off the dross that dirties us, separating us thereby from our Creator, we must, if we are wise, through our faithful diligence and efforts, step by step, by doing right, find our way, back to  God, or in our separation, suffer through our own personal hell.

Self-driving cars are not thinking far enough outside the box

While it is impressive that cars have been developed that are self-driving and therefore autonomous, they are, in fit and function, ultimately in their look and purpose, still cars, with four wheels,  an engine to drive that car, brakes, and so on and so forth.  That is to say, while cars whether still driven by humans or not, have advanced considerably so that they are now able to aid the driver of the vehicle by informing the driver of hazards or making adjustments on the fly, or becoming self-driving, they are still basically just more intelligent cars, so that if these truly are to be the new cars of the future in our brave new world, they sure do look similar to what has already come before, and aren't really a quantum leap forward, but at best, an integral improvement, not wholly unexpected, and not really all that.

This would seem to signify, when it comes to transportation, the best way to attack the real issue of people moving, is to throw out all the old playbooks, completely, and to thereby utilize our minds to come up with alternative ways to transport people from one place to another, recognizing that most people when they travel, do so alone, and don't need much more than a backpack worth of stuff to carry with them, and thereby to carefully look at all of the various forms of transportation that are being utilized or imagined today and see if there is truly something that would be transferrable to people that would not have to rely on the friction of a tire on a road in order to do so, but instead, be frictionless.

In fact, there are frictionless trains, and these trains are able to travel at speeds well in excess of 200 mph, through the process of magnetic levitation technology.  This magnetic levitation technology most definitely works and while today it is utilized for trains that are built to run on specific magnetic tracks, it does not take a real stretch of the imagination to picture that in one form or another, in one way or another, this could be transferrable as a replacement for passenger cars, if an integrated effort on a coordinated massive scale was put forth by governmental and private enterprise, for this truly would change the transportation game in a dramatic way, making for a world in which the reliance on fossil fuels for our transportation needs would be reduced considerably, and replaced by magnetism and electricity.

The important point to get out of all this is that the automation of cars doesn't really resolve any of our issues in regards to traffic congestion, or our carbon footprint, while they may indeed make us safer, the upshot is that the advance of automated cars or semi-automated cars will ultimately lead to more cars being on the road.  This would seem to signify, that our future transportation needs should take into account that the days of utilizing transportation that involves road friction, should be set aside, and replaced by transportation that is frictionless, which would mean that those vehicles would be quieter, lighter, smaller, and significantly more energy efficient.

The detection and removal of landmines

Landmines were originally developed in the era of World War I as a means to stop or to disable battle tanks and/or other military vehicles during that war.  While there are landmines specifically manufactured to do that same sort of thing today, landmines have also been developed that unfortunately, in fit and function, are specifically dropped or placed into areas of battles, trails, roads, or enemy territories, not of a purpose to disable military vehicles or tanks, but to disable, indiscriminately, human beings.  These landmines are incapable of knowing whether the person stepping on them are friend or foe, child or adult, soldier or civilian, and will when detonated bring great harm upon people in that vicinity, leading to the lost of limbs, crippling, and/or death.

Whether landmines should be banned from all areas of warfare, is a topic that should be engaged, but at a minimum, with today's technology and sophistication, landmines themselves, built by manufacturers throughout the world, should be mandated to have a policy that all landmines so produced must have GPS tracking information within them, that specifies, the exact coordinates of where such a landmine is to within a great deal of accuracy so that when battles and warfare reach their conclusion, that these same said landmines can systematically be located, neutralized, and removed from the field of action. 

So too, the responsibility of the removal of these landmines should be the countries and/or organizations that dropped and placed the landmines onto the fields in the first place, all of which should be monitored by a global human rights organization in conjunction with the United Nations, in which specific monetary penalties and/or sanctions should be imposed against recalcitrant countries and organizations who do not make it a point to clean up and verify that the lands are now, once again, safe.

It is indeed fortunate that technology has advanced in which landmines currently placed in areas of conflict throughout the world, that these can now be detected fairly readily by sophisticated drones that can locate such with a precise degree of accuracy.  These explosive landmines that have been lying in wait on the ground, for years or even decades, must be disabled and displaced from their current positions, as an act of humanity, and a special tax should be assessed against the manufacturers of such landmines in order to help pay for the efforts to make these lands safe, once again, for human beings.

It isn't right that in times of war and conflict, killing devices are permitted to be left behind that are easily activated by simply stepping on or near them, and will thereby indiscriminately harm or kill those that do so.  Those that live in western nations, especially, have a moral obligation to do their absolute best to see that such devices are not left behind, but are systematically removed from the field of action so as to protect the innocent.  The fact that millions upon millions of dollars are made in profits from the manufacture of such devices, without taking into account, that there is an even higher obligation to see that they are removed safely from the affected areas, is a clear and present crime against humanity, affecting typically the poor of other nations, while enriching the most technologically advanced nations with blood money.

The superrich, us, and the fear of poverty

The elites of this world do not congregate with those that have little or nothing, they instead, in their social life and social circles, in their business life and with their business associates, and all the places that they do so congregate, are in virtually all matters, separated almost wholly from the masses.  That is to say, the superrich do not live amongst us, they live instead in gated communities with human security forces, or if not gated, so effectively secluded from the masses, that they won't ever bump into them.  The superrich don't shop at the same stores as the rabble, for the stores will come to them.   So too, the rich when attending sporting events, don't sit outside in the elements or go to the same bathrooms as everyone else, but have their own luxury boxes in which they can be catered to, and mingle with those that are of their class, or with associates that help to augment their status.  In everything, large and small, the superrich live virtually wholly separated from all others, well protected, well respected and always catered to, and seldom fear crime in any of its various forms, yet they do fear this one thing, and that is their own individual catastrophic failure of the sort that leads to not only loss of status but real poverty.

You see, the superrich do not ever really think, based on their position and status in life, that they will ever suffer the poverty that so many deal with on a day-to-day basis, especially because the system has been constructed for them, by them, and for the perpetual benefit of them, so such odds strongly favor this not ever happening, which is why they don't concern themselves with all those beneath them, and also why if they do so fall,  they are wholly unprepared for it, which would be like the equivalency of a big, fat, spoiled cat that has been declawed and now is on its own.

