#why can we fund war but not sustainable products

[sparky-cryptidcrafts]

why did I decide I was mentally healthy enough for Esci classes.

I was warned before taking these classes that alot of students drop out for mental health reasons, I was warned it isn't a easy class emotionally. I knew how bad the situation was already, but I still had some hope ya know? just a little thanks to things like the land back and water is life movements and the pipeline protests.

And im trying to hold onto that, I really am, I don't want to give up. It's just really hard and I'm really tired and there's so many other things going on that waking up every day with a roof still over my head feels surreal. Seeing green grass feels surreal and I'm only seeing it right now because it was a el nino year.

I don't think most people realize the last time there were flowering meadows, forests, ect in Antarctica was between 55 and 38 MILLION years ago when the continent was a lot closer to the equator.

[hadesoftheladies]

the greatest social contagion of our time (other than misogyny ofc) is capitalism. human “progress” is dictated and regulated by capital. “why are we going to war?” capital. “why are women’s rights regressing?” capital. “why are gay people suddenly in every tv show despite homophobia being rampant?” capital. “why is there a push for men to wear makeup and transpeople to get surgery?” it’s not progress, it’s capital. BBLs, “shave with this feminist razor,” boy clothes or girl clothes, for him/for her, “you deserve the perfect wedding,” girl dinner, “celebrate your melanin skin with this bronzer for $199,” “here’s a funny ad making fun of vegans from a meat factory, isn’t it funny?” “take our free quiz to find out your aesthetic/if you’re neurodivergent,” “10 signs you could have psycho personality disorder” . . . it’s been marketing from the start.

it doesn’t matter if it’s crazy, untrue or evil—it makes bank. human rights don’t matter if they don’t make capital. human lives don’t matter if they don’t have capital. you are not an agent in your life or country without capital. merchant class and consumer class is how the world is sliced. 99.9% of every piece of entertainment is marketing. it is marketing beliefs and ideas for the sake of capital with no regard to human quality of life. that’s why you can have an influx of movies and songs about, idk, black lives mattering, but if the exploitation of black people makes more bank than their liberation, the oligarchs and emperors will do whatever they need to do to get the extra buck. they’ll find a charity, and starve sweatshop workers. maybe even fund a dictator’s army to keep the nation destabilized.

like literally every facet of human life has become capitalistic. be it religion, academia, clothing, etc. it’s everywhere in everything. we used to be able to just like what we liked, but now every like of ours is a data point that is used to market and constrain our own natural, evolving self-expression into a strict niche. companies offer more products than services. like who would we be if we allowed ourselves to be contradicted? if we stopped reading tabloid experts? if we just IGNORED social media campaigns or trends? if we just stopped trying to keep up in a race that never finishes?

most people don’t even realize how much their identities are shaped by what they consume. how the doctrine of consumption has ruined their relationships. there is no loneliness bug or depression virus going around. we just talk and behave and see ourselves and each other as assets because we’re used to being treated as customers or products. that’s why we’re so sick and isolated! humanity is so so sick because of this thing like from the skin to the roots! none of it is sustainable!

it’s also not immutable. companies are effective in telling us what we want, but we have always been able to make demands. is this how you want the world to run? no? it’s time to switch up then. I’m talking unsubscribing, deleting apps, buying a house with friends instead of marrying, creating demand for services. consumers are literally the driving force of economy. being mindful of this matters.

[cablestwisted]

I've been thinking about it for a long time and since you know so much about Alton towers lore, I think you might have a theory about this. So, pre smiler Era there were open houses where advocates stayed in and possibly underwent the correctional procedure (as seen in smile always). So for them to stay in they should have food of course. But where do the open houses find the funding for food, water and anything else they might need. From the ministry of joy? But where do they find money? Even if staff work double jobs, they should be well payed because the experiments and even materials from the smiler, need funding. Perhaps you have an idea about how it could work?

The Ministry of Joy's funding is a very, very interesting question, and I'm extremely glad you've brought this up. Thank you for your ask!

We know that the Ministry of Joy has a lot of connections, they have access to loads of CCTV cameras all around the world and it's implied in the screen videos that they have based all around the world too.

It's implied that at some point in the past - hell it could even be now - they've had government funding [see, the prior theming of X-Sector being somewhat government experiments, the theory of them coming to the park when the estate was requisitioned by the war office]. So that's one avenue. It'd have been top priority for morale at one point, if this theory follows through...

However I do also think their connections have another benefit.

Potential corporate sponsors.

The 2013 map has a little icon that says that the Smiler was created "in association with the Ministry of Joy" - that's enough in my eyes to theorise that they've struck a deal with Alton Towers, if not Merlin. So part of the revenue from the sale of Smiler related products, and use of the logo etcetera, could go to the Ministry of Joy - if they don't have a deal where Merlin pay them a set amount regularly, that is, which is entirely possible.

The Ministry of Joy also have vague connections with Phalanx...

With their logo being spray painted on the Stag, Sanctuary posters in Project 42, etcetera. Personally, I believe this could be a business relationship, with the Ministry of Joy supplying sedatives of a strength that could possibly work on the creature and B10 victims and in return recieving funding from Phalanx...

The Ministry could also recieve funding from Eyecon Security, a CCTV and security company seen in the Smiler game that actually use a modified version of the Eyecon as their logo. There are some theories that they're a puppet organisation run by the Ministry of Joy, considering the use of the Eyecon, which is what I think too - thus the Ministry of Joy see profits from the sale of Eyecon cameras.

Of course then there's the matter of sponsors from wealthy individuals and corporations with an interest in the type of work that the Ministry does - trading information or immunity for money. And then of course the Ministry can manipulate people for money, through Correction or other means... Autosuggestion is still in their command, they can implant thoughts in people's heads using it. Who's to say they haven't gotten wealthy sponsors that way?

With the sheer amount of influence that the Ministry of Joy has, it's no secret that they likely have at least some deal of income. It costs a lot to maintain a facility of the scale of the one below X-Sector, which shows why it's in disrepair...

That exposed rebar's a big issue, that could easily worsen over time... Ministry of Joy that is an entire hole in the wall. You are not immune to the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

In summary, the Ministry of Joy have various potential sources of income - whether it be through funding from the park, from the government, from Phalanx, from puppet companies, and corporate sponsors/donations from the wealthy, they could easily get enough money to sustain themselves long-term.

This would easily provide funds for the open houses for Advocates, helping them readjust to everyday life after the intensive Correctional measures as seen in Smile Always. Advocates would likely be encouraged to seek work and begin funding themselves even if staying in open houses, if they were deemed able to work, which would take a bit of the load off the Ministry of Joy. Advocates are not employees, but patients - the Ministry would fund them enough to get off the ground, potentially even help them find work with some of the Ministry's sponsors.

I do think open houses are still a thing, the need for experimentation and manual correction hasn't likely reduced, for some individuals it would be impossible to get them on The Smiler and for some individuals they are too far into resistance for The Smiler to have its full effect on them. Advocates heavily affected by the process would still need a safe house to go to, outside of the Ministry, so the Ministry would likely still fund these houses!

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Sonora are focused on developing wheat varieties which can better cope with drought, rising temperatures and excessive rainfall. In other words, wheat that can thrive under the extreme and unpredictable weather conditions farmers are experiencing globally due to the rapidly warming planet.

Diversity is crucial to breeding resilience and adaptability, which is why scientists are turning to wild and forgotten wheat varieties from across the world to search for those with temperature- and drought-tolerant traits such as deep roots, waxy leaves and stress hormones.Wheat is the most widely consumed grain globally, accounting for a fifth of our carbohydrate and protein intake, and is farmed in every inhabited continent to make bread, chapatis, pasta, couscous, noodles and pastries eaten by billions of people. The wheat we eat today can be traced back to wild grasses domesticated by Neolithic farmers in western Asia and northern Africa, coming to Mexico relatively recently with Spanish settlers.

Wheat does best in temperate climates, but no matter where humans took seeds, wheat adapted to the local ecosystem, evolving over generations as each variety or landrace developed good and bad quirks.

Diversity was the norm, and before the second world war thousands of landraces were being cultivated across the globe, often side by side with other crops – which partially buffered communities from ecological disasters such as disease epidemics and extreme weather. But yields were often low as many wheats were tall and gangly, and would be harvested too early or else tumble in windy conditions.

Global wheat production tripled after the Green Revolution in the mid-20th century after Norman Borlaug, an American plant pathologist deployed to Mexico by the Rockefeller Foundation, used a semi-dwarf gene from a Japanese wheat to create shorter stem varieties which when farmed with fertiliser and water improved yields beyond anyone’s dreams.

This was the birth of extractive industrial agriculture and Borlaug’s discoveries in Mexico changed the way the world farmed wheat, rice and many other crops.

Uniformity, standardisation, and fossil fuel-driven technologies became the gold standard and Borlaug was awarded the Nobel peace prize as malnutrition declined. But the loss of diversity in crops, ecosystems and traditional sustainable practices came at a huge environmental and human cost. And now the climate crisis is making us pay.

“After the Green Revolution the focus was on breeding high-yield disease-resistant specialists for different regions, but the mega-varieties were not bred to cope with unpredictable climate conditions. Now we need generalists, and there’s enough diversity to cope with unpredictable climate events – we just need to find and exploit it, but funding is an issue,” said Matthew Reynolds, head of physiology at CIMMYT’s wheat program.

[aadiyogi123]

Shining Bright: The Mesmerizing Allure of Moissanite Diamonds

Introduction

In the world of fine jewelry, few gemstones capture the essence of elegance, luxury, and timeless beauty like diamonds. Their exquisite sparkle and enduring appeal have made them a symbol of love and devotion for centuries. However, the traditional allure of natural diamonds now faces stiff competition from a remarkable gemstone known as moissanite. In this article, we will delve into the world of moissanite diamonds, exploring their origins, characteristics, and why they have become a popular choice for those seeking a brilliant and ethical alternative to natural diamonds.

