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Triangle vs. Square
So I’m sure you all know by now that I hate PayPal, I hate them a lot. Yesterday they unveiled their new product for mobile merchants: Triangle umm PayPal Here. I’m not buying into it for a number of reasons and yes, I’m about to pretty much tell you all of them.So I’m sure you all know by now that I hate PayPal, I hate them a lot. Yesterday... more-
- baghdadbythebay
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- 2 months ago
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Goldman Sachs Exec Says Company is Corrupt
Read this Goldman Sachs retiree's story. "It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as 'muppets,' sometimes over internal e-mail. "Read this Goldman Sachs retiree's story. "It makes me ill how callously... more-
- Progresshiv
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- 3 months ago
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- 4 comments
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Bernie Sanders: Vermonters Vote to Undo Citizens United
Sen. Sanders discusses the initiatives in 60 Vermont towns to overturn the Citizens United decision.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/101715197
"Another reason I would like to live in Vermont, Right On Bernie Sanders!!!" =)Sen. Sanders discusses the initiatives in 60 Vermont towns to overturn the Citizens... more-
- KB723
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- 3 months ago
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- 68 comments
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Envisioning a Social Order for the Future
...in Response to Utopia and Walden Two
This paper will aim to recognize the coming automated global economy and explore an idealistic solution known as The Venus Project that agrees with Utopia and Walden Two in its rejection of a monetary based economy but also seeks to eliminate the need for people to submit to daily labor in order for society to prosper and grow. With education and resources completely accessible to anyone in the world, humanity would best be able to contribute its very fortunate gift of the ability to problem solve and begin to eliminate the many socials problems that exist on a global scale and are therefore shared by all people in one way or another. No financial, political, or authoritarian limits would deter the progress of humanity, and we would race into a new frontier of human civilization of which was once only possible in our imaginations such as one of peace and great scientific exploration and even human experiences we cannot yet imagine. People need to know that such a future does not need to be relegated to our imaginations and that with current technology it is all very possible to achieve. Not only do we have the ability to completely transform our world into a utopia such as those depicted in Utopia and Walden Two, but we have the ability to transform it into one which even Frazier would envy and Raphael would probably never even thinking of leaving.
The communities explored in B.F. Skinner’s Walden Two and Thomas Moore’s Utopia both attempted to completely reshape the social order of civilization by changing human values and social norms. With money insignificant to the daily operations, both societies imposed the elimination of private property and promoted communal living. Both social structures removed money from being the main economic focus of society while disassociating it from labor, but neither society disregarded money altogether or attempted to free people from hard labor. In Utopia, this resulted in the elimination of value in scarcity among the citizens, reflected in Raphael’s tale of the visiting foreign elites who came decorated in gold and jewels, only to find that in Utopia, such accessories were found to be worn by slaves in order to identify them from regular citizens (More 2003). The society explored by Burris and company in Walden Two was similar to Utopia in that the social order aimed to minimize the amount of hard labor necessary to produce the goods and services for society, but was different in that each citizen did not hold a specific occupation as they did in Utopia. Walden Two also focused its social structure on the scientific method, willing to change or improve any and all facets of society with the proper evidence found in experimentation and study. Science and technology has changed our world in dramatic fashion since the middle of the last century which is when Walden Two, the more technology-focused society of the two, was published (Skinner 1948).
We are experiencing a gradual elimination of labor due to growing automation in the production of goods and services. Through the gradual implementation of automation and computerization in creating workerless factories and eliminating jobs formerly performed by people, technology is threatening to single-handedly dismantle our existing social order of owners and workers, leaving owners and unemployed or displaced workers. In the 1990’s, the Information Age, which was only in its infant stages, was already completely eliminating employment categories and dooming certain occupations to extinction. Just as the technological developments of the Industrial Revolution sought to replace the requirements of physical human labor, the Information Age’s technologies are threatening to replace the human mind’s contribution to economic and industrial functions (Rifkin 1996).
The Information Age has produced new markets and thus new occupations, but its rapid evolution in technology threatens to remove most of those jobs which it has created through the development of more sophisticated computerized systems. Complete global automation of production and services will inevitably completely remove the need for human labor to serve society, but then what? It is important that new social structures for a post-market world be considered because one way or another, we will end up in one. It offers humanity a golden opportunity to completely leave behind all that is wrong and corrupt with the current system - that which is sought to be remedied in Utopia and Walden Two: greed, poverty, irrationality, and exploitation. However, before proposing the utopian solution for the new era of human civilization, identifying the fundamental aspects of what is wrong with the current social system is crucial so as to better recognize how our social norms and value systems need to change in order to achieve an semblance of a utopian society like those studied but minus the need for human laboring.