On the other hand, those that are fairly successful are often the same people that are looking over their shoulder because they are close enough to real society, to recognize the danger of seeing so many that have little or nothing.  They do fear losing their status, for they recognize the importance of having a nice home in a nice neighborhood and the wealth of being able to take advantage of all the wonderful things that society provides for those that have money in their pockets.  This means, more often than not that they are quite satisfied holding their own, for if they do that, they are just fine, and life therefore is good.

Finally, there is the large underclass of Americans that are in positions of hopelessness, of which, such poverty and the lack of opportunities, inevitably leads to the type of actions that main society considers to be crimes, but so many of these so-called crimes are really done within their own social milieu and have little to do with those that are successful.  Yet, society deals with these people rather harshly in order to keep them perpetually in their place, which does nothing but exacerbates simmering unrest, for such poverty always breeds discontent, and that discontent could strike out against those agents that exert that injustice, and that blowback when it strikes, will go after those just above them, for their neighborhoods and their businesses are in relative close proximity to the oppressed, which is why, so many, fear so much.

None liveth to himself

America loves to profess its freedom, of which, having such freedom of will, freedom of thought, and freedom of action, truly are the best that any government of the people could ever ask for.  Yet, freedom does entail responsibilities, for if all were to simply do whatever that they would so please, without taking into the consideration others, while failing to recognize responsibilities to family, fellow workers, and neighbors, than we have failed for having been granted such freedom, for those that live just for themselves, first and foremost, and the devil to all else, aren't good citizens, and they reflect poorly on Christian values.

Now, there is something to be said, for taking time for one's self, so as to concentrate on work, or hobbies, or to meditate upon God's word, and in order to accomplish this well, the mind and the body must be united in its purpose, and of necessity, sometimes be removed from others.  However, the great men and women of our age, have never been those that stand apart from their fellow human brethren as if these other people are too much of a nuisance, or unclean, or beneath them, but rather they engage with their fellow people, for many reasons, of which one of the most significant, is that each person brings their own talents with their lives, and those talents are best meant to be developed and well utilized with others, rather than being kept apart or secreted from all.

So too, all of the infrastructure of modern living, all of the modern conveniences that we take for granted, have come typically from the minds of people that have applied themselves to their missions in such a way, that while benefiting themselves personally, they have also benefited many, many others, so that all boats may indeed rise, and not just one, for we are all on the very same ocean, and are not here to set aside small islands of prosperity and vision, but instead, to build great continental lands of prosperity, wealth, and knowledge.

When mankind advances, and alas mankind does not always move in a forward direction, it is mainly because the collective minds of those that have come before, that is, their knowledge and wisdom, has been passed on to others through mentoring and schooling, so that we are not generation by generation merely relearning the things that have already been discovered and known, but blazing new pathways from the grand boulevards that been initiated by previous generations for the continual benefit of our fellow travelers.  That is what makes for great civilizations, which is why civilizations are created in the first place, so that more can be done for the cumulative benefit of all mankind.

While competition has its place, and solitary contemplation does too, we are meant to communicate the best ideas and to work our strongest muscles in conjunction with others, all as a part of a united team that desires to bring to each succeeding generation more wealth and improved knowledge, ideally making for better lives for as many as possible, for  we all are in this together, for this is indeed the United States of America, which means in principle, that its people are united in their rightful pursuit of liberty and justice for all.

The confidence game and fiat currency

Despite what you might think, despite what the pundits might say, the coin of the realm in this country isn't back by anything.  That is to say, dollar bills whether in your wallet or in your bank account or in your paycheck are fiat currency, in which, the word "fiat" is the Latin word, standing for "let it be done", which basically signifies that the country that issues such currency has done so through the declaration that this currency is the legal tender of that country, but its value primarily comes from the belief of those that utilize it, that this currency medium has lasting value, which relies upon the faith that the people and institutions have in the credit worthiness and sustainability of such a currency, however, remember the caveat that fiat money, by definition, isn't backed by anything other than the faith and confidence that it will continue to be a valid store of value, now and into the foreseeable future.

The fact that fiat currency is widely accepted, almost without controversy, in America as well as throughout the world, in which the dollar is considered functionally to be the world's reserve currency establishes incredible monetary power for the United States, because all other major currencies are either implicitly or explicitly pegged against the dollar, and most international trades are conducted utilizing the anchor of our American denominated currency.  In effect, since the world revolves around America's fiat currency, this essentially means that the backers of such a currency, the Federal Reserve, which, despite its name is a non-governmental banking consortium, are able to benefit from their power position of being in the driver's seat of currency markets, exchanges, and trades.

The United States is well aware of its global monetary power, and in recent decades, has allowed its own fiscal house, to deteriorate to such an extent, that America has the largest cumulative debt of any country in the world, more than twice as high as Japan, in which America's debt is over $20 trillion dollars and counting.  While experts will state that America is also the world's largest economy, its GDP to debt ratio as reported by tradingeconomics.com is as of 2016 106.1% and inexorably climbing, whereas, its GDP to debt ratio was once as low as 31.7% back in 1981.

The reason why our country's debt load matters is that when the time comes, where there is that reckoning of our fiat currency, which is not only the coin of the realm in America, but represents the world reserve currency, the downfall or devaluation or re-pegging of this currency to something of intrinsic worth or value or stable reliability, will have worldwide implications, that will be catastrophic for the stability of society, but not just American society, but catastrophic throughout the entire world, because when things that are valued by the US dollar or essentially fixed to it in function,  end up disintegrating, especially at an uncontrollable pace, the ruin to country's fortunes and people's fortunes will be calamitous.

Those that believe, ignorant or not, blithely unaware or not, that fiat currency is somehow typically a true and lasting store of value, will find sadly that it is not, so that monetary assets that appear to have a great storage value, of reasonable stability, such as our dollar has represented throughout its life as a currency, will for a certainty discover that it when it really does not, by virtue of the collapse of this great monetary edifice, which is inevitable, that only those in the know, will benefit, and they will benefit enormously, whereas all others will find that their worth has become decimated, and the civil unrest that will ensue, will bring forth martial law, which will last until such time as the people capitulate wholly to those that hold the purse strings and the guns.

The rich and giving to the poor

We read in Holy Scripture that when inquiring of Jesus, what good thing that must be done in order to receive eternal life, our Christ responded in Matthew 19: 21, "…. If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me."  But the man that asked this question was deeply saddened by this response, for his wealth was great, and he did not desire to give that wealth up.  So too, for those today that profess to be Christians or are sympathetic to the Christian faith, though having monetary assets, how many of these give up all their material wealth to the poor, and then truly follow our Messiah?

