Favorable Economic Geometry

This work contains adult content, themes and language and may be unsuitable for children. Rated ‘R’ due to the extreme presentation of controversial theories and knowledge. The knowledge presented in this work was based on knowledge I have accumulated over many years. It is the stance of the author that this work is ideas for your consideration as true or false, useful or invalid, redundant or valuable. The goal is to gain study friends in the college library by providing reasonable proof that the author is intelligent, capable, creative and motivated. Written in less than one month in the Summer of 2005 to meet this goal and the below purposes, the point is stressed that the author seeks to ally with peers, not outperform them. This means the author is interested in YOUR success in school, not in simply getting the highest grade. The author’s ultimate goal is to administer an online University because the author wants to focus his efforts towards helping others reach their goals of proficiency by way of portfolios of achievements and extensive social interaction involving mainly in-context knowledge and effective learning technologies that are “fast, better, easier and cheaper” (Perelman, 1992?). The web site for the online University is www.digitallearningtools.org

The purpose of this work is to inform by keeping an interesting flow, and entertain while presenting information to help encourage readers to take responsibility for their lives and futures. This is to be accomplished by asking to be considered for a position as a co-author of educational and cultural works and/or to barter to better oneself and others and/or to study together with the author. Now, for the beginning of the research paper:

The most desirable jobs not only tend to be the safest and healthiest, but also pay the most. In this multi-disciplinary work, you will be taken on a journey as this and related topics are examined in a concise and analytical approach. I will include peripheral issues, not limited to disability, education, human needs, and relationships, reproductive rights, television and two authentic passages from ancient poems from India.

In the end, I will give a suggestion of action that may be desired in light of this work, and there will be a brief message from the sponsor of this work.

For thousands of years, services and products have been directed at placing one person, or at most a small group like in theater, into activity. Some jobs were in farming. In 1850, 60% of the working population were employed in agriculture. Now, that number is 2.7% (Rifkin, 1995).

Technology destabilizes this trend of civilization. Historian Will Durant defines civilization as “social order promoting cultural creation.” (Durant, 1954.) With the advent of the printing press, manuscripts no longer had to be painstakingly copied one at a time, by a scribe or monk, handwriting every letter and symbol. “Little or no use was made of writing in primitive education.” (Durant, 1954.) For the first time in history, at the Lowell mills in New England at the turn of the century, we could produce fabric for clothing a magnitude of times faster. “One hundred fifty workers were successfully replaced with 64 robots and two humans supervised them at Victor corporation in Japan.” (Rifkin, 1995.) Victor Corporation makes Camcorders.

Norbert Weiner, credited as the father of cybernetics, warned “if these changes in the demand for labor come upon us in a haphazard and ill-organized way, we may well be in the greater period of unemployment we have yet seen.” (Rifkin, 1995.)

At Lowell, they used a different geometry. One operator of the machines could do the work of hundreds of manual laborers. One mechanic could do the work of hundreds of operators. The inventor could do the work of hundreds of mechanics. And so on. At least in this hypothetical illustration of the economic geometry at work here.

“[Consider cigarette makers:] by the late 1880s the continuous-process machine was producing 120,000 cigarettes per day [using the machine invented by James Bonsack in 1881.] Most skilled hand-workers were only able to make at best 3,000 per day.” By 1885, the machines could meet the U.S. consumption of that particular tobacco product. (Rifkin, 1995.)

The point here is that depending on what your contribution is to society, your impact will vary widely. “Because individuals and families are economically dependant upon each other and upon decisions and behavior of far distant people, and because these patterns of interdependence evince themselves as patterns of employment, job opportunities, prices and all other indices of social life, such patterns of behavior in effect tend to give one the apart from the life, being and purpose of the people who make up the community” (Sufrin and Buck, 1963.)

“[Due to technology] the likelihood of finding enough work for the hundreds of millions of new job entrants appears slim.” (Rifkin, 1995.)