The reality of our current social paradigm is one which contains misery, destructive behavior, exploitation, aggression, conflict, and poverty. This is where the traditional social norms and value systems have gotten us. Many say it is human nature for people to be aggressive, territorial, acquisitive, and competitive, and the social structure humankind has built around the world could be verification of that. However, just as was evident in the fictional lands of Utopia and Walden Two, the environment and upbringing of a person shapes their social tendencies and values more so than any imaginary pre-wiring of the human mind (More 2003, Skinner 1948). Our social environment is provided by longstanding social institutions. They are political, legal, and religious institutions. They are social institutions such as the family unit, social class, and occupation specialization, and they serve as the framework by which our perspectives and understandings of the world before us are formed. However, no other social institution has a more broad-reaching affect on the elements of our society and modern human behavior than that which is the monetary system (Joseph 2008).
Our economic system in the United States has been incredibly resilient. It has overcome credit crunches, food shortages, banking crises, energy crises, and hyper-inflation (Skousen 1989). However, the monetary system is inherently corrupt. Poverty, competition, and scarcity are built into the system using the fractional-reserve system created by the central banking system of the United States, the Federal Reserve. In our monetary system, money is created from nothing with the stroke of a keyboard and there never exists enough actual currency to pay off the entire debt owed to the lenders plus interest, forever dooming society itself as a slave to money and more specifically, the monetary system. The same system, in its core principles and policies is shared in every developed or developing country in the world. The only difference between capitalism, communism, and socialism is who owns what. None of these systems has shown a way to solve the problems, which result from money being the lifeblood of society (Joseph 2008).
In regard to labor, our modern world finds itself facing yet another contradiction within its current socio-economic structure. While the gradual elimination of labor is occurring due to computerization and automation, ...
Continued at :
http://scopicthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/03/envisioning-social-order-for-future-in.html...in Response to Utopia and Walden Two This paper will aim to recognize the coming... more-
- JRBarilla
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- 3 months ago
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Who Said It: Mitt Romney vs. Mr. Burns
Who said it? -- "A blue-collar bar! Let's go slumming!"
http://veracitystew.com/?p=31753Who said it? -- "A blue-collar bar! Let's go slumming!"... more-
- StewSteve
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- 3 months ago
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Welcome to the 1 percent recovery
That elite sliver reaped 93 percent of the post-recession income gains. Is extreme inequality America's new normal?
There was a brief debate focused on the following question: Would the gains of the economy continue to accrue to the top 1 percent once the recovery started, or would they have a weak post-recession showing in terms of raw income growth as well as income share of the economy? The top 1 percent had a rough Great Recession. They absorbed 50 percent of the income losses, and their share of income dropped from 23.5 percent to 18.1 percent. Was this a new state of affairs, or would the 1 percent bounce back in 2010?
We finally have the estimated data for 2010 by income percentile, and it turns out that the top 1 percent had a fantastic year. The data is in the World Top Income Database, as well as Emmanuel Saez’s updated “Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States” (as well as the excel spreadsheet on his webpage). Timothy Noah has a first set of responses here. The takeaway quote from Saez is, “the top 1 percent captured 93 percent of the income gains in the first year of recovery.”
The bottom 90 percent of Americans lost $127, the bottom 99 percent of Americans gained $80, and the top 1 percent gained $105,637. The bottom 99 percent is net positive for the year due to around $125 in average capital gains. They can take comfort in efforts by the right to set the capital gains tax to 0 percent, which would have netted them an additional couple dozen bucks.
(Also, just to show “the top 1 percent captured 93 percent of the income gains in the first year of recovery” isn’t some sort of stats juke, you can take $105,637 and divide it by the the number you get when you add $80 times 99 to $105,637 times 1. That number is 93 percent, which is the share of income gains the 1 percent took home.)
And if this wasn’t obvious, you can see the gains become quite high the farther you walk up the inequality ladder. When we discuss things like the Buffett Rule or taxing capital gains as ordinary income, it is important to see how top-heavy that capital gains distribution actually is.
This should also be put in the historical frame of looking at 2002 onward. I’m going to normalize some percentiles by their average income in 2002 and show how they have moved going into and out of the recession. This takes the income distribution in 2002 as granted — and any movements from there on out reflect changes from that income. I’m going to exclude capital gains for this chart to show it’s a deeper phenomenon than the stock market, though the effects are the same in either case (click through for larger image): http://rortybomb.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/saez_chart.png?w=640&h=368
The Great Recession dropped income for the bottom 99 percent by 11.6 percent, completely wiping out the meager gains of the Bush years. And crucially, while 2010 was a year of continued stagnation for the economy as a whole, the 1 percent began to show strong gains even when capital gains are excluded.
