Energy

Posted on March 20, 2011 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that if the Maya had not polluted their own drinking water, with the corpses of their sacrificial victims, they would not have collapsed as a civilization. What we are doing with energy is almost the same thing. People in the future will say, “How could they have been so stupid?” As they burn methane hydrates to power their industry.

We are told that we must not use nuclear energy because it is unsafe. Demonstrably so, in that we have had three nuclear disasters, since the inception of nuclear energy. Three Mile Island, Fukushima and Chernobyl, the total estimated death toll of all three is less than 8000 people over a 65 year span. This death toll is considered to many to warrant the dismantling of all nuclear power stations.

While at the same time children are killed on bicycles at the rate of 300 a year. If 300 children are killed a year times 65 years, there are 19,500 children, killed on bicycles in the same span of time, (in the USA only, the other victims are worldwide, none are in the US). Given these facts, we can only conclude that bicycles are far more dangerous than nuclear power plants, and under the logic of closing nuclear power plants, we must outlaw bicycles. It follows necessarily. The only difference is that the children killed on bikes are spaced over a greater territory and the people effected by a nuclear plant are in the neighborhood of the plant itself.

But given Ohm’s law electricity production must be as close as possible to keep the losses in transmission as low as possible. Each time the voltage is stepped up for transmission or stepped down for distribution there is loss. This loss is magnified by distance. So, regions that are also point draws for electricity need large producers of electricity close, to keep transmission losses under control.

Coal does most of the heavy lifting today though. The USA has more accessible coal than any other country. Hundreds of years worth of coal, but with the increasing regulation, driving up the costs of coal fired electricity production, both in mining and in burning coal, the price of electricity will necessarily skyrocket in the next few years.

Coal to oil is a possibility but environmentalists have labeled it as Nazi oil, because the Nazis used this technique to produce oil for their industry when the Allies had destroyed Germany’s access to the sources of oil. The label seems to have weight because no plant has been successfully permitted in the USA that I know of. But I never hear anyone, except me, calling nationalized healthcare Nazi healthcare, even though it was the Nazis that introduced single payer to Europe.

Natural Gas is also plentiful in the US. With the implementation of a new technique for the extraction of natural gas from difficult strata another hundred years supply has been opened up in a band from Tennessee to Texas. Unfortunately there have already been lawsuits filed to stop this process due to potential environmental impacts.

The long and short of it is this, modern economies need economically priced energy, without which economies grind to a halt. Energy is a primary input to almost ever aspect of economic activity. From the package delivery guy’s gas price to the heavy steel manufacturer’s price for heat for his steel, the price of energy can be a deciding factor, if a thing is better produced in one place than another.

With the continued and stubborn employment dilemma in the USA, one would think the government would seek to lift barriers to employment, like the price of energy. But this government seems intent on driving up the price of energy to the point of breaking the back of not only the US economy but the economies of every country in the World.

In this case the victims are the Coal, nuclear and natural gas industries and the well is our collective economies. Not much different from throwing the heartless corpses of your victims into your own drinking water is it?

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Japanese Disaster

Posted on March 17, 2011 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that some politician somewhere said, “You should never waist a crisis.” He meant that a cagey politician should use any crisis that comes along to further their political agenda. Never mind, the crass and pernicious nature of the argument’s premise, the progressives have saddled up and are riding the unspeakable disaster the Japanese are going through now for their political advantage.

Lets examine the premise of the saying before we get into how this present crisis is being used to further a political agenda. This saying requires that the first priority of the speaker is egoistic self interest. Not even a hint at the virtue of empathy or concern from this speaker only blind self interest. Unlike, when people‘s avarices are channeled through the market they are turned to society‘s interests, this speaker seeks to meet his interests outside the controlling mechanism of markets and seeks blatant political power to meet them. To say, and especially mean, You should never waist a crisis is unconscionable.

