Day 19 - Citizens Pledge

Unique Pledges To Date: 1
List available upon request.

Pledge Introduction:
     I'm writing this pledge for one simple reason: to reaffirm power to the citizens.  It is a very simple concept, we, as voting citizens, sign this pledge.  The pledge will state that we, as voting citizens, will not vote for any politician in a federal position (and perhaps eventually on the state level) that does not sign this pledge or that signs and breaks the bindings of the pledge. 
     As for the politicians, this pledge is very simple.  They are signing to pledge to do 3 things:
       1) Not sign any other pledges endorsed by the Citizens Pledge
       2) Always place country before party
       3) Release financial donor information upon request

CITIZEN'S PLEDGE

I, _________________________________,  sign this pledge acknowledging that I will not vote or support any candidate or politician that does not sign this pledge with me.  By signing this pledge I believe that the commen good of the country and its citizens should be the only focus of an elected official.  I sign this pledge understanding that my name will be available for public view in relation to this pledge and the following sections:

SECTION 1

Section 1 identifies this pledge, the Citizen's Pledge, to be the only pledge I will commit to as a citizen in public office or seeking a public office position.  I understand that this pledge, the Citzen's Pledge, is my commitment to those that have and will support me in a public office role.

SECTION 2

Section 2 identifies that no party takes precedence over the needs of the country and its citizens.  This does not prevent Citizen from creating and supporting legislation that backs their political views.  This section is intended to prevent purposeful and willful misconduct against their country that is is legally and/or ethically wrong.

SECTION 3

Section 3 identifies that as a citizen in or running for a public office any donated funds for that purpose will be disclosed, willingly, upon the request of any citizen of the country.  I understand that I am not legally obligated to this, but willingly do this for the benefit of transparency and honesty.

Day 17 - Mo' Money, Mo' Problems

Good day all, it's Day 17 here... I want to talk about money, specifically. 

We seem to be having some serious world wide issues with money, whether it is the dollar, the ruple, gems, whatever.  Many countries are falling into a "debt crisis" and are pretty much left holding the short end of the stick.  The need to beg some other country, who is accused by many with leveraging the market to keep their currency stable, to "bail them out".  In any event, this all seems very childish...

I'm going to say something that has been said many times before, but I think it needs to be revisited with a little clarity: Why don't we just get rid of money altogether?  ::gasp::  Before we start the comments/remarks/eye-rolling/page-closing, let's just talk about it first...

What is money, exactly?  We'll go to Wikipedia for this:
"
Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context.^[1][2][3] The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past, a standard of deferred payment.^[4][5] Any kind of object or secure verifiable record that fulfills these functions can serve as money.
Money originated as commodity money, but nearly all contemporary money systems are based on fiat money.^[4] Fiat money is without intrinsic use value as a physical commodity, and derives its value by being declared by a government to be legal tender; that is, it must be accepted as a form of payment within the boundaries of the country, for "all debts, public and private".
The money supply of a country consists of currency (banknotes and coins) and bank money (the balance held in checking accounts and savings accounts). Bank money usually forms by far the largest part of the money supply. ^{[6][7][8]
" (Wikipedia.org)}

That is directly from Wikipedia.  The most important part, to me and my point, is the second paragraph regarding "fiat money".  Now we visit Wikipedia regarding "fiat money":

"Fiat money or fiat currency is money whose value is not derived from any intrinsic value or guarantee that it can be converted into a valuable commodity (such as gold). Instead, it has value only by government order (fiat). Usually, the government declares the fiat currency (typically notes and coins from a central bank, such as the Federal Reserve System in the U.S.) to be legal tender, making it unlawful to not accept the fiat currency as a means of repayment for all debts, public and private.^[23][24]"

In this excerpt, we are looking directly at this line: "Instead, it has value only by government order (fiat). ".  Now, I don't know about anyone else in this virtual room, but that seems a little ridiculous to me.  If I read it correctly, this is saying that US dollars (for example) are only valuable because the government says so.  It appears that the value is backed by taxation, for the most part, which is odd, because essentially you are saying this money is guaranteed because I am getting X% back through taxation...  In any event, we can start to see how it has no value, at all.  It is only necessary, really, for international trading.  If a country were self-sufficient (requiring no outside trade/help) it could probably do very well without money at all.

This brings me to my main point, why not just get rid of it?  I know what you're thinking, mostly: What about workers? Services? Commodities like food? Housing? etc...  My answer: free.  Listen, you want a house?  Either have someone who owns a construction business build it for you, or build it yourself.  Or, go ahead and live in a condo.  No rent, all utilities are on, there is some form of TV and Internet.  Need food?  Go to the store and get what you need.  What about my car? Go get one...

