QQ : NUMBER THIRTY ONE - MAY 28, 2012

                      Qapek-onomics

A propensity to austerity brings catastrophe.


QQ:1   FUNNY, YOU DON'T LOOK KEYNESIAN

I challenge an economic historian to come up with a single example of a nation that has succeeded in resurrecting a collapsed economy by imposing austerity measures similar to the Merkel-Romney vision of Utopia. 

Here we eviscerate medical care, basic nutrition, emergency shelter, child labor laws and organized labor. Under the Merkel-Romney vision we hand these fundamental necessities of a civilized society over to the church and the plantation owner. Pick a bale of cotton.

Forty percent unemployment is an austerity measure that can only lead in one direction. That direction is the model designed and implemented by our European and Russian friends, the ethnic cleansers of 1933. Let's break a few windows. That will give the unemployed something to do.

QQ:2   EAST GERMANY’S BAILOUT COST TWO TRILLION EURO  

The ultimate irony is that Germany now finds itself in the position of power, just like Dr. Mengele, to give Greece a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Greece has an economy about the size of New York.
It's not that big a deal. Think of it like Europe's Mississippi or Louisiana. We can't all be Massachusetts. Build some roads, fix the plumbing, patch the roof and harvest the olives.

Who is going to have the last laugh when they discover rare earth deposits in the rocks, or shale gas or oil in the Aegean sea.

Isn't it wonderful that other nations can be so 'holier than thou' because they have valuable shit in the ground or black gold in their waters? It makes them the moral, ethical and economic wizards.

Alberta, Canada is like that. It is an entire province with a sneer on its face, epitomized by the dear leader Harper's complete bypass of democratic process. The environment, what environment? We have oil. Fuck the environment.

QQ:3   DEUTSCHLAND UBER ALLES

Can you imagine that Germany's intransigence could once more collapse Europe and possibly the economic structure of the world? Maybe Truman should not have stopped at Hiroshima. And the French are not much better.

QQ;4   A CONTEMPORARY ODYSSEY     

Shovel ready was an unfortunate turn of phrase. But the concept was correct.
How can an economy be turned around. There are no jobs because there is no work to do. The only way to create jobs is to educate, innovate, cultivate, beautify, renovate, germinate and originate.

Who will pay for these idealistic ventures? The state is the only body that can. The investment is far too long for private capital. Education can take 25 years to begin its payback. Private investment may run a school as a business, but they cannot sponsor a nuclear physicist from birth to age 30 when she might begin to be productive.

Who will pay for Greece's yet unborn Einstein? Who will build a desalination plant on a remote island when you could fill a suitcase with a worthless drachma?
But all is not lost. We have Facebook. Greek protestors can tweet and we can watch the entire adventure on YouTube. It's a reality show. In fact, it's a Greek tragedy.

QQ:5   HAM AND EGGS AND BAIN CAPITAL

The PIGS; Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain share a common destiny. If austerity measures continue without any injection of mechanisms that stimulate growth, then we will revisit the 1930s and chaos will reign.

Chaos is expensive. In fact, the organized, planned imposition of chaos in Greece is based on the Merkel-Romney economic theory of austerity. This policy is sheer madness not only in human terms, but more so in financial terms.

The formula is simple:

Austerity = unemployment = social unrest = chaos = PIGS in shit producing a global economic downturn in the trillions of dollars.

On the other hand:

Education = innovation = culture = beauty = growth = employment = prosperity with PIGS in heaven and a global uptick in social and economic equity.

QQ:6   SOCIAL ENGINEERING

And who are the unemployed?
They are black, they are Turkish, they are Arabic and they are Muslim. They are women, they are elderly, they are children and they are infirm. They are uneducated, they are immigrants, they are mentally ill and they are the homeless.

Minimum wage in the USA is $7.25 per hour. In what way should this exchange not be labelled for what it is. It is slavery. Basic nutrition, shelter, health and hygiene expenses, energy costs and transportation to work all for $7.25 per hour? Maybe on another planet.

What we do not acknowledge in this flawed equation is the immense cost to the taxpayer, to civil order, to larger health concerns and to culture.

When we exchange labor for $7.25 per hour, I suggest that the resulting cost to society is at least double that amount in the short term, and through geometric expansion, when families and communities are affected, the cost to society is probably multiple times that amount.

I postulate that the dollar saving to an entire economic system in the long term would be significant if the minimum wage were to truly reflect the reality of a 'living' wage, in which fundamental human needs would actually be addressed. There would be spending on goods and services. There would be a viable economy.

Corporations that profit to the tune of billions of dollars should not be permitted to pay their workers anything but a living wage. To suggest that their shareholders demand profit at any cost does not reflect the reality of the actual, long-term cost to the larger society, the cost of food stamps as socialized nutrition and ultimately to civil order.

How many gated communities can we build?
Can you trust your minimum-wage security guard? Don't wear a hoodie.

QQ: 7   YOUR CALL IS IMPORTANT TO US

When technology does our work for us:
Press one for assisted suicide
Press two for sexual abstinence
Press three for heavenly guidance
Press four for manna from heaven
Press five for the Red Sea to part
Press six for insider information on the Facebook ipo
Press seven for the Ayn Rand, personal debt-consolidation formula
Press eight for the return of the Messiah
Press nine for a private lap-dance from Lady Gaga
Press ten for your soul to be saved by Mitt Romney via Joseph Smith.

QQ: 8   A FINAL SOLUTION 

And if technology does not solve the problem, then what will?

There is a problem. We are revisiting the 1930s and we have not learned from history.

The French hate the Germans; the Croats hate the Serbs; the Protestants hate the Catholics; the Shia hate the Sunni; the Pakistanis hate the Indians and everybody hates the Jews.

I know, let's start with he easiest target. Blame the Jews. Once we get rid of of them, everything will be OK. Oh I forgot. We tried that. It didn't help.

God, please choose someone else next time.

QQ: 9   THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PHIL

History, if we have one, will look back at this last one hundred years in shock and with awe. We had the Stone Age, the Iron Age and the Bronze Age.

This has been the Oil Age.

It is an almost Monty Python-esque 'silly' concept. We crawl around in vehicles powered by technology that is more than one hundred years old. It explodes gasoline in iron cylinders to make wheels turn. That gasoline is something we found in the ground. We did not create it. It was just there. It happened to accumulate in regions of the world that would otherwise be barren and destitute.

The economics that governs what is found in the ground under a controlled territory is perhaps a primitive and flawed concept. This is my land, my territory and I have marked it with my urine. Whatever lies under it is mine, mine, mine. The fact that this resource has value to the larger society is not my problem. Let the market rule.

Based on this concept, I believe that mankind has remained static since ‘Phil’ created our current humanoid. Perhaps the creationists have it right. We are exactly the same as when we were created. There has  been absolutely, no evolution no development and no advancement. We are primitive beings leading primitive existences leading desperate lives of subsistence based on what we find when we dig into the shit in the ground of our marked territory.

My shit is more valuable than your shit.

I win.


QQ : 10   MICHELANGELO, DUDE....PAINT ME A CEILING

Bill Gates - buy a painting.
Zuckerface - sponsor some music.
Buffett - build an art school.
Saudi rich guys - put your money into real innovation. Liberate your women.
Chinese rich guys - cure cancer.

What ever happened to physical education and music in schools?
We lose on every level. Our agenda is economically unsound. The numbers do not add up.

This is the Oil Age.




etched on my stone tablet


editing : Batsheva

QQ : NUMBER THIRTY - MAY 1, 2012

                                                 PRIORITIES, WHAT PRIORITIES?

QQ:  1.  LETTERS FROM THE FRONT

The social media phenom continues to mystify me. Instagram, at a billion dollars, sets a new level of a surrealistic commentary on what is considered to be valuable and important.

Instagram - I can't wait to see that next image of what you had for breakfast. Your cute kitties make me swoon. Your sunset is more sunset than the sun has ever set before, especially at 300 dpi in a one-inch square image on a cracked, faded screen. You have changed my life.

QQ:  2.   STAND YOUR GROUND

One hundred innocent people were shot to death in America today as they are, on the average, every day.

One hundred innocent people were shot to death in Syria today as they have been every day for the past several months.

Neither of these holocausts seem to trouble us all that much. In fact, the American one troubles us not at all. The front page of a recent New York Times carries an image and article about new men's fashions designed for the concealment of carried weapons.

Stand your ground and stand proud. We are Americans. Just don't wear a hoodie.

In Syria, there is no need for concealment nor for a comparable fashion statement.
So far, I'm loving the Arab spring. I'm also looking forward to the frozen, Mitt Romney, American winter. I forecast frogs, boils, locusts, lice and all the rest. The NRA will own the White House. Perhaps it already does. Watch out for your first born sons.

QQ:   3.   SCREEN-WANKING

Continuing my despair and wonder regarding the explosive impact of social media
I find the impact of a wall with my forehead somewhat comforting, especially when it occurs rhythmically with some force.

Facebook now insists on sharing with me the viral videos of fat asses shopping at Wallmart. This continues to be at the top of my news page on a daily basis. Zuck, you are starting to lose me. In fact, it seems that you lost a few billion this quarter. I have a suggestion for you. Perhaps some 'users' (oh how I love that word), simply are not interested in the voyeurism of 'sharing' (there's another of my favorite words) the soft porn images to which my 2000 'friends' have been wanking.

Anthony Wiener was a prophet, a visionary and a seer before his time. Had Instagram been around in his day, he would be a hero.


QQ:   4.   1949 WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR


Something is rotten in the digi-verse.

Lionel Ritchie has the number-one album on the Billboard charts this week. He is sixty- two years old. Bonnie Raitt has the number-six album. She is sixty-two years old. Madonna has a top-twenty album. She is two thousand years old.

The monumental  failure of the recorded music industry to recognize, develop and nurture talent that speaks to the marketplace is a business, cultural and social calamity.

Where are the entrepreneurs who "get it" and can see beyond The Voice and Idol?
But, of course, this decay goes far beyond popular music. We live with the prospect of a cultural winter within the wasteland of a digi-verse Tower of Babel. Monetize that.