In as far as the inherent dangers of generating electricity through nuclear fission are well known they hardly need pointing out. .But the constant hype and the undertow of fear generated by the uninformed excitement of the unbiased media creates an irrational fear in society. The unbiased media feed this fear with ever more fantastic coverage of the problems in the Fukushima Nuclear plant. People in the USA are going out and getting iodine pills to prevent thyroid cancer! I wonder how many of those same people don’t wear seatbelts, eat high fat foods, engage in risky sex, take drugs, smoke or drink and drive?

The threat to our lives is so miniscule none of us will have enough time on this planet to be effected. We will be exposed to far more radiation then a million Fukushimas when Iran decides it’s time to move. The nuke they use to take out Tel Aviv will expose us to many times the radiation. Perhaps if the people who are panicking today used reason to predict the exponentially greater risk of radiation from the Persian theocratic tyrant getting atom bombs they could put their energy to some good..

The utter heartlessness in which the unbiased media are vilifying the Japanese government is disturbing. No government has been more careful of nuclear technology or has used it more responsibly than Japan. They have had a mature attitude towards it’s research and implementation. In fact the Japanese government has been far more responsible in the use of atomic technology than the unbiased media have been about being impartial.

We must remember that this was caused by an unprecedented earthquake and tsunami. Entire cities and towns have been erased from the map, the infrastructure in the area effected is decimated and filled with debris, ranging from upturned hula-hoops to hotels, thousands of people have died and hundreds of thousands are homeless, the nation is not in the best position to respond in any adequate way.

But when you get right down to it what are we supposed to heat our homes with? The progressives can’t abide us using nuclear, coal, oil, or anything else that produces carbon dioxide, they decry the looks of windmills on ridges, solar is only just beginning to produce a bit more electricity than it takes to make the panels, so what are we to use? Or do the progressives want us cold and hungry, shivering in a corner waiting for some crumb, to be donated to us, by the munificent new aristocracy.

The thing that amazes me is that the plants stood a five Minuit magnitude nine-.something earthquake, (they are still upping the strength), and it didn’t smash the plants to bits. Without question the safety of existing nuclear plants worldwide should be examined by well trained and led teams. Taking the lessons of this partial meltdown and applying it to other systems. Fantastic assertions in the unbiased press only serves to motivate people to panic not to be prepared.

We will see how the disaster sugars off. As in the case of the BP oil spill the environmental effects of the politically appropriate disasters will be over stated and the results of the natural disaster will be underplayed. But that is the nature of the legacy unbiased media we have. They are still largely controlled by progressives. People who have whole heartedly endorsed the speaker’s words.

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I pray for the quick recovery of Japan and the quick return of the Japanese people to their normal daily lives. May the people of Japan live long, healthy, happy lives, find their burdens light and go to heaven when they die…

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The Revolution Standard

Posted on March 14, 2011 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that the major difference, between the American revolution of 1776 and recent revolutions, is that there was a working government in place, that had practiced Republican principles from the start, moreover, the people were, as De Tocqueville put it, self interested rightly understood.

The actual form of government in the Western countries are Republican forms of government, not Democracies. Republican forms of government have, as an attribute usually, some form of democratic representation but republican forms of government also include monarchy, and aristocracy.

Aristotle put it like this, There are only three right forms of government, monarchy, aristocracy and polity, there are three perversions of these right forms of government, tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. Because tyranny is rule for one person, oligarchy is rule for one faction and democracy is the tyranny of the many over the few. A Republic is a blending of two or more of these right forms.

So where we have a call for democracy we actually have a call for the tyranny of the many over the few. This was a very hotly debated item in the founding of the new American Republic after the revolution. They were very aware of Aristotle’s thoughts on this subject, and others, especially Montesquieu’s adding a third branch of government… the Judicial.

Modern revolutionaries have no such advantage. The opposition parties always seek to, replace the tyrant; not overthrow tyranny. They all make the same claims, they call for social justice, they decry violence even as they apply it themselves, they all seek for the benefit of a single faction of society only and seek the submission of all other factions of society. Universally when they come into power they install a more despotic government than the one they replaced.

Especially with the help of the protyranist elements in Western culture. The Michael Moores and the George Soroses epitomize the protyranist faction in Western society. They seek tyranny and believe it the best form of government. They have, at their philosophical core, a firm belief that the masses are only fit to serve. The masses are patently unfit to rule. “Democracy” is only a way to prove it to them.