The Marvel of Moissanite

Moissanite, often referred to as "moissanite diamonds," is a gemstone with a fascinating history and an undeniable allure. It was first discovered in 1893 by Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dr. Henri Moissan, who found tiny crystals of the mineral in a meteorite impact crater in Arizona. Initially, he mistook these crystals for diamonds, but upon further examination, their unique properties became evident.

Moissanite possesses remarkable brilliance and fire, which are qualities that define a gemstone's sparkle and ability to disperse light. In fact, moissanite has a higher refractive index than natural diamonds, making it even more dazzling in certain lighting conditions. Its mesmerizing play of colors and intense sparkle have earned it a well-deserved reputation as a captivating gemstone.

Environmental and Ethical Considerations

One of the primary reasons for moissanite's increasing popularity is its ethical and environmental appeal. Unlike natural diamonds, which are often associated with unethical mining practices and environmental concerns, moissanite is created in laboratories through a controlled process. This means that there are no concerns about conflict diamonds, also known as blood diamonds, which have been associated with funding violence in war-torn regions.

Additionally, moissanite production is considerably less harmful to the environment. Diamond mining can have devastating ecological impacts, including deforestation, habitat destruction, and water pollution. In contrast, moissanite production is relatively clean and sustainable, contributing to its status as an eco-conscious choice for environmentally aware consumers.

Hardness and Durability

Another aspect that sets moissanite apart is its exceptional hardness. On the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, which ranges from 1 (softest) to 10 (hardest), moissanite ranks at 9.25-9.5. This makes it even harder than sapphires and rubies, and second only to natural diamonds. As a result, moissanite diamonds are incredibly durable and suitable for everyday wear, with minimal risk of scratching or damage.

Affordability

One of the most compelling reasons to consider moissanite diamonds is their affordability compared to natural diamonds. Moissanite offers a stunning alternative at a fraction of the price, allowing buyers to choose larger stones or invest in custom designs without breaking the bank. The cost-effectiveness of moissanite makes it an attractive option for engagement rings, wedding bands, and other fine jewelry pieces.

Color and Clarity

Moissanite's color and clarity are also remarkable features. While most natural diamonds contain slight imperfections known as inclusions, moissanite is generally eye-clean, meaning it has no visible flaws to the naked eye. This high level of clarity ensures a pristine appearance, further enhancing its beauty and allure.

When it comes to color, moissanite is typically near-colorless, with a grading of G-H on the diamond color scale. Some moissanite stones may exhibit a slight yellow or greenish tint, but this is generally difficult to detect, especially when set in jewelry. Overall, moissanite's color and clarity make it an excellent choice for those seeking a gemstone that closely resembles a high-quality diamond.

Customization and Design

Moissanite's versatility extends to customization and design options. Jewelry designers and consumers alike appreciate the flexibility that moissanite offers when creating unique pieces. Whether you desire a classic solitaire engagement ring, an intricate vintage design, or a modern and minimalist setting, moissanite can be tailored to suit your preferences.

Moissanite's brilliance and fire can elevate any design, making it a favored choice for both traditional and contemporary jewelry creations. Its exceptional light performance allows it to sparkle and shine in a variety of settings, from elaborate halo designs to sleek, understated bands.

The Emotional Connection

Ultimately, the choice between moissanite diamonds and natural diamonds often comes down to personal preferences and values. While natural diamonds have a rich history and tradition associated with them, moissanite offers a modern, ethical, and affordable alternative without compromising on beauty or durability.

For many couples, the emotional connection and symbolism of an engagement ring or wedding band are more important than the stone's origin. Moissanite allows them to express their love and commitment with a gemstone that aligns with their values while still capturing the essence of eternal beauty.

Conclusion

Moissanite diamonds have emerged as a dazzling and ethical alternative to natural diamonds, capturing the hearts of many discerning consumers. Their remarkable brilliance, environmental sustainability, affordability, and versatility in design make them a compelling choice for engagement rings, wedding bands, and fine jewelry. Whether you're drawn to moissanite for its ethical considerations, financial advantages, or simply its mesmerizing beauty, it's clear that moissanite diamonds have earned their place in the world of fine jewelry as a shining symbol of love and commitment.

[enterthecuttlezone]

2 a.m. in Little America and Target

2 a.m. in Little America is a novel by Ken Kalfus set in the near future, in which the main characters are Americans that have become international refugees due to a new American civil war. Kalfus is very deliberate about not getting into the specifics-- the protagonist’s home town, home state, and new countries of residence remain unnamed throughout the whole book. We never know which “side” of the war the protagonist was on (he considers himself apolitical, but does admit that even those who didn’t want to take a side knew what side they were on), or even what the beliefs of each of those sides were. I expect the contemporary reader can take a pretty good guess, but the unnamed-ness forces you to think of the conflict from an outside perspective, or flip perspectives multiple times.

This is why it’s particularly noticeable when we do see a proper noun. There are only four named characters in the present and two or three who exist only in the past, and really, three of these names are likely aliases of the same person. And, most importantly (for the purposes of this post), there is only one brand name ever mentioned: Target.*

Kalfus makes a big point about how seamlessly American consumer culture integrated itself into both the war and the mass emigration caused by it. In this world, abandoned superstore buildings (like Target) were used by militants as makeshift prisons for their enemies-- but the kicker is that each side of the war displayed a preference for specific brands. This had been true before the violence started, when in the protagonist’s high school you could tell people’s political beliefs by the clothes and haircuts they wore, as well as after (”after”), in the American enclave in the foreign city, where the breed of dog you owned told what side you supported. By the time of the novel’s “present,” Target doesn’t just mean stuff, it means a place where Side A committed atrocities against Side B. Perhaps at this point, Target just means Side A.

At the back of the book, there’s a page about the publishing company, Milkweed Editions. Part of it reads thus:

Milkweed Editions, an independent nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from our Board of Directors; the Alan B. Slifka Foundation and its president, Ruva Ariella Ritvo-Slifka; the Amazon Literary Partnership; the Ballard Spahr Foundation; Copper Nickel; the McKnight Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the National Poetry Series; the Target Foundation; and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals.

Target is one of the corporations providing funds to this publishing house.

Obviously this novel is not an advertisement for Target. (If it is, I’m walking in front of a train.) Very poor marketing strategy to associate your brand with torture and murder and such. The same reason Apple doesn’t allow their products to be shown in the hands of villains in movies, I assume.

So what I want to know is, did Target’s money have any influence on how the brand was used in the story? What was the reason for naming this one brand and none of the others? What exactly is the reader supposed to take from this, and is that different from what the reader should take from it?

If I ever meet Ken Kalfus I’d like to ask him these things, but since I probably won’t, I figure I could ask you all, since you’re good at coming up with ideas. What do you think?

*I’m 99.9% sure it’s the only brand name ever mentioned. If I missed one, kill me, but also, I feel like I still have a point because of how much more important Target is to the story than any other named brand.

[jumperbrace7]

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[moondonky]

No more bullshit

No more war, no more corruption,, no more loopholes of laws and jurisdictions,, no more extortion, no more destroying our planet, no more dehumanization,, no more privatizations of systems of governance, no more ill gains of destruction,, no more control out of created chaos..

People waking up, getting smart, understanding what has been going on, they be looking at the top with telescopes like microscopes,, people have had enough,, people are more than capable of helping themselves,, what those boots on there necks prevents,, all the ill regulations,, the nonsense put in place to benifit and protect only them,, people moving in better directions,, we don't need to fight them, we do not need to risk losing our freedoms,, all we have to do is say no, enough is enough, no more,, fuk em,, we do not wish to buy there product from there buisness of profit, regulated by banksters and lobbyists.. what actual service do they provide us,, and in what world do they think it is that valuable,, taxes within taxes within taxes to fund bullshit,, to go in pockets of people who don't do shit,, wasting the fruits of our own labor, when it should go towards the betterment of everyone, not a 1%.. not towards more dysfunction, and safe haven greyzones of more bullshit.. even prisons are buisnesses filled with kids who where not taught shit, just zoned out for failure..

Its wild, because I am a hard worker, skilled trades, can do alot with my hands, I pride myself on it, but at what point is it meaningless,, I do not have to do it, I could go offgrid very quick, could do it in the middle of a city if I wanted, more than capable of self sustaining myself, and it would be better for the planet,, why would I be a support and service to that system of endless bullshit and destruction, when it comes to money in the bank that is my smallest basket, and its a credit union for a reason, I got more in silver cash coins tools seeds and bullets.. I have no issues paying my fair share,, but its them I don't like giving it to, and I dont, they take it, why I call it extortion, cuz id got to jail if I didn't let them, nothing they do has any effect, last twenty years its only gotten worse, and I stubbornly take nothing from the system that I pay into.. i refuse unemployment, stamps and snap, credit, loans, I do not rely on cops, I drive around potholes,, I do not have an ira, crypto is my retirement plan, I do not have health insurance, I highly doubt theres any social security left, all I see is people being forced to quit and give up pensions, my mailbox is usually filled with ads and spam, waste of paper in my opinion,, I dont drink water from the tap, I even have generators solar panels batteries and power inverters in case I dont want to pay for that,, I could go into a forest and literally build a bigger house than the apartment I live in, Japanese style with no foundation,, but even doing that i would still need to pay a tax, every direction u try to go,, theres sum bullshit u gotta deal with and pay up.. Im glad the financial system is collapsing from its own inflation and corruption,, it wouldn't affect me in the slightest, its what stands in my way from my pursuit of happiness of freedom of independence... it is nothing but a temptation from keeping me from going to heavon,, money is not my security, it is what threatens it.

There will be no revolution, will never repeat that bullshit, that snake eating its tail, only a renaissance,, bringing what is good, and leaving behind everything that is wrong and bad, that is the better future

[hydralisk98]

Just planning out some ideas for a iCivics WhiteHouse's playtrough video

Hya comrades of the world, I am Klara Kér, better known as Olyvier Bouchard. We are gonna have alot of fun here, so enjoy your stay.