“People who have lost their jobs have been found to be more anxious, depressed, unhappy, and dissatisfied with life in general” (Leana and Feldman, 1992.) When a person loses their job, they undergo various changes, all are generally negative.

Generally, when your work is considered beneficial – that is, other are willing to pay for it – you can live on your own efforts for a livelihood. But if you polish one shoe at a time or invent new shoe fashions, you and your families will live a very different lifestyle.

Consider a story about American society, where surgeons are used as a humorous, yet slightly serious, metaphor for how law is handled in contemporary America. As Thomas Jefferson wrote to Abbe Arnoux in 1789, “The execution of the laws is more important than the making of them.” (Torricelli, 2001.) (By no means am I meaning to single out doctors or any group, but instead wish to make a parody of our American values.) If everyone was an expert heart surgeon – or patent attorney – there would be physicians picking up trash by the highway wearing yellow safety reflective jackets (unless a doctor decides to change the jackets to red, since the human eye can detect red fastest of all the colors, for improved safety) unless something radicle happened. Humanity is obsessed with trying to satisfy emotional needs with material possessions. “Here we use the term disease to describe any illness or imbalance of the spirit, mind or body– a state of being at odds, unbalanced, uncontrolled.” (Pennington, 2004.) An endless need for material possessions is a disease. For instance, consider gold. “The Hindus seem to have been the first people to mine gold.” (Durant, 1954.) It is a fairly useless metal but it is rare. Because of its rarity and no other real merit, and rarity touches humankind’s need for power of acquisition, something as intrinsically valuable as common sand is elevated in value to entice men and women to kill each other for it, or at least be exploitive and manipulative in efforts to possess more and more of it. Love knows no limits, as does greed in an opposite manner.

“The human brain is evolutionary primed to seek out and respond to what is unexpected or novel–new information coming in from the outside world that is different from what it expects” (Katz and Rubin, 1999.) In return for such novel experiences, the production of neurotrophins is increased (Katz and Rubin, 1999.)

As Teilhard de Chardin once said, “Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world will man have discovered fire.” (Childress, 1985.)

Now, back to the story about the doctors as a homogeneous population. Capitalism in America is based on a balance between jobs and those workers to fill those positions. Education is designed to make graduates rare, to give them a better return on their (or their parent’s) investment in academia.

This is done overtly with class ranks, and subertley with grades. It is a process articulated by design to degrade the self-confidence of most students into deciding “school” or “education” is not for “them.” Sadly, examining the case of Walmart, you might concur. That company is richer than Bill Gates of Microsoft. Yet they pay many of their employees so little as to make necessity food stamps. Because of this, tax payers are subsidizing Walmart, as money is siphoned out of community businesses and residents, flowing into Walmart corporate vaults, presumably.

Wal-Mart appears to involve its one million associations into the decision making process, but does not pay them for what they contribute. Consider what the past (and present?) CEO Jeanne Jackson of Wal-Mart once said, “If you think you can only make decisions with the CEO, your wrong. And if you think you can only make decisions by doing presentations to store managers, you’re wrong. Everybody in the chain who has some kind of decision-making authority needs to understand the business [as it relates to them.]” (Citrin, 2002.)

Although I have some sharp words about Walmart, my point is not limited to just them. In fact, most schools are designed to churn out people who are best suited – by years of education, not by nature – to hold corporate jobs, such as those in customer service or as a secretary. (Kohn, 2004.)

Those who are distracted due to different or higher intelligence, may drop out, and settle for work at McDonalds. Those with enough motivation to complete the training of school, may get a degree in accounting, management, or supervisory positions, and customer service. The dropouts may work in a grocery store if they are lucky, or litter pickup if unlucky. The least paid tend to be farmers and migrant workers.

A major goal of this report is to assert that there is another way. It is a way of the future, and the sooner we embrace and accept it, the sooner we will not only have a world with less suffering, but will be safer and more desirable to live, work, relax and socialize in.