As you can imagine, this has increased the percentage of the economic pie that the top 1 percent takes home. As Saez notes, “excluding realized capital gains, the top decile share in 2010 is equal to 46.3 percent, higher than in 2007.”
There are two things worth mentioning. There’s an interesting debate within left-liberal circles about whether or not elite economic interests benefit from a weak recovery, benefit more from a strong recovery, are vaguely indifferent to the United States economy, are impotent during the recession, or are more interested in pursuing other agendas during the instability caused by mass unemployment. These numbers are certainly a point for the argument that the rich are doing just fine, and to whatever extent they’d be doing better with more robust growth and employment, it isn’t putting a damper on their earnings.
It’s also worth mentioning that, pre-recession, inequality hadn’t been that high since the Great Depression, and we are quickly returning to that state. It’s important to remember that a series of choices were made during the New Deal to react to runaway inequality, including changes to progressive taxation, financial regulation, monetary policy, labor unionization, and the provisioning of public goods and guaranteed social insurance. A battle will be fought over the next decade — it’s already been fought for the past three years — on all these fronts. The subsequent resolution will determine how broadly shared prosperity is going forward and whether our economy will continue to be as unstable as it has been.
http://www.salon.com/2012/03/05/welcome_to_the_1_percent_recovery/singleton/That elite sliver reaped 93 percent of the post-recession income gains. Is extreme... more -
Article: Occupy Everywhere as of 2-26-12
updates on stories and videos about Occupy and links to complete stories.-
- frankpatton
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- 3 months ago
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Dealers: I Got A Van!
Gary and Wayne let the good times roll during the holidays.-
- TonyDiGerolamo
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- 3 months ago
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Dealers: A Pure Moment
Gary and Wayne watch their good time peak.-
- TonyDiGerolamo
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- 3 months ago
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Women Leading the Facebook De-Friending Trend
A Pew study suggests that finally, finally human beings--and especially women--have begun to prune their alleged friends on Facebook. Could there be rational, even venal, reasons for this?
Here's one thought: If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, then my friend may, in fact, be more troubling and irrelevant than Ann Taylor separates.
Here's another: People appear to suddenly be realizing that their Facebook friends are not--and will never be--real friends. Oddly, though, they are finally doing something about it.
I am grateful to my nonfriends at ReadWriteWeb, who have unearthed a new Pew study that says defriending is trending on Facebook.
People are finally wandering around their Facebook garden and, perhaps stimulated by FarmVille, are taking shears to their peers.
The study suggests that people are sauntering through, untagging themselves from the more tangled poses in photographs, snipping at comments that might seem a touch snippy and, yes, unfriending those who are either unseemly--or, perhaps, merely unknown.
Women seem to be doing this even more enthusiastically than men. There appears to be a nine-point difference between the sexes, with 67 percent of women admitting that they had cast Facebook friends to the hills.
The same percentage of women also declared that they had limited their profiles to their friends, rather than letting the whole world eye-drop into their world.
An interesting concomitant is that only 8 percent of women said they'd ever posted something they'd regretted. 15 percent of men admitted to similar emotions. The only surprise there, surely, is that a mere 15 percent admitted to what at least 65 percent have done.
One is left to speculate whether all of this increased culling and pruning might somehow be associated with employers' increasing enthusiasm to scour Facebook for clues to the true nature of employees--current and potential.
Just the other day, I was forced to open a bottle of absinthe after reading that one's Facebook profile could accurately predict one's job performance.
I cannot think of any reason other than money that would cause human beings to act so conservatively and reduce their apparent friend levels.
At heart, we are all Sally Fields. We want love from the world. The greater the volume of that love, the greater our sense that we are decent, lovable people.
Sometimes, however, needs must. And we need money more than we need friends. Yes, even fake friends.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57384734-71/women-leading-facebook-defriending-trend-study-says/#ixzz1nP3lrWR1A Pew study suggests that finally, finally human beings--and especially women--have... more-
- misfit20
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- 3 months ago
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- 3 comments
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Rash of Bank Resignations in Global Finance Raises Questions
A list of banker resignations are compiled at the link.
Lots of questions raised, no answers so far and speculation that something big is going to go down. Anyone have any clue what is going on?A list of banker resignations are compiled at the link. Lots of questions raised,... more-
- maasanova
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- 3 months ago
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- 8 comments
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Gasoline Prices Are Not Rising, the Dollar Is Falling
What this article doesn't mention is the connection between the monetary policy of the Private Central Banking Cartel, basically flooding the market with dollars to prop up the economy, which causes the value of the dollar to fall.