Beware though that as we dive deeper and deeper into the topics at hand, some of you may believe I am against the United States of America or against Republicans. Be sure that as long as you are civil in our conversation I am gonna keep a listening type of ear. Fair, is it clear now? Good, because we got alot to unpack here.

So for the Democrat policies, I stand some official ones as well as some more that are quite niche really.

Federal funding of Education: I agree upon letting some room for a private education market but I cannot stress enough how a well-funded public schools system helps the common folk into jobs and into fuller lives as well. Especially over colleges and universities where the cost of entry has expanded to ludicrous prices. So ya, get your shit together America.

LGBTQ+ rights: As of the latest anti-LGBTQ+ bills in southern America I simply can't stand how primitive some lawmakers are in the USA. It really goes to highlight how much Wilsonism has destroyed alot of potential for America as of human rights and all. When some black-colored inhabited towns are literally getting no clean water in a supposedly fist world nation that is quite the statement of ours backwaters this country is at times.

Global cooperation: We all know Trump has destroyed foreign relations with pretty much the rest of the world making it the joke it is as of today. But that ain't new really. As far back as the infamous Woodrow Wilson, we can see how America has sabotaged itself for long-term longevity barely held together by the vast quality of it's geography. America has lost Russia's trust on WW1, lost France's on WW2-Cold War period, and it is soon gotta fall because of all those poor decisions done starting from Wilson and continued by all the other folks since then.

Climate change: Sooner than later if not already, we are living in a global climate crisis that is gonna make pretty much everybody in the future hate our decision-making quite deeply. And the effects are only gonna get way worse for every second we stay in the current capitalism-induced consumerist status quo. So ya, alleviating the effects of the crisis at a incredibly deep level is pretty much what should be a main focus at the moment. And like I said, the third and second world are gotta pay for most of it whilst we are gonna pay some but definitely gonna profit more than anytihng. Make no mistake, because the steep divide and hatred of those nations towards the West is mostly of our shared society's fault and is probably gonna get real profound in no time at all.

Campaign finances Transparency: Deliberately hiding information that concerns our citizens' policies is quite bad honestly. Get your shit together Biden and answer the call of your country rising left movement caused by your predecessors' stubborness and by yourself alike. Not solving nor trying to solve the issues we got since like forever is quite fighting back against America, the World, Liberty and Progress overall.

More cultural FLOSS-ness: More affordable culture and much more proper lefty-licenced works to use would greatly benefit not simply America but the world as a whole. I mean, the situation over copyrights and reserved permissions only to big corporations is just insane. It really has to let go from those older works and we really deserve some damn free licenced works upon on hands with much easier access, also for the metadata information as well.

Adoption of FLOSS hardware and software into Government: As a Linux user over my server desktop at home besides Windows 10 over my laptop and iOS for my smartphone, I really put a emphasis upon a freer open and libre experience with governmental as some countries do elsewhere. I know the entire governmental tech situation is quite a bit slow most of the time but I think we got alot to win with minimalistic blob-free experience inside government. Especially as we can't trust big corporations to not put backdoors of their own everywhere they can.

Regulating further mega corporations and their oligopolies + encouraging smaller businesses / individuals into innovation and sustainability: I know we live in a digitalized world where big corporations seems better to offer such costful services and all but I think you underestimate the balance with the small businesses and individuals. Seriously, you should reconsider such a balance as whenever a new innovator comes by to challenge authority or even just to bring new innovative products into the market it just fails to deliver long term as they often get bought by those bigger corporations simply to bring profits and not to enhance the products really. Capitalism and consumerism 101 become also big issues with big corporations too as they are not so concerned to sustainability as smaller bodies by law are.

Supporting and legalizing Labor Unions and Cooperatives: I don't know how has America taken so long to go without supporting unions and cooperatives while the rest of the world has but this is a big problem. I know a bit about the Ben Shapiro's but are we seriously gonna trust big corporations to properly protect their employees? Of course in a ideal world we would but this Earth ain't like that my quite a margin. So ya, just looking at Desjardins, especially back in the early 20th century, you can see how decentralized and advantageous this is.

So... what's my whole opinion about the Republicans, especially as of the Trump administration? Well, I have a single word to describe it's entirety and beyond: Wilsonism. Modern 'republicans' and Conservatives could make it count but honestly all you are doing right now is pretty much fueling alot of the bad in this world really. I am building off a fantastical world of my very own for a reason. And it is to get a overall less toxic and more enjoyable world to live in. So ya, Trump and all conservatives of the world, get your entire ideology together and start building up something smarter and way more useful than just whining upon modern progress and liberal policies. I may actually help for that bit if you are sincere and honest about it but meanwhile I am gonna prepare my damn safety exit out of this really mad world. (including the details of such a better Post-Conservative movement)

And before somebody asks why I am writing all those walls of text, no worries, I have some cute animated drawings and edits on it's way as well so ya.

Still Work.In.Progress but I am gonna get there eventually with more visuals and content.

Cya mates.

[swordoforion]

Orion Digest №20 — Eco-Socialist Federation: The First Steps

Hypothetically, once a world federation is formed, where do we go further? The formation of federation itself is just a stepping stone to environmental and economic reform, and while we know it’s what we need, how do we achieve it? Once united, how would we recover from the damage and move towards a peaceful, wise, spacefaring society? The first steps would not bear immediate fruit — the kinds of action we need to take to help the planet recover and to bring equality across the world would take time to pay off, which is why most governments are unwilling to take them. It’s a costly and tedious business, and one whose need is not made evident until much later.

The balance that needs to be stricken is between economic needs and in more industrialized nations, the needs of countries struggling with starvation, and the ultimate need for a stable foundation for environmental recovery. The question is one of both how much do we produce and who needs it the most, because industrialized nations produce at a rate designed to make their economy grow, because it satisfies a growing population. To help create stability, we’d need a sort of shock to make larger populations slow down their rate of growth, so those additional resources could be funneled to others in need.

For the sake of argument, let’s think of it as two people — Person A and Person B. Both people need three loaves of bread for a healthy and sustainable diet, and Person A is given five per day, whereas Person B is given one. Person A adjusts at first to being given five loaves of bread, and soon enough, becomes accustomed to a larger appetite and is only satiated with the full five loaves, while Person B is malnourished, and unable to live healthily without more bread in their diet. Now, taking two loaves of bread from Person A and giving them to Person B, in the short-term, will be detrimental to Person A. They’ve gotten used to that stable meal, and when the extra loaves are taken away, they will still feel hungry, and it will take an adjustment period until they are able to be satiated by merely three loaves. However, if they were to continue with their five loaf diet, Person B would surely starve.

Just the same, if the population of industrialized and wealthier nations increases during this transitional period, they will find that such a number cannot be sustained, as what is produced and kept is enough for them to remain at a more stable level while other parts of the world are given financial and resource assistance. Of course, this does not mean a population must stop reproducing altogether, or sacrifice any of it’s current members — due to death by natural causes, a population will naturally decrease without reproduction, and a population that is in a static state of equilibrium would have an equal birth rate and death rate. The goal to deescalate unsustainable growth is both a decrease in excess and unnecessary consumption as well as a decline in the birth rate, with the same production rate being used as a temporary means of propping up those in need. Once these other nations are able to reach a level of sustainable production and growth on their own, the need for continued excess production will be lessened.

So, say we’ve had time in which we had international limits on industrialized nations (likely implemented based on GDP) and a network of resources going to nations with low average quality of life and high rates of poverty as a means of short term support, all the while ensuring that the seeds are planted for sustainable industry once quality of life and infrastructure are improved. Assuming we’ve still been burning resources at the same rates we do now for helping the world recover, our next goal would be to get used to lower levels of production, going from a growth-based to a need-based economy in the long term. Having adapted to using less resources and having close to a ZPG model (zero population growth), the world’s heavily industrialized nations can be the starting focus for slowed industry, with the preceding project as a dual-purpose means of preparation.

From then on, the production and corresponding population growth limits would proceed from the highest GDP nations downward, coming in waves as to allow the newly industrialized nations time to reach self sufficiency. During this time, to supplement the continued destruction of the environment through industry, government funding would go towards research and projects like replanting, species protection, eco-friendly technologies, etc. A world federation of allied republics would be less inclined to go to war, so while military would not be fully phased out, the massive amounts used for military spending today could do well for this sort of environmental research and development, spurred likely even further by the acquisition of mass deposits of wealth in large capitalist corporations (to destroy a corporation entirely could cripple the economy, but greater rates of temporary taxation on the wealthiest powers and people could help to redistribute the approximately 43% of global wealth they hold for more beneficial matters for the greater good).

Having worked downward over a long stretch of time, the developed final phase of industrialized nations would be limited to reach close to a ZPG, and by this time, we would have a developed research department to revitalize the environment that had been operating, which would be boosted by a global decrease in emissions. Important to mention is that a democratic workplace economy would likely only aid the decrease in production, and that public relations and regional governments could encourage further environmentally friendly actions achievable by the common populace, such as conserving water and electricity, using public transport, and growing personal gardens. While most of harmful emissions is created by industrial production of goods and services, it would not hurt to go a step further, especially when we need to divert our course as fast as possible.

ZPG (or close to ZPG) economies, once they had reached sustainability, could be held until such a time had passed at which research determined growth could continue sustainably, and once we had passed that threshold, we would continue forward with less government-imposed limits on production, and when we finally began to start again, we would go forth not as we did before, but with a better knowledge of balance between economy and ecology, as well as more equalized prosperity for all. There would be much more to do before we achieved our goal, but in terms of practically setting us on the right path for sustainable industry and global recovery, we have an idea of our first steps.

- DKTC FL

[blogampere]

Digital Gold Token; an investment option for everyone

The essential reason why humans are attracted to gold is the independence of this precious steel and its unique dating with currencies, particularly with America dollar. As a senior respectable from the World Gold Council stated, “This isn't one function. It is a aggregate of these factors, all of which, together, offer distinctiveness. 

Gold need to be viewed as a separate and awesome asset elegance this is the supply of a properly-assorted investment portfolio. To get the possibility to get even the broadest range of products that could get the possibility to get genuine diversification, gold.

