Obesity as a Result of Capitalistic Policy

The obesity epidemic is an effect of a capitalistic society with not enough checks and controls on the free market system. Even though, what someone eats and how much someone exercises is a personal choice, personal choices are dictated for the most part by environmental factors. All people are motivated under the basic paradigm of getting the most from the least amount of effort (this is hard-wired for our survival). When this paradigm is applied to the motivation of making of food and supplying food-- for profit--coupled with the motives of food consumption (getting the most calories for the least amount of money) along with the dichotomy of the need for exercise (exercise, being an inherent feature of daily life and survival for millions of years as a species, has been adapted to be necessary for circulation and maintenance of the body through the mechanism of efficient evolutional design) and the natural instinct to conserve energy (which is also adaptive based on the pre-civilization relationship of human to environment) , the problems of corporatizing this paradigm into a for profit model compound upon each other to catastrophic effect.

The large-scale profit-seeking food supplier has the greatest incentives to provide the most food possible at the cheapest cost to him or herself. This most often means buying the lowest quality food in very high quantities and altering it to appear as a higher-quality than it is. The typical consumer is looking for the most satiating food possible for the lowest cost; nutritional content and quality are a far second to basic satiation(high calorie meals that taste good) and concern future survival (expressed by reduced spending, i.e. getting fast food). Because this is the basic structure of supplier-consumer relationship for the entire for-profit food industry, providing food with the optimum nutrition is counter-productive to all parties.  Instead of food being made to be satisfying by providing what the body needs, it is more economical to artificially engineer food to trigger “satiation” by exploiting the human body’s senses with artificial taste and smell augmentations. A negative feedback loop occurs between the body’s need for nutrition not being met by the food being provided, and the artificially induced but ineffectual satiation engineered into the food being consumed. Obesity, in effect, is a symptom of nutritional starvation. Curing obesity is matter of changing food content of what people are eating rather than how much food people eat, and changing food content is nearly impossible in the for-profit food delivery system.

The infrastructure of where and how Americans live has maximized the use of the car and consumption of oil. This is a failure of government in urban planning toward its mass population in favor of large for-profit industries. It is inconvenient to walk to shop for food and the daily necessities in most of America; this is deliberate, to give people very large incentives to buy costly and wasteful automobiles. Walking is where most other industrialized nations get their exercise. They walk more in other countries because it is convenient for them to do so. Cities and urban areas are designed to mix business and residential zoning to allow for minimal driving time and put most amenities with-in walking distance of where one might live. Exercise has been de-engineered out of the American lifestyle for the gain of big business at the effect of creating incentive structure that locks the typical American into living a dangerously sedentary lifestyle.

The most alarming result of the effect of the created problems engineered by the capitalistic incentive design is that the problems create even more opportunities to make more profits. Instead of adopting a culture that harmonizes a citizen’s lifestyle to his or her inherent needs. Solutions are invented that compound the existing problems even further. The medical and pharmaceutical industry makes more profit the sicker the population, therefore have incentives to keep people as sick as possible for as long as possible. Alone they kill almost a quarter million people a year through malpractice, adverse drug reactions, and hospital induced infections. The exercise and “health” industries waste billions of dollars of ignorant people’s money on fad diets, ineffectual supplements, and gym memberships (patrons rarely if ever use). The root cause of obesity epidemic is the flaw in the logic of American culture or the just the lazy acceptance of the lie that the free-market organization of society is providing the highest quality of life for its citizenry; it is the ignorance of complacently accepting greed and selfishness as a core motivator and value in America society, which is rotting its population from the inside out.

Florida Gov. unilaterally kills high-speed rail

Gov. Rick Scott's unilateral decision to kill high-speed rail in Florida is an example of the private business corrupting the government, and using that ability to stonewall progress of the whole society under the political guise of fiscal conservatism and bogus free-market economy philosophy.

Imagine a world where there was the choice to have cheap efficient transportation available to everyone, no more car insurance, no more high gas prices, no more car payments, drastically reduced air pollution, no more rush-hour traffic jams, just a leisurely ride to anywhere one wanted to go with free provided Internet connection and the ability to talk and text on your cell phone the whole trip. This possibility has already been successfully realized in many countries. It is called high-speed rail.