Once the democratic experiment has failed the people will turn to another tyrant to restore order. That will be the communist or some other savior in name only. They will then reestablish a form of feudal system where they and their children will be the aristocracy and the benefits of society will be distributed by political merit instead of by market means.

There were protyranist elements in colonial days but they were separated by kilometers of ocean and were easily turned against one another. Just as today’s protyranist turns capitalist elements against each other. To reestablish the new fiefdom will take the same tactics as it did to destroy the old feudal system.

But really, who doesn’t want to live under a feudal system… like communism? It is great. You have no decisions to make your lords make them for you. If you are lucky you will be the equivalent of a serf in the new system. Then you will be looked after by your lord, or owner, depends on how you look at it. But really what could go wrong?

Everything. The loss a functional market system under a Caliphate or some Socialist fiefdom would throw humanity back into another dark age. One that I am sure we will pull out of, eventually, and reestablish a functional market but the loss to humanity would be incalculable.

There is a basic Republican system, that provides a standard, for new revolutions to follow in forming their new “Democracies,” it could possibly benefit a few. But, if any are helped, the better for us all. The standard, rarely followed, is the US Constitution, (arguments for and against) and the Manifesto of the International Capitalist Party…

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The Price of Anything

Posted on March 10, 2011 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me, that everyone who has grown up in a market based economy, should have a basic understanding of the way supply interacts with demand, to reach a price equilibrium, and that if demand is reduced, cost goes down and if supply is reduced, cost goes up. But I run into more and more people, who profess no knowledge of this economic law whatsoever, and maintain that it is totally the oil companies that set the price of gasoline.

The supply, real and perceived, of any thing, not only commodities, is a factor in it’s economic value. The value of gold is high because the supply is very limited and the demand, for all uses, is great. The value of a thing is not determined by it’s utility, water for example is usually cheap, because it is plentiful, but put a person in a desert for a day, where it is not plentiful, and he or she will pay a fortune for it. This is another example of the relationship between supply and demand.

The Obama administration, has at every turn, made decisions that will lower the supply of crude and coal. From changing drilling regulations and outright bans on drilling to curtailing coal production the administration has proven it’s willingness to raise the price of energy to protect the environment. This is one of the planks of their platform. Energy prices will necessarily rise… To make renewables competitive with dirty energy.

Due to a hoax. The hoax of anthropomorphic global climate change. They changed the name from warming to change, because they aren’t sure if the planet is still warming or cooling, so the name, change. The global warming we have experienced from 1959 to 2008, (or sooner) has been mirrored on Mars with a congruous shrinking of the Martian polar ice caps. The predicted warming has not materialized here however. It seems to have leveled off. But what it all boils down to is this, they don’t know if the planet is warming or cooling, they don’t know the mechanism of it’s warming or cooling, but the one thing they are sure about, is that it is our fault.

With a hoax in hand they have sought to shrink the ability of the market to meet short term supply interruptions. Take bobby pins, say there are 4 factories running at 50% capacity, meeting the demand for bobby pins. Now take one factory down, perhaps from a fire, what will happen to the price of bobby pins? Probably nothing… the remaining factories can ramp up production to meet the increased demand.

Take the same example but the 4 factories producing bobby pins are now running at 100% of capacity. Take 1 out, from a fire, and now what happens to the price of bobby pins? The price necessarily skyrockets. It is necessary because, the factories remaining cannot ramp up production, they were already at 100% of capacity. So the price will rise to a new equilibrium. Higher then you would think due to the perception that the supply of bobby pins is now at risk…

The result, of the administrations decisions, is that the US is producing far less oil and coal than it could. If the US was producing even 10% more, than it is now, there would be a dampening effect on global prices. But with a hold on US oil sands, coal to oil, intractable permitting for coal, nuclear and most of the US’s coastline off limits, the US government, under this administration, is intentionally lowering the ability of the US to produce energy. This puts not only the citizens of the US at risk but the citizens of the world.