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During the 1970s, the toxic combination of a weak dollar, high tax rates, and onerous regulations introduced a new word into America’s economic vocabulary: stagflation. Reaganomics banished this word to the history books. Now, President Obama and Fed Chairman Bernanke are teaming up to give stagflation another try. It is not likely that Americans will like it any more this time around than they did 40 years ago.
Panic is in the air as gasoline prices move above $4.00 per gallon. Politicians and pundits are rounding up the usual suspects, looking for someone or something to blame for this latest outrage to middle class family budgets. In a rare display of bipartisanship, President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner are both wringing their hands over the prospect of seeing their newly extended Social Security tax cut gobbled up by rising gasoline costs.
Unfortunately, the talking heads that are trying to explain the reasons for high oil prices are missing one tiny detail. Oil prices aren’t high right now. In fact, they are unusually low. Gasoline prices would have to rise by another $0.65 to $0.75 per gallon from where they are now just to be “normal”. And, because gasoline prices are low right now, it is very likely that they are going to go up more—perhaps a lot more.What this article doesn't mention is the connection between the monetary policy... more-
- maasanova
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- 3 months ago
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- 25 comments
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How Many of the "One Percent" Live in Texas?
Erin Mulvaney of the Houston Chronicle reported on a recent survey done by the high-end sales and marketing company Wealth-X, which says the sixth and seventh highest concentration of the ultra-rich can be found in Houston and Dallas, respectively.
Full Story: http://www.tmdailypost.com/article/business/how-many-one-percent-live-texasErin Mulvaney of the Houston Chronicle reported on a recent survey done by the... more-
- Radical_Centrist
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- 3 months ago
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The Ethical Planetarian Party Platform
The Ethical Planetarian Party Platform
by Amaterasu
Have You tired of the empty promises of politicians? Have You seen the “divide and conquer” successes in everything from school teams to country identities? Do You want the planet to coexist?
Perhaps You might consider the Ethical Planetarian Party.
What is the Ethical Planetarian Party? What are its goals and platform?
First, We stand for upholding the three Laws:
1. Do not willfully harm or kill another Being
2. Do not willfully take or damage another Being’s property
3. Do not willfully defraud another Being
In other words, We choose to maintain civil interaction, face to face. The biological parent has precedence in the case of Our children, unless there is evidence that these same Laws are not kept with Them as well. They are Beings, too. Beings are any who ask for rights, or have Others of the same species ask in proxy if They are unable to ask, Themselves. This is not license to mal-treat beings of “lower” Consciousness, for all Consciousness should be respected. The goal is for as much of Consciousness to spend as much of the time as possible comfortable.
A quick, clean and honorable death for the flesh a Being eats, having given comfort throughout the life of any domestic food.
Second, We are predicated on the idea that Humans should be free to take advantage of the abundance of the planet by eliminating money through free energy.
Third, We strive to allow religious choice, believing that there are as many Callings as there are Beings, and as long as the Laws are kept, how One approaches that which One is, is to be respected.
Fourth, We expect the use of technology under these Laws, with peaceful intent, including free energy – the key to eliminating money. We know much is presently hidden in fear that We might exact retribution or follow folly, but We are of the opinion, based on evidence, that when Humans have no money, generosity and loving behavior are expended to help Those in need. With technology We both have personal awareness of and much science and anecdote grasped, We know We can eliminate money as a necessity and provide abundance for everyOne. We call for the release of electrogravitics from black ops, where it has been held secret for over 50 years.
We are out to eliminate poverty.
Fifth, We will bring forth a website where problems can be brought up locally and People can “vote” to bump a problem up, down, show apathy by not voting, and chime in with solutions (which can be cheered and booed). Issues will drop off after the original poster indicates that the problem has been resolved or withdrawn, or there has been no activity after, say, six months (that is not set in stone). Social responsibility will be defined as spending 15 minutes a day examining issues on this site.
Also, issues with some set number of bumps up will be considered issues that need a wider awareness and go to regional sections. From there, continental, perhaps, and then global, as more are needed to be involved in solving the problem. Problems will beget the awareness to solve them.
Without money as a motive, problems will be solved more creatively, directly, harmoniously, and within the three Laws.
Sixth, We are staunch in our support of an organic planet. Though hybridization is an awesome tool, genetically modifying organisms is NOT. Without money, there is no motivation to create GMO. We know that organics can produce on par or better yield and better nutrition than their petrochemically “fertilized” brethren. Any non-organic approaches to problems will be highly discouraged, unless it is seen that such a solution is the best.
Beyond this, sustainability is Our goal.