Okay, I can keep going, but there is one obviously gigantic flaw here: Why would anyone work or do anything for that matter if everything was free?  Why would people pick up the trash or cut grass or build houses or own small businesses if they didn't need money? 

Here is my answer to that: because they would have to.  There would need to be one key point in all of this.  The problem with free is that is only works under the condition that there is a producer and a consumer.  We can't have all consumers, otherwise there would be no product to be free.  So, in my opinion, there would need to be a requirement for a free society.  You need to have a job.  That doesn't mean we can all go out and be doctors because there are requirements to be a doctor, educational requirements and experience requirements.  We can't all go open coconut shops because then nobody will be around to do anything else, and in addition, not everyone wants to open a coconut shop.  I like programming, I would continue to write programs for my job, no problem, I love it.  My wife, she likes retail, she might continue to do that while she gets an education in something specific.  Perhaps I will continue to program while I educate myself as well.  The key is, everyone needs to work and some people will need to do basic jobs because they don't have any skills, but maybe they'll seek education and do that while their working. 

There is a way to make it work, and honestly it is probably less complex than our current global financial systems.  Yes, this means that everyone would be equal.  No, it does not mean everyone will go out and want a mansion (who's going to clean and maintain it when their not getting paid for it...).  I would really love some feedback, I love comments and discussions and sadly I don't get as much as I would like.  So please, feel free to comment, I open it up to Anonymous comments for that reason, even if you want to just flame the hell out of me. 

Day 15 - Mathematics for the Rich and Poor

   So, there is a whole mess of economic woes and travesty about the world.  Threats of the USPS shutting down, the Euro falling apart, and many nations unable to sustain their economies plague the news.  I have been thinking alot about the US however because our situation seems relativitly stupid (for lack of a better term).

   We have a lot of people with wealth in this country and we have a pretty robust system of business and enterprise and such.  However, it just appears that the situation keeps getting worse.  It is quite clear that businesses are hurting strictly because their are not enough people buying their merchandise.  This is happening because not enough people have money to buy their merchandise.

   Now, we can argue about what is fair and what is right and not right and so on, but that is useless.  The main point is that we have to have a sustainable economy.  Let's be real, if the global market collapses, and businesses shut down, all the money in the world won't matter if there isn't any value to it.  Additionally, people with more money need people with less money in order to make the world go round, it isn't rocket science so I won't go into it too much.

I have decided however, to explain it a little bit.  The mathematics are simple and hopefully will help knock some sense around.  Right now, it appears to be the common number that 1% control 99% of the wealth in the country.  I am also using relatively simple numbers to get the point across since the exact numbers are not relavent and approximations will do.

{This section has been revised below in the updated area}
So, let us say we have a country US with 100 people in it.  US makes exactly $100 in total wealth a day.  By our numbers before.  This would mean that there is 1 person that has $99.01 a day and 99 people that each have .01 per day.  Now, let's say there are 10 businesses in US.  In order to survive each business needs $1 a day.

By our current logic, it is unsustainable.  There is no reason for the 1 person to shop at all 10 stores a day, they would go to 1 store a day give them their dollar, remain rich and the store survives.  Even if the other 99 people shop at the same exact store, it would eventually be unable to sustain itself since it would only take in .99 a day.  Therefore the other 9 stores die out, the other 99 people have nowhere to shop, etc etc, economic collapse...

Let us readjust some of these numbers.  If we take 5% of that 1 person's wealth and redistribute it to the other 99 people.  These are our new numbers.  1 person has ~ $80 a day.  99 people have ~ .20 each.  Now, we can simply take all 100 people and divide it by 10 (stores), that is 10 people per store. 
1 store will have the 1 rich person and 9 "other people" and the other stores will have 10 "other people".  At 10 people spending .20 at the store per day, that is 2.00 a day.  More than enough to sustain each store, perhaps each person spends .19 a day and keep .01 in the bank for the future... Economy stable, life moves on wonderfully, businesses have extra money, they hire more people, etc etc etc.
{end of revision}

It is very simple mathematics, it doesn't matter about what is yours and this and that.  It is irrelevant, there are very very few people in this world that earned every dollar they have by blood, sweat, and tears.  In order for this entire system to work correctly, more money needs to be redistributed to the majority of people, bottom line.

UPDATE:  9/7/2011 1215

I am updating my logic because it was flawed.  The numbers I got were wrong, as I misread my source.  In any event, I have redone the math here.

So, continue on the idea that we have 100 people in the country of US.  US makes exactly $100.00 a day.  According to source A, 1 person will have $34.60, 19 people will each have $2.66, and 80 people will have $.15, per day.