Economic production is tied to energy prices. The single biggest factor in the rise in the economic production of the worker, since the industrial revolution, is the leveraging of his or her productivity, with mechanical power. This leveraging has led to the rise in the standard of living in countries that participate in a market economy. The application of mechanical power makes the price of energy a major portion of any economic player’s cost structure.

Now that the ineptitude of this administration, has set the Middle East and North Africa on fire, like a child with a matchbook, the supply of oil in the world is being interrupted. Overtly undermining Momar has led to him setting oil wells on fire, even a hint of unrest in Saudi Arabia will drive the price of crude to $200.00 a barrel, (from Bloomberg Radio) and the continued unrest in Egypt and Tunisia is leading to a possible flood of refugees. How will that effect the world economy?

But people keep insisting it is all the oil companies…

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US Budget Woes

Posted on March 7, 2011 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that the US government must get it’s spending under control or else the spending will get the government under control. US government debt is projected to grow so fast it will outstrip the ability of the economy to pay for it in under ten years. (If the bond market holds out that long). No matter if all discretionary spending is eliminated. The pending economic disaster, which is clear for anyone looking, is due entirely to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These three entitlement programs will go down in history as a warning to any other nation that would be so foolish as to implement them.

That is not to say that US government doesn’t throw gobs and gobs of hard earned taxpayer money away. Aid to China is one example. The US government giving foreign aid to China is like you getting a loan from your bank and then giving money to the bank to help them ‘make ends meet‘. While you are in debt to them an entire years salary. But the real problem is entitlements.

No matter if these entitlements are addressed or not they will not exist in a few years. Once they outstrip the economies ability to pay for them the economy will either collapse or the entitlements will collapse. When that happens the people thrown out of the entitlements, no matter which scenario plays out, will be destitute. They will suffer all the more for our lawmakers lack of grit.

Members of Congress in the US are just like children who have a term paper due. They play video games and “debate” what they will write about. Procrastinating until the paper is over due and complaining they didn’t have enough time. Then acting the exact same way on the next assignment.

There is a reason entitlements are the third rail of politics; if anyone has the grit to come close to touching it, the masses of dependents rise up and swarm like wasps. The buzzing keeps anyone sane away. But touch it, not only they must, but to wrestle with it is requisite.

Place another system under the old so that people will actually have a “safety net.” That safety net would be some form of Capitalist social security.

This would be a system where people could invest money into the system. Their money would be pooled and invested in dividend stocks and AA or better bonds. The fund would grow until the participant reached an agreed age. Then the plan would pay out fifty percent of each year’s gain, on the participant’s portion, to the participant. The other fifty percent would be reinvested. When the participate dies, his or her portion of the fund goes to their heirs, apparent or cited, and so on and so on…

This fund would grow generation after generation and there could be several funds to ensure competition. If our wise lawgivers could be asked to keep the interest of the fund(s) itself untaxed, and protect the fund(s) with legislation, from seizure by lawsuits, the fund would not only help the working man immensely, in many ways too numerous to go into here, but would provide a steadying hand for the various exchanges and economies around the world.

As people are moved into the new capitalist system their well being will be more safely entrusted and the well being of their children will be protected as well. But Social Security is the smallest of the big three. The entitlements, Medicare and Medicaid, are bigger and more intractable.

The answer to these problems is to, regulate health care insurance federally, deregulate the options and standardization of the insurance industries paperwork. There are many other ways within that government can strongly impact the growth rate of healthcare costs. Simply slowing the rate of growth would stave off economic disaster, from these two entitlements, for awhile. This was the underlying thrust of Obama care. To grapple with these two entitlements like a sniper. Without seeming to. But his way would have drowned us all the quicker.

Getting government spending under control would drastically help the economy, but it is not the only thing government does, that effects the economy and the natural rate of unemployment. Regulation and the aggregate cost of legal representation, to start and operate a firm, are other examples. Tackling these could help the job market quicker and more effectively in the short term than spending reform. But spending reform must be done; else it will do itself…

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Nothing Grows in the Dark but Mold…

Posted on March 3, 2011 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that any capitalist enterprise is always held to a much higher standard than any governmental or public entity. This seems to be universal as far as I have looked. If anyone knows of a confounding example please let me know. The more I look however the more the theorem appears proven, but, just because I look to no avail for black swans, that doesn’t necessarily mean there are no black swans, there may be an example, of a public entity being held to some standard, in history.

