We are a unique generation. We are the first generation in the history of the world where we don't wake up with the knowledge that if we do something really wrong humanity might go extinct.
We wake up with the knowledge that if we don't do something really right, humanity will go extinct.
We are the generation that has inherited all of the mistakes of those that came before us. We don't get to just pass off our mistakes to our children and grandchildren. If we don't fix these mistakes we won't have any grandchildren.
Our massive technological and medical advances have allowed us to wallow in our pursuit of decadence. But we have reached the point where the status quo will no longer sustain us as it has for thousands of years. We need to restore our natural environment, consume significantly less resources, produce significantly less waste, and control our population growth.
All of these goals are attainable, it's not too late to save the human race. We just have to get off our asses and do it. We need to stop distracting ourselves with Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Porn, Television, etc. We need to return to a simpler way of life.
We aren't going to get rid of computers, they are still insanely useful, we just need to learn to rely on them less. Instead of hiding from social interaction behind our computers, we need to use them to engage in real-life. They need to be tools for education, science, medicine, and communication. Not for time wasting. Yes, video games are awesome, but do you want to look back at age 65 and realize that the greatest achievement in your life was getting a server-first boss kill on World of Warcraft?
I don't.
I want to write stories that my friends read when they get home from work.
I want to play music that get my friends dancing after a long week.
I want to see my friends and loved ones regularly because they are important to me, not just "Like" their statuses on Facebook.
They deserve more than that. I deserve more than that.
We all deserve more than that.
We deserve for our children to grow up to a brighter future than we had.
We deserve to grow old with our friends, not sit and regret their early death from war or drugs or car crashes.
We deserve to live in a world where you can walk to work, rather than spending 5% of your life sitting in rush hour traffic.
We deserve to be able to go to sleep every night and know where our next meal is coming from.
We deserve all of these things.
More importantly, our children, their children, and their children's children deserve all of these things.
We can do it, we just need to start making changes now.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Two Constitutional Laws that are currently being Violated.
Ok, this is something that everyone should know and should be excessively pissed off about.
#1 The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
The Law:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effect, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
The Violator:
The Patriot Act.
Titles II & X
Sections: 204, 209, 210, 212, 213, 217, 219, 220, 225, 1003
202 adds electronic devices to the list of things that can be spied on.
209 adds electronic devices to subpoenas.
210 allows them to track your phone number, identity, location, and banking records for how you pay for your phone.
212 allows the various electronic companies to give the government all of your personal data, absolutely anything, if they think you might be dangerous.
213 allows them to invade your property and take your stuff without showing a warrant, and gives no specific timeline for when they are required to show a warrant.
217 specifies that entering into a protected computer without contractual permission gives them full right to enter your computer. Also this law does not apply to their investigations.
219 specifies any U.S. judge can name something or someone as a terrorist and can issue a warrant for any area regardless of jurisdiction. So a judge in Florida can issue a warrant against a suspect in Oregon.
220 allows them to use the laws of other cities and states (and territories) against someone in a terrorism investigation. So like when they use the laws of a U.S. territory that has no timeframe for when you need to be charged or released.
225 specifies that any electronic entity that provides them with information regarding any investigation shall not be charged with any crime relating to it.
1003 grants further rights to spy on "tresspassers".
These laws were further amended by closed military tribunal that made allowance for spy organizations to gather information on Everyone regardless of any warrant or suspicion or probable cause.
So basically this clusterfuck of a law declares that they can spy on everyone, without cause or warrant, without specifying what or where they are searching.
A clear violation of the fourth amendment.
#2 The Constitution of the United States of America. Article 1, Section 8.
The Law:
"Congress shall have the power to...(Abridged)...To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the standard of Weights and Measurements."
The Violator:
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913
Section 11, Pard (D)
#1 The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution
The Law:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effect, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
The Violator:
The Patriot Act.
Titles II & X
Sections: 204, 209, 210, 212, 213, 217, 219, 220, 225, 1003
202 adds electronic devices to the list of things that can be spied on.
209 adds electronic devices to subpoenas.
210 allows them to track your phone number, identity, location, and banking records for how you pay for your phone.
212 allows the various electronic companies to give the government all of your personal data, absolutely anything, if they think you might be dangerous.
213 allows them to invade your property and take your stuff without showing a warrant, and gives no specific timeline for when they are required to show a warrant.
217 specifies that entering into a protected computer without contractual permission gives them full right to enter your computer. Also this law does not apply to their investigations.
