Marlene on isms

In summary - trying to take into account the many points made yesterday and today - despite my mind being boggled - some of my thoughts in response:

A/C - Acronym Challenge - apologies to Max Planck et al:

Self-Organization + Self-Organization = SO and SO
Self-Synchronization + Self-Synchronization = SS and SS
Storm-trooper + OODA-Loop + Self = SOS

MC squared - Mathematical Challenge:

7 billion + 0 = 7 billion
7 billion x 0 = 0

Mental List:

Gentle not sentimental
Measured not detrimental
Inclusive not regimental
Judicious not judgmental
Temperate not temperamental
Planned not experimental
Phased and incremental
Wholesomely environmental
Holistically developmental
Basically fundamental
Proactively instrumental

Ism Exercises:

Ism as organ and living
Ism as char and giving
Ism as ideal and magic
Ism as fatal and tragic
Ism as real and true
Ism as crony and skew
Ism to believe
Ism to relieve
Ism to grieve
Inherently dynastic
Doggedly bombastic
Exercised and gymnastic
Adherently dog mastic


What a palaver:

Pussycat clause and puppy dog tales
Cabbage patch dolls and curly tails
Miss Piggy, Kermit and Oscar too
Pussies and puppies and a kangaroo
Poker and tennis - chess and buckaroo
Apple juice, hops and plenty to do
Barrels of cider and scrumptious too
Leaders and followers all bally hoo
Meet you in Palaver for a jar or two?


Pepper Mint or Spear Mint:

Private Banks + Print money = Quantitative Easing [Queasy]
Private Individuals + Print Money = Counterfeit [Cease]

Behemoth Crepuscular:

Corporations must not be taxed to stop them all from going
Bankers must print more notes to keep the economy growing
Fractional Reserve Banking flowing freely in and out
Is our gold that of fools and how did our debt come about?
What are these wild cards playing at? Are we just gullible rookies?
Twilight watchers trailing us - by camera and by cookies
Have the matadors let the bull markets emerge up to the very top?
Is duality bipartisan and can mutuality arising make them stop?
Are our assets already stripped and are our collars firmly felt?
Are our cards already marked and are they being still misdealt?
If there has been a sleight of hand - oh whatever can we do?
The game is on – is it time to play? I’m up for it - are you?

Richard mentioned energy maneuverability - defense in depth - John Boyd Theory - all of which sounds like wallowing in one version of the past whilst wading in treacle - guess that’s just me then…

For what it is worth: We live in extraordinary times - the now - with all it has to offer - now - the present - today - and, yes, of course, we must learn from past events and past outcomes - ever mindful - IMO - that history, like truth, is in the eye of the beholders - so perhaps - maybe - we should not let it define our future…

I’m with Maya Angelou on this one: “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

And the last words go to de Tocqueville: “We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects”.

Loopily
Marlene

Amendments to redefine corporations

Paul W,

===
I personally love corporations to operate in a HONEST and RESPONSIBLE manner. Constitutional Amendments are floating around the country.

Examination produces two ideals:
___1- Corporations/like entities are not people but rather the property of individuals, is assets of individuals, acts at the direction of individuals who are responsible for their conduct. (In such both a corporation can be sued for violations of law and criminal prosecution).
___2- Corporations/like entities are excluded from influence, including financial, in our electoral/political system of these United States.===

It's disgusting that we have to provide legalistic jargon for the greatest legal minds in our judicial system to be able to distinguish between a human being and a contract or property - but here we are.

It's not mildly disgusting. It's disgusting like taking in a deep whiff of concentrated raw sewage created at a plant before processing. Disgusting that creates a seminal memory.

My second reaction, after reliving that seminal memory, is that these amendments do not go far enough to recognize the nature of the issue. Neither amendment truly threatens the legally mandated focus of the corporation: to improve stockholders' financial position, or equity.
Whatever laws or amendments are proposed with regards to corporations, there has to be a provision for an off switch.

If the corporation or any of its officers breaches these legal limits, the corporation simply ceases to be a defined legal entity within the United States. The stock becomes valueless. All property within the United States or defined as owned by the corporation in question is ceded to the United States as penalty.
Any corporation charged with these crimes will have its operations suspended and a legally mandated overseer or commission will manage operations and gather evidence until the trial is decided.
Stockholders and employees not involved in the commission of the crime are allowed to sue those who committed the crime for private compensation.

A corporation is a financial structure and a legal entity. There must be a legal means for it to end. That end must threaten the financial position of the to pose too great a risk for certain laws to be broken.
Otherwise, any amendments or laws will only be feeding the legal system.

Paul, I don't see a way to enforce your second proposed amendment. We already have PACs and think tanks. This amendment will be toothless.

Your first proposed amendment is essentially the situation that exists today in legal terms. Even if it may offer an easier means to penetrate the corporate veil, its effect will be increasingly limited as pressure is placed on legislatures at all levels to define and refine the legal environment.

Here's a plan, Marlene

 Do you really want a plan, Marlene?

