The Voluminous Illustration
Salutations, fellow gentlebeings...
Thought I'd toss out some pearls of wisdom to annoy the worldwide Circle of Evil today, and several ideas came up. People often say to look at the Larger View, the Big Picture, or whatever...
...
My Enourmous Pictoral Rendering idea is this: you all know my apocalyptic rantings about socioeconomic collapse; I was thinking this morning (yes, it happens) and it occured to me that many of today's problems are the result of us relying on intrusive, overlarge government. During the course of the 20th century, the focus shifted from people being more or less responsible for themselves in the first half or so to people expecting the givernment to handle virtually all of their problems, and as I may have mentioned before, most governments could not organize thier way out of a wet paper bag with a cutting torch (They'd spend a lot of time running studies to see if wet paper will burn at 5000 degrees).
...
Gargantuan Sketch Part A:
Power. I have mentioned before that the governments of Canada (or anywhere in North America, for that matter) can't keep up with our increasing energy usage. It's only a matter of common sense that with our ever-increasing assortment of 'must-have' gadgets, from cellphones to air conditioning our energy needs will increase, but the weirdos in charge don't seem to build much in the way of power plants any more. They attempt to from time to time and spend hundreds of millions and decades in the process, but we don't actually get any more power. Imagine how bad the problem will be in 20 years if we continue the way we have... or when gas reaches $2 a litre... or $3. I think we can all agree that the one thing the Oil Cartels and the environmental lobby can agree on is pricier gas, with no upper limit, not to mention the complications caused by a culture of people living 40 km away from their jobs and commuting to work every day. Everyone is spending thousands a year on energy costs, and the costs are all going straight up.
...
Expansive Photograph Part B:
The Service Industry: This is being impacted by two issues: first, the rising minimum wage (which of course is well-deserved, don't get me wrong) and second the increase of automation. Those little tags you see in books or DVD cases which trigger the anti-theft devices in stores are being improved and made cheaper every day. They are radio transmitters powered by electromagnetic induction, and once they can hold as little information as a bar code (not far away) for a few cents per unit, there will be no need for cashiers to scan your items. A similar device on your debit or credit card will allow the anti-theft systems in the store to automatically deduct the money from your account, and if you don't have it, notify the police of your identity and what you got away with. With rising minimum wage costs, employers are more motivated to look for alternatives, and it a few short years the entire industry could be almost employee- free. Maybe a security and maintenance staff- say, two or three people for a grocery or retail store, or maybe 20 or so for a mall that today employs several hundred. How many people do you know with jobs in the service industry? or that handle cash? or some sort of spinoff job?
...
Bloated Tapestry Part C:
Health Care: Canada is the proud beneficiary of universal health care. Our system has many flaws, but works more or less for the vast majority of cases. However, a problem is arising in that the goverment funds the doctor & hospital aspects but not neccessarily the pharmaceutical aspects. For example, if you have HIV, the government will not buy your drugs for you, whether they cost $50,000 per year or not. So the doctor issue is pretty much a useless issue if you can be told what the cure is but can't afford it. Despite this issue, the government will fund sex-change operations or limitless abortions and emergency rooms are clogged with people with common colds- and the government is fear-mongering the cold sufferers in with scares of SARS and the ineffective Telehealth phone lines (which pretty much are a costly, time consuming way to tell you to go to emergency regardless of your problem). Technology, while it is great in terms of the improvements in health it can give us, also comes with a price tag, which is larger every year- not only because of inflation, but also from new procedures which are developed. Sooner or later, the price tag to keep us alive will be more than we can afford. And of course, there's always a doctor and nurse shortage which is getting worse each year, whatever McGuinty has to say (there's occasionally more doctors temporarily because a great many baby boomer doctors are practising into their 60s and 70s- but they won't live forever). In addition to that, the doctors are now being almost entirely educated by funding from the pharmaceutical companies, who of course will recommend the cures which include the most expensive products that they can (see the drug funding problem, above). Which brings me to:
...
Elephantine Depiction Part D:
Education: The education system in Canada (and in other countries, my details on this are less comprehensive) is becoming increasingly controlled by political and corporate interests. Black students were forced to segregated schools in the name of hate and fear only a few generations ago, and now they're building a black segregated school in the name of tolerance and inclusiveness. Of course, our politicians have MUCH better reasons than they did 50 years ago. Teachers are expected to nearly raise our kids for us, and yet they are more restricted each year with arcane rules and regulations about how to discipline, how to talk to our kids, and which horridly outdated sciences they must teach. Meanwhile, of course, there are stories in the news every year about teachers which abuse their students and yet are quietly moved to another school or region... I personally would prefer a teacher that spanks a kid who brings a machine gun or cocaine to school to a teacher that rapes little girls. But hey, I guess that's just me. As a result of these issues, kids are becoming contributing members of society later and later- living as teenagers used to until their mid-thirties or even forties until life finally teaches them what the teachers weren't allowed to.