In passages such as these, people of wealth and means, like to scramble through various interpretations of such, for when those that receive wisdom, find it not to their liking, in which they are truly put to the test, a test that surely separates the sheep from the goats, prefer instead to put the test off, through any legitimate or illegitimate excuse that comes to mind, for the giving up of one's wealth, or of one's status, doesn't seem responsible, or prudent, or sound, and so put it off they will do.

Yet, the passage can be taken literally, for what material assets did Jesus or His disciples really have, and further to the point, which of his disciples, besides Judas Iscariot, that once having made the commitment to be on the straight and narrow path with Jesus, removed themselves from it, but rather each of the Messiah's disciples paid the final price for their faithfulness and integrity, by becoming martyred, with the sole exception, being John who was exiled to Patmos.

That is to say, had Christ's disciples and apostles not taken to heart, Jesus admonition to forsake material wealth, and to thereby truly come and follow His mission, than there never would have been the Christian religion. The very message of our Messiah and those closest to Him, that is, His disciples and apostles, are those that made it possible for Christianity to be the worldwide religion that it is so today, and without them practicing and preaching such to those they met with day-by-day, Christianity would not  have survived, let alone, thrived.

Still, many that have money do not like the above passage, because they see it not as practical in the real world, of which, they never seem to question their own vision or wisdom, and feel if they lend a helping hand or advice to others less fortunate than them and/or tithe that is surely good enough.  What, though, if everything that you believed about the meaning and purpose of life was actually wrong?  For instance, is it really fair and prudent to believe that you and your philosophy, does actually supersede the Christ?  Perhaps, the things that we chase in this Western World aren't really the things that really matter.  In fact, perhaps we have it all wrong.  For this material life, will end in material death; and material treasure such as money and its equivalency, will not now nor ever, follow us into the afterlife, so that, understanding that our physical life is finite, perhaps there is immense wisdom in recognizing that our true essence is not of this world, is not of our body, but it is our soul that animates the body, and this soul does not need anything material, it never has and it never will, it just needs re-union with God.

Necessities and Social Unrest

This planet has a population of about 7.5 billion peoples, and these people need to be at an absolute minimum fed, clothed, and sheltered.  Yet, there are many countries and/or areas within those countries that clean water within the sphere of where people live does not readily exist, compelling denizens of those areas to trek whatever distance it takes to where the clean water is; consider also the fact that there are many populations that are not self sustaining for the food that they  need in order to survive, and are thereby dependent upon the delivery of such food from their government or relief agencies;  in addition to many people lacking adequate housing to live in, reducing those to ramshackle living, susceptible to the elements on any given day.

The amount of people living in some sort of poverty or some sort of daily privation that makes them vulnerable to not having enough to eat, or drink, or the simple ability to live humanely, represents a substantial portion of the population as a whole, of which nearly half of the world lives on the equivalency of $2.50 or less each day.  This means that there is an incredibly high amount of people that are vulnerable to the real fear of being starved and when the subsidies that feed and shelter the poor, as well as subsidies that allow fuel to be provided to the people at significantly below market rates, in addition to pensions and other governmental programs that are the backbone of the most basic economic well being of masses of people, are reduced or eradicated, than the people, with literally nothing to lose, because they have nothing, will revolt.

The problem that is created when the government behaves as the great benefactor to the people, or Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) perform this same sort of duty, is when that aid or help is disrupted by, for example, governmental corruption or logistical problems, than those people expecting such beneficial charity will suffer greatly; made ever more dire, by the fact that often the wherewithal to feed, to clothe, and for good health, simply doesn't exist within that community for they have not the necessary means to accomplish such.  This then, creates incredible human vulnerabilities, made immensely worse by virtue that communities without self-sustaining viability are already on the precipice of human misery.

A civilization that has significant portions of its population that are simply surviving, at best, signifies that fundamentally that civilization has failed their people, of which, most times, the solution by those empowered by such civilization to address such an immense and pressing problem isn't to correct if foundationally, but rather to paper it over by providing just the bare necessities to those people for them to live on day-by-day, by providing them with food, water, and shelter, but no program or plan to do much better than that.  This means, for a certainty, that when times of trouble come, and they do come, than social unrest, rioting, revolt, and uprising are all strongly possible, and those that answer such, with the barrel of a gun, may indeed stymied such unrest, but have resolved nothing, for the fundamental issue, that it is for the living to really live, still poignantly exists.

Modern Day Pharisees

The Pharisees back in the day of Christ, were a sect of the Jewish religion, that were especially devoted to strict observance of religious law, believing that their interpretation was the only true rightful way to show correct and pious devotion to their God.  Many of us think of Jesus the Christ, as being loving, considerate, and kind, which indeed He was, but Christ directed some of his most potent criticisms at the Pharisees, not really in the hope that such wisdom from Him, would help to correct them, but rather as a counterpoint to what true religious faith was supposed to represent and be about.

The Pharisees, took religious law, and made it into a formula, in which, they utilized their respected community religious standing of superior "knowledge" to manipulate the population in such a respect, that the word of the Pharisees of what is proper and improper, what is right and what is wrong, what foods could be eaten and to whom one could eat with, the amount of money that needed to be gifted to the church temple, and the associations of people with each other, of which some were approved of, and some were considered to be inappropriate, was essentially the religious law of the land, and those that followed such dictates to the letter as given by the Pharisees were accorded respect and those that did not were considered to be in violation of their faith.

In point of fact, it is always a great danger, when anyone, takes it upon themselves to speak in the voice of God, and especially unfortunate when disciples or adherents to a particular religious faith or sect, takes such an interpretation as gospel, without giving such careful, contemplated thought.  No doubt, in an era in which the population as a whole, was illiterate, and their version of mass media being often controlled by governmental or religious authorities, common people did not have ready access to debate or carefully consider all doctrine, so that, often they accepted such, from men that dressed the part, as respectful and pious representatives, that they were therefore seen as legitimate authorities in all religious matters.

This then meant that Pharisees were in positions of great power, for one's soul, for one's eternal destiny, and of doing right, is something that people of that age, took seriously.  Yet, rather than Pharisees being of service to the communicants, too often, they used their position in order to empower themselves more and thereby to dominant their constituents.  This meant in effect, than rather than being of real aid and hope for their people, Pharisees took advantage of their influence to manipulate those in their throes who saw them as almost God-appointed representatives on earth.