According to source B, minus the housing expense at 32.9%, and 9.9% for savings,  I am attributing all others to expenditures as various business, therefore, about 57% of each person's total will go towards a business of some sort.  For the 1 person, they will spend $19.72, 19 people will spend $1.52, and 80 people will spend $.11 per day (in our case since our people get paid daily in this scenario).

Now, as in our scenario, we have 10 businesses evenly distribute throughout US and it works out that each store recieves business from the same 10% of our population.  Therefore, 1 store will recieve $21.35 (the 1 rich guy, 1 upper guy, and 8 poor people), 9 stores will receive $3.92 (2 upper guys, and 8 poor people each).  This gives 9 stores a $2.92 profit margin and 1 store a $20.35 profit margin.  It also lets the 1 rich guy save $14.88, the 19 upper guys save $1.14, and the 80 poor people save $.08.

If we redistribute the wealth from the rich guy to the poor guys by 15%, and upper to poor by 2%  we get:
1 person has $20.00, 19 people have $2.52, and 80 people get $.40.

Using our same logic from above with the stores.  We take 57% of each person's total, rich = $11.4 each, upper = $1.44, poor = $.23.

Each store gets this now: 1 store gets $14.67 , 9 stores get $4.74.  Poor people now save $.17, double what they saved before.  Rich save $8.6 (drastically less) and uppers save $1.08 (about the same).  The other 9 stores get almost a dollar more than they were before too, which boosts jobs and so forth.


SOURCES:
A: http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
B: http://financialplan.about.com/od/budgetin1/f/ExpensePercent.htm

Day 3 - The Root of All Evil

A new day, a new topic: Money.

The other day, while driving to work, something dawned on me, why do we need money?  Initially, it's a "wtf you talking about?" kind of response, but I think it should be given a little more attention.

A long, long time ago (no more than 6000yrs ago for you Creationists out there :)  ), our ancestors used the barter system.  This of course, was efficient for the time.  There were maybe 20 people to a town?  So of course, each person had a knack, and so on and so forth.  As population increased, people intermingled, exotic goods became available in many parts of the world, something more substantial and "easy" was needed to replace bartering specific items.  Here comes gold to the rescue, more specifically, currency "worth" gold.  This is important to note because the actual money (except for coins) isn't worth any more than the paper it's printed on (figuratively of course, it's probably worth substantially more due to the inks/dyes and "special counterfeit measures").  So what happens when you have more money than gold? Not good stuff, the value of the currency drops and life gets a little bit harder.

Anyway, so to be brief, I go to the store and buy a loaf of bread, instead of, let's say, giving computer advice(one of my personal talents) to the shopkeeper in exchange for a loaf of bread, I give him 1 dollar for a loaf of bread.  Now, several weeks later, the shopkeeper needs computer advice, he calls up the local tech line and for .99 /min he gets the advice he needs (there goes my dollar).  This cycle of course propagates until the dollar is lost/damaged/destroyed, whatever.

I have a proposal, since all we are really doing is taking some item, applying meaning/value to it and "passing the buck" (pardon the pun, I can't help myself sometimes), why not remove the messiness.  Now, for all your trekkies and Star Wars fans, don't mess yourself just yet.  As of now, it is not fully possible to have a "denominationless" society, no self control.  But I would like to steer more towards the Star Wars idea and introduce the concept of credits.

Okay, so hear me out.  Everyone who goes to work gets a paycheck.  Everyone who is part of the system, meaning they have an SSN, pays taxes and receives some kind of benefits (hopefully) when that time comes.
So, let us hit upon each point involved with money and explain how it will work:

• Citizenship
• Being a citizen gets you a social security number.  This number links you into the system.  All credits earned, spent, etc. are tied to your social security number.  Not too much different than things are today.
• Employment
• Alright, so right now people make all diffierent kinds of wages, different educations, so on and so forth.  Let's streamline this.  If you have a job, you get credits.  Jobs should be ranked on tiers, based on the level of education required for the job.
• No job = Tier 0
• 50 credits a week
• No education = Tier 1
• Full Time = 200 credits a week
• Par Time = 100 credits a week
• Standard Education (high school) = Tier 2
• Full Time = 500 credits/wk
• Part Time = 250 credits/wk
• Advanced Education (associates/bach/tech school)
• Full = 700/wk
• Part = 350/wk
• Master Education (masters/phd/etc.)
• Full = 1000/wk
• Part = 600/wk
• Now this is all well and good, but what does it mean? Well, we will get down to the indication of credits momentarily.
• Benefits
• Being a citizen earns you several things:
• Healthcare
• Go anywhere, in country, at any time, and receive the healthcare you need, free
• Food
• Each citizen is guaranteed a certain "weekly credit" allowance for food.
• On top of what you earn, or don't earn, you are granted X credits for food
• Children under the age of 16 have their credits forwarded to their legal guardian(s)
• Of course if you would like extra you can spend your credits how you see fit
• Exchange
• For countries that don't participate in the credit system.  Your home country can take credits for exchange to the specific countnries denomination
• Home
• Every citizen is guaranteed a place to leave based on your weekly credit in take.
• Using Credits
• Besides your standard basic rights that you are granted, you can use your credits for various things.
• Home upgrades
• Items for you home, such as electronics, decorations, etc.
• Actual home upgrade, meaning you can bargain more of your weekly credits to live in a higher tiered home
• Extra commodities
• Extra food items, beyond the given credit allowance
• In essence, anything you can do now with money
• How does this work for businesses and resources?
• Based on the business type and the amount of credits the business earns each "period" they are allotted X amount of resources
• Business are run by a "popularity" contest.  The most popular business earn the most credits, thus having access to more resources
• In order to start a business, entrepenuers must "estimate" a "periodic" credit earning which will "buy" them a year at that earning worth of resources.
• After the year, if they fall below 25% of their expected they will have a "resource debt" that must be satisfied before they are allowed to receive resources at their current credit earning
• The same applies, except opposite if they are above 25% of their estimate

