Friday, January 6, 2012

And thanks for all the fish...

Just to follow up on my last...jumbled...nearly incoherent...but nonetheless valid and bluefin tuna sold in Japan yesterday for $763,000!!!...or, in easier to understand terms...$1241 per pound. Far be it from me to make some specious argument regarding the inequitable distribution of wealth in the world, but in watching a video, I noted several street sweepers in Tokyo sitting down for a 12-pack of the bluefin a mere $24 per piece. This, of course, is the direct result of the scarcity of bluefin tuna in the natural world where they live...SOOOOO...let's take it a step farther...

The bluefin tuna can swim at approximately 943MPH (1508.8kph). This does not make an adult bluefin the easiest thing in the ocean to catch. To further prove my point, a newborn bluefin weighs a measly 3 ounces, and gains, at best, a couple pounds a by my calculations, yesterday's victim eluded capture for approximately 307 years. So, it would stand to logic, that there must be millions of tuna in the sea; we simply are not smart enough to catch them on a regular basis. In essence, we are overvaluing our own failure. If, per chance, the inverse is true, and we are indeed smarter than the bluefin tuna, then we are overvaluing the prescribed and proper supply of all things natural. (Do you think a tiger shark rues the shortage of tuna in the sea? It most certainly does not...and would definitely not pay extra!) (Do not check the math, or the numbers. I made them all up).

While the prior illustration should make it clear to all right thinking humans that no fish is worth all that money, it should also bring to light the dearth of all things intelligent in the Republican party. I know a fair number of republicans, and I would consider most of them fairly intelligent, so I cannot fathom how the current slate of presidential candidates in any way represents the 'best out there'. I challenge any Republican to defend any of the current choices as anything more than talking heads (though that is not entirely their fault, as the national media continues to behave as if they actually utter things of substance). If the Republican party has nothing better to offer, then the smart thing to do would let Obama run unopposed (can you imagine how grand it would be if he lost the election unopposed?) The bottom line is this: I wouldn't leave a child of mine in the same room with any of the Republican candidates, let alone imagine them as president.

But moving on. For the first time in nearly 50 years, homicide has fallen off the list of the top 15 causes of death in the US. This is surely a positive sign that we are evolving as a species. On a similar note, a young Haitian refugee, rescued under the auspices of a US charity after the island's earthquake, killed herself in Boston yesterday. One could argue that bringing an unprepared young woman to the 'safer' environment of the US, where her weekly rent undoubtedly exceeded her yearly income in Haiti, while kind, is also counter-intuitive to reasonable. You can't ask an uneducated victim to find happiness, amidst loneliness, in the dog-eat-dog world of venture capitalism. We care enough to save her, but don't care enough to help with her salvation.

It is high time to evaluate the capitalist model we accept as status quo in the US. As the lone Republican columnist of the Boston Globe pointed out today, the candidates being considered for president from the Republican ranks are not really pro-capitalism, as much as they are pro-business. This contention, at least, makes it understandable why they can condemn Romney for his time at Bain Capital, instead of condemning him for being a two-faced greedy businessman who projects himself as a fictitious do-gooder. Take it from me. He is an asshole.

But more importantly, the article goes on to discuss a major component of the capitalist idea, 'creative destruction'. This is the accepted tenet of our economic religion that states it is good for companies like Staples, or CVS, create new, more efficient outlets, while instituting the genocide of small, local stationary stores and pharmacies. It may be a wonderful life, but Mr. Gower be damned. All in the name of innovation and progress, and fatter wallets for the few.

The robber barons of the late 19th and 20th centuries certainly screwed vast numbers of Americans in pursuit of their own greed, but they also gave back, perhaps not purely altruistically, but certainly beneficially to the greater populace. There wouldn't be many free libraries, or art museums, if they hadn't, as these 'companies' can hardly be deemed profit centers. It is time to re-evaluate the capitalist model we accept blindly.

President Obama proposed combining several government agencies yesterday, in an effort to reduce the size of government. He did, however, stop short of eliminating the government all together, a policy which I have advocated on several occasions; which I guess is ok, since somebody has to keep an eye on us.

It is time for a leap of faith, a paradigm shift, regarding the economic model of this formerly great country. I will offer my ideas in the next sentence or two, but let me begin by saying that no government or corporation will in any way aid in its acceptance.

I actually have no problem with the usual supply-and-demand system per se, but it seems to me that it does not really allow for the satisfaction of those with demand that cannot afford the supply. And I believe the reasons for this are two-fold. The first problem is the general structure we have accepted as the norm; the existence of countries. Humanity initially organized into a system best described as tribal. We have obviously shifted away from this paradigm, primarily due to the specious perception that we need what we make. We have lost sight of what it means to survive comfortably. While we may be electronically entangled in a web of tenuous connection, that web does not really provide us with the connections we need. Instead, we have fallen prey to the advertised beliefs that what is offered is what will connect us all in some sort of communal consumerism. We form no meaningful connection through the iPhone, yet we let ourselves believe we do. This is further illustrated by the size of our homes. While we all need space, it is fundamentally contradictory to human need to have our children live a half mile away in the same house, disconnected by earbuds and distance. We break up the tribe even within the confines of our own homes. The second problem, of course, is our fear that we will not be able to attain something; this might be anything from a plasma TV to good health. This is the flip side of the loss of tribalism. We seek to belong to a tribe which is too large to be manageable. This is exemplified by our almost manic need to wear baseball caps, and anything with the North Face logo on it. Essentially, we have outsized ourselves, and don't know how to fix it. This is further aggravated by a system, in which we are governed by a nanopercentage of the nation's population, who are largely out of touch with reality, unless 'reality' is the further garnering of individual wealth from a privileged position. Government, if it is allowed to exist at all, has to become local, confined to overseeing a 'tribe' whose members share a common interest.

Capitalism can no longer exist as an entirely free market system, because it does not allow for the needs of the many. Given that what we have come to recognize as the primary suppliers of work in our society (read: heavy industry, manufacturing), and given that those workplaces continue to dwindle, we need to understand that there are simply not enough jobs for everyone, unless you live on the Indian subcontinent and know how to answer a phone. It is high time for the institution of benevolent capitalism, where those who can earn give the excess away to those that can't. Sure you say, we do that now, filtering millions of dollars to single mothers who don't work because they're too busy the mistaken belief that a man can fix things. But this is where we fail, because of our almost rabid need to judge these people. Hello, there are people in this world who are too stupid to work, let alone conceive of the notion of garnering wealth. If we could only see our believing that the common good, and the common wealth are indeed the right and kind alternatives, then perhaps we could create a world where kindness wins over conquest, where diplomacy wins over bullets and bombs, where everyone has the basics to survive. If we took the trillion dollars we spend on soldiering everyday, and spread the wealth to those who have naught, then perhaps envy and jealousy would not manifest as theft and murder. Ah, just the musings of a lunatic, I fear.

We insist that we live in the greatest country on earth. Wouldn't it feel better if we were able to say that we live in the greatest world on earth? If we can resolve to commit to the needed paradigm shift, and generously and non-judgmentally share our bounty, then perhaps we could create such a place. Unfortunately, the alternative is the only thing we already have.

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