One recent example is the appearance of for profit colleges on the scene. They fill a valuable niche for non traditional students, (who are far more at risk of defaulting on student loans). The government has recently passed regulation that applies to them only, not public universities. The government seems to be in the process of, ensuring many people stay unemployed or under employed by regulating this sector of the economy, with the intent to wither it on the vine.

Cost is one argument against for profit colleges. But they are a new sector in the economy and as in all things new, patents, copyrights and new ideas, there is value in being the first with new innovation… monopoly profits. As new people enter the new market they naturally drive down the profit until, if lasses fair regulation has been implemented, the sector will reach perfect competition and the cost will approach close the cost of production.

How, you may ask, did the government do that? Because the government guaranteed loans that for profit college students have, government claims, make up 50% of the defaults, while they constitute, less than 50% of total student output. Some students claim, that they cannot get the job they studied for, because the school has not been accredited. No one has claimed, to my knowledge, that their education is in some way was or is inferior, just that government will not recognize their degree as being valid.

With no means of testing to see if the requisite knowledge in the applicable fields, government effectively closes the doors for those graduates, then when the older graduate, who is more at risk to default for many factors, cannot get employment at the career he or she studied for then inevitably goes into default, the government has something to point to and scan then subject one, politically disfavored segment of the education sector, to onerous regulation, while ignoring the other, politically favored, sector.

To complete the government’s, behind the scenes play, was that, last year, the government nationalized the tuition loan segment of the banking and loan sector of the US economy. Creating a whole host of pernicious incentives, that mirror the government’s, unexamined, hands in the home loan debacle that so recently hobbled the American economy and is still holding the ankles of the US economy at an unnatural angle.

But government never comes under examination. It’s like government’s, politically favored groups and segments of society, have an invisibility cloak. They simply swoosh it over themselves like Dracula and do whatever they want… because they are invisible. Anyone who questions them is called crazy, a conspiracy theorist and a kook. Ridicule and vitriol are heaped like dung in a barn.

Take Fanny Mea and Freddy Mac’s role in the recent housing crisis. It was government regulation that required loans be given politically favored groups regardless of their ability to repay. Those that formulated the policies must have believed that the bad loans would be absorbed by a less politically favored sector of society. Redistributing wealth underground so to speak.

The resulting tidal waves of bad loans grew in frequency and magnitude until the financial levees were overcome. Many very old and cagy institutions fell and many people lost millions of dollars. Government immediately pointed the finger of greed at the banking executives who were the politically unflavored group that was supposed to absorb the bad loans in the first place.

We have had Oscar winning examinations into the actions and motives of Wall Street executives but not a single one about Fanny Mea and Freddy Mac’s roles or especially government regulation or the proponents of those regulations. But don’t worry… we won’t. The Elite cover for the Elite. There will be no peering documentaries about the role of regulation in the financial crisis.

Because government, while criticized daily, is never actually critically examined, but capitalism, which is the font of our prosperity is constantly poked and prodded to find even the smallest fault. Like a Dane who examines his levees with a microscope, while the dams holding back the sea are pouring rivers in behind him. I wonder… Is it the Dam’s fault of the Dane’s his land is being lost to flood?

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Foolishness in Wisconsin

Posted on February 28, 2011 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that there is plenty of blame to go around in the Wisconsin budget debate. Their budget is on fire and they act like children! This is the United States of America, we are supposed to set an example to the rest of the world, showing how to be people who are self interested rightly understood, or rational maximizes, emphasizing rational

The Governor is wrong on at least two counts. The first is forcing the unions to have an election every year whether or not to abolish the union. That is absurd! The extra cost of an election, every single year along with the attendant slowdown in productivity during such an event, is prohibitive once in four years but every year would essentially shut down the operation of government.