Here's your plan: You can imitate a land-based food chain or an ocean-based food chain; a rain forest or a coral reef.
Don't be put off by the term 'food chain'. It's just the best terms science can provide. In the end, the top predator returns to the microbes, after all. There really is no top or bottom.

In fact, research indicates the small things and their weak interactions do matter. To quote a first primary principle:
"Weak interactions are the stabilizers and strong interactions the destabilizers of food webs.
In some circles in the late twentieth century, small may have been considered “beautiful,” but in the early twenty-first century, we can say that small is “important.”

A species or interaction that appears insignificant today might be crucial tonight or next year."
endquote

Your decision for developing any process to attain any goal will determine which of the two food chains you want to emulate.

Things don't have to 'die' to be consumed though. Everything produces products; even waste is considered a product. That's the core concept behind sustainability and reliability.
Products contain value and information. That's the second core concept.

Even the top predator leaves behind products that affect the reliability of other producers: carcasses, offal, and finally their own carcass. These products provide value and information to different levels of other processes.
Ignoring this concept is the reason so many processes today don't seem reliable. Put very simply, it means no process or goal is independent of others.

How stable or unstable the process you create will be depends upon these choices in your design. You'll find you have to combine the concepts within each design to achieve different types of reliability.
If you want sustainability, you have to choose between the coral reef and the rain forest though.

If you think about it, the systems in place today are not that far away from these concepts. All this really means is adding a few priorities in design and implementation; and interpreting more accurately the products of all levels.

There. There's your plan.
To implement it, just run a network analysis and interpret the translations correctly.

GST explanation for Americans

(This article was first posted to the White House group on LinkedIn as a response to a couple of people mentioning GST. Since most Americans have no experience with GST, I typed up a quick summary. -Paul)

Before considering a GST, a few facts are needed.

First, GST is a consumption tax. That fact drives the structure of the tax, meaning the exemptions and deductions from other taxes already in place. It's very easy to be seen as double, triple or even quadruple taxation.
As with all consumption taxes, the burden lands most heavily on the lower income levels.

Because of how it works, it requires a considerable bureaucracy to implement, and the revenues are almost always far beyond the predictions.

GST (good and services tax) is a modification of the VAT (value-added tax) that's been in place in many European countries for decades.

How it works

Let's take four levels:

1. Producer - the person who grows or mines the raw material 
2. Manufacturer - the person who makes the raw materials into something 
3. Distributor - the person who moves the things to retailers 
4. Retailer - the person who sells the goods to the public 

At each level, the person (or company) pays a 10% GST.

1. Producer produces something, and sells it on to the Manufacturer for $100 
2. Manufacturer makes something, and sells it on to the distributor for $200 
3. Distributor sells things on to the Retailer for $300 
4. Retailer sells things to the public for $400 

At each level, a 10% GST is imposed.

1. Producer pays $10 GST 
2. Manufacturer pays $20 GST 
3. Distributor pays $30 GST 
4. Retailer pays $40 GST 

But each level can subtract the GST already paid at the previous level or levels, so - after filing forms - each level actually pays $10 GST. But the consumer pays the full $40 GST on the $400 item they purchase.

What I've outlined above is the VAT. So long as there is an unbroken chain of value added to the goods, there's little confusion. But when you add Services to the chain, things get a little confusing.


Services?
What happens if the item is a computer, and the Retailer adds $400 in consulting fees to the price? With this simple example, the Retailer adds $40 GST to the additional $400 fee, and passes it on to the consumer.

A partial answer is the GST is hidden in the fees and purchase prices by quoting 'GST inclusive', which translates into a $400 fee where 1/11th is paid as GST.

The rest of the answer is the Consultant can deduct from the GST any GST already paid on other items in the business.

This works pretty well for going concerns with many expenses, but penalizes small operations that run on little hardware and without much service support. To get adequate reductions in GST to be paid, the small company - especially freelancers - has to start including household items and minuscule purchases.

Double taxation

If there's a state or federal income tax in place, how does the GST affect it?

GST is usually a federal tax. Does that mean it is subtracted from any Income tax owed federally? (tax credit)
Or is it simply deducted from the person's Taxable Income? (a deduction)

For most countries, the answer is GST is a deduction from Taxable Income, and you can see why it's called double taxation.

A key question is: Should Income tax be abolished if a GST is imposed? The initial answer is Yes, but the reality is Income taxes remain.


State taxes

Then there are state taxes. How does the federal GST affect these?

In theory, federal and state governments share GST revenues. That's probably the biggest selling point when implementing GST.

Since the governments share in GST revenues, shouldn't there be some mechanism to reduce state taxes based on the state's share of GST revenues? It's not hard to see this gets complicated fast. Because of the complications, this option is usually ignored or left to future negotiations (that never happen.)


Other taxes

Some state taxes are imposed on top of the GST in special types of sales such as land or resource extraction. How does the GST affect those?

The resource sector broadly opposes any tax, and interprets the GST as double taxation.