Jesus saw the Pharisees for what they really were, with their outside appearance being one of cleanliness, but their character full of greed, wickedness, deception, and hypocrisy, and thereby Jesus did not mince his words when confronting the Pharisees, which, when attacked by the penetrating depth of the truth of our Savior, rather than repenting of their wicked and deceitful ways, saw to do what they could to undercut and to undermine Christ's message.

Today, in this world, Pharisees are still amongst us, they are all those that take positions of authority, not to serve their fellow man, but to be served by those men; not to enact positive influence for the benefit of the people as well as their communities, but instead to convince those people to give up their hard earn money and to freely labor for those in authority, with the conditioned promised that by doing so, this will bring them some merited reward, eternal or not, which in fact, serves to enrich that authority in the here and now, while providing nothing of substance for those making such a sacrifice.  All those that abuse their positions of power in service to themselves, while taking from and deceiving others, are the hypocrites of our age, for their true character is actually dirty, corrupt, diseased, wicked and fraudulent.

Personal Consumption and wealth

America is the world's biggest economy, so then it isn't a surprise, that no country in the world expends more money in aggregate on personal consumption, of which this includes things such as food, clothing, housing, energy, healthcare and schooling.  What perhaps does represent a surprise is that the percentage of personal consumption expended at 70% in America is significantly higher than as reported by the-american-interest.com of which British personal consumption is at 65%, Germany is at 55%, and Japan rests at 52%.  This difference in the percentage rate of personal consumption clearly indicates that America is an outlier.

The basic narrative when it comes to personal consumption is that the higher the consumption, the wealthier that people must be from having spent that money, but that isn't necessarily the case.  Actually, the goods that are purchased by consumers must first be produced by businesses, so that, it can be successfully argued that the higher amount of spending made by consumers for goods is actually the transfer of the people's money in aggregate to the producers and distributors of those goods itself. 

So that countries with a higher personal consumption rate percentage, does not signify how much money that the average citizen actually has in savings or wealth, but it is actually a reflection of how much money is being extracted from those consumers in order for them to maintain the living standards that they so desire.  Further to the point, in countries in which monetary credit is relatively easy to secure, than personal consumption percentages will have a tendency to rise, because consumers will often borrow funds today in order to have goods that they desire today, thereby putting off the paying of such bills, until tomorrow.

This means that the real wealth of a nation, is poorly reflected by how much money is being spent on personal consumption, instead it is much more meaningful  to know how much money is being spent on business investment so as to increase productivity and to provide more product for the buck while also creating necessary innovation in order to stay ahead of the curve, because when products get better, or last longer, or do more things, than the dollars being spent for such goods, go further than they did before.  So that, higher personal expenditures can also be a reflection that the innovations of the goods being purchased or utilized, have fallen short of efficiencies, signifying that more income from consumers is being spent just to keep their collective heads above water.

This means that when healthcare costs go up, or when school tuition and its associated costs continue to rise, or basically when spending money in which the consumer purchases more product than they actually really need or that it is worth, than personal consumption will as a matter of fact, rise, but the collective wealth of those individuals will drop. 

While it is true that personal consumption is a reflection of having money or the access to money, the more that one spends does not truly indicate though that one's wealth has increased, for rather it typically reflects the necessity of personal consumption just to maintain one's status or place in society, so that the richest people spend the smallest percentage of their value on personal consumption, and put aside the balance of their money in savings or investment, whereas the poorest and struggling middle class spend as much as they take in, which signifies that America's higher personal consumption percentage vis-a-vis other countries, is based actually on the fact that many Americans have no savings at all, and therefore spend everything that they have in order to survive.

Personal Consumption Expenditures and the Middle Class

According to fred.stlouisfed.org, in the 3rd Quarter of 2017, personal consumption expenditures as a percentage of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stood at 68.866%, which signifies that more than two-thirds of our economic growth comes from the consumers of products here in the United States.  This percentage of personal consumption expenditure has inexorably grown over the decades, as demonstrated by the fact that in the 3rd quarter of 1963, it was at 59.818%.  However, there is a fundamental difference between such expenditures back in 1963 and expenditures today, which is that the sheer amount of indebtedness of Americans has skyrocketed since then, and there most definitely comes the point when such debt reaches its limits and has a material effect upon further expenditures, and/or becomes so large as to become unstable for consumers in being able to stay current on such debt and therefore to continue successfully servicing such debt into the foreseeable future.

While one can certainly say that Americans like to shop and to spend, the problem is that the wealth of this nation is so extreme, signifying that the most basic issue when it comes to our Gross Domestic Product is that while the poor would love to spend much more money on goods and services, they don't have much money or borrowing power to spend, and whereas the rich have plenty of money to spend, there are only so many houses, cars, and other assorted goods that they desire to purchase, before setting aside the bulk of their wealth into investments and thereby making more money from having money; this, then, leaves the middle class, which Pew Research Center indicated in a recent study from 2000 through 2014, that the middle-income households declined by 4% during this period, yet, their overall indebtedness for such middle-income households increased.  Never have so many had so much debt through mortgages, credit card loans, automobile loans, and student loans, so that as reported by the fool.com, "As of 2013, the debt burden of the average middle-class household stood at 122% of annual household income."  This sort of indebtedness in an era of historically low interest rates for debt, signifies that should interest rates normalize or increase over the coming months and years, in which governmental officials have indicated that they will, that those suffering from such debt, will have even more of a debt load burden to contend with, which, logically would mean, that a drop in personal consumption expenditures would occur, creating or exacerbating a recessionary environment, made even worse if those issuing such loans were to withdraw or withhold the punch bowl of even further debt.

The middle class of this nation is the fulcrum upon which continuous growth and prosperity lie, and this middle class is suffering from a reduction in numbers, an economic stagnation or regression in wages, and a personal debt level at historic or near-historic highs, signifying that if the middle class is "tapped out" that national personal consumption expenditures must fall.  This so does indicate that the distribution of wealth, and the collective income of nations, most definitely makes a difference to the overall prosperity of a nation, and when such distribution puts more and more money into the hands of the superrich, eviscerates the middle class, and leaves the poor as a permanent underclass to be a lifelong burden upon the government, than the end result can only be ruinous, for the middle class truly is the engine that keeps growth going in this country on a positive basis, and when they no longer have the wherewithal to do more, it will collapse.

