Let’s come to terms with a few things.
Covid – 19 represents something we, despite our own good sense as a world population, expect. SARS, Aids, Ebola, Ecoli and other fast spreading infections are huge warnings that this will continue to happen – and we need to be prepared for this.
Our infrastructure for the care of people cannot handle this for two reasons
First, it’s privately owned and intended to make a profit. Profit motive, at its core makes its primary goal the antithesis of human wellbeing. It’s not bad for companies to aim at profit. It’s bad to consider healthcare a profit system. (I’m not arguing that Doctors shouldn’t make good money. I’m arguing that profit should not be the goal for the funding of a medical system).
Secondly, our Republican representatives, our so called “conservative” political party, have sold off, defunded and otherwise worked to derail our publicly owned systems to push people into becoming customers of the privately owned systems – and to take over the public investment at no or little cost. This party is conserving nothing. It’s radically destroying the protections we built, after the great depression, to keep these kinds of things from happening.
Think about this:
If we all had a plan that assured we would have enough to eat, that we wouldn’t be evicted from our homes for losing our jobs, if we couldn’t go into debt because of school or medical bills and we had environmental protections that prevented unsafe food and pollution practices, then, where exactly would the emergency be?
It would be with the care of the people dying from this disease and the prospect of not working would have an impact, but it wouldn’t “destroy our way of life”. People who drive ubers or work at restaurants wouldn’t be worried about being homeless or without food or medical care and wouldn’t be worrying about the medical costs destroying their lives.
By making a substantial social safety net, we don’t ruin life. We preserve it. Conserve it.
And the emergency in business would be substantially less too. They could idle with the understanding they could draw on assistance to keep workers whole while the issue was dealt with. Yes, they would need to idle in some cases, for public safety, but that would just be put on hold.
But in our current system, businesses will be punished for standing still, for doing what is right in cases like this. And they will layoff and cut workers in order to “stay in business” but that’s like cutting off your legs because you drank poison. Even if you recover from the poisoning, you now have no legs. Cutting your means of production is killing the golden goose. Idling it is not perfect, but you can still come back from it.
So when people argue against a progressive agenda with environmental and social safety nets, they are arguing for short sightedness, they are arguing against the ability to do the right thing. They are arguing not for reasonable capitalism, where the company makes a good profit – they are arguing for a profit only motive. They are arguing for money over everything else. And it’s a suicide argument. Everything – our health, welfare, safety, morals are all sacrificed on the alter of greed. This cannot be the case.
Capitalism is an economic system designed to make money. It is not a form of government. Democracy is a system designed to protect all of the people. To pursue life, liberty and happiness. Life. We cannot protect life by protecting greed. We can only protect life by intentionally protecting life.
Better vote Democrat. Register to vote if you have not. Register to vote by mail if need be.
IN PA https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/OnlineAbsenteeApplication/#/OnlineAbsenteeBegin
Or look up mail in or absentee ballots in your state.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Sunday, March 22, 2020
Singularly optimized systems aren't robust
I have spoken a bit about the Invisible Hand – Adam Smith’s metaphor for the unseen forces that balance markets and distribute income in free society.
I have seen it in action (we all have regardless of knowing it or not) and it works to our benefit and detriment depending on who we are, what decisions we make and what money we have.
It’s a system, that we’ve tried to optimize for personal gain, which does work, especially if you have a lot of money. But the market is a gamble, which is played by a bunch of people who are unwittingly risk adverse – they want the game spun to optimize their chance of winning.
The system is so sensitive to the slightest turn of the screw that big things, which are complex to predict, send it into collapse.
We see this pattern repeated in many systems, because the human race has been so successful at Analysis and optimization, we push it to the max, everywhere, never thinking as to why some things always seem to incorporate “waste” or “lag time”.
The reason is, we are human. We need some lubrication in our systems. We don’t work like machines. We need to build in the ability for things to not go as planned. We need to understand that we don’t get 8 hours of work from and 8 hour day all of the time. We need to have systems that are robust enough to care for (food, medical attention) the poorest as well as the wealthiest among us.
I’m talking about Capitalism but with Social Responsibility built into our plan, our laws.
We cannot rely on business to do it. Business has the goal of optimizing capital. Fine. Good. But government cannot have the same singular goal. It needs to maintain balance in the economy and take care of every citizen. Its goal needs to be running a sustainable, durable, robust system that helps people and works with business in a balanced way.
It means businesses need to pay taxes. It means the wealthy need to pay taxes.
And in our other systems – food supply, medical supply and yes, toilet paper supply, we need to be able to build programs that makes sure the poor and elderly have access to necessities.
We shouldn’t need to go into massive special modes to ensure we can survive a pandemic. Or a market change that freaks out wall street. It should be part of our planning.
We know we’re not perfect. So why not plan for it?
I have seen it in action (we all have regardless of knowing it or not) and it works to our benefit and detriment depending on who we are, what decisions we make and what money we have.
It’s a system, that we’ve tried to optimize for personal gain, which does work, especially if you have a lot of money. But the market is a gamble, which is played by a bunch of people who are unwittingly risk adverse – they want the game spun to optimize their chance of winning.
