Thursday, September 1, 2011

Reality, why does it keep getting in the way?

My apology in advance if the repeating of certain statements annoys you.  Actually I don't apologize but it sounds nice.   The repeating is a method to reinforce the concept of the 85 percent rule;   85 percent of all people  are dumber than a box of rocks with 5 percent dumber than that.
            And I would dare to say many people disagree with those statements, however, human nature just continues to prove me right.   Remember   dumb is you deliberately ignore facts or truth.  Ignorant  means you have not learned something,  and lord knows we all have experienced that condition.  Often the information is not available to individuals.  You can not or should not blame a person who has not the opportunity to become aware of  facts.
             But we humans , have a tendency  to stick with the dumb because its easy!!!.   Its nice not to accept responsibility for our own actions, or to some extent the action of others  who are supposed to be taking direction from us.  Its easy to be dumb...because everyone else is doing that, why shouldn't I ?    Being dumb  because we listened to ..so and so  he/she is an expert and they said  X.    There are so many dumb things going on,  but we have to do this one blog at a time.
          Every ones  favorite the lie of  omission, or " facts, we dun ned no stinken facts !!" 
         Government regulation is stopping our economy from growing and is the cause of  high unemployment !!!   ( Everybody knows that !)
          As with so much this is not completely wrong, but the blanket statement without further exploration is what makes it so dumb.   Here  if the politician really believes this, they are in the 5 percent dumber than the 85 percent.  They are supposed to know better.  If as I suspect they don't believe that but are saying it because it  plays to the 85 percenters  than basically they are lying to  you and counting on you being so stupid as not to know any better.
         I have to repeat another very important concept and toss it into this mix.  Everything is tied together,  all events are circular that is,  that one event  impacts other things even if you don't realize it immediately.  This is important and a problem because  we are typically given information in a  singular format, myopic, blinder, how to you want to say, we are only fed pieces of the information.   " Corn is good"  " Poor people are stupid"
           The root to the approach is the belief that we....you and I  are not capable or deep thought on most any subject.   The  15 minute attention span.   the use of sound bites because we don't stay focused.
           As with so much, this is sometimes true, but because it works to the advantage of those in power, they are trying  to make it  fact  for everything, especially what they say to us!!!  When was the last time you heard an in dept news report unless you watch a hour or more long news show ( a specialty show not the normal news broadcast ) .  How often have you heard and interview cut off on important items because the time was up or it was time for a commercial.   Have you ever heard a reporter ask " Where did you get those facts or that information?"
         There is a belief,   rather a hope, that if you say something often enough  it becomes true.  Even if its a complete lie....the hope is that repeating it often, will convince a large majority of the population that something is true.  If you format your media presentation to the short sound bite, you are training the general population to accept ( as normal ) sound bites as fact.   And you better believe the politicians  know this and use this. And if you  or I believe this, buy into it as truth, than we have slipped into the dumber than 85 percent, because we know this attention span issue is not science fact.  It applies to humans  dependant on the subject matter;  period!    I sure if important issues are reported in depth with facts in that report, than people even the majority will listen to that information.
          But this statement  ( government regulation is the problem with the economy ) which is becoming an election talking point  either as used to redirect the voting public from real issues, and or to deflect real issues from discussion    I use this statement as an example of political speak that is damaging and counter productive. 
           The  problem with government regulations is two fold. the redundancy of some regulation, and the none enforcement of those regulation.   Government regulation on different aspects of our economy go through cycles.  From the point of the regulations  that do damage and industry to the point of regulations  are a joke having no impact or use.   We need to have a happy medium to were regulations  protect the public and the employees, while not  having a major impact on the cost of operation of that  industry.  Enforcement of regulations, remove redundent ones, make it clear how to follow them, (clean them up) And remove those regulations and rules that no longer apply or do more damage than good to the general population.   
         Remember the "everything is circular concept "  If humans  were not so stupid, we wouldn't need so many regulations.  If the 85 percent rule wasn't true, owners and operators would realize that safe operation of your  business was good for everyone including the owner.   But that's is not the case and some people are stupid.  Governments, because they are also stupid, create regulations  with a shot gun  or  turn around and say because some people don't care about safety or honest operations  everyone will operate this way.
        Than some government people realize that regulations are a nice way to get money, so rather than call it a tax they  put on another regulation that you end up paying for.
              The other side of the discussion, is the government regulations  are telling industry, "no you can not dump the completely toxic chemicals your plant produce  on the vacant land next to the housing complex"
Those company leaders know full well the materials do not stay put and travel, but its cheaper and easier to dump it, so because some of the companies do not care, the government says  all of you prove to me that you are safely disposing of your waste."
           The rules and regulations  in the financial markets, were put in place because humans are stupid, greed is stupidity.  The reason could be a volume  of  costly books but Greed is stupid.  And the people running the financial markets might well know math and numbers  but they are no smarter than you or I and in some cases the greed makes them dumber.  Directing  how and when money and how much can be moved where and when are done because the government knows  all that money makes humans do stupid things.   The problem is the lack of regulation enforcement.  The rules set up, and not enforced.   This depression  ( I refuse to call it a recession when it impacts the world ).... as you learn about it, was not unforeseen.  In many many cases the people who are supposed to warn the companies of the bad loans , etc.   Many many did the job of trying to warn the people they worked for and were ignored, because for a time money was being made.  ( People are stupid )
           Just a  very general  look at the mortgages in the United States   does not add up to the money lost.
Simple quick example  if  100 people  borrow 100 dollars  that is 10,000 loaned out, at ten percent interest
that  is 11,000 dollars owed to the bank   So if ever one of those 100 people do not pay there loan the lost money is 11000.  and actually the 1000 dollars is the expected profit not the lost money.  But what happened is the reported amount came back at  lets say   25,000 dollars.   Where did that come from.  Well the first back KNEW that a certain number of  those loans should NEVER Have been made they were bad loans to people who 99 percent likely could never pay them back....but the first loaner  sold the loan to some one else who paid the first bank there  10 percent...The second bank now tacked on  12 percent interest ... and so on selling to a third bank  and a fourth... the game of super dumb hot potato... who is the last person holding the  bad loans.   The money all the companies  claim to have lost is far exceeding what could possible have been borrowed.  There were not that many people borrowing money and not that many people not paying back the money... but selling the loans to other stupid people the dollar amount on those loans went up.   Finally some one asked for there money,  blink.... depression oops sorry economic down turn.
              Well guess what, had the regulations been enforced this would not have happened.    If regulations said you can only provide loans on   2 percent of know  bad risk this could not have happened.
           Had the government regulation been enforced that when a company down sizes and goes over seas for TAX BREAKS  it retrains the work force it  FIRED or laid off, than fewer people would be unemployed and there would be a better tax base  meaning fewer cuts to government jobs.
             Nor does the fact that Europe  has many if not more regulations, but still has a higher  gpa ( I'm most cases) than the U.S.  impact the discussion here.  Politicians  do not want YOU to ask questions about the truth.  Sure if you don't mind poisoning your people and killing them  much like China and India... you can have 9 percent growth.   And if you don't mind rat poison in baby formula  you can have low unemployment like china.    But government regulation is not the problem... and any one who says that and believes that should not be breathing  the rest of us  air.   Correct them please ... enforcement of regulation and reduction of redundant or  in some cases rules no longer needed  is the issue... Possible  feeding  greedy financial people  to   rabid  and starving sharks would help the economy ...but that has to wait until you elect me
     In the mean time, when any one "quotes" political speak as a reason to vote for some one, ask if they did a fact check.  Or laugh at them, which ever works for you.
till next time

No comments:

Post a Comment