With suffering of one group comes insecurity of all those better off. Homeless people are constant reminders to youth to stay in school and battered women to stay with an abusive man.

When everyone has what they need for survival, they are much less likely to rob or mug for food. Homeless people live very uncomfortable lives, and for a few cents they risk their health by going through trash for bottles and cans.

Suffering leads to drug use, as does poverty. If needs for food, housing, work and recreation were met, we would probably nearly end illegal drug use indefinitely.

By sharing resources more, people will be happier, and less likely to elect a president who is more accountable to his sponsors to his campaign than to the well-being of the nation. Interestingly, Bush has connections to test development and publishing companies, (Kohn, 2004) in addition to allegations of conflicts of interest with the Carlyle group and his investments in Saudi Oil worth an estimated one billion U.S. dollars.

A more desirable, but not perfect, America would have the government invest for more in technology that ameliorates human disabilities, advances science and makes work safer, with repetitive jobs in factories greatly subsidized by government research and robots, instead of using tax payer money to find more ways to kill, maim, and injure.

At first, it may cost more to retrain a factory worker from assembling a car component to become a robot repair technician, or perhaps an inventor. But the question should not be “if” but “when,” and if we agree it must happen, if we assume the cost to train them would be comparable from year to year, and if training them 5 years later results in 5 years fewer until retirement age, then it makes sense to begin building more vocational training centers without delay.

Now, back to the doctors picking up trash. Would well-disciplined and focused men and women take turns with little pickup, or make it a felony to litter. Or would they vote a group to do the litter pickups based on some arbitrary trait like eye color, or height?

The doctors would probably take turns picking up litter, but find it too “burdensome” and resort to making dropping litter a felony.

They would probably execute a few colleagues, because they very high expectations for themselves, and therefore others. At the least, there would be inmates in prison, but feeling death is more humane than life in prison, they may try to persuade each other, each thinking ideas and values must be right.

The last, arbitrary judgements, are probably correct. This is because our schools don’t usually teach democracy, by example, of students being TOLD what to study, read and believe. A doctor would have a lot of education, and thus engraving of authoritarian values. How often do you remember a doctor asking YOU for your vote on something?

The story depicting doctors was used not because they are more evil or selfish than the rest of us, but because of the comic potential which I developed to show a point: that the premise SOME people must do undesirable jobs, instead of our technology, is false.

Our technology is broad here, to wean both electronics (computer, robot, machines, tools) and process changes (rethinking needs, goals, resource use.) “The first goal proposes that technology should be used to provide a context for learning about science (and other school disciplines,) and also for developing an appropriate attitude toward personal uses of technology both and out of school... The second goal acknowledges the rich opportunities technology education offers for enhancing vocational and technical education” (Raizen, Sellwood, Todd and Vickers, 1995.)

It is therefore my assertion that humanity needs to have knowledge of technology, since ignoring its unstoppable presence will only be met with constant disruption.

Technology is here to stay. It helps define who we are as a society. It can and does empower us.

Technology boosts economics. Take for example E. Edward Demming, 1900-1992. He is credited with empowering the Japanese post WWII to become leaders in quality and affordable technology. (Anschutz, 1995.)

Pre-WWII, Japan had a reputation for low-quality electronics. They were generally assumed to make worthless trinkets. But Demming, however, trained and educated them in the 1940s to change their economic approach. They now make Quality a top priority, because of facts like $12 Billion yearly is wasted in the U.S. on poor quality and defective parts, for instance. (Anschutz, 1995.)

There was a story, where an American company had purchased some parts from a Japanese supplier, and named 3 defective parts per thousand. When the shipment arrived, the Americans discovered 1,000 good parts, and 3 individually wrapped defective parts. The Japanese company included a letter, which showed puzzlement at why they wanted 3 defective parts at all (Anschutz, 1995.)

In the industrial age, large amounts of unskilled labor were available as workers went from work on farms to textile mills. This allowed the start of what may be termed the age of consumption.