The second is, in taking away the union’s collective bargaining rights for government unions only, government holds itself to a different law than it holds the people. Again we see that government doesn’t get it. The Elite always seek to carve out a niche for themselves. The rest of us have to labor under rules that government doesn’t hold itself to. This is just another example.

If collective bargaining is too odious then take it away entirely from all employers. We can clearly see that to do such a thing would violate the right to free assembly as well as the right to freely petition the government. We know, and have historical proof, that employers collude to keep wages low. So unions, or at least the real threat of unions, are a powerful incentive for employers to play fair, else risk the real possibility of a union coming in, and have to bear the additional costs.

The governor has a real point when he says that the State unions organize, fund and otherwise help get a political faction in power, that is not only beholding to the union, but is philosophically in tune with union leadership. This allows public employee unions to get labor agreements that would never fly in the private sector. Hiding some wages as huge pensions keeping them off the books until later. Well now it’s later and the books have been massaged as much as they can be and are ready to fall apart. A State NUMA would solve this problem with a law forcing politicians to recuse themselves from bargaining with a political donor.

To address the education question. The logic is actually very thinly sliced so they don‘t have to address the question in it‘s totality. The unbiased media are only talking about teachers and a faction of public sector employees. There are many things government does that do not need a great deal of schooling like plowing roads. But the bigger point to make, is that public sector employees that do have a higher level of education, have it, because the government pays for it and regulation passed by government requires it. They regulate themselves to be educated.

The unions, on the other hand, are acting criminally. If the Teamsters rioted and took over a UPS building the police would immediately be called and the Teamsters would have the Billy clubs put right to them. Applied directly to the head. They would be arrested, dragged out and criminally charged, lastly, facing a judge. To let public sector unions get away with far worse is the most atrocious example I could have thought of! In what universe is that ok? To not allow the Teamsters to forcibly shut down a UPS transship but to allow public sector unions to shut down government?

What about the Democrats abandoning their jobs?!?! If you or I abandoned our jobs, simply because we are handed a job we disagree with, we would be immediately fired! You and I would be on the unemployment line so fast it would make your head spin. And we would deserve it! To abandon your job, is to demonstrate absolute disdain for your employers, in this case the people of Wisconsin. The Democrats are acting the very faction we were discussing earlier.

Imagine if the Republicans had abandoned their jobs and left the country when Obama was passing his unconstitutional health care law, or on a State level, when Gay Marriage was being passed? The vilification would have been extreme and would have carried true vitriol. The lawsuits would have popped up like weeds in a freshly tilled garden. Overwhelming the legal system.

Now that the democrats in Wisconsin have set the precedent, now the democrats in Illinois are following the tip of the spear. When the republicans inevitably go through the hole made by the democrats we will finally get some debate in the unbiased media about consequences.

In the meantime the fire still burns…

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Rare Earth Elements

Posted on February 24, 2011 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that with the world wide shortage of rare earth elements (REE), and the concentration of production in China, some out of the box thinking might work to the advantage of some entrepreneurs and the world’s people. The out of the box thinking, I am thinking, is that some smart fellow launch a ship with the tools needed en route to mine a near Earth asteroid (NEAR).

One could be found that would have the needed orbital period so that the miners could be pulled back in case of catastrophe. Also the orbit should be such that it remains far enough from the Sun that it remains cool enough to be on/in.

A good initial candidate might be Apophis. It will be making a near Earth transition soon and is a chondrite asteroid. Chondrites have a regular abundance of rare earths and chondritic meteors have been shown to have relatively plentiful of REE. Funding being easier to get if the quality of the ore is pretty well ascertainable beforehand.

When the space miners get to the asteroid they land and attach their ship to it. Then deploy a balloon made of multiple layers of Mylar and aluminum around the asteroid. The outer layer would be flexible solar panels. Then inflate the balloon to one half atmosphere. Once the balloon has stabilized it would be tethered to the asteroid at strategic locations. This would give the space miners a controlled atmospheric space to work.

Within the low pressure of the bubble the space miners could work with less protection on and increase their productivity as a result. There could even be tests to see if some hardy plant could be grown in asteroidal regolith within the bubble.