(It is also important to note, even those do not use high-speed rail--that wish to incur the added cost and burden of owning and using a motor vehicle--will enjoy the benefits of high-speed rail in form of lower gas prices and less traffic congestion.)

For every traffic jam, for every war in the Middle East, every time a citizen spends a small fortune at the gas pump because of a price hike, the oil companies are raking in more and more profit. So much profit they can afford to pay off conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the Reason Foundation, that directly guided Florida Governor’s actions to axe to the high-speed rail project. 

These foundations prey upon the misleading truth and half truths to push their agenda's, in this case they justify their claims with the idea that a single stretch of high-speed rail does not have the ability to justify its initial cost as well as the twisted truth that the high-speed rail poses too much risk to investors. The core of their argument is only rational when seen out of context of the big picture, relying upon the ignorance of the public, trusting that majority of people won't do the research and the little bit of  abstract reasoning required to uncover the lies behind what they proclaim.

It takes a substantial infrastructure of high-speed rail to offer all the benefits necessary to justify its the construction of high-speed rail. Just as the internet gained its value from the extensiveness of its network--a network originally conceived and designed by the US government--it will be the same with high-speed rail. Only the central government with a concern for the nation at large has the means and the initiative to begin such a long-term project with huge benefits to the masses and no specific benefits to any private interest. It is ridiculous to expect private investors to carry out or contribute to a project that will revolutionize trade and commerce in a way outside of their immediate control and specific benefit.

High speed rail threatens the current big money investors already invested in the current outdated status quo of transportation; big money investors are not going to invest or support high-speed rail in its infancy stages to their own immediate loss. The argument that high-speed rail is a risky investment based on private investors unwillingness to invest is fallacious. 

One only need to look at Europe, China, and Japan to see the value of the investment, to see how extraordinarily successful high-speed rail is and the benefit it brings to the whole of society. Just like it happened with the Internet, free-market investors are only likely start investing after the foundations have been built and proven, when they selfishly determine that not investing poses more risk than investing does.

The information the Gov. of Florida used was biased and inaccurate. His decision to kill high-speed rail was unjustifiable by any stretch of reason that considers the people of Florida as its highest priority.

Garbage In/Garbage Out: Reasons to Enforce New Regulations on the News Media

The US national government should implement official standards and practices for the regulation of news media for three reasons. First, as it now stands, the mainstream media is owned and run by a handful of corporations which do not have investment in the well-being of the population. Second, the news fails to add a broad perspective or comment meaningfully on it's subject. Finally, the news media is alarmist to its own detriment, driven to a distortion a reasonable perspective by its own contradicting motives.

Powerful large corporations own the mainstream media. Large powerful corporations generally have ties to other large corporations. Corporations exist solely as a mechanism to create profits. Profit by definition is the amount of money or reward a person can siphon from a system. It is simple logic to assume that it is easier to exploit and thereby profit from system that is filled by the ignorant as a majority. Allowing the conglomeration of news media is thereby giving the responsibility of informing the public to corporations that would have it be in their best interest to mal-inform or keep the majority clueless.

It is considered the purpose and responsibility of news media to cover current events in an immediate and factual manner and present the information responsibly. But, like a hound dog with nose to the ground, the media goes from one scent to the next, never looking up to place all the pieces into a broader context, to recognize patterns and draw meaningful conclusions. The media does not seek to enlighten its audience, but rather immerse it in meaningless seemingly unrelated events and factoids. This does a great disservice by giving the audience the impression of a random, meaningless and unchangeable world out of the reach of their comprehension.

In the interest of attracting an audience in a competitive market, the major news media has to play upon the fears of its followers preying upon their emotions to illicit the public's attention. Those willing to expose themselves to the "the news" on a daily basis are likely first to be infected by a state of panic, which then devolves into a numbness, resulting in a general depression, and after long enough, finally, a self-identity of a powerless and helpless individual.

The need for news media in society is not aligned to the needs of the current media conglomerates. Without the media being funded and controlled directly by the people, it will not be able to serve the people. Instead, as it is now, the media will be set up and run to manipulate “the people” for the purposes of its advertisers and its shareholders, benefiting the few at the cost of the many.

