East Meets West Logic...

[SB_UK]

do you have a strange kinda' tickly throbby thing in the centre of your head ?

which tickles and leads to a desperate need for a #1?

[SB_UK]

-

'which would be subject to confiscatory taxes if they got too big'

sounds good

[Lloyd Gillespie]

Perhaps it has been discussed elsewhere on this thread, and I have missed it, but upon reading this post, a question came to my mind.
Regards, Labelwench

Hi Labelwench, and great to see your continued interest, thanks…
I'll take these points one at a time…

We have laws that mandate a minimum wage in most jurisdictions.

Why do we not have a ceiling on a maximum individual wage? Or do we, and I am just unaware of it?

No, we have no ceiling on any maximum individual wages, unless you count being employed by the government, then it’s just low pay, but no legal ceiling. The only reason I could ever think why we didn't have a ceiling on max wages is that no group ever demanded it, most likely because everybody dreams of being rich, I think anyway. The only time we put the brakes on excessive wages was in the last depression and its ultimate consequences, WWII, then we instituted the progressive tax system, which actually went to 92% on the extremely wealthy__We need to do the same again__"Yes we can..."

Collectives and corporations that earn excessive profits should be mandated to redirect those funds toward education, new technology and/or disaster relief, etc., any project which benefits the greater humanity.

And yes, they should as I couldn’t agree more, but it’s the world we’ve allowed to evolve, over the centuries. Let me just tell a short story about wage caps tried in the Clinton years. Bill and comrades pushed a bill through congress to do just that, thus capping CEO pay scales, but finance chicanery being what it is, turned out entirely differently, actually enriching the CEO’s even more. They capped their pay but forgot to cap other ways of enriching the big boys in the tall buildings. They just switched pay bonuses to the options market, thus congress inadvertently pushed the crooks to invent new markets to pay themselves, what turned into the most lucrative windfall ever, for the CEO’s. Just goes to show ‘ya’ how complex markets can skate around the law. ‘Gotta’ be real sharp to slow these ‘Masters of Greed’. down…

Time to move away from 'tax shelters' toward an 'umbrella policy' or a 'rainy day fund' to maintain and improve the quality of life for all, with respect for the planet that sustains us.

And that’s exactly where I’ve been headed, with all my ideas and information on these two philosophy threads, and over the last thirty years of my research and writing, at other sites and publications also. It’s a long slog to bring correct ideas back into a fifty year or so__lost world of dis-information__especially when 99% of the academic community is involved, creating the dis-information, as has been shown by the realities of those particular intellectual mentalities crashing since last Sept. `08, if you catch my meanings…

I also publish two blogs with the same direction of ideas: http://macromouse.blogspot.com/ And: http://theawakeningoftheamericamind.blogspot.com/ The first has more technical ideas presented, and the second one offers more personal perspectives of the same ideas as you mention…rrr

P.S.
SB__Might not mite... Better pictures of astigmata...

[SteveA]

do you have a strange kinda' tickly throbby thing in the centre of your head ?



astigmata
astigmati

Sometimes, no astimatism though.

[Lloyd Gillespie]

which tickles and leads to a desperate need for a #1?

No, just infinite wealth and happiness for everyone...rrr

[SteveA]

which tickles and leads to a desperate need for a #1?

Could be, well it does seem like we need some change, but in many ways backwards. I'm anxious to see us grow and there are too many #1s constricting it. (In politics it just seems like a lot of people arguing over trying to be #1, and most voters too ... and it seems like it's coming closer to fighting over the bones of a carcass ... sad, and a lot don't even see how much better off we could be by looking to building a dynamic and healthy future)

I don't think you can put perfection on a paper - but instead it occurs as a growth outside it and the paper just contains a snapshot of what was - control and creation are mutually exclusionary, though maybe control can preserve or retain something for a while, even this it tends to stagnate.

I don't think this is as good as we can do and there's little reason to fight over what we have now when we can invest for the future instead. Of course I know a lot of people would make mistakes, but that's nothing new and we can brush off, copy the best examples and move on.

Actually though, yes one of my comments regarding the possibility of things being great just "around the corner" is because ultimately the mind does have a lot to do with it and who knows what could pop up in that respect. So there's some definite possibilities there.

I think we really need people to excel and be creative and allow more freedom and dynamics for people in life (and yes, that comes from a personal perspective too ... patent laws are frustrating - you could spend weeks designing something and then find someone else already claimed it was there idea ... to me that's theft of my work or it places it up to lawyers to decide who owns what thoughts etc. I admit it's stifling and almost insulting - yes, I do have some ego . It works so much better without all this overhead but it's hard for people to see how and yes, without being able to see the solutions people drift around and are misled etc. ... ok, yes, you're right I do think there needs to be a better "plan", but really you can't enforce it but you can free people up and let them learn how for themselves and that's what's lasting and most valuable, but yes, some people really depend upon being led and that's fine if they want that, but for the rest of us that want some elbowroom I think people are just biting at the bit and tired of people wanting to be dragged alone. We punish success and reward failure ... that's horrible for everyone in the long run even if a few people appear better off in the short run and I admit I can't see it being fixed before it crumbles and I'm personally anxious to get out of the way of the debris and build some liferafts for this Titanic - people need more options)

[Mikal]