219 specifies any U.S. judge can name something or someone as a terrorist and can issue a warrant for any area regardless of jurisdiction. So a judge in Florida can issue a warrant against a suspect in Oregon.
220 allows them to use the laws of other cities and states (and territories) against someone in a terrorism investigation. So like when they use the laws of a U.S. territory that has no timeframe for when you need to be charged or released.
225 specifies that any electronic entity that provides them with information regarding any investigation shall not be charged with any crime relating to it.
1003 grants further rights to spy on "tresspassers".
These laws were further amended by closed military tribunal that made allowance for spy organizations to gather information on Everyone regardless of any warrant or suspicion or probable cause.
So basically this clusterfuck of a law declares that they can spy on everyone, without cause or warrant, without specifying what or where they are searching.
A clear violation of the fourth amendment.
#2 The Constitution of the United States of America. Article 1, Section 8.
The Law:
"Congress shall have the power to...(Abridged)...To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the standard of Weights and Measurements."
The Violator:
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913
Section 11, Pard (D)
"To supervise and regulate through the Secretary of the Treasury the issue and retirement of Federal reserve notes, except for the cancellation and destruction, and accounting with respect to such cancellation and destruction, of notes unfit for circulation, and to prescribe rules and regulations under which such notes may be delivered by the Secretary of the Treasury to the Federal reserve agents applying therefor."
I'd like a moment of gratitude for actually finding that quote in the wall of text that is the Federal Reserve Act.
Now let us take one important information into account.
The Federal Reserve Bank, is NOT part of the U.S. government. They are a monopoly corporation that was given the right to print and regulate our money. Furthermore, when we need more money than we have in gold reserve, they print out more and issue it to us as a loan, with significant interest.
So the U.S government is paying interest for using it's own currency.
This is a major violation of the Constitution because this Act specifies that the Federal Reserve Bank with the advice of the Secretary of the Treasury have the right to coin money and regulate it, rather than Congress as specified.
What makes this more ridiculous is that all other banks are required to subscribe to this scam. If they were to refuse they would no longer be allowed to be a bank (i.e. issue loans).
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Realities of economics and minimum wage.
The minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 an hour. as of 2007 it was $5.15 an hour. In 1990 it was $3.35 an hour.
Visually it looks like our minimum wage has been growing drastically in the last quarter century, but this does not account for inflation.
The highest actual value for minimum wage we have ever had was in 1968 at $1.60 per hour ($10.64 in modern currency).
But look more into what is required of employees in the past as opposed to now. In the beginning of the minimum wage laws it was the wage for completely untrained labor. Trained laborers made more. But comparatively, Most if not ALL modern employees would be considered trained labor. A POS computer is a complicated program, far more complicated than a simple manual cash register. All employees are expected to be literate, have customer service skills, be computer savvy, able to do manual labor. A very long laundry list of different skills that are common now, but are far outside the scope of the initial minimum wage laws. So the employees have become more skilled and more productive, but their pay has not gone up to match. Instead all of that profit has gone to the owners of the companies and the CEO's.
So we now have a vast skilled labor force, many of whom have higher degrees, still stuck working at poverty level employment.
This is simply not a viable way for a society to exist. The complexity of modern life has grown vastly, and the average worker is expected to do more and make less for their efforts.
But there is a threshold, we can't simply pay all employees a maximum amount for their labors, otherwise there would be no incentive to work towards more difficult careers. Why be a doctor when you make the same amount of money as a retail clerk?
But the employees need to be paid what they are worth.
Now some economists claim that raising the minimum wage will increase unemployment, that's simply not the case anymore. Everyone remembers the excessive amounts of downsizing and merging that happened in the last few decades. Any two jobs that could be done by one person have already been merged.
Most jobs simply cannot be downsized any further and remain in business. If anything, some corporations might attempt to close multiple locations to drive all the business into fewer stores. This is kindof a wash because the compressed consumers will require more employees at the fewer locations, plus it increases the risk of brand disloyalty for the sake of convenience.
So that argument is rather moot. There will be minor downsizing as the corporations attempt to wring out every last bit from their worker pool, but there is only so much they can do.
But let's use an example of a drastic increase in the minimum wage, increasing from $7.25 an hour to $22 an hour.
A full-time employee at the current rate with no sick days or holidays makes $15,080 a year before taxes.
