A few surprises

One of the biggest problems is perception. An overwhelming number of people don't realize how weak the federal government was in the 19th century. The only experience and history they've known is from the perspectives of the last half of the 20th century - where the President is the most powerful man in the world. 

I'm constantly surprised that so few people realize there was a time when there was no question who was more powerful, the President or the financiers and industrialists. No one doubted Big Money (as it was called then) was far more powerful than the President. 
The 'Big Boys' mentioned by our grandparents were not the politicians. They were the Morgans, Fords, Rockefellers, etc. - the financiers and industrialists - who had the power of life or death over the population of the United States. 

If you discuss history with anyone, it's important to remember this misconception, or you'll be talking apples to pomegranates, or basketballs.


Similarly, very few realize that there is any other way of financing a country than debt-based economies. 

Federal Reserve 
The Federal Reserve is the greatest privatization of government responsibilities in history. 
And like nearly all privatization projects, it's far more concerned with turning profits (and control) for its owners and clients - the banking community - than fulfilling responsibilities to the government and public. 
The most glaring example is part of the charter of the Federal Reserve is to provide full employment for the country. That clause has been largely ignored, and never enforced. If it were, the Fed would be a much different system. 

Non-debt based economies 
There is no reason for a debt based economy other that the system is so deeply entrenched. 

The first steps to a non-debt based economy has already been taken, in fact, when the currency was released from the gold standard in 1972. 
The currency we use is backed only be the full faith and credit of the United States. We could also say on the currency that it can be used to pay taxes. 

The only step necessary now is to take the Fed out of the picture and let Congress issue the currency - as provided in the Constitution. 

It would change economics significantly, and probably cause inflation, to make the change, but maybe it's worth having a debate over the risk and benefits. 
I would expect even a strong move in this direction would result in some important changes in banking and finance. 

Community Benefit Corporations 
There is no reason a corporation must be legally required to place the value of its stock over the benefit to so many other stakeholders. The current law forces corporations to externalize risk and costs - to the detriment of generations, governments and nature. 

The move towards sustainability, reliability and bottom of the pyramid corporate governance is only hampered by the current laws. Corporate governance is forced to be myopic and short-sighted by law. 
That can easily be changed by reforming the corporation as a Benefit Corporation. It can be done in at least 5 states today. Public pressure - boycotts and outcry - can change the focus of corporate governance. 

If the public were to demand these changes, whole or in part, we can change many things with nothing more than words.


Real dollars
 It will certainly surprise many people to find the Federal Reserve and the Treasury have only issued about $700 billion US dollars - in hard cash.

All of our $14.7 trillion economy - over 20,000 times the amount of hard cash - is the result of debt, compounded interest, and externalized risk of one form or the other.

If we were to begin our discussions about taxation, finance, and national interests with that $700 billion figure in mind, think of how many things may come into different focus - and perhaps for the first time into focus at all.

Humans

I've always been fascinated by the idea that human beings became the dominant species.

Based on Darwinian theory, we shouldn't be.

We are not the strongest or the fastest. We have no natural protection from the elements.
In any climate, we require some sort of covering for our hairless bodies. We are not naturally camouflaged. Our faces and skin shines in the night. Our eyesight and hearing are not superior to most other animals.
We cannot swim without a lot of effort. Nature has given us no special advantage in the water.

Weekends are for...Premonition?

Image by Shutterhack via FlickrTrying to get a sense of the world in this mad moment is like trying to describe the feeling just before a storm in Oklahoma. Great power moves stealthfully. Your heart rises in your chest and your breath quickens. At once fearsome and beautiful beyond words, the skies and the earth are straining in a chorus. The heavens roll and rock with rare vibrant colors.
More power seathes through the skies than any war made by man has ever unleashed.
Yet there is a stealthy quiet to it all. As if the video were on mute. You wonder at what the animals hear and feel. Is it just some inadequacy of the human senses? Why can humans only feel the echos of such sounds?
Mind and soul strain through your eyes trying to penetrate the mystery of the skies.
There is a war about to be fought by forces far beyond the ken of mere mortals. Phrases and prose flash through your mind as you reach both inward and outward to understand: The Winds of War. Rolling Thunder. Moments of anthems from your life roam between the prose. I don't know how many times I have whistled Duello watching the skies darken.
I find myself looking at the bright blue skies over a beach and whistling again, over and over. Duello. No prisoners. From ten thousand miles away, literally the other side of the Earth, my throat tightens in memory of The Alamo.
I have known men and women who survived the Gulags, the Holocaust, the horrors of WWII on Okinawa and Taipan. Tattooed and scarred, yet smiling when I knew them. Not brave smiles, full of a false propoganda of courage. But smiles full of wonder at their own courage. That they survived to see the world after the horror.
I suppose, I hope, that someday I will smile the same way - if I survive.
It's another Saturday in the mall. People work and laugh. They smile at one another, and read the papers.