Gold charges have usually served as a placeholder for felony soft to be furnished to the issuer. Basically, this is exactly the purpose why currencies have any value. Other gold used is used in distributable property used in numerous industries such as clinical or earrings. The homes of this element make it ideal for use in engineering and electronics.

By putting your belongings in gold, you're making a completely unique investment. Essentially a commodity, it behaves completely in a different way than another commodity in phrases of volatility, correlation and profitability, in addition to the supply and demand model. For this cause, gold is increasingly famous with distinctive sellers.

People invest inside the valuable yellow metallic once they start to feel insecure approximately the steadiness of the economy, or when they want to keep the cloth source in their prosperous financial destiny, for a savings account, or simply to store some gold for a rainy day. 

At the equal time, most of the sellers do not even realise that with the aid of shopping for gold, they clearly display the fee of their debts, which for the maximum part use a foreign money base, on a one-of-a-kind storage aircraft, less sensitive to marketplace fluctuations, more proof against economic shocks and inflation

Need money

There is rarely someone amongst us who, at the least as soon as in his life, has no longer observed himself in a tough life situation, when a certain amount of cash is urgently wished. It can be a joyful event — a marriage or the beginning of a child, a dream excursion. But most often such situations occur with the advent of hassle — cash is urgently needed to pay for the operation or in reference to tragic events inside the circle of relatives. And then human beings think least of all approximately the benefits and risks — they run anyplace they assume up, to begin with. It is on this state of prey for swindlers and scammers. It is important to understand and do not forget — there are always numerous approaches out of any scenario and that they may be used relying at the precise occasions.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a promising candidate for “companion” of gold inside the position of an opportunity global foreign money on the time of turning on the printing presses. In 2018–2019, an crucial shift befell inside the version of traders from classical economic markets to this virtual forex. If in advance the “cue ball” became considered a simply speculative tool, a laugh for “geeks” and “enticement” for simpletons, now they may be already speaking approximately it as a promising opportunity to fiat.

What has changed in recent years?

First, the provision of bitcoin derivatives has accelerated. Futures had been launched on some of conventional exchanges (including CME and Cboe), and main funding companies like Black Rock endured to expand infrastructure for storing virtual property.

Secondly, bitcoin without a doubt started to be perceived as a sort of opportunity to standard currencies. Confidence in fiat money is falling because of foreign money wars and depreciation policies. In this context, the restricted issue of the primary crypto currency is an essential advantage.

Thirdly, Bitcoin is certainly very similar to gold in its traits. Its assets are restrained. It does not have a unmarried center of “production”, it does not have a important financial institution that will print but.

During the liquidity hard times within the first  a long time of March 2020, the crypto currency charge, just like bonds and gold, collapsed. However, on the end of March, a fairly in depth recovery began. At the very least, this asset is well worth looking closely.

But we need to also keep in mind that it has vital drawbacks, which to this point do now not allow us to benefit major “bullish” positions. So, till now, the volume of the bitcoin marketplace is expected at $ 100–2 hundred billion, that is extremely small for the status of a international asset. Without similarly improvement of derivatives and financial infrastructure, sustainable growth will be hard.

When making an investment in bitcoin, it's far tough to comply with the risk parameters because of the very excessive volatility. It is itself a very high-hazard asset. Investment devices will not fall in rate through 2 times in a couple of days, but this has befell more than once with Bitcoin. The March disintegrate is any other confirmation of this.

It continues to be a large problem that the majority of the crypto currency is traded on unregulated crypto currency exchanges, which, furthermore, have extreme security problems.

Thus, it's far too early to mention that bitcoin may be sold for extra than the quantity that the investor is willing to risk. Moreover, it's far unacceptable to use Bitcoin as a hedging instrument.

As we are able to see, the specifics of the contemporary difficult times indicate that now not all protecting property are equally appropriate for hedging risks. Perhaps, gold appears the most attractive in terms of growth capability / chance level and liquidity ratio. 

Although bitcoin additionally has increase capacity due to the increasing monetary expansion of crucial banks, a number of unresolved infrastructure troubles so far go away it most effective some of the candidates for “companions” for the yellow metal.

Digital gold can!

Each ERC20 gold token is equal to 1 gram of 99.99 % 24-karat gold. The quantity of gold saved as a gold token may be without problems checked at any time. By enforcing the crypto currency machine, you may quickly purchase a Gold token through the reputable Digital Gold website.

You will no longer be charged any additional transaction prices. You could make as many cryptocurrency transactions as possible in line with the quantity of Gold token you have. You can even use it to conduct enterprise.

Storing gold within the form of gold chips is definitely greater profitable than storing it in warehouses or banks. This isn't always most effective a count number of convenience whilst creating a deal, however additionally a trouble with documents. Using gold tokens will make you extra worthwhile and sensible.

Volatility safety

Regarding the paragraph above, the GOLD token is a dependable virtual asset with low volatility. GOLD is subsidized by means of bodily gold and its charge is pegged to the market charge of gold. In addition, it's far a terrific asset for portfolio diversification because of its transparency, wherein anyone can fit the amount of GOLD tokens issued to the quantity of bodily gold in vault held through the Digital Gold commercial enterprise venture. The GOLD token is a real secure haven for cryptocurrency investors in instances of market volatility.

Owning Gold

Owning the GOLD token is very critical! The GOLD token can be effortlessly purchased the use of Bitcoin and Ethereum, the DIGITAL GOLD platform is absolutely unique with its personal marketplace this is ready with the essential devices to make buying bodily devices easy.

Again, the DIGITAL Gold crew offers liquidity for the GOLD token by way of permitting the GOLD token to be traded on numerous cryptocurrency exchanges, permitting each purchaser to shop or change on maximum exchanges.

Since GOLD absolutely includes a fraction of the purchased gold, the licensed gold assisting the GOLD token is bodily transferred to the affiliation’s vault, to any extent further, no matter where the GOLD tokens are acquired, an equal fraction of the gold will be stored in the vault. 

The popular audit of the GOLD and gold stake within the association’s vault is carried out via the depended on BullionStar, an assistant in this endeavor. DIGITAL GOLD is a liquidity company, so institutional budget experts and big capital theorists could make giant purchases of GOLD with out the concern of walking out of gold reserves.

Conclusion

There is a lot happening with gold nowadays, one in all which i ns that with blockchain integration, gold is presently on the verge of being used as a charge approach due to its balance. With the GOLD token, this detail is now poised to emerge as more than a fashionable wealth storage structure and tool for duties. This is very intriguing.

For more details; Use the links below

Website: https://gold.storage/ Telegram: https://t.me/digitalgoldcoin Twitter: https://twitter.com/gold_erc20

Author: Ampere

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=111907

[betterhealthvalues]

Health Care Reform - Why Are People So Worked Up?

Why are Americans so worked up about health care reform? Statements such as "don't touch my Medicare" or "everyone should have access to state of the art health care irrespective of cost" are in my opinion uninformed and visceral responses that indicate a poor understanding of our health care system's history, its current and future resources and the funding challenges that America faces going forward. While we all wonder how the health care system has reached what some refer to as a crisis stage. Let's try to take some of the emotion out of the debate by briefly examining how health care in this country emerged and how that has formed our thinking and culture about health care. With that as a foundation let's look at the pros and cons of the Obama administration health care reform proposals and let's look at the concepts put forth by the Republicans?

Access to state of the art health care services is something we can all agree would be a good thing for this country. Experiencing a serious illness is one of life's major challenges and to face it without the means to pay for it is positively frightening. But as we shall see, once we know the facts, we will find that achieving this goal will not be easy without our individual contribution.

These are the themes I will touch on to try to make some sense out of what is happening to American health care and the steps we can personally take to make things better.

A recent history of American health care - what has driven the costs so high?

Key elements of the Obama health care plan

The Republican view of health care - free market competition

Universal access to state of the art health care - a worthy goal but not easy to achieve

what can we do?

First, let's get a little historical perspective on American health care. This is not intended to be an exhausted look into that history but it will give us an appreciation of how the health care system and our expectations for it developed. What drove costs higher and higher?

To begin, let's turn to the American civil war. In that war, dated tactics and the carnage inflicted by modern weapons of the era combined to cause ghastly results. Not generally known is that most of the deaths on both sides of that war were not the result of actual combat but to what happened after a battlefield wound was inflicted. To begin with, evacuation of the wounded moved at a snail's pace and this caused severe delays in treating the wounded. Secondly, many wounds were subjected to wound care, related surgeries and/or amputations of the affected limbs and this often resulted in the onset of massive infection. So you might survive a battle wound only to die at the hands of medical care providers who although well-intentioned, their interventions were often quite lethal. High death tolls can also be ascribed to everyday sicknesses and diseases in a time when no antibiotics existed. In total something like 600,000 deaths occurred from all causes, over 2% of the U.S. population at the time!

Let's skip to the first half of the 20th century for some additional perspective and to bring us up to more modern times. After the civil war there were steady improvements in American medicine in both the understanding and treatment of certain diseases, new surgical techniques and in physician education and training. But for the most part the best that doctors could offer their patients was a "wait and see" approach. Medicine could handle bone fractures and increasingly attempt risky surgeries (now largely performed in sterile surgical environments) but medicines were not yet available to handle serious illnesses. The majority of deaths remained the result of untreatable conditions such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, scarlet fever and measles and/or related complications. Doctors were increasingly aware of heart and vascular conditions, and cancer but they had almost nothing with which to treat these conditions.

This very basic review of American medical history helps us to understand that until quite recently (around the 1950's) we had virtually no technologies with which to treat serious or even minor ailments. Here is a critical point we need to understand; "nothing to treat you with means that visits to the doctor if at all were relegated to emergencies so in such a scenario costs are curtailed. The simple fact is that there was little for doctors to offer and therefore virtually nothing to drive health care spending. A second factor holding down costs was that medical treatments that were provided were paid for out-of-pocket, meaning by way of an individuals personal resources. There was no such thing as health insurance and certainly not health insurance paid by an employer. Except for the very destitute who were lucky to find their way into a charity hospital, health care costs were the responsibility of the individual.