In Capitalism, prices are more often based on the cost to exploit a resource, not on the costs to the environment, costs of renewal or recycling, detriments to human health or native peoples.

An example of this is the child laborers of the early 19th century. They often did dangerous work, such as working with lint dust or, in a more extreme instance, dipping sticks into a sulfur compound to manufacture matches. Unfortunately, many child got burns from matches igniting or respiratory aliments from the lint dust.

Around the turn of the century, the first child labor laws were enacted by the U.S. Congress. Today, certain industries are prohibited for children, including handling hazardous chemicals and construction work.

Politicians further put limits on hours worked per week for children. In the U.S., a child 16 to 17 must get a letter of permission from the school system in order to be lawfully employed.

Sometimes work and school can be mixed. Private, for-profit companies are appearing, promising job skills with an income. A premise is that because learning is in-context, doing projects for profit can provide learning quality comparable to governmentally funded and run schools.

Because the quality of such an education would vary widely, due mainly to the type of projects undertaken and the goals of the company, a simple good or bad classification would be difficult.

Let’s examine two extremes: Customer Service and Persuasive writing. These two extremes apply not only to children, but also adults of all ages. However, with children, the differences are more pronounced. Further, for children under 16 years of age, the education/work may leave a more intense impression on their personality and development. In any case, compared to the typical harm done from traditional schooling, the learner’s self-confidence may be better off in for-profit schools than most typical, government-run schools.

Lets say Walmart wanted to start a for-profit school. With $58 Billion in assets, who could stop them? But anyway, they would probably want to teach “customer service,” which might include these principles:

Arrive to work on time. Supervisors don’t like to have to wonder who will come to work or not. This will permit better structuring of labor for that shift.

Don’t leave early. This is important so the productivity does not collapse each day during shift changes. This means better efficiency, and therefore profits.

Follow instructions. Without this, employees could be far more difficult and costly to get to do more boxes, stock shelves, take out trash, stand behind a counter for 4 hours, or whatever the supervisor instructs.

Stay focused. This includes suppressing creativity, daydreaming and profound communication. Safety is a legitimate concern when moving boxes or using box cutters, but what about the other 95% of the time? Here is an analysis:

Creativity is a dangerous skill to most retail stores. Creativity is empowering, and is reserved for the rich. When someone is creative and writes a novel or nonfiction book, they become powerful. They have changed their Economic Geometry in such a way that instead of earning, say, $9 per hour at Walmart for a lifetime of dedication, they might earn $3 per e-book sold. If they manage to sell only 120 books a week, they would earn the same income per week from royalties than working full time. With some quality in the books design and editing, plus some effective advertising, they might sell 10 times the numbers given in this instance. If they manage to sell paper books and some rights to other publishers, they may earn many times more than 10 times this instance!

Consider the story of Phil Kaveny, who works as a janitor, but also is a science fiction critic and conference organizer as his way of contributing intellectually. As he put it, “Acting as an intellectual entrepreneur in a field like this gives me access to a realm where people, ideas, theory, and practice can interact– a place where a janitor can work with editors and authors and professors because we’re all intensely concerned with the way this literary genre reflects today’s social realities, and tomorrow’s” (Gross, 1982.)

So, you may see, employee creativity can be very bad for businesses. But creativity is a basic human capacity, for which is the basis of all intelligence. Albert Einstein once said in effect imagination is more important than intelligence.

Daydreaming is akin to creativity, except that it is more dangerous, because it is applied creativity. This means daydreaming can take the focus of visualizations and long-term goals.

Visualization is used by many Olympic athletes to enhance performance. Consider the example of a Bulgarian expert in autogenics: SUPERLEARNING 2000.

Long-term goal setting is disruptive to the employers. This is because many low-paying jobs are meant to be temporary when applied for in the mind of the applicant, but after a while a routine is developed, thus the meaningless work is accepted, and the self-confidence is broken. Because long term goals can lead to re-entry into college or independent study, employers tend to lose those workers permanently, or to accept them back as managers with much higher pay and benefits.