Hi Lloyd…I was wondering if you had studied at all the late, Economist Milton Freidman of the University of Chicago’s Economic Department?? Mind you Freidman’s influence began fifty years ago to advance free market policies and leading neo-liberal and neo-conservative thinkers into exploiting disaster-shocked people and countries (The Shock Doctrine) where the economic force is allowed to use the public’s disorientation following massive collective shocks for example wars, natural disasters or terrorist attacks to push through unpopular economic measures.
Naomi Klein authored the book The Shock Doctrine, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism where she revealed through massive research the roots of Disaster Capitalism more than 50 years ago and she clearly shows how through our contemporary history that well known events of the recent past have been theatres for the Shock Doctrine.
Believe me, if anyone wants to understand just how dark the economic market force can really get this book is a must read…

Regards Mikal

[SteveA]

Hi Lloyd…I was wondering if you had studied at all the late, Economist Milton Freidman of the University of Chicago’s Economic Department?? Mind you Freidman’s influence began fifty years ago to advance free market policies and leading neo-liberal and neo-conservative thinkers into exploiting disaster-shocked people and countries (The Shock Doctrine) where the economic force is allowed to use the public’s disorientation following massive collective shocks for example wars, natural disasters or terrorist attacks to push through unpopular economic measures.
Naomi Klein authored the book The Shock Doctrine, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism where she revealed through massive research the roots of Disaster Capitalism more than 50 years ago and she clearly shows how through our contemporary history that well known events of the recent past have been theatres for the Shock Doctrine.
Believe me, if anyone wants to understand just how dark the economic market force can really get this book is a must read…

Regards Mikal

Yes, there are a lot of things sold as "free markets" that aren't - wasn't one of the last "free trade" agreements something like thousands of pages of special priveledges and restrictions etc. Later they'll "fix" that with a "non-free trade" agreement that will just add another two thousand pages etc. rinse and repeat.

And yes, times of economic problems are when a lot of these things are passed too. Look at all the "stimulus" packages we've had in the U.S. and I've already seen so many people lose their homes. Same things during the Great Depression when lots of new policies that were claimed to be helpful (work programs i.e.) were pushed through and many say these were part of the reason the depression stayed around so long. Similarly after 9/11 we had a push for lots of additional agencies and "security" powers etc.

Same thing now. We've got economic problems that have been building. People losing jobs and can't find work http://www.reuters.com/article/topNe...edName=topNews (~15% of the people were laid off here 2 days ago) and people losing their homes (one of my coworkers is losing his right now, my sister in law lost hers a few months ago, the place we moved into almost had the owner lost it, where we moved from ~40% of the people nearby had lost a home ... pitiful that people put up with the fiat currency system - the banks and federal reserve end up printing up paper and trading it for things that others have worked to build - we should expect real exchanges of value and not have a slave population). Meanwhile we have silly things like government subsidies to encourage people to get rid of their cheap transportation and go further in debt to buy a new car, or wanting people to additionally afford health care insurance as if we had all these resources to throw around without cost and there's no change on the political landscape in sight. People are brainwashed into listening to the media and thinking they're being taught important beliefs/skills (it almost makes me sick to my stomach to see some of the stuff that people are buying into).

It would be great to see things go the other way and just start removing these instead of adding more (though I'm certain they'll try to remove just the benefits to people and leave the rest in place).

Oh well, I know it's no use to try to fix it, but I'm just hoping people will make fewer mistakes rebuilding and not try to do the same thing again.

Freedom
Peace
Wisdom
Love
Beauty

Those are on my wish list - #1 is freedom (non-oppression, non-coercion - anarchy) because the rest people tend to naturally learn from that state.

[Mikal]

Hi Steve....glad to see you are in the know...smiles...

Your wish list is admirable! I experienced such a deep depth of Love through grief for someone beyond myself that I experienced Wisdom, found the true meaning of Beauty, then I found myself in a deep peace and discovered the true meaning of freedom...

Its a very, possible wishlist...

Regards Mikal

[SteveA]

Hi Steve....glad to see you are in the know...smiles...

Your wish list is admirable! I experienced such a deep depth of Love through grief for someone beyond myself that I experienced Wisdom, found the true meaning of Beauty, then I found myself in a deep peace and discovered the true meaning of freedom...

Its a very, possible wishlist...

Regards Mikal

Well thank you much. I think people tried to teach me wisdom when I was younger and it stuck, but again was one of those things that I just hung onto without really understand the value.

I love designing things and science etc., but it was a few years ago when it really started hitting me that the most important things were just missing from it ... intelligence is a great tool, but it needs direction and value.

I think the last month here was really an eye-opener like merging the emotions and the logic (the desire was there before but I just couldn't "tie" the two together without a leap of faith and it was from encouragement here that wow, all of a sudden I can see the pretty picture and it doesn't take much to get life looking shiny and new again LOL!)

Oh, but I admit now I'm spoiled ... I can't settle for second best and dig around in the scraps. No, we need a bright new fresh start ... and I think it will happen, but I'm just worried if people will fall back into the same ruts again and do it all over.

In a sense, it really doesn't matter what happens to the world beyond ones own neighborhood and in that respect I have better hope. Let the world do its thing - it has too many chefs already. All that's really needed is just some people able to make a little of their own sunlight until the clouds drift past.