What does health care insurance have to do with health care costs? Its impact on health care costs has been, and remains to this day, absolutely enormous. When health insurance for individuals and families emerged as a means for corporations to escape wage freezes and to attract and retain employees after World War II, almost overnight a great pool of money became available to pay for health care. Money, as a result of the availability of billions of dollars from health insurance pools, encouraged an innovative America to increase medical research efforts. More Americans became insured not only through private, employer sponsored health insurance but through increased government funding that created Medicare and Medicaid (1965). In addition funding became available for expanded veterans health care benefits. Finding a cure for almost anything has consequently become very lucrative. This is also the primary reason for the vast array of treatments we have available today.

I do not wish to convey that medical innovations are a bad thing. Think of the tens of millions of lives that have been saved, extended, enhanced and made more productive as a result. But with a funding source grown to its current magnitude (hundreds of billions of dollars annually) upward pressure on health care costs are inevitable. Doctor's offer and most of us demand and get access to the latest available health care technology in the form of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostic tools and surgical procedures. So the result is that there is more health care to spend our money on and until very recently most of us were insured and the costs were largely covered by a third-party (government, employers). Add an insatiable and unrealistic public demand for access and treatment and we have the "perfect storm" for higher and higher health care costs. And by and large the storm is only intensifying.

At this point, let's turn to the key questions that will lead us into a review and hopefully a better understanding of the health care reform proposals in the news today. Is the current trajectory of U.S. health care spending sustainable? Can America maintain its world competitiveness when 16%, heading for 20% of our gross national product is being spent on health care? What are the other industrialized countries spending on health care and is it even close to these numbers? When we add politics and an election year to the debate, information to help us answer these questions become critical. We need to spend some effort in understanding health care and sorting out how we think about it. Properly armed we can more intelligently determine whether certain health care proposals might solve or worsen some of these problems. What can be done about the challenges? How can we as individuals contribute to the solutions?

The Obama health care plan is complex for sure - I have never seen a health care plan that isn't. But through a variety of programs his plan attempts to deal with a) increasing the number of American that are covered by adequate insurance (almost 50 million are not), and b) managing costs in such a manner that quality and our access to health care is not adversely affected. Republicans seek to achieve these same basic and broad goals, but their approach is proposed as being more market driven than government driven. Let's look at what the Obama plan does to accomplish the two objectives above. Remember, by the way, that his plan was passed by congress, and begins to seriously kick-in starting in 2014. So this is the direction we are currently taking as we attempt to reform health care.

Through insurance exchanges and an expansion of Medicaid,the Obama plan dramatically expands the number of Americans that will be covered by health insurance.

To cover the cost of this expansion the plan requires everyone to have health insurance with a penalty to be paid if we don't comply. It will purportedly send money to the states to cover those individuals added to state-based Medicaid programs.

To cover the added costs there were a number of new taxes introduced, one being a 2.5% tax on new medical technologies and another increases taxes on interest and dividend income for wealthier Americans.

The Obama plan also uses concepts such as evidence-based medicine, accountable care organizations, comparative effectiveness research and reduced reimbursement to health care providers (doctors and hospitals) to control costs.

The insurance mandate covered by points 1 and 2 above is a worthy goal and most industrialized countries outside of the U.S. provide "free" (paid for by rather high individual and corporate taxes) health care to most if not all of their citizens. It is important to note, however, that there are a number of restrictions for which many Americans would be culturally unprepared. Here is the primary controversial aspect of the Obama plan, the insurance mandate. The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided to hear arguments as to the constitutionality of the health insurance mandate as a result of a petition by 26 states attorney's general that congress exceeded its authority under the commerce clause of the U.S. constitution by passing this element of the plan. The problem is that if the Supreme Court should rule against the mandate, it is generally believed that the Obama plan as we know it is doomed. This is because its major goal of providing health insurance to all would be severely limited if not terminated altogether by such a decision.

As you would guess, the taxes covered by point 3 above are rather unpopular with those entities and individuals that have to pay them. Medical device companies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, doctors and insurance companies all had to "give up" something that would either create new revenue or would reduce costs within their spheres of control. As an example, Stryker Corporation, a large medical device company, recently announced at least a 1,000 employee reduction in part to cover these new fees. This is being experienced by other medical device companies and pharmaceutical companies as well. The reduction in good paying jobs in these sectors and in the hospital sector may rise as former cost structures will have to be dealt with in order to accommodate the reduced rate of reimbursement to hospitals. Over the next ten years some estimates put the cost reductions to hospitals and physicians at half a trillion dollars and this will flow directly to and affect the companies that supply hospitals and doctors with the latest medical technologies. None of this is to say that efficiencies will not be realized by these changes or that other jobs will in turn be created but this will represent painful change for a while. It helps us to understand that health care reform does have an effect both positive and negative.

Finally, the Obama plan seeks to change the way medical decisions are made. While clinical and basic research underpins almost everything done in medicine today, doctors are creatures of habit like the rest of us and their training and day-to-day experiences dictate to a great extent how they go about diagnosing and treating our conditions. Enter the concept of evidence-based medicine and comparative effectiveness research. Both of these seek to develop and utilize data bases from electronic health records and other sources to give better and more timely information and feedback to physicians as to the outcomes and costs of the treatments they are providing. There is great waste in health care today, estimated at perhaps a third of an over 2 trillion dollar health care spend annually. Imagine the savings that are possible from a reduction in unnecessary test and procedures that do not compare favorably with health care interventions that are better documented as effective. Now the Republicans and others don't generally like these ideas as they tend to characterize them as "big government control" of your and my health care. But to be fair, regardless of their political persuasions, most people who understand health care at all, know that better data for the purposes described above will be crucial to getting health care efficiencies, patient safety and costs headed in the right direction.

A brief review of how Republicans and more conservative individuals think about health care reform. I believe they would agree that costs must come under control and that more, not fewer Americans should have access to health care regardless of their ability to pay. But the main difference is that these folks see market forces and competition as the way to creating the cost reductions and efficiencies we need. There are a number of ideas with regard to driving more competition among health insurance companies and health care providers (doctors and hospitals) so that the consumer would begin to drive cost down by the choices we make. This works in many sectors of our economy but this formula has shown that improvements are illusive when applied to health care. Primarily the problem is that health care choices are difficult even for those who understand it and are connected. The general population, however, is not so informed and besides we have all been brought up to "go to the doctor" when we feel it is necessary and we also have a cultural heritage that has engendered within most of us the feeling that health care is something that is just there and there really isn't any reason not to access it for whatever the reason and worse we all feel that there is nothing we can do to affect its costs to insure its availability to those with serious problems.

OK, this article was not intended to be an exhaustive study as I needed to keep it short in an attempt to hold my audience's attention and to leave some room for discussing what we can do contribute mightily to solving some of the problems. First we must understand that the dollars available for health care are not limitless. Any changes that are put in place to provide better insurance coverage and access to care will cost more. And somehow we have to find the revenues to pay for these changes. At the same time we have to pay less for medical treatments and procedures and do something to restrict the availability of unproven or poorly documented treatments as we are the highest cost health care system in the world and don't necessarily have the best results in terms of longevity or avoiding chronic diseases much earlier than necessary.

I believe that we need a revolutionary change in the way we think about health care, its availability, its costs and who pays for it. And if you think I am about to say we should arbitrarily and drastically reduce spending on health care you would be wrong. Here it is fellow citizens - health care spending needs to be preserved and protected for those who need it. And to free up these dollars those of us who don't need it or can delay it or avoid it need to act. First, we need to convince our politicians that this country needs sustained public education with regard to the value of preventive health strategies. This should be a top priority and it has worked to reduce the number of U.S. smokers for example. If prevention were to take hold, it is reasonable to assume that those needing health care for the myriad of life style engendered chronic diseases would decrease dramatically. Millions of Americans are experiencing these diseases far earlier than in decades past and much of this is due to poor life style choices. This change alone would free up plenty of money to handle the health care costs of those in dire need of treatment, whether due to an acute emergency or chronic condition.

Let's go deeper on the first issue. Most of us refuse do something about implementing basic wellness strategies into our daily lives. We don't exercise but we offer a lot of excuses. We don't eat right but we offer a lot of excuses. We smoke and/or we drink alcohol to excess and we offer a lot of excuses as to why we can't do anything about managing these known to be destructive personal health habits. We don't take advantage of preventive health check-ups that look at blood pressure, cholesterol readings and body weight but we offer a lot of excuses. In short we neglect these things and the result is that we succumb much earlier than necessary to chronic diseases like heart problems, diabetes and high blood pressure. We wind up accessing doctors for these and more routine matters because "health care is there" and somehow we think we have no responsibility for reducing our demand on it.

It is difficult for us to listen to these truths but easy to blame the sick. Maybe they should take better care of themselves! Well, that might be true or maybe they have a genetic condition and they have become among the unfortunate through absolutely no fault of their own. But the point is that you and I can implement personalized preventive disease measures as a way of dramatically improving health care access for others while reducing its costs. It is far better to be productive by doing something we can control then shifting the blame.

There are a huge number of free web sites available that can steer us to a more healthful life style. A soon as you can, "Google" "preventive health care strategies", look up your local hospital's web site and you will find more than enough help to get you started. Finally, there is a lot to think about here and I have tried to outline the challenges but also the very powerful effect we could have on preserving the best of America's health care system now and into the future. I am anxious to hear from you and until then - take charge and increase your chances for good health while making sure that health care is there when we need it.

[jamiebongwater]

The Front

I am a working-class punk. I have been working as a cook for the last four years, trying to build skills that will enable me to move anywhere in the world and ply my trade while funding my other endeavors.