How is this different from money?  It takes away the value of gold from the equation.  Instead, the value is placed within the individual.  There is really no reason to be greedy, you only make credits based on  your education level, not your greed or corporate bonus.  The key for business is becoming popular, meaning people buy from you because they like what you do.  This pushes good business ethics. 

Anyway, this is my idea on the whole thing.  I think it could work, if people really wanted a change.  Hopefully others will respond to this and get a dialogue going.  Thanks!

Day 1 - Battle of the Budgets

Ok, so today I am frustrated by something.  Before I jump into it, let me first explain my political perspective.  I am, by nature, a liberal.  I believe in spending money in R&D for safer, newer technologies.  I believe that the "more fortunate" should help the "less fortunate", because in the end, we are all human beings.  However, I do have a conservative side to me.  I was born and raised catholic, went to all my classes, church every Sunday, heck I'm even confirmed.  I believe in the GENERAL laws/guidelines that religion has "bestowed" us as a society.  I believe that there needs to be responsiblity and sound decision made when expending money, just as I have to do with my wife and our family.  I am totally against the use of unions, in their current form.  I, as most, believe they were needed to establish some fundamental worker's rights, however, they have become bloated and obsolete, and in my opinion, cause a lot of today's current corporate outsourcing.

All that being said, I have a major issue with what is happening in DC right now.  I know there are always arguments and disagreements.  I know the health care bill has it's flaws and I know that the current (before the Republican takeover in the House) administration has done some unnecessary spending.  However, I am completely taken back by the proposed budget from the House!  I mean, the thought is, spend less money, keep government out of our lives, and let small businesses grow and hire.  But that doesn't seem to be what they are fighting for... and here are my points of contention:

1) We continue tax cuts for the wealthy:
        -OK so this, even though I am not sure of the actual outcome, may have SOME merit.  If you give tax cuts to the wealthy, they will have more money, which in turn SHOULD trickle down to the "less monetarily endowed".  There are a whole lot of "IFs" and "SHOULDs", which makes me skeptical, however, we'll let this slide.

2) Defund Planned Parenthood and begin pushing Pro-Life bills throughout various areas in the country
       -This is where I start getting lost.  If the idea is to keep government out of our lives, then why push pro-life?  Wouldn't pro-choice be the belief of people who actually believed that government should stay out of your life?  Also, defunding PP??  I mean, this valuable resource helps thousands of people (I'd say millions, but I really have no hard numbers).  Heck, there were times I'd run in and grab a handful of condoms, isn't that necessary?  Doesn't that help people from having to make the difficult decision of pro-choice/pro-life?

3) Moving on... all of this is absolutely useless!
      -None of this is going anywhere... House says a bunch of stuff, Senate gives them the finger... It is all SYMBOLIC!!  Seriously??  So for the next two years, I'm going to go to work and just talk about everything I am going to do, the extremem measures I'll take to do it...but I won't actually DO anything.  Let's see how well that fairs...

Anyway, I'm done with this, it's frustrating and annoying.  Look, believe in God, believe in old world ideals, but this isn't the 1800s anymore.  The world is moving forward, we need green technologies, we need new technologies, and we need to accept that Catholiscism has no place in our government, it has place in your home.  As far as keeping government out of our lives?  Sorry, it's not going to happen, large masses of people need some organization and somebody driving the bus and only a transparent, coherent government will make that happen, otherwise we might as well institute the Mafia in our local towns.  It may sound like Socialism, but it is what it is.  This country was found on moving forward with new ideas, not falling back on old ones.