The first order of business would be to drill a shaft directly to the center of the asteroid and hollow out the center to fit all the miners and needed equipment in case of a major solar flair. Use the tailings to process into rare earth metals. The initial foray might just be to drill the protective tunnel and ascertain the potential of the technology.

With the greater and greater demand for electric powered cars, busses and “clean” energy the demand for REE will grow faster than the primitively mined supplies in China can keep up with. Once the demand outstrips the supply China will hoard their REE for themselves. That will in turn bring the “clean” industries in other nations to their knees.

Not to say that the rest of the world is not trying to bring REE mines online. In North America and Australia there are two ready to go into production and in Greenland there is exploration, but with the expensive regulatory environment in North America we can count on it being an expensive producer, the extreme environment in Greenland will also add to production costs. Australia will be a relatively low cost producer, if, the government doesn’t loose it’s mind again and try to impose insane taxes on the industry. But Australia only has a few of the needed REE.

With no dysprosium electric motors will loose efficiency, without indium and tellurium for solar panels or the lanthanide series of metals for battery and other “clean” technologies, “clean” will become incomprehensively expensive. The limit on the supply of the necessary elements to make a “clean” economy function; make a “clean” economy risky for those that venture down that risky path.

If the most fretful scenario comes true, China will have a monopoly on “clean” technology, and the rest of the world will have pledge to buy only clean technology. No way that could be a problem eh?

But if the ability of the worlds mines, to begin producing REE to meet the upcoming surge in demand, it would be much more reasonable to mine asteroids for them…

If the price skyrockets and someone lands a few hundred pounds of REE from an asteroid, what would that make him/her?

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Human Nature and World Government

Posted on February 21, 2011 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that there are no greater motivators of men than money and power. The thirst for which is unquenchable. In fact it can be said, and a good argument made, that not only are money and power great motivators of men but the more of either a person has, the more of both they want. In other words as a person’s thirsts are quenched the person’s thirsts grow ever faster.

That is why, if a cigarette company came out with research that proved cigarettes prevent cancer and that the higher cancer observed in populations that smoke is due to poor lifestyle including poor diet, no exercise, and other risk factors, including exposure to factory emissions, that in fact, smoking cigarettes lowered the prevalence of cancer in those populations people would be cautious.

Because everyone would know, and understand intrinsically, that the companies that produced the scientific papers and research, have a vested interest in the outcome, in both money and power. We innately understand, that having ‘a dog in the race’ so to speak, gives people bias. That bias can manifest itself in massaged outcomes.

It stands to reason that the more money and the more power at stake the more bias it would naturally coerce from people. So much so that until certain conditions are met any thought of world government is absurd. Absurd to the point of abstraction. Like a political black hole that, once created, would inevitably suck humanity into itself and feed on us until it had consumed us and extinguished itself thusly.

Many pernicious notions still exist, that invade the thoughts of mankind and keep humanity largely in a state of perpetual poverty, instead of a state of perpetual prosperity. Notions that are as pernicious as they are magnetic. Like, for example, the idea that a person has any “right” to the labor of another free person, or that any other is not free.

As Adam Smith said, if given the choice between slave labor and negotiating with a free man for his free labor most people will choose the slave because of men’s pride… People have an inner feeling, they, (you and I), have some right to the labor of another without or without their consent. This is manifested in many forms. I will name a very few but if you think about it you will be able to think of many more.

The notion that a person has a right to the labor of another is manifested most often as false “Human Rights” bestowed by some “benevolent” State authority. They freely give out “Rights” to politically favored groups. Meting out the labor of others in the form of taxation for votes to maintain power. The faction that keeps the authority in power Is not relevant.

Another example is the Social Security system in the US. Under that system the proletariat of today pay for the retired proletariat of today. Extra money is (was) then spent to garner political favors from political factions. Then rhetoric is thrown out that the money is in a lock box. Well, there is no tooth fairy, and there is no lock box. The money is spent and an, possibly valueless, IOU is there instead. The law entitles one generation to the labor of another with no guarantee that the payers of today will have a government that is able, for many reasons, to extract that toll from the payers of tomorrow.