That means that they are taxed at a rate of 15% for $2,262 in income tax
If the wages are increased to $22 a year with no sick days or holidays full-time the same employee would make $45,760 a year. They would jump up a tax bracket to 25% and would pay $11,440 in taxes.
Take-home for the employee at current wages= $12,818
Take-home for the employee at increased wages= $34,320
(both excluding state, local, social security, etc)
So the employee, for the same amount of work is now taking home almost three times what they were before and the government is collecting five times as much in taxes. Furthermore, because of their increased pay, they no longer need additional government support, fewer people on food stamps and other social services while fully employed.
So the government is collecting more money in taxes, the employees are collecting more money in wages, the only people currently losing out are employers. But there is a solution there too. Increase government subsidies to all employers.
So after the subsidies, the government is taking in slightly more money, the employees are making significantly more money, and the employers are making slightly less money.
Hell, for further motivation, make the subsidies system based on the percentage of employees that are Americans. That would actually drastically help smaller businesses. They don't out-source overseas so they would be rewarded significantly.
Thus increasing the demand for American laborers for the bigger companies to increase their employment subsidy percentage.
This isn't hard, we just need to wrestle control of the government away from the big corporations so we can fix all of this.
Visually it looks like our minimum wage has been growing drastically in the last quarter century, but this does not account for inflation.
The highest actual value for minimum wage we have ever had was in 1968 at $1.60 per hour ($10.64 in modern currency).
But look more into what is required of employees in the past as opposed to now. In the beginning of the minimum wage laws it was the wage for completely untrained labor. Trained laborers made more. But comparatively, Most if not ALL modern employees would be considered trained labor. A POS computer is a complicated program, far more complicated than a simple manual cash register. All employees are expected to be literate, have customer service skills, be computer savvy, able to do manual labor. A very long laundry list of different skills that are common now, but are far outside the scope of the initial minimum wage laws. So the employees have become more skilled and more productive, but their pay has not gone up to match. Instead all of that profit has gone to the owners of the companies and the CEO's.
So we now have a vast skilled labor force, many of whom have higher degrees, still stuck working at poverty level employment.
This is simply not a viable way for a society to exist. The complexity of modern life has grown vastly, and the average worker is expected to do more and make less for their efforts.
But there is a threshold, we can't simply pay all employees a maximum amount for their labors, otherwise there would be no incentive to work towards more difficult careers. Why be a doctor when you make the same amount of money as a retail clerk?
But the employees need to be paid what they are worth.
Now some economists claim that raising the minimum wage will increase unemployment, that's simply not the case anymore. Everyone remembers the excessive amounts of downsizing and merging that happened in the last few decades. Any two jobs that could be done by one person have already been merged.
Most jobs simply cannot be downsized any further and remain in business. If anything, some corporations might attempt to close multiple locations to drive all the business into fewer stores. This is kindof a wash because the compressed consumers will require more employees at the fewer locations, plus it increases the risk of brand disloyalty for the sake of convenience.
So that argument is rather moot. There will be minor downsizing as the corporations attempt to wring out every last bit from their worker pool, but there is only so much they can do.
But let's use an example of a drastic increase in the minimum wage, increasing from $7.25 an hour to $22 an hour.
A full-time employee at the current rate with no sick days or holidays makes $15,080 a year before taxes.
That means that they are taxed at a rate of 15% for $2,262 in income tax
If the wages are increased to $22 a year with no sick days or holidays full-time the same employee would make $45,760 a year. They would jump up a tax bracket to 25% and would pay $11,440 in taxes.
Take-home for the employee at current wages= $12,818
Take-home for the employee at increased wages= $34,320
(both excluding state, local, social security, etc)
So the employee, for the same amount of work is now taking home almost three times what they were before and the government is collecting five times as much in taxes. Furthermore, because of their increased pay, they no longer need additional government support, fewer people on food stamps and other social services while fully employed.
So the government is collecting more money in taxes, the employees are collecting more money in wages, the only people currently losing out are employers. But there is a solution there too. Increase government subsidies to all employers.
So after the subsidies, the government is taking in slightly more money, the employees are making significantly more money, and the employers are making slightly less money.
Hell, for further motivation, make the subsidies system based on the percentage of employees that are Americans. That would actually drastically help smaller businesses. They don't out-source overseas so they would be rewarded significantly.
Thus increasing the demand for American laborers for the bigger companies to increase their employment subsidy percentage.
This isn't hard, we just need to wrestle control of the government away from the big corporations so we can fix all of this.
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