Spun Out on the Wisconsin Labor Movement Spin

In reading John H. Hinderaker’s blog, John H. Hinderaker: graduate of Dartmouth, lawyer with a nationwide litigation practice, and member of the Claremont Institute (a conservative think tank based in California) it was no surprise to see the denouncement of the labor movement uprising in Wisconsin within its contents. If there were such a thing as a class war (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) one would not have to go through much effort to determine what side John H. Hinderaker would be fighting for. But what is difficult to determine is what audience outside of superrich elite, that conspired together to create the nonsensical mash-up of ideas being passed off as a political philosophy by the Claremont Institute, would subscribe to the interpretation of events as it is described in the article of that blog so appropriately titled, "[The] Mob scene in Madison."

It might be hard to imagine, as someone likely to make over half a million dollars a year, what it might feel like to have to struggle one's entire life to barely scrape a living, and have the only thing, keeping such a person of low standing from total destitute (the unions), stripped away through some loophole concocted by lawmakers of the same standing, of say, maybe a Dartmouth graduate lawyer that own's their own national firm. Such a person of low economic standing might get very upset at the notion of losing their job or their salary. And, having all their friends and neighbors sharing in the same situation, they might organize and demonstrate against those in the process of undermining what little bit of power that protects them from big business interests. 

Hinderaker describes the scene of protesters at the Wisconsin State Capitol: "the mob was vulgar and threatening, as usual." And, "The attack on democracy that the Democratic Party has launched in Wisconsin is disgraceful." But really, if you think about it, considering the circumstances and the size of the crowd, the demonstration was low key and peaceful, as is easy to notice from the video footage provided on the blog’s page. If the video is watched in its entirety, the person recording it even says as much. Overall, one could go to a typical football game and see much worse and be in more danger.

It is the public's right to protest in a peaceful assembly, to suggest otherwise is harmful to the Democratic foundations of this country. And, as is suggested in the conclusion of the blog by Hinderaker “they [the Republican Congress] can by a vote, order such persons in prison for the remainder of the legislative session, something to consider." Such a statement is horrifying and unconstitutional in its very nature, a conclusion unbefitting a person of such standing and education. Maybe a law should be made requiring all fancy rich lawyers to have to spend a week out of every year in jail so they don't take the notion of imprisonment so lightly and think more carefully about spews forth from mouth or pen.

To end on a more amusing and upbeat note, quoting from FoxNews.com, Sally Kohn:

This is simple. The vast majority of Americans think it’s wrong that 400 obscenely rich people hold more wealth and power than the assets of 155 million ordinary Americans combined. Why? Because it is wrong.

Such monstrous inequality and lack of opportunity for ordinary Americans is not a sign that capitalism is broken but a sign that our economy and politics have been rigged to work for the very few at the top. And since the same few rich people and big businesses at the top make most of the political contributions in our country, politicians are woefully skittish to challenge their greed.

And that's why the final reason to thank a union, the organized voice -- and yes, political money, too -- large enough to stand up to the otherwise-unchecked disastrous power of big businesses that care nothing about you or our economy and care only about their profit. That’s not what America is about.

That's  why we let people vote to join unions, to stand up together for working Americans and to fulfill the vision of freedom and equality for which our nation was founded. -- Just like we let people vote anti-democratic, anti-working families politicians out of office.

Budget Cuts: Welfare vs. the War Machine, Time to Cut Where It Counts

New York Times' Op-Ed Columnist Bob Herbert has the right idea but the wrong perspective. In his article "The Human Cost of Budget Cutting", he states the U.S. government needs to stop cutting the much needed aid to human services but assumes America will agree that helping people is the right thing to do and doesn't give the alternatives for those cuts. It just so happens that an alternative to those cuts are given in the same paper by the New York times editorial "The Cuts the Pentagon Missed," suggesting the answer lay in cutting down on military spending. Even so, these two media stories combined still only hint at the severity of the corrupt aspects of government. Neither goes far enough to spell out what should be obvious to the casual observer using a small bit of logic combined with some good old common sense.