Equal Protection of the Laws

The United States has a written Constitution, of which, each of the respective departments of the Constitution, that is the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial, must in order to be a member in good standing, take an oath that specifically stipulates without equivocation that they will support this Constitution.  After the civil war, in order to protect those that were never enfranchised and those that had been previously enslaved and treated as chattel property, Constitutional amendments were ratified and passed, making these people, citizens of these United States, entitled to all privileges and immunities as a citizen, so as to not to be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of the law, as well as being entitled to equal protection of the law.

Those words, made It absolutely clear, that no longer would the United States countenance those that were of a different color, or of a different racial classification, or of a different religious persuasion, or of a former condition of servitude, to be treated as something other than the only class of citizenship legally permitted within the United States, which is the exact same class of citizenship that all are members of, from the highest of the high, to the lowest of the low.  Not only that, but sham juries and targeted enforcement of the laws would no longer be permitted for all are entitled to the due process of the law, equally and fairly applied.

This then was the theory, but for a certainty, in effect, the 13th through the 15th Amendments, were ignored judicially after the Civil War, or if paid attention to, were most definitely selectively applied only to certain persons, under specific conditions, and not to others, and as for equal protection of the law, this was completely nullified for certain undesirable races or people.  This meant in effect, that for certain, specific people, they were still responsible for their obedience and conformance to all of this country's laws, and therefore would be subject to penalty for failure of adherence to them, while on the other hand, they would deliberately be denied access and the full protection of the law. 

Unfortunately, this type of selective enforcement of the law as well as this lack of protection of the law for certain people and specific situations still exists in America, today.  This is a country that has a Constitutional duty to provide all citizens with due process of the law in addition to the equal protection of the law, but instead specifically favors chosen people over others.  In the nearly, one hundred and fifty years, since the passage of these Constitutional amendments, the only really basic change in their application to people of today, is rather than the lack of due process of the law and the inequality of the law, being deliberately and selectively enforced specifically against blacks and other minorities in order to keep them down,  we find that instead in today's more progressive world, that the dividing line is much more enlightened, recognizing that it isn't any longer politically correct to indiscriminately just attack minorities of color, but rather by adapting its ways of being more inclusive, the dividing line is now between the elite rich and powerful, against the masses of socioeconomic poor.

So that, the privileged people, recognizing that they are severely outnumbered, in which, for instance, just three individuals in America have as much wealth as the bottom 50% of Americans, signifies that it doesn't matter what the Constitution says; it only matters that those that are not quiescent, those that are not subservient, and those that are not obedient, be controlled in such a manner that any incipient uprising is dealt with in a manner that makes the statement: "not here, not now, not ever."

Banks and Profits

The business of banking doesn't seem very complicated at all, in fact, it seems quite straightforward and easy to understand, for banks make money in three basic ways: one is by charging the difference between the interest rate for money deposited within their institution and a higher interest rate for loans to consumers, businesses, and the issuance of mortgages; another way banks make money is the various fees that banks charged for accounts that fall below mandated minimums, bounced checks, ATM machines,  and assorted other violations; and finally banks make money on their branded credit and debit cards by charging vendors that utilize credit and debit cards a fee for the privilege of using this alternative form of money instruments as well as interest charges to consumers for unpaid balances on those accounts.

Based on the above, one might think, that banks might make some money, but because of competition, fixed costs for opening up branches, bad loans, and so on and so forth, that the margin of money made and the money to be made would be fairly modest, akin perhaps to a grocery store, that has a profit margin of about 1%.  That certainly makes sense, since true competition necessitates charging fees and interest rates that are not onerous to one's consumers of such, in addition to the fact that there are viable alternatives that consumers can utilize instead, as in other banks or credit unions.

However, in point of fact, banks make tremendous amounts of money, not all of the time, but often enough, in which,  four banks have total assets of over $1 trillion dollars each, which are JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup.  In addition, in 2015, JP Morgan Chase had profits of $24.4 billion dollars, Bank of America had profits of $15.9 billion dollars, Wells Fargo had profits of $22.9 billion dollars, and Citigroup had profits of $17.2 billion dollars.  None of these banking institutions, could possibly be as large as they are, nor could they have these gargantuan profits it wasn't for the change of banking laws begun in the 1980s, that allowed interstate banking, so that whereas before banks were specific within a given State, now they were permitted to have branches in virtually every State of the union.  This has meant that banks have grown considerably bigger than they were previously and that money has become more and more concentrated into fewer and fewer banking hands.

A reasonable conclusion in regards to the merger of banks and their consolidation would be that these massive institutions would be more efficient than local banks and credit unions, and therefore the consumers of banking would be the beneficiaries of more competitive interest rates and lower fees, but that hasn't been the case whatsoever for most people.  Instead, the power and strength of these banking behemoths have placed them in the driver's seat of being in the situation so that when times are good they mint money hand over fist, and when times are bad, the Federal government bails them out, because they are "too big to fail," which instead of sending a signal that these humongous banking institutions need to be broken apart or nationalized, they are instead effectively subsidized.

Further to the point, banks are in the business of making money on the loaning of money, in which this type of business should be strictly regulated, perhaps akin to insurance companies or to utility companies, or, even better, in accordance with the nature of credit unions, which are non-profits, created to serve as conduits of loans to their members on a local basis, not on a national basis, so as to thereby keep the money circulating within that given community. 

Banks today,  make far too much money and have far too much power, so that, they cheat the consumers of such, by charging more interest and fees than they need to, because their sheer size and ubiquity, permits these massive banks to behave as a collective cartel, and therefore to effectively exploit the masses, over and over again.

What is the Federal Reserve Bank?

Most people have heard of the Federal Reserve Bank or the "Fed" as it is known, or at least are vaguely aware of such a bank, but many people do not truly know much about the Federal Reserve Bank.  First off, there is the deception in its name, in which, the natural inclination is to assume that the Federal Reserve Bank must be the United States National bank, but it is not, despite the fact that the word "Federal" matches up exactly to our national government, known as the Federal government.  In addition, the word "Reserve" within the context of the Fed would imply a place serving as a depository of money, and hence having monetary reserves.  The last word, "Bank", is pretty much self-explanatory, as banks are where the money is at, and money is loaned out by banks to individuals as well as to companies.  In addition, our physical money, such as dollar bills, state on the front of the bill that it is a "Federal Reserve Note", in which underneath that it reads "United States of America," followed by "This note is legal tender for all debts public and private."  So clearly, the Federal Reserve Bank has authorization to print or have printed Federal Reserve Notes which are the legal tender, or the coin of the realm, which signifies that this represents money in our financial system, in which, it is assumed that the Fed is actually the United States National bank which it is not.