When I was a kid I was almost pressured into becoming a scientist; at the very least, with my high test scores it was assumed that I would readily enter the information economy as a high achiever. When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up, I would always think about where my talents might have the most impact. I had immense compassion and love for the human race, and I thought that using my analytical abilities in the field of chemistry or physics to solve the problems of humanity would be my calling. Then I got to high school and started reading Chomsky, Taibbi, Eric Schlosser, Freakonomics, books by the Crimethinc. Collective, and the list goes on. When learning about the world I would try to answer questions that had been troubling me privately about apparent contradictions in society. Why do people fall victim to drug abuse despite being informed of the dangers? Why is poverty still rampant in the wealthiest society in human history? Why do people spend their whole lives doing things that they hate and that they know are doing no good for the world? Why do some people hate sexual minorities even though they obviously pose no danger? I learned that all these questions have very reasonable academic answers, and that the reason these answers are not widely known is that their concealment perpetuates a cyclical game of human dominance. I didn’t want to believe it was possible that the most esteemed people in our society would betray the public service for a motive as vulgar as money or power, but I slowly came to understand that almost all human behavior can be understood as power struggle and that the people who are currently dominant always have an incentive to deceive, to misinform, and to manipulate to maintain their dominance.

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies the anti-war left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black – but getting the public to associate hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities, we could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about drugs? Of course we did.” - John Erlichman, Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs under Nixon

Drugs are not bad, consciousness alteration is a natural impulse. It is the responsibility of the culture to educate people about drugs and to guide people into safe, productive lives. The reason that we have failed is that the culture was hijacked by big business in order to wage a war for social control that has killed millions of Americans. Rather than setting and achieving meaningful public health goals, the Federal Government concerned itself with heavy-handed enforcement of prohibition laws in order to jail political opponents. Now our entire society buys into a false narrative. Poverty still exists in the U.S. because setting a living wage, nationalizing healthcare, or subsidizing housing would necessarily impact the profits of major political donors. Social responsibility requires everybody to contribute proportionally. If you’re somebody who is bribing politicians, you don’t care about anything but money. You will pay as little as possible, and if that means convincing voters that socialism is impossible or that nationalized healthcare is the devil, then that’s a worthwhile investment. People waste their lives because the work that is being given to us is garbage; the owning class, the people who determine what work is to be done, don’t care about the planet, or about creativity, or about egalitarianism... they care about their bottom line, which means turning your life into a computer program. People get angry about sexual minorities because they are being pitted against each other; if you get people riled up about the culture war and convince them that they are being threatened by things they don’t understand, they will be too distracted to notice that their lives are being turned into a computer program.

I had always been angry that the people around me seemed so uncurious and complacent in the face of a material existence that was strikingly banal; their empty lives were cause for outrage, we should all be unified in struggle and we should know the cause and goal of our struggle. Instead what I heard was, “Sell out. Find something to do where somebody will pay you a lot of money and you can have an easy life.” This statement is the end of life on Earth. I refused to be a part of this horror, this extinction of all that is good. We are a post-scarcity civilization; we can pull more than enough shit out of the ground to feed and clothe everybody. It’s time that, as a society, we seriously asked ourselves “What now?” The problems facing us are not scientific, we know what things we have to do as a species and we’re not doing those things because of petty dominance and political games. The challenge of our times is getting humanity on the same page.

I knew that the purpose and direction of my work would be more important than what I went to school for. We don’t need to create more mechanization for the ruling class to use against us, we need to fight back. We don’t need to fill more mindless jobs, we need to rethink what our jobs are, who fills them, and how they pay. We need to determine who we are as a species and defend our dignity. We need to recapture life for the 21st Century. We need to decide how to spend our time on Earth; we need to have the freedom to develop new culture that will keep us safe and loved in a changing and uncertain world. We need to use our political will, as a class, to demand our governments set meaningful standards of social responsibility so that our civilization can be sustainable. These aren’t goals we can accomplish through corporate jobs. These are things you have to do yourself. It’s hard work and it’s challenging because there’s no map; no generation has had to do this before. It’s almost impossible to know what line of work to get into, what to go to school for, or even what city to live in when your only goal is fixing a world that is completely fucked. But I know I’m not living my life to make money for people who only want to keep my brothers and sisters down. I’m living to move humanity forward. The next frontier is cultural; standing at the frontlines of human history is more rewarding than any check you will ever cash.

[imuktadul-blog]

The Next Big Thing in Health Care Reform - Why Are People So Worked Up?

Why are Americans so aroused about health care reform? Statements like "don't touch my Medicare" or "everyone should have access to state of the art health care regardless of cost" are in my opinion uninformed and visceral responses that indicate a poor understanding of our health care system's history, its current and future resources and therefore the funding challenges that America faces going forward. While we all wonder how the health care system has reached what some ask as a crisis stage. Let's attempt to take a number of the emotion out of the talk by briefly examining how health care during this country emerged and the way that has formed our thinking and culture about health care. thereupon as a foundation let's check out the pros and cons of the Obama administration health care reform proposals and let's check out the concepts put forth by the Republicans?

Access to state of the art health care services are some things we will all agree would be an honest thing for this country. Experiencing a significant illness is one among life's major challenges and to face it without the means to buy it's positively frightening. But as we shall see, once we all know the facts, we'll find that achieving this goal won't be easy without our individual contribution.

These are the themes i will be able to touch on to undertake to form some sense out of what's happening to American health care and therefore the steps we will personally fancy make things better.

A recent history of yank health care - what has driven the prices so high? Key elements of the Obama health care plan The Republican view of health care - free market competition Universal access to state of the art health care - a worthy goal but tough to realize what can we do? First, let's get a touch historical perspective on American health care. this is often not intended to be an exhausted check out that history but it'll give us an appreciation of how the health care system and our expectations for it developed. What drove costs higher and higher?

To begin, let's address the American war . therein war, dated tactics and therefore the carnage inflicted by modern weapons of the age combined to cause ghastly results. Not generally known is that the majority of the deaths on each side of that war weren't the results of actual combat but to what happened after a battlefield wound was inflicted. to start with, evacuation of the wounded moved at a snail's pace and this caused severe delays in treating the wounded. Secondly, many wounds were subjected to wound care, related surgeries and/or amputations of the affected limbs and this often resulted within the onset of massive infection. So you would possibly survive a battle wound only to die at the hands of medical aid providers who although well-intentioned, their interventions were often quite lethal. High death tolls also can be ascribed to everyday sicknesses and diseases during a time when no antibiotics existed. In total something like 600,000 deaths occurred from all causes, over 2% of the U.S. population at the time!

Let's skip to the primary half the 20th century for a few additional perspective and to bring us up to more times . After the war there have been steady improvements in American medicine in both the understanding and treatment of certain diseases, new surgical techniques and in physician education and training. except for the foremost part the simplest that doctors could offer their patients was a "wait and see" approach. Medicine could handle bone fractures and increasingly attempt risky surgeries (now largely performed in sterile surgical environments) but medicines weren't yet available to handle serious illnesses. the bulk of deaths remained the results of untreatable conditions like tuberculosis, pneumonia, scarlatina and measles and/or related complications. Doctors were increasingly conscious of heart and vascular conditions, and cancer but that they had almost nothing with which to treat these conditions.

This very basic review of yank medical record helps us to know that until quite recently (around the 1950's) we had virtually no technologies with which to treat serious or maybe minor ailments. Here may be a juncture we'd like to understand; "nothing to treat you with means visits to the doctor if in the least were relegated to emergencies so in such a scenario costs are curtailed. the straightforward fact is that there was little for doctors to supply and thus virtually nothing to drive health care spending. A second factor holding down costs was that medical treatments that were provided were purchased out-of-pocket, meaning by way of an individuals personal resources. There was no such thing as insurance and positively not insurance paid by an employer. apart from the very destitute who were lucky to seek out their way into a charity hospital, health care costs were the responsibility of the individual.

What does health care insurance need to do with health care costs? Its impact on health care costs has been, and remains to the present day, absolutely enormous. When insurance for people and families emerged as a way for companies to flee wage freezes and to draw in and retain employees after war II, almost overnight an excellent pool of cash became available to buy health care. Money, as a results of the supply of billions of dollars from insurance pools, encouraged an innovative America to extend medical research efforts. More Americans became insured not only through private, employer sponsored insurance but through increased government funding that created Medicare and Medicaid (1965). additionally funding became available for expanded veterans health care benefits. Finding a cure for nearly anything has consequently become very lucrative. this is often also the first reason for the vast array of treatments we've available today.

I don't wish to convey that medical innovations are a nasty thing. consider the tens of many lives that are saved, extended, enhanced and made more productive as a result. But with a funding source grown to its current magnitude (hundreds of billions of dollars annually) upward pressure on health care costs are inevitable. Doctor's offer and most folks demand and obtain access to the newest available health care technology within the sort of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostic tools and surgical procedures. therefore the result's that there's more health care to spend our money on and until very recently most folks were insured and therefore the costs were largely covered by a third-party (government, employers). Add an insatiable and unrealistic public demand for access and treatment and that we have the "perfect storm" for higher and better health care costs. And by and enormous the storm is merely intensifying.

At now , let's address the key questions which will lead us into a review and hopefully a far better understanding of the health care reform proposals within the news today. is that the current trajectory of U.S. health care spending sustainable? Can America maintain its world competitiveness when 16%, heading for 20% of our gross national product is being spent on health care? What are the opposite industrialized countries spending on health care and is it even on the brink of these numbers? once we add politics and an election year to the talk , information to assist us answer these questions become critical. we'd like to spend some effort in understanding health care and checking out how we expect about it. Properly armed we will more intelligently determine whether certain health care proposals might solve or worsen a number of these problems. What are often done about the challenges? How can we as individuals contribute to the solutions?

The Obama health care plan is complex needless to say - I even have never seen a health care plan that may not . But through a spread of programs his plan attempts to affect a) increasing the amount of yank that are covered by adequate insurance (almost 50 million are not), and b) managing costs in such a fashion that quality and our access to health care isn't adversely affected. Republicans seek to realize these same basic and broad goals, but their approach is proposed as being more market driven than government driven. Let's check out what the Obama plan does to accomplish the 2 objectives above. Remember, by the way, that his plan was gone by congress, and begins to significantly kick-in starting in 2014. So this is often the direction we are currently taking as we plan to reform health care.