The system is so sensitive to the slightest turn of the screw that big things, which are complex to predict, send it into collapse.
We see this pattern repeated in many systems, because the human race has been so successful at Analysis and optimization, we push it to the max, everywhere, never thinking as to why some things always seem to incorporate “waste” or “lag time”.
The reason is, we are human. We need some lubrication in our systems. We don’t work like machines. We need to build in the ability for things to not go as planned. We need to understand that we don’t get 8 hours of work from and 8 hour day all of the time. We need to have systems that are robust enough to care for (food, medical attention) the poorest as well as the wealthiest among us.
I’m talking about Capitalism but with Social Responsibility built into our plan, our laws.
We cannot rely on business to do it. Business has the goal of optimizing capital. Fine. Good. But government cannot have the same singular goal. It needs to maintain balance in the economy and take care of every citizen. Its goal needs to be running a sustainable, durable, robust system that helps people and works with business in a balanced way.
It means businesses need to pay taxes. It means the wealthy need to pay taxes.
And in our other systems – food supply, medical supply and yes, toilet paper supply, we need to be able to build programs that makes sure the poor and elderly have access to necessities.
We shouldn’t need to go into massive special modes to ensure we can survive a pandemic. Or a market change that freaks out wall street. It should be part of our planning.
We know we’re not perfect. So why not plan for it?
Friday, March 13, 2020
Shopping for the Zombie Apocalypse
Thinking I’d get a jump on things, I figured I’d shop Friday night (which I do sometimes to avoid Saturday rush) and figured as schools are closing and events are cancelled and working from home looms as a potential for some of us (unfortunately, not enough of us), this was going to be one of those Saturdays.
I knew heading into Sam’s Club, wiping my cart handle down, that there would be no toilet paper. Not an issue – my wife and I are well stocked. We buy a large pack, a few times a year. But I admittedly was not prepared for what I found.
Thinking maybe I would get a whole chicken and a couple pounds of ground beef I headed for the meat department, only swinging by to pick up cat food, which we have a reasonable amount of but there are 3 cats and couple of weeks is long enough we would run out and they would kill us in our sleep and eat us. Mine are little angels most of the time, but when they’re hungry…
Swinging over to the meat isles I was instantly stunned. Each section was completely empty, excepting the Tomahawk Ribeyes which were 2+ pounds and represented a similar investment as graduate school.
No Chicken, Pork or Beef. No milk. No eggs. Grapes and Bananas completely gone (?). Over to the frozen meat. Only a few bags of chicken nuggets left (now remember, this is a bulk buy retailer – huge inventories). Plenty of prepared meals available but very little. I found a small box of 12 frozen hamburgers Some Italian chicken sausage, half and half. As I looked around, stares of disbelief which likely mirrored my face.
There was even a substantial dent in the available bags of Doritos and Cheetos and I did grab one of each, so if you find my dead body with a strange, presidential looking orange dust on it, I went out, but I went out happily. It ain’t easy being cheesy.
A few more things and I was on my way. Stopping over at Target to get a few things I found a similar situation. Almost all meat (well, they did have some Bison, but it was $9 a pound and wasn’t doing that. A few cans of soup. Some Smarties which I use in a pinch instead of diabetic glucose when my blood sugar drops, of which they are the cheapest supplier but are almost always out of. I’m not sure why, sugar is eminently abundant.
Giant Eagle was more of the same, although they still had a lot of fresh Salmon and a few frozen ducks. I guess Duck is not “shelter in place” food.
As I was coming out of the last store, I ran into a friend and coworker and she reminded me of a thought I had earlier. In this world of just-in-time inventories, they only stock and plan on runs for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Snack foods for the super bowl. Milk and Toilet paper in substantially bad weather.
Inventory in fact, in our capitalist minds, exists as a necessary evil. But because of it, re-supplying will slow down. Manufacturing will slow down. Wall street and subsequently business, thrive on predictable outcomes and they scream in pain when they are not.
And that is infinitely funny. Because the Stock Market is a game of chance, but one whose players complains when they have to take a chance. Insurance companies and banks too, when they aren’t allowed to manipulate their bets into sure things. Oh, they’re fine with tossing the world for the little guy, overextending credit, charging high interest rates and late fees.
They’re only geniuses in the sense that they have put themselves in a position to gamble, but not in the sense they would actually want to gamble. And then you realize (if you hadn’t long ago), the issue for the market isn’t the deaths Covid 19 will cause or disruption to lives. It’s of course, the monetary impact, but even more, the unpredictability of it. And it effects a lot of us. Our retirement savings, which is invested there.
And those same people who run businesses that push for predictability, want to take away social nets that save families medically and economically – that make their lives more predictable (at least to the point where they can live and eat).