Capitalist social security would be the best means to get a retirement system that would not give any faction the “right” to the labor of another. These two examples are two of many. To get this nut cracked will take many more years of civilization of humanity through the use of capitalism. As I have said before, capitalist and capitalist behavior makes people more civilized in many ways, more punctual, greater self control, the ability to maintain one task for an extended period of time etc…

If every country, or at least a plurality of countries, had a functional market system, un warped by political influence, the possibility of a world government could be considered, but until then it is like an ancient Scythian considering the possibility of interstellar travel. He could see the stars and consider their import but had no real context to imagine what it would entail what it would take to be done right.

People today, looking at the possibility of a world government, are no more advanced philosophically, that our Scythian was scientifically. To launch into such a poorly thought out venture would certainly end in disaster, but with the whole of humanity along for the ride.

Posted in economy, Group Politics, International Power, Law, media, Mercy, philosophy, Societal Myth | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NUMA

Posted on February 17, 2011 by john

Dear Friends,

It seems to me that history, and the present, show us that the Elite in all societies need to be policed. Perhaps the societal upheavals we are witnessing lately could have been avoided, or maybe even stopped, by wise establishment of a Fourth Branch of Government, I am of course talking about a NUMA.

A NUMA would be a place for the people to express their dissatisfaction with the State. The NUMA would be tasked with following up “consumer” complaints against government or it’s services. If, for example, a person thought their property taxes were too high they would go to the local NUMA. The NUMA would look into the problem. Siding with the consumer in court if it came to that. One of it’s functions would be as a consumer complaints department against the government.

Another of it’s primary responsibilities would be to police government officials, with draconian measures, if necessary. Cameras in the parliamentarian’s chambers, recording all the time to be released in 20 years. No matter the hubris of an official, he or she loathes to be seen by history, as a fink. The threat of history and the more immediate threat of prosecution is what faces the corrupt politician.

Another important facet of the functioning of a NUMA is that, in the amendment chartering a NUMA, there would need to be a provision against any member or branch of government carving out some loop hole in Law. Allowing Congressmen to engage in acts legally, i.e. “Insider trading” that would be illegal for the citizen to engage in. Or for a member or branch to exclude itself from any legislation they pass on any segment, faction, coalition or any other grouping of people.

Pit a faction of government against the rest of government, make it their job, give them incentives to be active in their jobs and you have the means to reign in the avarice of corrupt officials. It is also important to keep a NUMA under control and not let it coerce other officials to enrich it’s interests or the interests of it’s members. This could be done by the regular police having police function over the NUMA. Cameras in their offices and the whole lot.

There is no question that if a person knows he or she will be held to every Law they pass, to the letter of that Law, they will be skeptical in their judgment. They will read the law and understand it before they vote, and be reticent to pass Laws, that will have a detrimental effect on themselves. Because no matter how thoughtful the individual, they are more thoughtful of their own personal interests, then they ever could be of another’s. It is human nature.

Elections would be where a NUMA would shine. The NUMA would have volunteers stationed at every polling booth. At least 2 from each of the main political parties. They would see that election laws are followed. They would inspect boxes as they came in, tag and release the boxes to be filled with ballots then seal the boxes with a number, equating to the polling station location, or some other convenient way. The NUMA along with international observers would insure a free and fair vote count.

A NUMA would enhance the economic wealth of a nation that is wise enough to adopt one. An official who is reported to the NUMA as requesting or taking bribes would meet immediate prosecution and if found guilty would go to jail. The replacement would be a little more wary of bribery. This would unfetter the market forces in that nation and would inevitably result in more small businesses. More small businesses would inevitably result in more employment. The chain of causality, no bribes leading to more small business leading to more employment, is clear as spring water.

The enacting of a NUMA would be a win win for any country. Change the paradigm and you change the outcome. Follow the same path as others have taken and the outcome is obvious. Confucius said, “A fool follows a dangerous path when a safe one is at hand.” Tyranny follows tyranny and that is the normal course of human events.

Perhaps, just once, the Elite could take us on the safe path?

Posted in economy, Group Politics, International Power, Law, Mercy, philosophy, polictics of class envy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment