Society « The Ramblings of An Eternal Student of Life

Thursday, December 9, 2010

◊ Green Acres Is the Place To Be, Once Again?

Economics/Business ... Society ...

The US unemployment rate has gone up to 9.8%, and many economists admit that when you count everyone who needs a full time job but can’t find one, the rate is around 20%. Even worse, the slow rate of growth anticipated over the next few years will not bring this rate down significantly, not any time soon. So, it looks as if the USA is going to have a lot of excess workforce for the foreseeable future.

Perhaps it’s time to think outside of the box as to what to do about all those people. Maybe we need a major shift, an inspiring plan that the government can set into motion but will sustain itself with unleashed private energy and attention. We need something that will give all these idle people a means to make a living and have a decent life, and at the same time help solve some other problems, such as rising oil prices and global warming. We need to look around and ask, what is going unused that could be put to work in a way that can address these problems?

OK, I have a modest suggestion, even though it’s still pretty hazy. How about a government sponsored back-to-the-farm movement? » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 10:40 pm Read Comments (3) / Leave a Comment

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

◊ The Art of Artistic Being?

Society ... Socrates Cafe ...

Last night the local Socrates Cafe group struggled over the nature of art. The specific question was whether “art” is confined to what artists do when practicing what is generally accepted as an “art form” (i.e., music, painting, sculpture, acting, etc.); or whether it is legitimate to say that “art” applies to other human endeavors, such as a doctor who is so good at what he does as to seem artistic.

One guy thought that using “art” to describe what doctors and scientists and even accountants do when they are at their best is a dilution and corruption of what is meant when we speak of an art. He said that true artists seek to play on the human soul in an evocative manner; they seek to convey something of the true essence of living to others, to make others appreciative of their being and the world around them. And accountants just don’t do that in balancing their books.

That all sounds pretty good. But I still disagree with the guy. » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 5:16 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, October 9, 2010

◊ RANDOM OBSERVATIONS

Current Affairs ... History ... Society ...

1.) Was the Vietnam war a mistake? It’s a question that still matters to us aging Baby Boomers. I had a thought on the subject the other day. It seems to me that there are wars that a nation has to fight. Those are the “holy wars”; where the other side is not just trying to plunder your bounty, but is trying to change your way of life. I.e., where the other side is trying to impose some sort of vision, be it religious (e.g. Christian or Islamic theocracy), or philosophic (e.g., Communist or Nazi fascist utopia). Whenever a nation or a tribe convinces itself that it has a plan for the world and that instituting that plan requires the use of firepower, about the only cure is to fight fire with fire. War is hell, but utopian visions that require belligerence are an even worse hell.

The USA fought the Vietnam war because it was trying to stop Soviet Russia from instituting its Marxist-Leninist vision, which indeed had been promulgated through the use of firepower and other belligerence. Was Vietnam really a Marxist holy war? It was being fought by Asian visionaries; but what was their vision? Did Ho Chi Minh want to see collective farming in California? It seems to me that the Viet Cong and the Vietnamese Communists were a bit more pragmatic and nationalistically inspired. From what little I know, the “eastern mind” is quite pragmatic. It doesn’t dwell on grand visions of how humankind should live their lives. This can be seen in the difference between Buddhism and the major western / middle-eastern faiths. (But admittedly, there are forms of dogmatic Buddhism, and Buddhist holy wars have been fought).

It’s too bad that Kennedy and Johnson and MacNamara and Rostow and Kissinger just couldn’t seem to grasp this. » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 9:47 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Sunday, October 3, 2010

◊ Rocky, the Janitor of Social Virtue

Current Affairs ... Personal Reflections ... Society ...

As I get older, I give conservatives (the true conservatives, anyway) credit for putting emphasis on the notion of “values” and “virtues”. They have a point; no matter how good and effective the government is, no matter how extensive its social programs are, no matter how just and effectively enforced the laws are, a nation and the society within it will not hold together unless there are unwritten personal rules which everyone respects and plays by. That’s what values are all about; they are based around certain simple notions, such as the “Golden Rule”, and reflect many hundreds and thousands of years of accumulated wisdom passed on from generation to generation.

The conservatives complain that values aren’t holding up so well in present day America; we are trying to replace value-driven self-regulation with more and more programs and written regulations, and that is causing thing to go to hell. Well, I don’t entirely agree; but it is something to ponder.

In my pondering, I tried to think of some people from my youth (in the early 1960s, when values hadn’t yet declined too much yet according to some conservative thinkers) who truly lived “value-oriented” lives. People who could be called “the salt of the earth”. People who no one much noticed, but quietly did many tiny little things that collectively help keep life civilized. Yes, like the raindrops that collectively assemble themselves into rivers and oceans. I can think of many people from my family who were like that. But my memories of my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and other relatives is probably clouded by sentimentality, given how long they have been gone. So I have picked out a guy who was not a member of my family, but still impressed me and many others that I grew up with as a really good person.

That guy’s name was Rocco Locarro, Rocky as everyone called him (I have discussed him before on this blog). He was the janitor at McKenzie Elementary School » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 4:45 pm Read Comments (2) / Leave a Comment

Sunday, September 26, 2010

◊ Ignore the Poor — Until We Join Them

Economics/Business ... Society ...

I just updated the Poverty 101 page on my site to reflect the recently released 2009 update of the poverty level for the USA. My chart shows compares the poverty rate with real GDP per capita, since 1959. What it shows is this: over the past two years, the poverty level has started to climb again, homing in on the levels reached after the recessions of 1981 and 1991. GDP per capita has also gone down due to the “Great Recession”; the decline has been greater than for any other economic downturn occurring on the chart (i.e., since 1959).

Over the past 30 years, real GDP per person has climbed quite a bit, while the poverty rate has stayed within a fixed range, 12 to 15% (14.3% in 2009). So, economic growth has not been shared with the poorest segment of our society during this time (versus the 1960s and early 70s, when the poverty rate went from 22% to 12%). But since 1980 (when Ronald Reagan was elected, when manufacturing jobs rapidly started going overseas, and when the Baby Boomers came into authority), the poor and near-poor immediately feel the impact whenever there is an economic downturn. It’s basically a “heads I win, tails you lose” proposition for them.

There is an interesting article on the Smart Money web site questioning the relevance of the government’s GDP measure as an appropriate gauge for economic growth. » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 7:03 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

◊ Honesty as Policy

Economics/Business ... Society ... Socrates Cafe ...

At the local Socrates Cafe meeting, the group recently discussed whether honesty is still the best policy. Almost everyone made the point that 100% honesty is not possible. Fine, said the fellow who proposed the topic. But the real question, he said, is whether honesty should be the preferred policy, the general rule to which exceptions will sometimes occur . . .

That idea sounded good to me; if you couldn’t trust anything you heard from anyone, social life would break down; civilized society would eventually collapse. There could be no schools, no economy, no employers, no government, no organizations of any sort (other than bands of thieves who know what to expect of each other).

Someone replied that truth is a luxury of an affluent society; poor people have to lie. What else can you expect? » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 7:33 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Saturday, September 11, 2010

◊ Fashion Week

Photo ... Society ...

I heard on the radio that it’s “Fashion Week” in New York City; which is some kind of publicity event to get people to buy fancy, expensive clothes, the kind they design and make so well in New York. I can’t get too excited about that; I’m just not a fashionable guy (neither can I afford that stuff!).

However, “fashion” is a strong sociological undercurrent, a reality of group-thinking which we are all influenced by. I think fashion is interesting, even if I don’t always agree with the latest fashion trends.

Take eye ware, for example. I’ve worn glasses most of my life (never wanted to fiddle with contact lenses; which themselves are a fashion). Other than allowing me to see things clearly, all I want in a pair of glasses is comfort and durability (and safety; I like the fact that a pair of glasses would come between my cornea and a rock flying thru the air).

But of course, there is a social effect called fashion that determines the shape and characteristics of the glasses that are available for purchase. Back in the 1970s and 80s, the fashion in eyeglasses went towards “aviators”, big lenses with a bar over the nosebridge. Then in the 1990s, it was round glasses; big round glasses. And then in the 2000’s it was small rectangular glasses.

So here’s a shot comparing the glasses I wore back in the 1990s, versus the pair I wear today. (I recently rounded up my old pairs as to donate them to the local Lions group for redistribution to the needy). Now, why do the four pairs of round glasses look so “unfashionable” today, when they were perfectly fine about 15 years ago? Just what re-wired our brains to think that the bottom pair has some quality that makes them superior to the four above it? Personally, I thought that the round glasses provided better vision field and more protection.

But, I don’t want to seem like a geek from the past. Like my dentist. I just visited my dentist for a check-up, and God bless him, he was wearing an old pair of big plastic aviators, like it was still 1987 or something. No Fashion Week for him!

◊ posted by Jim G @ 4:22 pm Read Comments (3) / Leave a Comment

Friday, September 3, 2010

◊ On the Verizon of Enlightenment

Personal Reflections ... Society ...

It’s difficult for me to appreciate just how important the cell phone has become. I must admit that I am often out-of-touch with the cultural mainstream. I have no idea who the young movies stars are these days. I don’t watch reality or talent-search TV shows, and I still remember Jimmy Carter as being a good President. I don’t have an iPad, and even worse, I never even bought an iPod! I got my first cell phone back in June (and I’m still pretty clumsy when using it). And as you might guess, my phone is the most basic model available, way behind all those sophisticated little devices that everyone stares at and and fiddles with during the “in-between moments” of life. I got it to use in case of emergency (and even then, I might not remember who to call or even remember what buttons to push!).

Being a bit more attuned to the ways of modern America, my brother showed me a little phone trick the other day, something I wasn’t aware of. I.e., that you can turn a cell phone off and on by holding down a certain button. I was previously under the impression that it had to be on all the time. Well, perhaps mine did, as the phone did not come back to life after being powered down, despite pushing and pushing the buttons.

So we drove over to a Verizon store » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 9:13 pm Read Comments (2) / Leave a Comment

Sunday, August 29, 2010

◊ On the Hazards of Morality

Current Affairs ... Public Policy ... Society ...

I read an interesting article the other day by Thomas Sowell that got me thinking about moral hazard. “Moral hazard” was once an obscure term used in the insurance industry, but in recent years it has become one of the hip things to say when you are talking about government policy. Since Sowell is a conservative, he uses the phrase to attack liberal government policies, i.e. safety nets against personal economic downfalls. The hazard of such policies, according to the conservative theorists, it that it makes people lazy and wasteful given that they are guaranteed against significant loss; and this laziness causes a lot of negative, unintended consequences.

Sowell cites some of the usual conservative targets, e.g. welfare for low-income parents. According to conservative analysis, the federal and state Aid For Dependent Families program significantly increased the birth rate amidst poor, single women. This led to the cycle of inner city and rural decay that resulted in crime, gangs, children without fathers, and broken schools in our poorest neighborhoods.

Given that the conservatives pretty much took down welfare as we once knew it, Sowell also goes after some new targets, such as unemployment insurance. » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 3:01 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

Sunday, August 22, 2010

◊ Religious Controversy, Contd.

Current Affairs ... Religion ... Society ...

I put my 2 cents in on the Catholic parish ‘revolt’ going on out in St. Louis in my last blog entry. So, for what little it’s worth, I shall now move over to Islam and throw a few coins out about the Park51 / Cordoba House mosque that a Sufi imam wishes to build near the former World Trade Center site, a.k.a. nine-eleven ground zero. I think that we all agree on the outlines of the controversy: here in America, the First Amendment guarantees groups like Imam Feisal’s Cordoba Initiative the right to purchase property and put up a center for religious worship. There is no evidence that Feisal would use this facility to forward the cause of radical Islam or to promote terrorism or even anti-American attitudes. No one has suggested that Feisal and his associates would do anything illegal in their planned new mosque. However, the site involved does have a strong 9-11 connection; a part of the landing gear from the hijacked United Airlines flight 175 Boeing 767 crashed into the Park Place building after the plane decimated WTC tower 2. Despite all the mayhem nearby, no one in the building was hurt (this sort-of brings new meaning to the Foo Fighters’ recent hit song, “When The Wheels Come Down”). Obviously, having a mosque at such a site offends many people who lost family or friends on 9-11, given the radical Islamist inspirations of Al Qadea.

So, the argument is not about whether the law can stop the Imam from building. It is more focused on whether he should build, given American sensibilities. The last poll number I saw said that about 64% of Americans are against it. I guess that the next question is, if the Imam does go ahead and build, are the many Americans who have bad impressions of Islam as a whole justified in their attitudes (and thus, in their “sub-legal” prejudice against Muslims, e.g. social shunning, suspicious stares at anyone with an Arab appearance, etc.). In a January, 2010 poll, Gallup reported that about 43% of Americans feel some prejudice against Muslims, and 55% view Islam negatively. I think it is safe to say that these numbers will increase if the Park51 mosque is built. The next question is, should they?

Some writers have pointed out a bit of western hypocrisy, given how America and Western Europe responded to Islamic outrage when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons critical of Mohammad and Islam in 2005. » continue reading …

◊ posted by Jim G @ 2:11 pm Read Comment (1) / Leave a Comment

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