Seventh, We see that, without money, We can build machines – robots – to do all necessary work. Without work as an “ethic,” We substitute a “Betterment Ethic,” and encourage all to look for ways – within the three Laws and with organic solutions prized – to improve conditions on this planet for everyOne, and offer these ideas for consideration and possible action.
Eighth, We understand that virtually all crime is, on one level or another, related to money, and without money as motive, virtually all crime will vanish – leaving the very few, passion-related crimes for Us to deal with. We will deal with all crime publicly, and Those who care can and will decide each case. Most such choice of behavior will lead to social pariah-hood for the perpetrators.
Ninth, We support open source in all things We program. This allows for many to make suggestions for betterment, and ensures that no one will create outside the three Laws. It also eliminates “back doors,” and other surreptitious software segments that bog down the clean functioning of the program. Without money as a motive, programmers will be proud to offer Their work for scrutinization and use, openly and freely. Status will be gained for creating the best programs.
Tenth, We understand that food waste is rampant with food distributed by profit, abundant as it is but poorly and/or untimely delivered. Without money, food distribution will be based on need and not profit, ensuring that waste is minimal, food is fresh for all (no One waiting for the wilted cast-offs), and readily available.
Though these approaches are revolutionary, We understand that if enough People are on board, a fresh, free, fun, and fulfilling life will be Ours – and everyone else’s – as We choose. No One needs to change anything except where there is a problem – and then Those who care are free to solve it within the three Laws.
Without money, bureaucracy will become unnecessary, vastly reducing paper use, and streamlining solutions. Jobs in banking, insurance, and other such money-related industries will disappear, and in their place, the opportunity to spend time as One wishes.
Transportation will be free – for Ourselves, Our food and product systems, and any other transportation needs. This offers the ability to go where One wishes, moving food to where it is needed, and other freedom We presently do not have, with transportation energy costing so much.
We are a planetary party and decry any solutions that maintain a “divide and conquer” attitude or outcome, including stateism, nationalism, partyism, teamism, etc. We are one species on one planet, and we seek to benefit the planet ethically and wholly.
To join, merely state that You are a member. All that is required, as a Party member, is to inform Others about the Ethical Planetarian Party – send this link, or copy and paste to email this content.
________________________
To sign the petition calling for the release of electrogravitics from black ops, click here:
http://www.change.org/petitions/us-military-release-the-technology-of-electrograviticsThe Ethical Planetarian Party Platform by Amaterasu Have You tired of the empty... more-
- Amaterasu
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- 3 months ago
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- 19 comments
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Electrogravitics, Free Energy and Action
You seem to be ones who would support efforts to get free energy "out in the open." And so I write You in the hopes that You can help in My effort to do so. If this is of interest, please pass the word along!
A petition has been started on Change.org for the US Government to release electrogravitics to the public.
http://www.change.org/petitions/us-military-release-the-technology-of-electrogravitics
Why This Is Important
My early childhood was defined by My father's excitement for His work in electrogravitics, then (1950's) being worked on openly by all major aerospace companies. My father, a CalTech graduate and one of the top electrical engineers at one of these companies, would tell Me about the successes of His experiments (gravity control and overunity (free energy)), and tell Me what the world I would grow up in would look like.
Cars would fly, cities would float, and We would have all the energy We could use.
Then, one night He came home from work late and woke Me up to tell Me We couldn't talk about the flying cars, the floating cities, the free energy anymore. "They want it secret for now."
Since My childhood, I have studied economics, coming to the conclusion (later confirmed by Jeremy Rifkin in His book, Entropy) that all money represented was meaningful energy expended. One can grasp this most easily by considering the first hunter, fisherperson, gatherer, farmer, miner. The stuff They gained/used was free: critters, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seed, sun, soil, rain, ores. It was the meaningful energy expended that gave "value" to the stuff: the killing, fishing, picking, tilling, weeding, harvesting, mining, transporting.
Add abundantly what money represents - energy - and the need for money (and the control of others it affords) in all its forms (barter, trade, work exchange, coin, bills, electronic funds...) will dissipate and what is left is free.
Add robots to do all the necessary jobs no One wants to do to free energy, and Humans will be freed to follow Their bliss - within the three Laws:
Do not willfully hurt or kill another Being
Do not willfully take or damage another Being's property
Do not willfully defraud another Being
(A Being (cap the "B") is sentient, sapient; animals are beings)
Waste would be virtually eliminated: supermarkets presently throw out hundreds of thousands of tons of food a month! Distributing by need and not profit will end this waste. Products would be made to last instead of being designed to break so as to ensure future sales. Theft-protecting packaging would be unnecessary. And so on.
Organic farming would be prized and GMO (genetically modified organisms) would be eliminated.