...
To sum up:
The government has screwed up virtually everything they lay their hands to and is completely unaccountable for it. Any of the above problems were initiated by people making $100,000 a year plus. They cannot solve our problems. The government should focus on areas which only a government can handle- military, police, trade, and so forth and get out of the social engineering business. Wherever possible, we as a people should take care of ourselves. We need self-sufficiency- learn to generate some of your own power (solar panels are pretty cheap- look in Canadian Tire), learn a few of your grandmother's home remedies to take pressure off of the emergency room, employ yourself instead of working for a big, faceless corporation, and teach your kids as much as you can while they are still young (anybody remember apprenticeship? It's still a good idea). Don't commute, telecommute. And as I may have mentioned before, move out of town, thicken up your walls with reinforced concrete, and stock up on the canned food and shotgun shells. When the gas-price riots and great homeless migrations begin, you'll be nice, cozy, and more likely to be radiation-free.
...
Until next time,
Keep one both eyes over your shoulder-
they never come at you straight on.
Ciao,
The Laodicean Lexiphage.
Thought I'd toss out some pearls of wisdom to annoy the worldwide Circle of Evil today, and several ideas came up. People often say to look at the Larger View, the Big Picture, or whatever...
...
My Enourmous Pictoral Rendering idea is this: you all know my apocalyptic rantings about socioeconomic collapse; I was thinking this morning (yes, it happens) and it occured to me that many of today's problems are the result of us relying on intrusive, overlarge government. During the course of the 20th century, the focus shifted from people being more or less responsible for themselves in the first half or so to people expecting the givernment to handle virtually all of their problems, and as I may have mentioned before, most governments could not organize thier way out of a wet paper bag with a cutting torch (They'd spend a lot of time running studies to see if wet paper will burn at 5000 degrees).
...
Gargantuan Sketch Part A:
Power. I have mentioned before that the governments of Canada (or anywhere in North America, for that matter) can't keep up with our increasing energy usage. It's only a matter of common sense that with our ever-increasing assortment of 'must-have' gadgets, from cellphones to air conditioning our energy needs will increase, but the weirdos in charge don't seem to build much in the way of power plants any more. They attempt to from time to time and spend hundreds of millions and decades in the process, but we don't actually get any more power. Imagine how bad the problem will be in 20 years if we continue the way we have... or when gas reaches $2 a litre... or $3. I think we can all agree that the one thing the Oil Cartels and the environmental lobby can agree on is pricier gas, with no upper limit, not to mention the complications caused by a culture of people living 40 km away from their jobs and commuting to work every day. Everyone is spending thousands a year on energy costs, and the costs are all going straight up.
...
Expansive Photograph Part B:
The Service Industry: This is being impacted by two issues: first, the rising minimum wage (which of course is well-deserved, don't get me wrong) and second the increase of automation. Those little tags you see in books or DVD cases which trigger the anti-theft devices in stores are being improved and made cheaper every day. They are radio transmitters powered by electromagnetic induction, and once they can hold as little information as a bar code (not far away) for a few cents per unit, there will be no need for cashiers to scan your items. A similar device on your debit or credit card will allow the anti-theft systems in the store to automatically deduct the money from your account, and if you don't have it, notify the police of your identity and what you got away with. With rising minimum wage costs, employers are more motivated to look for alternatives, and it a few short years the entire industry could be almost employee- free. Maybe a security and maintenance staff- say, two or three people for a grocery or retail store, or maybe 20 or so for a mall that today employs several hundred. How many people do you know with jobs in the service industry? or that handle cash? or some sort of spinoff job?
...