In point of fact, our Constitution states in Article 1, Section 8, "The Congress shall have Power… To coin Money, regulate the value thereof…"  This Constitutional power would seem to imply that the Federal Reserve Bank is operating under the aegis of Congress, but again, it really is not, for the Fed, is actually a private, or stockholder held, consortium of regional member banks, in which, the purpose of those banks that make up the Fed, is to make money for those banks, which essentially means to make money off of the American public by setting interest rates, and monetary policy for this country.  Even though the President of the United States is the person that appoints the Fed Chair, the Fed is functionally independent of the President of the United States, as well as functionally independent of Congress, which means that the Fed members can neither be controlled by the President or Congress, nor can they be fired by the President or Congress, so the Fed, is definitely not the United States National Bank, it is in fact, a coalition of private banks, that have issued securities through a stock exchange, of which these securities or stocks are publically held.

As everybody knows, money is a form of power, the fact that American has ceded its power to an alliance of banks that act as the government's central bank but is not controlled by the government, and therefore not controlled by the people of this country is a grand disservice to the people.  In addition, the Federal government on behalf of the people of this great nation, own an incredible amount of real assets, such as land federally owned throughout America, mineral rights on land as well as offshore, buildings and infrastructure of all shapes and sizes, and the collective intelligence of all those that are directly employed by the federal government.  All of these combined, are the true collateral and value of America, and consequently, these assets and collateral should form the very basis of a true national bank of the United States, which further to the point, could create currency back by mineral assets, such as a combination of oil, natural gas, coal, silver, and gold, so that the money would not be fiat money, which is exactly what the money that is currently utilized in America, is classified as. 

The fact is that the Federal Reserve bank, that acts as the central bank of the United States, essentially takes tribute from the Federal government, that is the people of America, by charging whatever usury rate that they so desire as a charge against government borrowed money, which is an unconscionable scam upon the people, for Federal Reserve Notes are backed by nothing, as it is merely a medium of exchange, thereby profiting off of the labor of the people, and exploiting people by virtue of the fact that those that have essentially a monopoly on the creation and legality of money, are the masters of those that do not.

Mortgage crisis redux

The housing crisis that nearly brought down our financial edifice in the period of 2007-2009, never actually disappeared, for today's sheer amount of mortgage debt is about to surpass the heights of quarter 2 of 2008, in which mortgage debt at that time was as reported by the federalreserve.gov a total of $14,736,703 trillion dollars, and as of quarter 2 of 2017, is currently at $14,589,985 trillion dollars, or just 1% below its previous peak, in which no doubt, that peak will be surpassed sometime within the next six months.  This would signify, that all those mortgages that were created earlier in this millennium via "liar" loans, or when pricing for homes was sky-high and pundits were stating that housing prices never go down, have somehow in some form come back home to roost, for our current mortgage debt is virtually the same.

To get a perspective of how high this mortgage debt is, $1 trillion dollars in mortgage debt was not first succeeded until quarter 3 of 1977, and by 2001, statista.com, reported a mortgage debt of $7.48 trillion dollars, so when the mortgage debt nearly doubled again in a scant seven years, that should have been a clarion call that not all was right in regards to mortgage lending, and while this number, did moderate and come down somewhat during the financial crisis, it never dropped below $13.31 trillion dollars, which equates to a correction of only about 10%, which would basically imply that the remaining 90% of all mortgages are healthy, or healthy enough.

In point of fact, this stunning growth in mortgage debt, indicates that the financial institutions that lend the money, do so, knowing that by selling their loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which are government sponsored agencies, that having done so, that the maintenance and responsibility that these loans remain current and viable are no longer their essential responsibility, but those agencies, which are, backed by the American government, and the taxpayers of this nation.

This means that a prudent down payment of 20% in order to procure a home, is no longer de rigueur in mortgage lending, instead conventional loans are initiated at 3% down for qualified buyers, FHA loans at 3.5% down, and VA loans can require no down payment at all.  In fact, as reported by the latimes.com, "The typical down payment for 60% of first-time home buyers is 6% or less."  So that, when homes are consistently purchased with down payments which are consistently low, mortgages are thereby created which are significantly higher in the amount of money due to the originator or owner of it, and the more money borrowed, equates to more money "earned" so banks and other lending institutions have an incentive to lend out as much as they can, in order to meet their sales and profit goals.

The main problems with purchasing houses with little money down, is that it encourages buyers of housing to purchase more "house" than their financial resources would be prudent to actually buy, as well as the more leverage that any investment has, equates to more risk, and while it is true, that leverage can make people money, so too, leverage can bankrupt and ruin people just as well.

In an era of so-called "full employment" and of an economic "recovery" of nine years and counting, recognize that economic cycles are a part of American life, so that, when the next recession comes, as it will, those that lose their jobs, or can't pay their bills, or have to relocate, or aren't able to budget their money, will find that having a mortgage that they no longer can afford to pay for, will create incredible havoc for them, and once again, our banking institutions, and our country's financial well-being, will be rocked.

The Lack of labor unions and the lack of commitment to labor hours go together

There are State labor laws as well as Federal labor laws, so what laws are applicable for the protection and benefit of workers, is dependent upon the actual State that you live in, though on a Federal basis, there are minimums in regards to pay rate and overtime rates that have been set by law, that must therefore be adhered to, such as the minimum wage per hour, though that has exceptions to it, as well as overtime, which also has exceptions to it.  Over and above the pay rate structure, as well as rules in regards to overtime and hours worked per week, before overtime is applied, are the actual hours that a given worker is entitled to have on a weekly basis, in which, unless a worker is categorized as, for example, those with a H-2B visa, then such employees in absence of a written contract that stipulates a minimum amount of hours due to them, or are hired as exempt employees at a certain pay rate per week, aren't guaranteed work hours by any sort of governmental fiat, but instead are under the aegis of the company policy of the company that they work for, so that those that are in low-wage jobs, work under conditions in which there typically is no formal commitment made by the employer for total hours to be worked, weekly.

That is to say, when one is employed at a fast food company, in which, there is no labor union, and pay has been set at a certain rate, the hours that one works in total, the hours that one works on a given day, and the scheduling of working hours, are all made essentially at the discretion of the company, itself, so that if  one can barely survive, when they work forty hours a week, the fact, that this present job, will not guarantee a certain amount of hours, unless written into their policy, such as forty hours, means that in all likelihood, forty hours probably won't be worked in a week, and  the shortfall may be substantially more than that.  Adding further injury to the employment situation, while companies may well take into consideration, responsibilities one may have in regards to school, family life, such as children and their care, commute time, and various other factors, for the most part, as the employer, they will dictate to their employees,  what hours that one is required to work, which may be provided to employees, two weeks in advance, or literally a day or two in advance, and it is therefore that employee's responsibility to work those hours, though, most companies allow its employees to trade shifts with other employees, even through the usage of apps to aid such, with managerial approval.