Motive for war will be virtually eliminated. With no profit motive for war suppliers and "infrastructure rebuilders," wars will not be instigated to ensure profits.
Poverty will not exist.
Hunger will be eliminated.
Education (at all levels) will be free for all.
Replace the work "ethic" (a slave's ethic: enrich the rich with Your Human energy) with a Betterment Ethic and the Humans who better things will be paid in appreciation, status, name-recognition and Self-satisfaction, the new "coin."
Create a central website where problems can be brought up locally and People can “vote” to bump a problem up, down, show apathy by not voting, and chime in with solutions (which can be cheered and booed). Issues will drop off after the original poster indicates that the problem has been resolved or withdrawn, or there has been no activity after, say, six months (that is not set in stone). Social responsibility will be defined as spending 15 minutes a day examining issues on this site.
Also, issues with some set number of bumps up will be considered issues that need a wider awareness and go to regional sections. From there, continental, perhaps, and then global, as more are needed to be involved in solving the problem. Problems will beget the awareness to solve them.
Without money as a motive, problems will be solved more creatively, directly, harmoniously, and within the three Laws.
Leaders of the moment will emerge from this to solve problems as they arise.
Open-source all public works programming. This allows for many to make suggestions for betterment, and ensures that no one will create outside the three Laws. It also eliminates “back doors,” and other surreptitious software segments that bog down the clean functioning of the program. Without money as a motive, programmers will be proud to offer Their work for scrutinization and use, openly and freely. Status will be gained for creating the best programs.
Though this will not create a utopia, it will be vastly better than what We now have, in this scarcity-defined system, on this planet.
______________________
I have found many who have said They would sign, but They fear being "put on a list." This is the very thing the power elite count on. I say... Cast away fear! Stand and be counted as One who would oppose Them. In the long run, We will overcome - IF We stop allowing fear to be used as Their weapon against Us!
So... To any who read this, ask Yourself, "Will I empower the power elite to control Me with fear?" And then give strong consideration to signing this petition.
Twitter: @AmaterasuSolar http://amaterasu101.tumblr.com/You seem to be ones who would support efforts to get free energy "out in the... more-
- Amaterasu
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- 4 months ago
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In A Relationship: Happy Single: Calculations
Two buddies crunch the numbers on whether or not they should get girlfriends.-
- TonyDiGerolamo
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- 4 months ago
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The Rothschilds Want Iran’s Banks
Could gaining control of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran (CBI) be one of the main reasons that Iran is being targeted by Western and Israeli powers? As tensions are building up for an unthinkable war with Iran, it is worth exploring Iran’s banking system compared to its U.S., British and Israeli counterparts.
Some researchers are pointing out that Iran is one of only three countries left in the world whose central bank is not under Rothschild control. Before 9-11 there were reportedly seven: Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Cuba, North Korea, and Iran. By 2003, however, Afghanistan and Iraq were swallowed up by the Rothschild octopus, and by 2011 Sudan and Libya were also gone. In Libya, a Rothschild bank was established in Benghazi while the country was still at war.
Islam forbids the charging of usury, the practice of charging excessive, unreasonably high, and often illegal interestrates on loans,and that is a major problem for the Rothschild banking system. Until a few hundred years ago usury was also forbidden in the Christian world and was even punishable by death. It was considered exploitation and enslavement.
Since the Rothschilds took over the Bank of England around 1815, they have been expanding their banking control over all the countries of the world. Their method has been to get a country’s corrupt politicians to accept massive loans, which they can never repay, and thus go into debt to the Rothschild banking powers. If a leader refuses to accept the loan, he is oftentimes either ousted or assassinated. And if that fails, invasions can follow, and a Rothschild usury-based bank is established.
The Rothschilds exert powerful influence over the world’s major news agencies. By repetition, the masses are duped into believing horror stories about evil villains. The Rothschilds control the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the IMF, the World Bank and the Bank of International Settlements. Also they own most of the gold in the world as well as the London Gold Exchange, which sets the price of gold every day. It is said the family owns over half the wealth of the planet—estimated by Credit Suisse to be $231 trillion—and is controlled by Evelyn Rothschild, the current head of the family.
Objective researchers contend that Iran is not being demonized because they are a nuclear threat, just as the Taliban, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar Qadaffi were not a threat.
What then is the real reason? Is it the trillions to be made in oil profits, or the trillions in war profits? Is it to bankrupt the U.S. economy, or is it to start World War III? Is it to destroy Israel’s enemies, or to destroy the Iranian central bank so that no one is left to defy Rothschild’s money racket?
It might be any one of those reasons or, worse—it might be all of them.
