The most fundamental social justice concern is, literally, a question of life and death. Who among us gets to live and who must die is, inpart, determined by the type of society we construct. At this time a significant fraction of people in the USofA are in favor of the notion that free market, unfettered capitalism is the best mechanism for deciding our fate. I, for one, most vehemently disagree. My assessment is that the world we live in is made virtually intolerable by a vast greedy horde of self-centered despicable people. In short, "free market" advocates are, in my opinion, disgusting human-beings.
Is this a harsh assessment? Maybe so (*shrug*), but such is reality, so who am I to complain? The Mail Tribune published a series of my Letters to the Editor that briefly explore these issues in the context of Anthropogenic Climate Change (The final of this set is reproduced below). I am thinking of writing another series of letters, however, I am becoming convinced, that few if any really care about, or are capable of processing information regarding these intertwined issues.
Ahead of schedule
A senator characterizing a plan to implement best medical practice to prevent epidemics as "government overreach"; demonstrates, at best, malfeasance, and at worst, malicious intent. A representative failing to understand Article I Section 8 with regard to providing for the "general Welfare of the United States", is guilty of incompetence at best, and at worst sedition should present economic trends continue to exacerbate our economic divides and discord. Anyone supporting the Jordan Cove project is simply beyond the pale.
Our USofA-centric Idiocracy is about (2505 - 2020 =) 485 years ahead of schedule.
To not understand the general principles of health issues is absurd. While a bit more esoteric, understanding the function and desirability of an aggressive progressive tax is accessible to all but the most recalcitrant denier of reality. One does not need to plumb the depths of physics to understand that we need to stop using geologically sequestered coal, oil, and methane to even begin to ameliorate anthropogenic climate change.
We, the people of the USofA know what needs to be done. But, just in case you (for the past six decades) have not been paying attention: "Think globally, Act Locally" only works if we all act globally.
Robert I. Price - Medford Oregon
Understanding the function and desirability of an aggressive progressive tax is accessible to all but the most recalcitrant deniers of reality. The most fundamental point is that we need to understand that monetary systems create money by spending events and annihilate money by taxing events. While creation and annihilation events occur throughout the economic sphere the central character of our economic system is most particularly determined by the pattern of our federal government's spending and taxing patterns and priorities. If you are interested in developing an understanding of this process, this graph is most illuminating.
I completed my PhD program in 1979. My education from 1954 into 1979 cost nothing … no one was financially impacted by my attending public school, community college, state college, and (finally) graduate school. I taught at a state institution of higher education from 1979 into 2014. During this entire six decades neither the cost of my education nor the subsequent cost of my employment should have been borne by anyone.
If you think about how economic systems work in the Real World you should be able to work out why my education was cost free while the overall cost for the six decades (from the beginning of kindergarten until the beginning of retirement) of being in a classroom was not zero. If you are having trouble thinking this through, reread the paragraph above the graphic and peruse the graphic a bit more.
Pop quiz: An essay using this "conversation" as a starting point could prove to be enlightening. Take and defend a position with respect to a progressive fining protocol that would be parallel to your position regarding progressive income taxing. This task shouldn't require much more than one class period of time commitment.
If you still need some help … feel free to contact me. Or, better yet, get involved with the online gaming community and learn about what is happening as what was performance based success is being transformed (grounded in the lie known as laissez-faire free market capitalism) into a cynical pay for success cesspool.
If you think this
is an acceptable response by the state of Oregon or if you are a MAGA hat wearing individual, just go away, we have nothing to offer each other:
For those that think I am being too harsh or somehow overreacting to their MAGA bullshit.
Your MAGA hat proclaims you really like, endorse, and support the Idiot that tweeted:
2:34 PM – 13 May 2019
Under my Administration, we are restoring @NASA to greatness and we are going back to the Moon, then Mars. I am updating my budget to include an additional $1.6 billion so that we can return to Space in a BIG WAY!
10:38 AM – 7 June 2019
For all the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago, They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part) Defense and Science!
Impartial assessment suggests admirers, and followers of this sort of idiot are incapable of rational thought and discourse. As such, admirers, and followers of this sort of idiot are not welcome here and will not be tolerated.
I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.
A MAGA hat wearing moron referred to Nicholas Ferroni as a Brainwashed Idiot.
A MAGA hat wearing genius is able to discern the difference. I however have trouble with the fine distinctions necessary for this task. MAGA mental gymnastics seem to be out of my league.
To develop solutions one must first be aware:
1. The source of poverty is not the result of actions, and/or machinations of the poor.
2. The source of poverty, homelessness, et cetera, particularly in the U. S. of A., is our society's inability to accommodate the insatiable greed of the very wealthy, and those that "profit" from catering to them in our heavily corrupted economic system.
To get started: So-called fiscal conservatives aren't. Fiscal conservatives are actually anti-social (or perhaps asocial, nah, they are plain and simple sociopathic) defectors. Fiscal conservatives are fine with providing huge amounts of "public" money to subsidize their favorite privatized industry but generate outrageous rhetorical nonsense when it comes time to talk about funding health, educational, and other programs designed to create and sustain a fair and just society.
25 Feburary 2019 House Budget Committee report: Original report available at this location.
If we are to ever make progress we need to work out a way to nullify fiscal conservative's collective efforts to make defection the default winning strategy in the economic aspect of the Grand Game of Life.