QQ:   5.   MISSING A LINK


The widow of a Nigerian diplomat keeps reminding me in her e-mails that she has nowhere to store her five-hundred million dollars. She apparently has  sought me out specifically and individually as the beneficiary of her good will. She does not spell very well and her sentence construction leaves something to be desired. Unfortunately, I find myself pre-occupied with more pressing needs requiring my attention. These needs include my unsuccessful attempts at trying to fathom what the hell LinkedIn is.

I seem to be missing a link despite the fact that I am linked to various and sundry peers and an ever-expanding assembly of complete strangers.

Perhaps they will send me a picture of a sunset or of their new puppy. I hate to be missing out on the Nigerian offer, but that puppy is so cute! LinkedIn apparently is "professional" as opposed to Facebook which is all about how you scrambled your eggs this morning. I have yet to discover the difference between the two. They tell me corporations hire through LinkedIn. I guess there's no soup for me. Just send me an Instagram of your cupcakes and I'll add that to my profile.


QQ:   6.   NOW THAT'S A CUTE FROG


The competition for our time and our attention is a powerful, economic force. The time that we devote to Facebook sunsets and puppies carries astronomic, monetary value. Could it be that our time and attention are misdirected? Could it be that there are more valuable areas upon which to focus our energy? Facebook was all about Zuck's libido. The Twit-verse keeps us up on Beliebers and their world-shattering agendas. The list of interactive sites competing for our trivia is mind-boggling. Vimeo, Deezer, Tumblr, Google plus and so it goes. Where is the redeeming value? It is said that we are connected. To what? A viral image of a seated frog?  Now that's what I call funny.


QQ:   7.   COMPROMISE THIS


Perhaps it is the "middle" that is the most negative and the most insidious. The extremes at least gave us a bar to which we may set our relative perspective. But now that Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman and Dick Santorum have fallen by the wayside, we revert to compromise. There should have been an Eleventh Commandment. Thou shalt not compromise. Perhaps compromise is the greatest evil. Neville Chamberlain's compromise with Hitler was the trigger that set off the Holocaust. Barry Obama's attempts at compromise have been a sad failure. Mitt Romney's compromise with the Tea Party requires him to deny his own beliefs and his own proven and successful policies.

American troops are now based in Australia within the policy a left of center government. There's a compromise for you. China is at once our bank and our nemesis.

In Canada, Albertan Liberals voted for the Conservatives in a recent election. This was a compromise to deny power to a racist, fascistic, far-right challenger. Progressive Liberals sold out.

Perhaps, if a natural cycle had been allowed to manifest itself, the left would be in a better position to react, reform and respond. But now they are a dead issue. The can go home and give up to the winner of their compromise decision. It is Big Oil. Keystone here we come!


QQ:   8.  AUSTERITY MEASURES


When the going gets tough, the tough say "you're fired".
Austerity as social and economic policy is an odd way to deal with the breakdown of an economy. How can it be in the best interest of a society and an economy to allow the poor, the disenfranchised, the unemployed and the hungry to fend for themselves?

History shows time and again that the slaves will ultimately revolt. They always do.

But first, austerity measures will be put in place to trim the herd. That's how we delay the inevitable.

Infrastructure be damned. In fact, if the dams do fail, perhaps the social experiment that was Katrina could be extended. Then the bridges, the highways, the water supply and the environment could be permitted to fail in order extend the 'final solution'.
That's what I call intelligent design. Ayn Rand would be proud.

Is Alan Greenspan not the personification of all that is evil in the universe?


QQ:   9.   BROWN POWER


Historically, enormous swaths of territory, now part of the USA, were originally Mexican territory. That being the case, there are millions of Americans who bear some of the physical characteristics of their Mexican heritage.

It's likely that people with that particular physical profile can now be mandated to present their 'papers' to the police in an interaction as mundane as a traffic violation.

It is, in fact, a Brave New World. The words 'Police State' now has a whole new meaning. I wonder how off-duty police of Mexican heritage in Arizona are going feel when confronted by their uniformed colleagues . They could arrest each other and deport themselves back to Acapulco. It's truly Catch 22 revisited.


QQ:   10.   COME BACK DR. MENGELE


When Adolph Hitler designed his agenda to create the Third Reich, much of his concept was based on social manipulation. The Aryan race was deemed to be superior and then various other strata of society were set up as levels of a caste or altogether undesirable. The 'undesirables' were gathered up and eliminated. The others were put to battle or to work for the greater cause.

In this next election cycle in America in 2012; poor, uneducated, unemployed, uninsured Caucasians will vote for Mitt Romney.

Their lot will most likely improve as the conservative social manipulation experiment develops. More Katrinas, more wars, more prisons and more failures of infrastructure will take care of the undesirables. Power will return to normal, law-abiding, church-going, God-fearing people who have the superior, Aryan, racial profile. They don't need or want entitlements, Social Security, medical insurance or even teeth. Because God and Smith and Wesson are on their side.

From Sea to shining Sea.


Etched on my Stone Tablet

Edit: Batsheva