Pete Papaherakles
American Free Press
February 13, 2012
The Federal Reserve, the private central bank that issues "American" dollars is a Rothschild bank, so how are we supposed to be a free country, when a bunch of inbred bankster scum have been robbing us blind and stealing our rights since 1913.Could gaining control of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran (CBI) be one... more-
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Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal
Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts.
Ten years ago, Portugal decriminalized all drugs. One decade after this unprecedented experiment, drug abuse is down by half:
Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugal’s decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.
"There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal," said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law.
The number of addicts considered "problematic" — those who repeatedly use "hard" drugs and intravenous users — had fallen by half since the early 1990s, when the figure was estimated at around 100,000 people, Goulao said.
Other factors had also played their part however, Goulao, a medical doctor added.
"This development can not only be attributed to decriminalisation but to a confluence of treatment and risk reduction policies."
Many of these innovative treatment procedures would not have emerged if addicts had continued to be arrested and locked up rather than treated by medical experts and psychologists. Currently 40,000 people in Portugal are being treated for drug abuse. This is a far cheaper, far more humane way to tackle the problem. Rather than locking up 100,000 criminals, the Portuguese are working to cure 40,000 patients and fine-tuning a whole new canon of drug treatment knowledge at the same time.
None of this is possible when waging a war.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/07/05/ten-years-after-decriminalization-drug-abuse-down-by-half-in-portugal/Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or... more-
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How to choose more ethical personal banking
The big banks just don't get it do they? Not content with causing the near-collapse of the global financial system and triggering a recession, many of these banks are still arrogantly rewarding their staff with obscenely bloated bonuses.
The good news is that there is an alternative to unethical banks. Ethical Consumer magazine's banking report, published this week, includes comprehensive buyers' guides to ethical personal banking including current and savings accounts, cash Isas and mortgages.
With more than 340 branches, leading the charge for ethical current accounts on the high street is the Co-operative Bank and Smile, its online banking arm. The Co-op has been setting the agenda for a more sustainable and responsible form of banking since it launched its customer-led ethical stance in 1992. This bars the Co-op from lending to companies involved in a range of activities from the arms trade and animal testing to genetic engineering and global warming.
Building societies including Nationwide, Coventry, and Cumberland are another option to consider for a more ethical current account. They are judged to be ethical by virtue of the fact that strict regulations limit the amount of money building societies can invest in certain industries. The other plus point is that building societies profits are ploughed back into the business for the benefit of borrowers and savers rather than shareholders.
The other option for ethically minded consumers are credit unions. With more than 400 now active across the UK, credit unions are run as financial co-operatives owned and run by their members helping those on low-incomes get affordable credit and 25 credit unions presently offer current accounts.
Savers can now also benefit from a range of specialist ethical alternatives for both savings accounts and cash Isas. Launched 10 years ago, Charity Bank is the UK's only bank which is also a registered charity. It only lends to charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises and so is ideal for savers who want to use their money to support a bank whose ethos focuses on generating social and not just financial profit.
Triodos Bank offers ethically themed savings accounts and cash Isas and only lends to businesses and organisations that promote or provide long-term positive change. For example their saver account links your savings with groups involved with fair trade, organic food production and renewable energy.
Another option for savers are the UK's 57 building societies which are all judged in the report to be an ethical best-buy for savings accounts.
On the face of it, the only specialist ethical mortgage on offer is that provided by the Ecology Building Society which also offers savings accounts and cash Isas. The West Yorkshire-based Ecology only lends on properties that have a clear environmental benefit such as renovating a derelict or run-down property, , borrowers looking to fit energy-saving kit or surprisingly, people looking for mortgages for back-to-back terraces which are by design highly energy efficient.
However, good ethical alternatives for mortgages exist in the form of those offered by any of the 57 building societies referred to earlier as well as those offered by the Co-op Bank and the Co-op owned Britannia Building Society.
Our report comes alongside the launch of the Move Your Money campaign, which is encouraging people to move their accounts from the failed and disgraced big banks to more ethical alternatives. Supported by a coalition of groups including Co-operatives UK, us, and the New Economics Foundation, we want to get people to move their accounts by the end of March.
Friday has seen Move your Money actions take place in both Leeds and London where people have queued outside Barclays to close their accounts with the bank that has just announced pre-tax profits of £5.9bn and a total bonus pool of £2.9bn.
With neither the banking sector nor the regulatory authorities or government showing any interest in overhauling the current flawed banking system it's clear that it's up to us as consumers to do something about it ourselves. Now it's over to you.
http://moveyourmoney.org.uk/The big banks just don't get it do they? Not content with causing the... more-
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The Greatest Addiction of All
The Greatest Addiction Of All
Submitted by Lorraine Luntsford, published on Wed, 02/08/2012 - 07:09
Many people believe that capitalism is the way to go. It is the end-all of economic systems. It is ideally designed to give everyone a chance to live happily and successfully… the sky’s the limit!