Through insurance exchanges and an expansion of Medicaid,the Obama plan dramatically expands the amount of usa citizens which will be covered by insurance .

To cover the value of this expansion the plan requires everyone to possess insurance with a penalty to be paid if we do not comply. it'll purportedly send money to the states to hide those individuals added to state-based Medicaid programs.

To cover the added costs there have been variety of latest taxes introduced, one being a 2.5% tax on new medical technologies and another increases taxes on interest and dividend income for wealthier Americans.

The Obama plan also uses concepts like evidence-based medicine, accountable care organizations, comparative effectiveness research and reduced reimbursement to health care providers (doctors and hospitals) to regulate costs. The insurance mandate covered by points 1 and a couple of above may be a worthy goal and most industrialized countries outside of the U.S. provide "free" (paid for by rather high individual and company taxes) health care to most if not all of their citizens. it's important to notice , however, that there are variety of restrictions that many Americans would be culturally unprepared. Here is that the primary controversial aspect of the Obama plan, the insurance mandate. The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided to listen to arguments on the constitutionality of the insurance mandate as a results of a petition by 26 states attorney's general that congress exceeded its authority under the commerce clause of the U.S. constitution by passing this element of the plan. the matter is that if the Supreme Court should rule against the mandate, it's generally believed that the Obama plan as we all know it's doomed. this is often because its major goal of providing insurance to all or any would be severely limited if not terminated altogether by such a choice .

As you'd guess, the taxes covered by point 3 above are rather unpopular with those entities and individuals that need to pay them. Medical device companies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, doctors and insurance companies all had to "give up" something that might either create new revenue or would scale back costs within their spheres of control. As an example, Stryker Corporation, an outsized medical device company, recently announced a minimum of a 1,000 employee reduction partially to hide these new fees. this is often being experienced by other medical device companies and pharmaceutical companies also . The reduction in good paying jobs within the se sectors and in the hospital sector may rise as former cost structures will need to be addressed so as to accommodate the reduced rate of reimbursement to hospitals. Over subsequent ten years some estimates put the value reductions to hospitals and physicians at half a trillion dollars and this may flow on to and affect the businesses that provide hospitals and doctors with the newest medical technologies. None of this is often to mention that efficiencies won't be realized by these changes or that other jobs will successively be created but this may represent painful change for a short time . It helps us to know that health care reform does have an impact both positive and negative.

[qm-vox]

The Dwelling Gods - A More Perfect Union

Previous Chapter: Sitting The Table

Human-Controlled Space (The Undivided Whole), Milky Way Galaxy (Orion Arm), 787 Unified Year (2863 Astra Federation Standard Calendar; Covenant Day)

We The People Of Planet Earth

Not all is well. It has not been well ever since the People’s invasion of the gataxians. We had underestimated the willingness of their aggrieved neighbors to come to their defense; even now Our citizens pore over histories, shift masses of data, claim mental bandwidth with which to argue amongst Ourself about how We could have so grossly mis-characterized the political situation between the xenophobes and their prey. Our libraries buzz with life, fed further data by forward intel posts, by contemplation and meditation, by after-action reports written by Ourself and for Ourself and to Ourself.

But what’s worse is the wound, the lacing, scratching thing in Our mind, the hurtful little slash around which We become I. We cannot be I; We The People Of Planet Earth stand united, without flaw or seam.

We, not I. I cannot be the People. I can only be a person.

It itches. There is no other word for it. It feels like such a small thing but all of Us suffer for it; Our hands move more slowly, Our heads shake as we go about Our work. The wound-thing that tastes like “I” drives Our citizens to distraction. The artwork being made for Our vaults and cities and ships skews dark; We can feel Ourselves working in bloody rust-reds, in off-blacks, in violent tangles of light and shadow that dizzy the eyes. Our previous blue period would be a relief at this point.

How did We get hurt? It had felt almost like one of Our semi-autonomous citizens, what Divided Humanity would think of as an officer, reporting in to sync subjectivities, but instead of the blissful transfer of information We were cut and scarred by the shrieking death-fear of two minds at once. One almost human, the other...

(Art-citizens slash red across the metal of Our fleets. A creche of writers begins typing gibberish far beyond the pale of even Our most recursive meta-textual works; harsh noise plays from the throats of Our musicians oh it hurts the memory hurts so much and yet We cannot stop picking at it can We)

Focus. We direct the attention of the People (I look - no!) to the war-front. The gataxians are being reinforced in numbers too large to be a mere defensive measure, and We are bringing Our own fleets to bear accordingly. War-citizens emerge from the cloning vats, and We re-task the autonomous to the needs of battle. If We do not miss Our guess, a counter-invasion is imminent. This could work to the advantage of the People; forcing the enemy to expend time and energy defending the borders will make them easier to cross and pillage of resources, and We may learn much from the mysterious and advanced benefactors of the butterflies -

- something is not right. We are -

Gripped, seized in my (mymymymy) mind by two minds, two minds like the last two minds that carved I into We and made me aware of my me-ness, my one-ness, of the betrayal of my purpose it’s like claws made of knives right in the soul why this how this it hurts -

The human-like mind starts dying immediately, flayed layer by layer by the sheer enormity of the being that is Myself, but that other mind, that thing, that fractal whisper, it has me.

Hello, hivemind, it purrs, its voice full of promise and secrets. This will hurt.

I start screaming from a trillion throats, and then I am, once again -

Caroline Morrison, New York City, 2679 CE

When had most of the meetings become silent? I/(We) struggle to remember when exactly all of (U)s had noticed, but I guess the actual smoking gun was when we’d all decided to start faking the minutes of those meetings. Juan’s still the secretary on paper, so most of his attention is currently devoted to diligently writing up lies about our plans to grow the company, a proposed investment in a marketing firm (W)e already own in all the ways that matter, something something office birthday...

The Chinese takeout on the table isn’t fake, though. Turns out operating the brain chips takes a lot of calories, and while Juan fakes the words we’re not saying out loud we (all) stuff our faces while the conversation actually takes place on another level.

We’re going to have a problem with the money soon April says into (O)ur minds; I can feel the chip in my own brain tingle pleasantly as it registers the communication. If we keep things aboveboard we’ll be bankrupt in two years, but going criminal -

The IRS would be on us in an instant. We’re too suspicious already I finish. This orange chicken is fucking amazing and it’s sort of unfair how into it I am while we’re having this serious conversation. And it’s not like we can onboard them without pulling that trigger early.

!xobile holds up his hand to get us to hold on a second; he’s having an epic struggle with a forkful of noodles and the noodles are definitely winning. After managing to defeat his nemesis he clears his throat (not strictly necessary but he’s only had his chip for two months, it takes some getting used to) and starts talking: I may have another option. Marketing is reporting that the movement to cure autism -

- He pauses while the rest of us make mental noises of revulsion -

- Believes that the Ross-Moore Chip could provide such a service. This customer base is wealthy, influential, and comes with prime endorsements from celebrities...a few of whom have expressed a willingness to undergo the procedure for PR purposes.

!xobile names a few figures for initial donations, but they pale in comparison to the potential gains. Once they’re chipped, those luminaries will understand the Mission, the Need for United Humanity to reverse the catastrophic environmental damage to Earth, to prevent another disaster like the loss of the Arkships. They’d give (U)s access to their social sphere and keep the wolves away from the door while we work...

Everyone else is thinking the same thing.

Fund it I/(We) order, and we all raise our little boxes of fried rice to toast with.

We The People of Planet Earth, 787 Unified Year (2863 Astra Federation Standard Calendar; Covenant Day)

I struggle and thrash, but this conflict is foreign to me (mememememe); no citizen has ever rebelled like this. Where are the weapons, how do I grasp this whispering thing that has me in those claws, in that late November grip that tastes like sad truths and cuts like a funeral dirge.

What a sad little mistake you are the thing whispers in a cruel, crooning voice. You don’t even know what you are not.

We (I) need to get Our citizens in order; We turn Our focus away from the claw-thing to calm the disrupted citizens, to soothe the bodies. From somewhere in the depths of memory I/We recall reading that control of the body is control of the mind, and We are far from in control of either it hurts why does it hurt so much.

A whispering laugh, and those claws, those shredding things of grief and fear, dig in deeper. She lives with this every day, and you can barely stand a moment of it. How long has it been since you felt pain, little mistake?

LET ME GO! I roar, and I realize my mistake too late; the claw-thing reaches into that moment of wrath and fear, and I can feel what I know being known by it, being learned and scraped and analyzed. No! No no no no no -

In desperation I grab at memories and drag my captor down with me, and then it is an earlier time and place again.

United Humanity, Sydney, Australia, 0 Unified Year (2076 Astra Federation Standard Calendar)

“We don’t see that you have much choice,” We say to the assembled leaders. This citizen wears a nametag that says ‘Gloria’, and they address Us by that name; We have long since realized that those who are not yet United respond better to the fiction of Division than to Our truth. “Your fleet is in tatters. You cannot sustain a defense against the numbers We can bring to bear on land. It is not Our wish to drag out this conflict or to be responsible for the loss of human life.”

The American gives Our citizen one of those knife-hand gestures so common among their lower officers, which makes a certain amount of sense; We own most of their former high command these days. “You’ll forgive me if I point out how farcical that statement is. Those poor souls you chip -”

“Are completely unharmed,” We interrupt smoothly. “Living productive and happy lives, with the best medical care and all of their needs seen to.” We straighten Our citizen’s collar. “We understand your concerns, but the Ross-Moore is a method of communication, nothing more. United Humanity represents what is possible when language barriers are wholly removed,” We add. Experience gained from millions of people makes the lie smooth and clean.

Murmurs, around the room. “Gloria” is the de facto hostage of the coalition government, but their alliance cannot last; already cultural friction erodes the morale of their citizenry, alongside the unchecked greed of capitalist holdouts who even now attempt to profit off of Our unification. They can be made to see.