The fact that as an employee one does not have a set guarantee of at least minimum hours, though you might be promised a minimum, nor does one have a set working schedule that is consistent and under the employee's control or input, though some companies are much more consistent than others, makes it difficult to not only take care of one's personal life and other responsibilities, but also difficult to secure another job with another company, because one's availability to one company or another, will be impacted by one's lack of control over the scheduling of one's work hours. 

All of these things come forth from the fact, that labor laws, as currently written, do not empower employees to receive a minimum amount of hours, or a consistent work schedule, which instead are left to the discretion of the employer. This effectively signifies that without the power and unity of labor unions, one person is not going to be able to effect change, because the employer will simply terminate that person, without consequences.  While minimum wage laws have their place, there should also be a requirement from employers of a minimum amount of hourly work employees receive weekly, as well as consistency in the scheduling of work hours, that is agreed upon, by both parties.  In order for these things to occur, labor unions are necessary, for in numbers there is strength, and according to bls.gov, there are 2.6 million workers with wages at or below the federal minimum wage, in which employees besides getting short shrift from the wages paid, aren't even guaranteed minimum hours of work, as well as their scheduling of their work hours, being controlled by their employer, so that, unless unionized, this won't change.

Temporary Employment

Most people, in order to make money, have to work, of which, typically the most desirable format of such work, is to be hired directly by their employer so as to get an employment package which usually consists of a combination of healthcare benefits, vacation time, sick time, personal days, holidays, scheduled performance reviews, stock options, 401K matching, as well as benefits that accrue to employees for length of service, such as additional vacation time.  This means, for the most part, that direct employees of a company are considered to be part and parcel of the company itself, and are protected more completely by State as well as Federal labor laws.

Then, on the other hand, there are temporary employees, in which, the most basic understanding of such, is that seasonal conditions, may require companies to ramp up employment for a period of time, such as the Christmas season, so as to be able to have the manpower to get goods out in a timely manner, of which, those that are hired on as a temporary employee, recognize this, and hence, the situation is fairly straightforward.  In addition, companies that are on a growth spurt may find it more beneficial to hire temporary employees, because they aren't sure how long their accelerated growth rate will last, in which they find the convenience of a temporary employee to be more advantageous for them.

So what exactly is a temporary employee?  As the name suggests, a temporary employee, is primarily, someone that is hired to work for a given company, on a temporary basis, not on a perceived permanent basis.  Additionally, the hiring of temps is typically done through a recognized third party staffing agency such as Manpower or Kelly Services and similar.  In most cases, the company hiring on the temp, has a great deal of flexibility in regards to the length of term of such a contract outsourced, as well as typically not being responsible for the payment of healthcare, vacation, sick leave, or other fringe benefits that a regular employee of the firm would receive.  Whether the temp worker, receives any benefits whatsoever, will be determined by the temp agency that has placed that person, and their policies, but it is fair to say, that the benefits that temp agencies offer to those that are placed by them, are minimal, at best.

While it does make sense for some people, that are trying to make a little extra money but cannot make a long-term commitment as an employee, to desire to be a temp, most people, find their way to a temp agency by virtue of their present inability to find gainful employment in a field that they are qualified for in the first place, and seek temp jobs, to hold them over, until such a time as they can secure themselves full-time employment, and while it is also true, that many temp agencies, permit companies to hire on temps directly, after a given period of time, and/or for a fee, many companies aren't actually looking to do so when they hired on a temp, for the work is either seasonal, or basically transitory in nature.

It would be one thing if temporary employees were in aggregate, to average a higher wage than regular employees, because they have so little peripheral benefits attached to them, such as healthcare, but it is an entirely different thing when temporary employees actually earns less, as the economist.com reports: "… temps earn 20-25% less per hour than their permanent counterparts in similar roles."  That statistic though shouldn't be seen as too surprising since, the staffing agency, when placing a temp, typically marks up the hourly rate no lower than 20%, but often this is significantly higher, indicating, that in the temp world, besides the lack of benefits, besides the lower pay, and besides the temporary nature of the employment, there still is real money that is being made, but it's not really the actual person doing that work getting that money, rather in many cases, it’s the agency itself, that makes out quite well on another man's sweat labor.

OPEC and cartels

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded and formulated by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Venezuela, with the intention to join together so as to control the international pricing of oil, which meant in effect to not undercut each other in the global markets and to therefore make more money over the lifespan of their natural resource by, if necessary, setting quotas on the production and sale of their oil to foreign markets.  Since, the formal inception of OPEC in 1960, another nine countries have been added, but a careful look at the members of OPEC, indicate that there is only one country, that is the master of OPEC, and that country is Saudi Arabia which by far has the most influence upon its policies, because it is Saudi Arabia which pumps out more than twice as much oil as any other nation, and consistently exports the most oil in the world.

When it comes to cartels, which are considered to be illegal in America, it is first important to understand that a cartel is basically defined as a group of companies that get together in order to set prices and quotas so as to artificially sell their product at a higher price than what these products would sell for if these companies were actually competing against each other.  Although, OPEC does not like to be called a cartel, their pricing coordination and quota agreements, per their formal meetings, belies that.

Yet, logically, there are two basic reasons why OPEC is not a true cartel, of which, the first one is that a careful look at the member states within OPEC, indicates that not a single one of these nations, is a military powerhouse, though Saudi Arabia has consistently spent an inordinate amount of monies on their military budget year after year, but the purpose of those expenditures is to create the impression that it cannot be conquered domestically, nor by any other middle eastern nation, as well as giving it the ability to threaten other middle eastern states, up to a point, for Saudi Arabia does not wish for any of its proposed military actions to be met with overt objection by the western world, in particular, the United States.  For, if OPEC was truly a cartel, it OPEC truly controlled oil resources and oil prices, in a world in which nations must have oil in order to survive and will fight wars for it, than all of OPEC would be under the hands of the western nations in conjunction with China and Russia, because they have the collective might to assert their will, if they so wanted to.