Our forefathers outlined our “inalienable rights” to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence, and had our rights and freedoms laid-out as best they could in our Constitution, including the Bill of Rights. The Declaration of Independence also states that “All men are created equal.”
Well, the D. of I. and Constitution dictate our laws of government – not our economy. Capitalism is the system that governs our economy. And at first glance, these two systems seem to coincide perfectly. After all, Communism and Socialism (and all hybrids thereof--some using money, and some not) as they have implemented, don’t work and are in opposition to what our government stands for. All those economic/political systems end up taking away the very rights we in the U.S. take almost completely for granted (and even our rights here have been whittled away over the years, despite the Constitution). Theoretically, Communism sounds kinda good: Everyone has a job, a place to live, access to food ... but no freedom. No freedom to progress, to move around. In some cases people subjected to this system couldn’t even choose what job or career they wanted to pursue. They were told what to do and where to do it. People in these societies had/have no opportunity to grow individually. No chance of bettering themselves or their lives.
But these countries don’t have our Constitution that is supposed to be stronger than any branch of the government. It’s what they all have to adhere to. It is what protects us, with checks and balances, and outlines our concrete rights and says we should be able to choose our leaders. In light of all this, capitalism as an economic system coupled with our governmental system is ideal. But it’s not our economic system that protects us and our rights, it’s our Constitution, which could be made to work with any economic system - much like the principles of Buddhism can be incorporated into any religious system.
But if our way of life is so great, then why are there so many people here so very discontent?
Because in truth, we are not all born equal. We aren’t all born with the same opportunities; we don’t all start out with the same amount of money like players in a game of Monopoly. We’re not even the same when it comes to desires, drives or ambition. Some want the sky’s limit, while others would be content with a small home or apartment, a few creature comforts and the ability to stay healthy and pay one’s bills. But even for those who are happy with less, many find they can’t make it at all - can’t get adequate health care coverage or retirement income after spending most of their lives contributing to the economy and serving their communities.
The fact of the matter, is any monetary system is going to cause the polar conditions of wealth and poverty by allowing for a small percentage of the population (those with the most drive and ambition) to eventually hold and control the largest percentage of the money. So long as there is money, there will always be poverty and homelessness on one end and an over-abundance of wealth on the other. It doesn’t matter what governmental/economic system is in place. It’s a fact of nature – a rule of opposites - where one thing exists, so too must its opposite exist. It’s the opposing sides of the same coin.
Money in various forms has been used since the dawn of civilization. It’s been so long now; most people cannot conceive of a world without money - cannot wrap their minds around it and are even afraid of the idea. It's that ingrained into our psyches. They think having a form of currency is the way we’re supposed to live and that no other way is possible. Most never even question it. I can vaguely remember being a child and wondering why we needed money for everything and being told "that's just the way it is," and left it at that.
We’ve been using this system for so long it’s become like a drug. Now drug abuse is a symptom of the sickness of our societies. The drug is a temporary relief from the machine we call our reality, providing a synthetic (or empty) sense of happiness. Take the drug long enough though, and the addict becomes physically dependent on it to the point of it causing sickness and even death. Regardless of this, the addict refuses to give it up. They’re afraid to. They no longer know how, or are able to function without their drug. Money is to society, as drugs are to the individual body that takes the drug. And the empty ‘happiness’ that the drug called 'money' causes, fuels the addiction to materialism, greed and power, and a very false sense of security.
And since monetary systems directly cause the symptoms of poverty/want and overabundance/greed, in the striving for fairness (or power) the government passes bills, re-arranges taxes, cuts programs here, creates programs there, and passes laws to enforce the programs. But all this does is create more problems. It’s like a sick person being given a medication that causes a side effect, so the person has to take another pill for the side effect, which in turn causes another side effect, necessitating yet another pill. And on and on it goes. If not watched carefully, some of those medications could clash and cause even worse problems and perhaps eventual death - not from the initial disease, but from all the remedies for the side effects!
In essence, all those monetary programs and shifts will not cure the initial disease and eradicate the symptoms of poverty, want, hunger, greed, etc. They will just cause other problems. When you have a sickness - and an addiction is a sickness- you need to cure it, not merely treat its symptoms.
http://blog.thezeitgeistmovement.com/blog/lorraine-luntsford/greatest-addiction-all#.TzQ1hYKN-zA.facebookThe Greatest Addiction Of All Submitted by Lorraine Luntsford, published on Wed,... more-
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