Bob Herbert goes over the same old song and dance by laying out the sad story of poor, old, and disabled people not being able to get the assistance they need. These cut backs carve out the tragedies of grandmas losing their homes and mothers unable to feed their children. Unfortunately the truth is, even though it might make most people feel sad, the majority of people don't care enough to do anything about it and think it should be someone else's problem. Welfare has been painted as the enemy of a thriving economy by the media. In America the consensus has become if you lend a hand, you create a dependent, helping people is actually hurting people, at their heart these people are lazy and unless by neglecting to provide basic human needs, thereby forcing them to participate in the economy, they will drain the system dry like insatiable leaches. 

Somehow, even with all the cut backs with the tragedies that they bring to the bottom rungs of society, the American government still seems to have a bottomless pocket book when it comes to spending on our National Defense. This is only possible by some form of public consent in this republican form of government. By convincing the public through inciting mass fear, through the corporately owned media, this consent has been made possible. 

When people are afraid they are easy to manipulate, making those able to direct the media the most powerful people in our nation. Having regular and broken cycles of war have clear benefits to those who wield that power, some being: the justification for those with power to remain in and exercise that power, temporary boosts in the economy to temporary relieve the unbalanced unsustainable consumption of resources, maintaining the illusion of a strong national identity, granting the ease to bend popular will to private interests, and most importantly, large profit and opportunity for these corporations by exploiting the warred upon country, all this at the cost of uncountable lives foreign and domestic. No matter how it is spun, it always seems to add up the same, the benefits of the few at the cost of the many, with all those costs maintaining the exalted position of a minority at the sacrifice of multitude.

 

 Annual spending on military budgets of the top five countries

 

 

Spending on National Defense is especially pointless, considering we already have military expenditures more than six times the next largest country (China). It would appear that at the rate we are building, America will soon have a war machine set and ready to take over the globe.

Contrary to popular opinion, Bob gives examples of how spending on welfare has paid off and been effective at stimulating the economy, "Community action agencies received $5 billion in stimulus funds to train people to weatherize homes. They ended up being ranked eighth out of 200 federal programs that got stimulus money in terms of the number of jobs created." What the media refuses to admit is that welfare, when organized correctly, is a win-win solution for a suffering economy and to those in economic destitute. The argument of big government (meaning welfare, regulation, or anything that puts limits on corporate power) is wasteful, is inconsequential to whether a government has good leadership and its programs are organized and thoughtfully executed. When welfare is structured appropriately, the guaranteed results will be an overall boon to society. Government, because of taxation, has the ability to do what no profit motivated enterprise can do, which is operate from the big picture, outside the scope of greed and create a better society for an entire citizenry.

These policies of continuing to cut human services while racing ourselves to build bigger better weapons are what's hurting America. Considering the issues of the times, people should be pulling together, building communities, spending money trying to solve the looming environmental and energy crises; but instead, individuals are becoming increasingly isolated and feeling more effectual at making a difference in the world. The government should be reaching out to help countries, lifting them out of poverty, thereby building strong social capitol, not spending hundreds of billions on the F-22 fighter jet, not promoting policies that allow powerful lobbying corporations to rob foreign countries of their natural resources in the aftermath of needless wars.

For every job opened up there are still 5.4 unemployeed workers that could fill it.

While the recession in 2009 ended with over 4 million jobs cut from the economy, it is the beginning of 2011 and unemployment is still encroaching on record levels. With free trade and the United States wholeheartedly opening itself up to the global market economy, these jobs that have been cut are not coming back. In this global free market economy you can now hire phone tech support in India for as little as 1$ an hour and pay a manufacturing worker in third world countries for as little as $.26 an hour. Under a global free market economy system, large corporations simply lack the incentive to invest in the U.S. labor force and are pulling their billion dollar industries out of our country. It is as if the heart of the industries that supported the American middle class for a hundred years have been sold out in dark back alleys by the super rich to virtual slave labor outside our borders.

President Obama has claimed in his state of the union address that America needs to, again, reinvent itself. That America must rise to the occasion to train for the jobs and industries of the future by embracing new technologies and build our economies around them; but America is already losing the race in creating the next generation of innovation with a 24th in ranking out of the 27 industrialized nations in graduation rates. Even though Obama may talk big about changes, he is powerless in his position of government to actually make the changes needed to reverse this trend in abysmally low national education standards. Only the states and local governments have the ability to make the changes necessary in education, but without an influx of large amounts of funding and with strong and immediate incentives to spend it effectively, the crisis in public education will enviably take the back seat--as it always has--to the more immediate needs of the States' base of local voters composed disproportionately of the rich and the elderly.