Effects on Low Income and Poor

It's easy to see the greatest burden of a GST is placed on consumers. In effect, every item purchased becomes 10% more expensive.

It's rare to find consumers tracking GST paid on a personal level, although it may be worth it at times. If the person is a freelancer or sole proprietor, it's certainly worth it.
But there has to be some mechanism, as with Income taxes, to distinguish between what expenses support the business and what are personal. Or is that true?

For those merchants that deal with low income earners and low income earners, the imposition of a GST has real and hidden costs. These costs are felt directly in the pocketbook for small retailers (convenience shops, hairdressers, etc) and the people they service. 

Exemptions

Commonly a GST is imposed with "Necessities" excluded, such as milk, bread, baby food, etc. The exact list is always a little controversial. The most important goal of these exemptions is to relieve the burdern on low income or disadvantaged consumers.

But what about work clothes for those who have to wear safety vests or overalls on the job?
Nurses uniforms?
Police uniforms?

If you're a Courier, for example, can you remove the cost of gas and maintenance from GST? How?
Do you deduct the costs from the GST taxable income? Or do you document the GST paid and deduct it from your overall GST tax?


Income from investments

One area where GST becomes complicated is income from investments.

If you're a retiree with income properties, GST is applicable on all rents. Because retirees have little other business activities other than maintenance - which hopefully is a small portion of the income generated - the GST burden is not very well offset. It can become substantial.
If you're an investor with income properties you're renovating for resale, that may not be true.

GST is a tax that encourages business and economic activity.

What about income from bonds or dividends? Strictly speaking, this is not an increase in value. The payments are part of the initial purchase contract.
While the sale of stock or bonds is, hopefully, an increase in value, income from dividends and bond tickets is not.
In most systems, this income is subject to full GST.

Like all tax schemes, the devil is in the details.

Emerging economies

I suppose it's worth emphasizing a GST cannot be implemented in a country without an established tax system and tax base.

The granularity of the GST requires constant monitoring and checking. GST is not a tax for a developing or emerging economy.

A developing or emerging country can begin with a VAT and graduate to a GST. That's not an uncommon strategy.

And I should add that like VAT, GST is a tax that's usually paid many times each year - pay as you go system. That will mean added paperwork for persons and businesses monthly or quarterly.

This aspect of the GST is rarely considered, although it can be a considerable burden on individuals and small businesses both in time and processing expense.


Processing and Reporting issues

If the business has established business process programmng to determine the efficacy of a project - CRM or ERM systems are common even for small businesses today. - the addition of a GST can mean considerable expense.

Even if the business runs off basic accounting software, an upgrade will be required - that too often disrupts the reliability of the software in surprising ways.

Marlene: Let

Yeah - and to create many of those jobs - yes we do need to innovate and to invent - products and processes - productivity and provision - real loops - productive wealth generators and a fair system of wealth distribution - to DARE - Deconstruct and Reconstruct Everything …together with drive and with a coherent plan - by design...


The pendulum swings and the paradigm shifts 
The laggards take flight as do the swifts 
Let humanity endure - well or diseased 
Let hope be feted and despair be appeased 
Let teachers teach and students be taught 
Let skills be hurled and let them be caught 
Let babies be born – both equal and free 
Let all be ascribed in the equivalence decree 
Let talents be varied and presciently gifted 
Let bodies be enabled and minds be sifted 
Let no blame be attached and let nothing be lost 
Let judgments be clear and barriers be crossed 
Let hands be even and minds be open 
Let bias be gone and humanity be totem 
Let us learn to rate and to value - not score 
Let us wont for less and let us want no more

Sadly; innovation and invention are two words that over both grossly over used and are now totally under whelming. Each word is now meaninglessly attributed to the mundane and the mediocre as marketing hype!
Whoever controls access to capital maintains control so I think it is time to plan and to do:

My Dodo Bird Ditty:

I like to do and do and Da Doo Ron Ron 
The dodo bird has been and gone gone 
To do and do and to do Da Doo Ron Ron

CRYSTAL CLEAR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqgtsai2aKY

Best 
Marlene

Century of Sefl

Marlene: Fancifully

Fancifully:

Think Out loud – think TO anew 
Design Out loud – plan and DO 
TO-DO hoo-ha – a bleeding nose 
TO DO List – it comes and goes 
LIST as tally and list as tilt 
Bridges burnt and bridges built 
Eye to eye and it’s I see me 
Eye to eye and it’s me you see 
Reflected image or reflected view 
Reflective perspective – false and true 
Swords cross in rage - words cross the page 
The world adapts – stage by stage 
Reflect alone - the age of book 
Reflect as one - the age of look 
To watch – not one to one – screens apart 
To learn – not one to one – screens impart 
Aged old - worms and all - living so much longer 
Rising robot - rights and all - growing so much stronger 
A rally cry – Shout Out loud – let it out - just SO 
So far so good – so to speak – the so and so yo-yo

Life sure has its ups and downs: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvG3IK-hzRs