Bloated Tapestry Part C:
Health Care: Canada is the proud beneficiary of universal health care. Our system has many flaws, but works more or less for the vast majority of cases. However, a problem is arising in that the goverment funds the doctor & hospital aspects but not neccessarily the pharmaceutical aspects. For example, if you have HIV, the government will not buy your drugs for you, whether they cost $50,000 per year or not. So the doctor issue is pretty much a useless issue if you can be told what the cure is but can't afford it. Despite this issue, the government will fund sex-change operations or limitless abortions and emergency rooms are clogged with people with common colds- and the government is fear-mongering the cold sufferers in with scares of SARS and the ineffective Telehealth phone lines (which pretty much are a costly, time consuming way to tell you to go to emergency regardless of your problem). Technology, while it is great in terms of the improvements in health it can give us, also comes with a price tag, which is larger every year- not only because of inflation, but also from new procedures which are developed. Sooner or later, the price tag to keep us alive will be more than we can afford. And of course, there's always a doctor and nurse shortage which is getting worse each year, whatever McGuinty has to say (there's occasionally more doctors temporarily because a great many baby boomer doctors are practising into their 60s and 70s- but they won't live forever). In addition to that, the doctors are now being almost entirely educated by funding from the pharmaceutical companies, who of course will recommend the cures which include the most expensive products that they can (see the drug funding problem, above). Which brings me to:
...
Elephantine Depiction Part D:
Education: The education system in Canada (and in other countries, my details on this are less comprehensive) is becoming increasingly controlled by political and corporate interests. Black students were forced to segregated schools in the name of hate and fear only a few generations ago, and now they're building a black segregated school in the name of tolerance and inclusiveness. Of course, our politicians have MUCH better reasons than they did 50 years ago. Teachers are expected to nearly raise our kids for us, and yet they are more restricted each year with arcane rules and regulations about how to discipline, how to talk to our kids, and which horridly outdated sciences they must teach. Meanwhile, of course, there are stories in the news every year about teachers which abuse their students and yet are quietly moved to another school or region... I personally would prefer a teacher that spanks a kid who brings a machine gun or cocaine to school to a teacher that rapes little girls. But hey, I guess that's just me. As a result of these issues, kids are becoming contributing members of society later and later- living as teenagers used to until their mid-thirties or even forties until life finally teaches them what the teachers weren't allowed to.
...
To sum up:
The government has screwed up virtually everything they lay their hands to and is completely unaccountable for it. Any of the above problems were initiated by people making $100,000 a year plus. They cannot solve our problems. The government should focus on areas which only a government can handle- military, police, trade, and so forth and get out of the social engineering business. Wherever possible, we as a people should take care of ourselves. We need self-sufficiency- learn to generate some of your own power (solar panels are pretty cheap- look in Canadian Tire), learn a few of your grandmother's home remedies to take pressure off of the emergency room, employ yourself instead of working for a big, faceless corporation, and teach your kids as much as you can while they are still young (anybody remember apprenticeship? It's still a good idea). Don't commute, telecommute. And as I may have mentioned before, move out of town, thicken up your walls with reinforced concrete, and stock up on the canned food and shotgun shells. When the gas-price riots and great homeless migrations begin, you'll be nice, cozy, and more likely to be radiation-free.
...
Until next time,
Keep one both eyes over your shoulder-
they never come at you straight on.
Ciao,
The Laodicean Lexiphage.
Labels: futurism, politics, technology
posted by The Lexiphage at 10:07 a.m.
6 Comments:
Well ... now I'm depressed ... the future of my four, poor grandchildren looks pretty sorry.
I've heard it said that "The system may not be perfect, but it's the best in the world." :-)
More and cheaper solar panels would be a real plus. It's amazing when you have to generate your own electricity how much more aware you are of all your usage.
BTW, one thing to consider with solar panels is the batteries that are a necessary part of the system. Batteries aren't exactly nice to the environment.
One hope for the future in terms of the batteries are kinetic batteries; currently the main reason we do not already have them are copyright infringement with the owning U.S. Military, who has cancelled projects involving them on several occasions and seems to want to prevent their production.
As to depression over the future, this is not neccessary. Just because we have to rely on ourselves instead of some magic government genie to solve all our problems does not mean we cannot have a bright future. Even in the Great Depression, those that saw it coming were capable of being prepared.
Hey Lexiphage,
Have you ever looked into libertarianism, as their core principle is that the government never does anything right. They believe that people do well when left alone, and that the cost of government fixing things is always higher than letting free people fix them on their own. Next time you're at the library, you'll want to look up the writings of Ludwig von Mises. Remember, the libraries were started by private donations. They are not fundamentally a government program, though the government might have you think otherwise. Andrew Carnegie plowed his profits into libraries. Interesting destination for corporate profits. Warren Buffett is giving all his money away too, so it seems capitalists are better than governments. Just something to think about (I know there are many bad capitalists also, but if you look, these are mostly the capitalists that are being rescued by the governments day in and day out......
All i can say is wow that was deep
They always are PC ... when Lex posts on his blog, my reading comprehension skills are stretched to their limits. I'm not nearly as intellectual, as is evident from my blog.
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