This leads to the second reason why OPEC is not a true cartel, which is the fact that two out of the three major producers of oil, that is, Russia and the United States, are not members of OPEC, and therefore are not members of that cartel.  In fact, half of the top ten producers of oil, are non-OPEC members, signifying that when people within America as well as other countries rail against OPEC in regards to their price fixing and such, they somehow fail to recognize that in reality the price of oil isn't controlled by OPEC, though it has its influence upon it, but is actually controlled by no single entity, of which, it is essentially the market forces in conjunction with the major international oil gas producers such as Exxon/Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Total S.A, amongst other super-major oil companies that maintain, heavily influence, and control the pricing of oil, so that, while the press may inveigh against the rising price of oil, when it does rise, and blame it all on OPEC, the truth of the matter is, OPEC has a lot less pricing power and a lot less power in general to dictate much of anything to the world, for the consequences of their missteps would be rather tragic for those nation-states.

The Rise of the Machines

America declared its independence in 1776, of which, at the time of that declaration, the wealth of the nation, was primarily in the ownership of land, because America, itself, made its money from the development of agricultural products, and its ownership of livestock, of which the percentage of those that were highly educated was relatively small, and essentially limited to clergy, lawyers, and doctors.

As the industrial revolution came into play and built upon itself, America began to more and more to effectively utilize tools and devices that allowed first Americans to get more from the soil that they owned, and later to build machines in the infrastructures purposely constructed to manufacture such, so as to not only to utilize these instruments within those communities but also to sell and produce such to help in the development of emerging cities around America, leading to railroads being created in order to more easily transport materials over land, and by doing so, effectively shortening the distance between one industrial center to the next, of the trading of goods and raw materials from one center to another, and thereby creating the rise of the middle class, as those that became expert and useful in the usage, management, and maintenance of machines, the sales of goods, and the trading of such, were compensated for the importance of their contribution.

The jobs created from this industrial revolution, necessitated training, specialization, and skill, of which the more that these skills and machines worked efficiently together, the more productivity was created, and therefore the more goods that could be created at shorter build times, of less cost, and of far more goods than had previously been created by hand labor, so that the material assets of countries increased markedly by the usage, strength, and skill of those working with machines, creating a new wealth of nations.

So too, improvements to these tools were done continuously, in which each new improvement, increased the productivity of the machines to the point that over time, the contribution from mankind became less of true brawn in order to control the machines, but instead the utilization of the mind, in order to envision what else and how much more that could be done to make the manufacture of goods even more efficient and cost effective, for those manufacturers that were the most competent, increased their market share and often their profits, which were then re-invested into the facility to do even more.

All of this effectively over a relatively short period of time, changed what use to be an agrarian society, the norm of the time, into a far more sophisticated society, that needed its people to be literate, as well as to live in communities and cities of close proximity to one another in order to more efficiently take advantage of the benefits of industrial revolution, and from this, the creation of all kinds of jobs, that didn't exist, when one's life was built around working in and about agrarian fields.

So too life inexorably changed for most people, from lives previously lived in a manner in which each day was pretty much the same day, of which, the goal of those days were simply finding enough to eat, having clean water, and shelter to sleep, akin to lives barely living above the status of a beast; to today's world, in which, all the accouterments that so many take for granted, such as indoor plumbing, electricity, ready access to food and clean water, and the ability to easily travel from one place to another is commonplace.     

All this is to the credit of mankind, which has mastered its environment, built upon ideas previously created, and diligently advanced civilization, not primarily by utilizing sweat labor from human hands, nor by utilizing beasts of burden, but instead by focusing man's mind so as to invent and create machines, that under man's guidance can seemingly do it all.  Yet, mankind must remember that these same machines are here to serve mankind, and never should it be, that mankind must serve those machines, for if that does indeed happen, for some or for all, the descent of mankind will begin and to its utter destruction will be its tale.

Exports and Employment

Trade between different countries and different cultures has been around for millenniums, in which, the basic theory, stipulates that one of the main reasons that countries trade with each other, is that one country may lack a natural resource such as oil, or even the ability to grow or produce food items efficiently, whereas another country has a comparative advantage over another country in the production of certain goods, because they have cheaper labor, better natural resources, and/or better tools, so that the invisible hand of commerce creates an equilibrium between the demand and the supply of goods, globally, creating a more efficient world of which, consumers of such, as well as nation-states, are able to reap the benefits of more goods, available for a cheaper cost and price-point than if the world was non-globalized.

Of course, it doesn't take a genius to recognize, that the true value of goods, especially over the long term, may not be determined correctly by people, let alone countries, for within the general give and take of trade, it is not always a win-win scenario, but more often one country or one people receives far more in its trading value than the other party, depending upon many factors, including the sophistication of the parties involved; for detailed information, analytics,  and intelligence,  is of immense value, in comprehending the appropriate value of a given trade.

So too, not all markets, are fairly balanced, that is to say, within a country, domestic manufacturers can be and have been undercut by foreign imports into their country, in which the domestic manufacturers cannot possibly compete, not because they are incompetent or inefficient within their domain, but mainly because they do not have the sophistication of tools, or the cheaper labor, or the tax advantages, or the subsidies that have been created by the foreign competitors in order to undercut their pricing, and thereby, take their market share away.  While, the domestic consumers of such foreign products, may indeed be able to purchase goods at a lower price-point, there are unintended consequences for this happening, in the sense that domestic labor will now suffer reduced employment in that field, and hence will require more governmental unemployment as well as other social services aid, in addition to the fact that domestic industries that are decimated by foreign imports, can often result in bankruptcies, and  fundamental changes in capital investments domestically, that will reduce the diversity and breadth of such investments in countries, that now will rely almost exclusively upon certain foreign goods to sustain their needs, without having a voice on those practices within those countries.

Additionally, part of the reason why exports are so important to manufacturers in the first place, is that when monies are not allocated fairly to the greater society as a whole, than the very people that live within that society, are unable to purchase goods domestically, not because they have no desire to do so, but primarily because they do not have the necessary monies to do so.  This creates a dangerous feedback loop in which the manufacturers of such; care more about profits and new markets through export, than helping to create employment domestically and thereby ameliorating domestic labor situations, instead of leaving that trouble to government agencies and government departments to address.  This then creates a mindset within manufacturers that they must have access to foreign markets in order to maintain their growth and profitability so that such exporting is the only perceived way that they can compensate for having domestic markets that are unable to purchase all that they have to sell at a fair price, in which because of these exports, the importers of such, find that some of their domestic institutions and employment are adversely impacted.