It is clear America's laissez-faire approach to economic governance is lacking in its ability to effectively deal with the economic crisis bearing down upon our nation, especially if the answer to future stability is thought to lie in better education. If this is the case--as logic surely dictates that it is--one can only hope the entire public will become aware enough, soon enough, to starting voting locally, electing local and state representatives that have foresight, that care about the general well being of the population to make changes for the greater good. Because now, with the all rich corporations--Americans gave birth to, nurtured, and put their faith in--bailing out on this nation, and without the entire nation taking drastic measures in educational reform with the utmost urgency, this generation will bear witness to what was once the greatest country, the one that championed capitalism to begin with, become just one more of the world's countries made third-world, sucked dry by the inherent exploitation of the for profit machinery we created.

Stepping Stones to Apocalypse

On this very day five years ago, the United Statehood of America was declared a nation. And, it has been five years since the Informed Citizen Amendment and the Civic Responsibility Amendment was added to the restored Constitution. No one could have guessed the United States-- the greatest world power ever known-- could have fallen so quickly and so thoroughly, only to rise again, renewed, as it stands today the most fair and democratic civilization to ever be realized in the history of mankind. The United States of America that once held the national symbol of the Eagle, that Eagle has been reborn as the Phoenix in our newly formed nation, United Statehood of America.

This is the only nation ever known where every person is eligible for citizenship and in which every citizen can be found participating in every election national and local; a nation where the meaning of the word poverty might have well have been forgotten; a nation of the highest level of education has ever known to exist in a population, where every citizen has guaranteed the right to an education unrestrained by financial circumstance. This is a nation where every citizen is guaranteed the opportunity to rise to be among the wealthiest of the world, a fully democratic nation made incorruptible through the design of the most enlightened and seasoned citizenry to ever attempt governmental design.

As the United statehood of America is a freshly formed nation forged from the decayed ashes of the catastrophic mistakes of the Empire of the United States of America, today is a day to remember and reflect upon the events that have led to this point of rebirth, fated this recent pinnacle of nation building we all have tremendous cause to celebrate. To reflect upon events that brought the darkest of times to the brightest of empires, is to shed light, the illumination of what we have to be grateful for.

Year 2020 is marked by the complete privatization of the Empire of the United States military. A blind and ignorant population of pseudo-citizenry in the old America finally caves under push and pull of economic forces coupled with half truth driven propaganda orchestrated by a burgeoning oligarchic power center. Under the doctrine of small government and privatized efficiency, a once considered Democratic nation gives up its last remnant of real executive power. Black water--the leading vendor of corporate sponsored warfare--officially takes control of the entire United States security and military. The president is then stripped of all meaningful authority.

Year 2022 is marked by the end of all government regulation, also known as the peak of the "deconstruction" era. Shortly after the rushed deregulation act is pushed through Congress (presumably at great pressure by the newly cemented Blackwater executive), the Empire of the United States Congress declares bankruptcy. All money and funding from the national government stops. The legal system collapses. Without any way to pay state-funded law enforcement, the "Great Riots" break out. The Black water forces that had promised to be responsible for keeping the peace in times of emergency do nothing to intervene in the massive looting and chaos. Although there is much debate on their direct involvement in inciting the riots, many eye witness accounts corroborate huge numbers of Blackwater forces found in the suddenly erected decadent compounds guarding the richest of Americans.

Year 2023 after one full year of rioting the Empire of the United States of America becomes fully incorporated all government function bought out and privatized. Law and Order is immediately restored by Blackwater securities after the sale of the last share of corporate Empire of the United States of America stock. The Constitution is amended, giving corporations’ super-citizenship status, allowing corporations to act as sovereign bodies having legal authority over the property they own and the subjects contained within that property. This time is often referred to now as the “false hope” year, the brief period America seemed to be restored to normality. Not even before a full year passes before economy begins its renewed descent.

Year 2025, unemployment reaches 80%, marking the total collapse of the labor market. Automation and technology make unskilled in semi-skilled labor worker obsolete. Poverty plummets to record lows dwarfing the “Great Depression” in scope and impact. The first phase of what is abbreviated as the “purging” is enacted. "Work" camps are put up all across the country. The hungry and disenfranchised are lured to these camps by the millions with promises of food and jobs, isolated from the rest of the world in remote inhospitable locations.

Year 2026, over 30% of all newborns are severely afflicted by one or more of the following: deformities, mental illness, and mental retardation. Deregulation of pollution and the extraction of natural resources have led to the contamination of all ground water. Untested industrial agents permeate the entire environment as all checks and testing to their use is eliminated. It has been recently estimated, clean up will need to go on an additional 200 years at the current rate before environmental contamination levels return to their pre-deconstruction amounts.

Year 2028 March 22, the edict is passed down. Lists of names are sent out. Everyone on the lists is given the technocrat classification after they are genetically IDed and registered in the database. Everyone on the lists are asked to give referrals by written recommendation to any not yet called that should be considered for technocratic status. New lists are passed down. The process repeats five times. The final warning to be classified and IDed goes out on July 17^th. Two weeks later Swarms of Blackwater security forces descend upon every corner of American civilization and take away all persons not identifiable as technocratic. It is presumed by the later found physical evidence that the Blackwater security forces and the large chunk of population they took with them were sent to the ever-growing militarized “work” camps. This is often referred to as phase two of the “purging”.

Year 2033, the American Automatic Homeland Defense Security System or AAHDSS becomes active. “Work” camps are last seen to any living eyes as momentary bright spots on the distant horizon. Recovered infrared video footage from the un-maned automated defense air unit "Firebird’s" output video stream shows hundreds of square miles reaching upwards of 2000°C by way of its weapons systems. The human component to Blackwater securities is thought to have been completely eliminated in what is called phase three of the “purging.”

Year 2036, Technocrats hack the AAHDSS to reveal threats of imminent nanobot attacks to themselves through intercepting radio commands that target everyone on the technocratic genetic ID database with the ruling class using the database as a kill list. Technocrats crack the AAHDSS remote and turn AAHDSS against its former controllers before they are all successfully assassinated. The summary of these events is known as phase four or the final phase of the “purging.”

Year 2036, All corporate entities are dismantled and stripped of all legal entitlements. A new constitution is written and ratified declaring the birth of a new nation to be called the United Statehood of America. This constitution based largely upon its predecessor but has key differences enacted to deter its nation from befalling a fate similar to its predecessor.

The Informed Citizen Amendment is meant to serve as a safeguard to reinstitution of oligarchic control:

Informed Citizenship Amendment

1. In order to conduct ones’ self legally in all affairs regarding government and commerce without restrictions all persons must be active and registered citizens.

2. To be regarded as an active citizen one must remain informed and participatory in national and local government to be defined reasonably by national and state governments respectively. Any non-citizen able to demonstrate the ability of informed participation will be declared a citizen and given active status upon the citizens’ participation in the next government election.

3. All non-citizens under the age of 18 should be considered dependents under law. All non-citizens over the age of 18 shall be considered deviant under law. All citizens found to be inactive shall be considered truant under law.

4. The state is required to provide the most reasonably convenient circumstances for all citizens and potential citizens to participate in governance and achieve active citizenship status. Anybody of government found to be ineffective in this regard shall be considered negligent and impeachable. Impeachment can be carried out by any significant complaint by citizens and/or non-citizens. It is state’s highest priority to ensure the education and participation of its present and future constituency.

The Civic Responsibility Amendment is meant to channel the excesses of greed to the constructive purposes of raising the standard of living of the whole of society:

Civic Responsibility Amendment

1. Any citizen having income excessive of a comfortable lifestyle shall be given responsibility to actively and successfully elevate the lowest persons in regard of standard of living to a meaningful degree relative to their means and abilities. If such citizen as having income excessive of a comfortable lifestyle neglects this lawfully entitled duty it is a state’s right and duty to deny them of their citizenship.

2. Any citizen found to seek and gain by causing harm and hazard to the public and can be proven to be creating an overall negative effect to society or environment shall be considered negligent and it is the state’s right and duty to deny them of their citizenship.

While the pitfalls of this newly constructed nation have surely yet to be realized, it is with great pride that this author maintains his own concept of civic responsibility and informed citizenship, to do his part in the assurance of a future nation worth living in.