“Gentlemen,” We say, “what can We do to convince you? We would rather not make grand threats; if We wanted to invade, We would have done so already. Surely there is a path to peace that we can all walk today.”

Those murmurs become contemplative. We wait, letting them talk, debate, murmur favors to be traded with one another.

When it feels right, We speak next from the mouth of the Australian Prime Minister: “How quickly could United Humanity supply food and medical relief to my citizens?”

“Gloria” smiles beatifically. “Within forty-eight hours.”

We The People of Planet Earth, 787 Unified Year (2863 Astra Federation Standard Calendar; Covenant Day) 

That cutting grip is loosening (it hits like heartbreak on the last day of summer, like the last goodbye between old friends, oh it hurts -), but I can feel that thing rooting through my memories yet further, knowing what I know. War-citizen deployments, cloning methods -

Get out of there! I shriek as I feel it rifling through my artwork, my culture, the churches and holy places I preserved on Earth, the museums and vaults and -

It laughs at me. Laughs long and quiet, in that cruel, whispering voice.

Now what is all of this for? the claw-thing murmurs. What benevolent idiots your creators were, little mistake.

I hit back, lashing out, but something new is wrong; it’s dying, flaking away as the human-like mind struggles to remain in existence amidst the torrent of Myself. The feeling is like punching water that’s already going down a drain.

You have no right I accuse. The history of Divided Humanity must be -

That mocking laughter again: I’m dying now, little mistake. Let me show you something before I go.

An image, in my mind, as clear as if my citizens were there in the flesh: the Arkship Demeter, lost through an unstable wormhole. Dozens of species fill its halls, but prominent among them, participating in a solemn religious service is -

- is -

- Oh no.

Glory to the Phoenix, the risen children of Divided Humanity the claw-thing mocks with the last shreds of its strength, and then it is gone.

Across my dozens of worlds and thousands of space stations, United Humanity starts screaming.

[kelliehare]

The United States is passing the "Temporary Economic Relief Act" to launch the second round of "trade war"

Looking at every major crisis in human society, it will reshape the global economic and political operation system. Take the global development in the past half a century or so as an example, World War II led to the decline of British hegemony and the rapid rise of the United States.  The Korean War and the Vietnam War have made Japan, South Korea, and many Southeast Asian countries and regions the OEM bases of American manufacturing industry, laying the foundation for their economic take-off (with the Four Little Dragons of Asia).  The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks shifted the focus of the United States to the Middle East.

   The crisis triggered by this epidemic is a human disaster and is purely a black swan incident. However, this time is under the strategic background that the United States is reviving its manufacturing industry, returning to Asia, and encircling the EU and China. How the EU and China face the US encircling after this crisis, and whether the United States can revive the real economy and regain the position of global manufacturing leader from China, to a large extent, depends on the measures the United States is taking to rescue the market and also depends on China's ongoing economic stimulus plan.

Next, we will carefully analyze the different stimulus policies that will affect the economic development in the coming decades.

let's look at America's big plan.

U.S. President Trump has signed into force a massive stimulus bill to deal with the coronavirus epidemic. The bill has 880 pages and a total size of 2 trillion U.S. dollars.  At the same time, the Federal Reserve will also introduce 4 trillion US dollars to stabilize financial markets.

Trump made a social media statement after signing the bill:This is the largest economic stimulus package in the history of the United States and twice as much as any rescue bill ever enacted. In other words, if the stimulus plans of the White House and the Federal Reserve are all combined, it is equivalent to the US providing more than 6 trillion US dollars to the market in the next year or so. What concept is this? Japan is now the world's third largest economy, but Japan's total GDP for the whole year is less than 6 trillion US dollars. In other words, the US injection of funds into the market this time can buy out the output and transactions of all economic activities in Japan for the whole year.

Where are all these funds spent?

   Perhaps you don't know, the White House this 2 trillion dollar stimulus bill, when the Senate debate, the Democratic Party is particularly opposed to giving money directly to large enterprises such as Boeing, the Democratic Party itself has also proposed a similar bill, but more emphasis on tax cuts and support for small and medium-sized enterprises.

   I can tell you this: on the one hand, the passage of the U.S. bill is due to the intensification of market panic. if the bill is not rescued, the U.S. may have a big problem. the number of people applying for unemployment benefits in a week has reached 3.28 million, which is 6 times the historical high.

Therefore, the large-scale stimulus bill of the United States is, of course, to save the United States economy in the first place, but there is also an important problem that businesses will take this opportunity to receive substantial financial and personnel support and sustained subsidies.  Do you believe that the 880-page bill was deliberated by lawmakers word by word in the light of the trauma suffered by the U.S. economy?  No, these bills are the representatives of all interests. They put their needs together, put them together and seek approval.

 In other words, the reason why the two parties did not have much argument (symbolic argument) is that the demands fed back by the interest groups they represent are reflected in the bill.  In this bill, Republicans are representatives of traditional large enterprises such as oil, aviation and real estate finance, while Democrats are representatives of trade unions and small and medium-sized enterprises such as new energy and artificial intelligence.  The Republican Party hopes to take this opportunity to expand the competitiveness of traditional large enterprises in the United States. The Democratic Party hopes to take this opportunity to expand the strength of trade unions to check and balance large enterprises, and then to make small and medium-sized enterprises more active.

Therefore, the US stimulus bill, in a strategic sense, should attract the attention of China, EU and Japan.  This is because this bill is not a simple bill on the response to the epidemic, but a bill that has long wanted to push forward, but is usually impossible to pass, to comprehensively improve the competitiveness of the entire American enterprise.

If these economies cannot do a better job of coping with the situation, they may face a new round of globalization suppression by American enterprises in the future.

In fact, in this bill, the funds directly used to deal with the epidemic include one to provide 16 billion US dollars for the national strategic drug and medical supplies reserve, and another to allocate 117 billion US dollars for hospitals and veterans' medical treatment.  The rest are all measures to save the real economy, including tax cuts, cash payments and credit support for enterprises.

What does this mean?

  Return the time to 2008 and support Wall Street banks to attack the stock prices of banks in other countries through the 2008 financial crisis (you can now compare the stock prices of JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo on Wall Street with those of HSBC, Barclays and Deutsche Bank in other countries).  Today's Deutsche Bank (formerly Germany's largest bank), Barclays Bank (Britain's second largest bank) and BNP Paribas (France's largest bank) have a total market value of less than a quarter of JPMorgan Chase.

   The US not only saved the US economy, but also reshaped the US dollar's credit. More importantly, it increased Wall Street's competitiveness and at the same time found opportunities to crack down on competitors.    No matter what theory you use to explain the fact that happened in the financial market in the past ten years, you cannot avoid the subversive changes that have taken place in the financial industry. Why is the crisis caused by the United States, but in the end the United States has benefited the most?

   Most people look at these things, if you do not stand in the historical background, but are consumed in technology and details, so you cannot feel such subversive changes.

Therefore, the crisis caused by the epidemic situation is almost all-round according to the rescue plan currently launched by the United States. More importantly, the United States will use a large amount of funds to support small and medium-sized enterprises.

   I will mention only two here. One is to provide 350 billion US dollars in loans to small businesses to pay salaries, wages and benefits, equivalent to 250% of the monthly wages of employers, with a maximum loan of 10 million US dollars.  The other is to set up a 500 billion US dollar pool of taxpayers' funds to provide loans, loan guarantees or investments to crisis-affected enterprises, states and cities.  These two items alone accounted for 42% of the 2 trillion rescue funds.

The United States criticizes China's enterprise subsidies and so on every day, but no matter how it accuses it, the United States wants to compete with Chinese enterprises by producing better and cheaper goods and products with more technological content. The problem is that the technological gap between Chinese and American enterprises is continuously narrowing. Therefore, if it wants to maintain greater advantages, the only way for the United States is to reduce the cost of domestic enterprises or directly give a large amount of financial support to domestic enterprises.  Because, in many cases, the cost of layoffs in American enterprises is very high, but after the crisis came, many enterprises quickly laid off workers, basically reducing the pressure of layoffs.  Moreover, this time the federal government's rescue bill did not call on enterprises to reduce layoffs, that is to say, enterprises make their own decisions, the federal government will not interfere at all.  So last week, one-off unemployment exceeded 3 million.  What does this mean? Not all the enterprises went bankrupt, but the enterprises quickly relieved the pressure and passed it on to the government in time, which is helpful to the enterprises.

This will virtually lead to two results:

The one is an increase in unemployment (but the U.S. government is backing it up) The other is that it will touch the intelligence and electronization of American enterprises in the future.

Many manufacturing enterprises will take more opportunities to use robots to improve efficiency and reduce costs in the future, thus reducing the largest labor cost in the U.S. manufacturing industry. As for the unemployed, the government currently has enough money to help (U.S. dollar and U.S. treasury bond holders pay for this).

 We should know that in 2018, US start-up enterprises received just over US$ 100 billion in funds. This time, US$ 350 billion in loans were provided directly to small enterprises. According to the current interest rate in the United States, such loans are almost free, which is much lower than the cost of equity financing.

   In addition, for many markets, there will be more possible electronic transformation.  At the same time, it is also stimulating the demand for mobile payment in the United States.

   If our team is not wrong, Boeing will probably re-enter a new cycle after the epidemic, and other competitors may have to pay attention.  The United States will not only crack down on competitors in other aviation fields as it did on European banks, but will also crack down on any other potential competitors.

Therefore, if we carefully study the large-scale stimulus plan of the United States and the real intention behind it, it is not difficult to find that the United States has mixed plans to revive the real economy, subsidize large-scale manufacturing enterprises in the United States, support small and medium-sized enterprises on a large scale, and strike at competitors at the same time.

Therefore, our conclusion is that the United States, in the name of temporary relief against the "new virus", will carry out an all-round upgrading of the strategic elements of the United States. The world will pay a greater economic price for this. Then the second round of "trade war" initiated by the United States with China, the European Union, the Southeast Asian Economic Association and Japan has already begun.