This is a mild version of what might happen if this virus was say Ebola. We are not ready. Which is why we need a socially responsible democratic government to pair with our capitalist economic model. Capitalism is ultimately not built to govern or deal with people. It’s brutal. Supply and demand, right there in Sam’s club. Fortunately, it’s not life or death for me. But it is for many. Many without health insurance, without jobs, without homes. We need systems that cushion the reality of Capitalism for the little guy, where it is so brutal. The rich can lose money, but can remain rich. You cannot lose your health and remain alive. You cannot lose your sole income or ability to make that income and remain alive.
And if we need to remind the rich, more than a 70% of the world lives below the poverty line and overf 10% in the USA, the worlds richest country, do. We don’t need to save the rich. They will save themselves. It’s time for us to vote to save ourselves and our fellow humans.
It turns out in the Zombie Apocalypse, the zombies are just wandering around Sam’s club, trying to decide if they should try “meatless chicken” or subsist on Pop Tarts. They’re not dead, they are people who are seeing their social footing shake beneath them. And if the people in Washington are only concerned about the same things as the people on Wall Street, we’re screwed. Better vote.
I knew heading into Sam’s Club, wiping my cart handle down, that there would be no toilet paper. Not an issue – my wife and I are well stocked. We buy a large pack, a few times a year. But I admittedly was not prepared for what I found.
Thinking maybe I would get a whole chicken and a couple pounds of ground beef I headed for the meat department, only swinging by to pick up cat food, which we have a reasonable amount of but there are 3 cats and couple of weeks is long enough we would run out and they would kill us in our sleep and eat us. Mine are little angels most of the time, but when they’re hungry…
Swinging over to the meat isles I was instantly stunned. Each section was completely empty, excepting the Tomahawk Ribeyes which were 2+ pounds and represented a similar investment as graduate school.
No Chicken, Pork or Beef. No milk. No eggs. Grapes and Bananas completely gone (?). Over to the frozen meat. Only a few bags of chicken nuggets left (now remember, this is a bulk buy retailer – huge inventories). Plenty of prepared meals available but very little. I found a small box of 12 frozen hamburgers Some Italian chicken sausage, half and half. As I looked around, stares of disbelief which likely mirrored my face.
There was even a substantial dent in the available bags of Doritos and Cheetos and I did grab one of each, so if you find my dead body with a strange, presidential looking orange dust on it, I went out, but I went out happily. It ain’t easy being cheesy.
A few more things and I was on my way. Stopping over at Target to get a few things I found a similar situation. Almost all meat (well, they did have some Bison, but it was $9 a pound and wasn’t doing that. A few cans of soup. Some Smarties which I use in a pinch instead of diabetic glucose when my blood sugar drops, of which they are the cheapest supplier but are almost always out of. I’m not sure why, sugar is eminently abundant.
Giant Eagle was more of the same, although they still had a lot of fresh Salmon and a few frozen ducks. I guess Duck is not “shelter in place” food.
As I was coming out of the last store, I ran into a friend and coworker and she reminded me of a thought I had earlier. In this world of just-in-time inventories, they only stock and plan on runs for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Snack foods for the super bowl. Milk and Toilet paper in substantially bad weather.
Inventory in fact, in our capitalist minds, exists as a necessary evil. But because of it, re-supplying will slow down. Manufacturing will slow down. Wall street and subsequently business, thrive on predictable outcomes and they scream in pain when they are not.
And that is infinitely funny. Because the Stock Market is a game of chance, but one whose players complains when they have to take a chance. Insurance companies and banks too, when they aren’t allowed to manipulate their bets into sure things. Oh, they’re fine with tossing the world for the little guy, overextending credit, charging high interest rates and late fees.
They’re only geniuses in the sense that they have put themselves in a position to gamble, but not in the sense they would actually want to gamble. And then you realize (if you hadn’t long ago), the issue for the market isn’t the deaths Covid 19 will cause or disruption to lives. It’s of course, the monetary impact, but even more, the unpredictability of it. And it effects a lot of us. Our retirement savings, which is invested there.
And those same people who run businesses that push for predictability, want to take away social nets that save families medically and economically – that make their lives more predictable (at least to the point where they can live and eat).
This is a mild version of what might happen if this virus was say Ebola. We are not ready. Which is why we need a socially responsible democratic government to pair with our capitalist economic model. Capitalism is ultimately not built to govern or deal with people. It’s brutal. Supply and demand, right there in Sam’s club. Fortunately, it’s not life or death for me. But it is for many. Many without health insurance, without jobs, without homes. We need systems that cushion the reality of Capitalism for the little guy, where it is so brutal. The rich can lose money, but can remain rich. You cannot lose your health and remain alive. You cannot lose your sole income or ability to make that income and remain alive.
And if we need to remind the rich, more than a 70% of the world lives below the poverty line and overf 10% in the USA, the worlds richest country, do. We don’t need to save the rich. They will save themselves. It’s time for us to vote to save ourselves and our fellow humans.
It turns out in the Zombie Apocalypse, the zombies are just wandering around Sam’s club, trying to decide if they should try “meatless chicken” or subsist on Pop Tarts. They’re not dead, they are people who are seeing their social footing shake beneath them. And if the people in Washington are only concerned about the same things as the people on Wall Street, we’re screwed. Better vote.
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