Many employers reject perspectives at hiring time due to “over-education” or “over-qualification.” This is common, and is based primarily on the premise, whether fair or not, that an unusually intelligent – hence creative – applicant is hired, they would be dissatisfied quickly, and the job taking an investment of time, money and resources, would be wasted amount to lost profits.

With the right knowledge, anyone can make a company more profitable. Consider Reengineering: “American Express has reported reducing its annual costs by over $1 billion through reengineering; AT&T’s Global Business Communications Systems unit turned a nine-figure loss into a nine-figure profit by reengineering its processes for manufacturing, servicing and order fulfillment; Progressive Insurance reduced the cycle time of its claims from weeks to days, dramatically improving customer satisfaction while considerably reducing costs, fraud, and litigation. Reengineering has helped the company increase its revenue per employee by over 70 percent” (Hammer, 1995.)

Profound communication is probably the single greatest threat to an employer’s profits in the service sector. Let’s state what is not profound communication: talk of the days tasks, of the weather, of vacation plans, of movies watched or music listened to.

Profound communication indicates the talk of emotions, reasons, principles, values, dreams, hopes and generally results in an emotional bound between two people, often without regard to age, gender, background, disability, education, race, politics or national origin.

Profound communication is all about connecting intellectually and emotionally. It often requires no more than a willingness and sincere desire to listen, and share in an honest, open and direct way.

But our words in English were not built for Profound Communication. “Language was originally made by men who were not psychologists, and most men today employ almost exclusively the vocabulary of outward things” (James, 1890/1950, page 194.)

Often “exaggerated claims have been advanced for the importance of metacognitive knowledge... these claims stress the practical utility of knowledge about cognition for the execution of various problem-solving performances–for example, knowledge about memory for remembering, knowledge about language for speaking or reading. I doubt that the early metacognitive knowledge characterized in this chapter has much direct bearing on the child’s use of various cognitive strategies to enhance the outcome of specific cognitive performances.” (Forrest-Pressley, MacKinnon and Waller, 1985.)

In the U.S., most schools don’t teach how to communicate emotions, or how to be open, honest and direct.

Not only do most of us deny acknowledging our emotions, we fail to use logic well either. “Beginning in the 1960s and continuing to this day, there began an explosion of research by cognitive psychologists trying to pin down exactly why these mistakes in reasoning occur so often.” (Bennett, 2004.)

Profound communication is not popular. Why? Because the outcome from such communications often are unpredictable. In Capitalism and business, value is placed on deciding on what you want from others, then giving only necessary communication to get what you think you want (or deserve.)

But there are heavy costs. These include not getting what the other person had to offer, which may have been more desirable than what you pursued. But what if you get something less useful from the person than had you been more accepting and receptive and thinking of there good nature and judgement?

Here, we might talk about God and religion, and that by trusting in God will value all problems. In fact, that may be true. But this report is not about whether or not to believe in God.

Granted, the mind is very powerful, from a scientific perspective. Even if you don’t believe in God, you may agree that the mind can turn thought into physical reality.

Take, for instance, the power of positive thinking. Cases exist where people have won large sums of money, gained healthy relationships, even reached “impossible” career goals by nothing more than reading, and believing, a list of positive changes they wanted to materialize.

Why positive (and negative) thought can be so powerful is yet to be agreed on by scientists. But why it works is irrelevant to deciding to take personal responsibility for your life. In fact, such initiative may have significant and powerful benefits to your health, relationships, income and quality of life.

The definition of what a quality and rich lifestyle is may vary widely, not only between people in different cultures, but among people in the same community. (Douthwaite, 1999.)

Over the past few centuries, significant advances were made in sanitation and production of goods. Fewer than 6% of Americans today are farmers (Rifkin, 1995.)

Advanced technology is only a few decades old. The computer, for instance, is less than half a century old, but already an integral part of our, and other, cultures and civilizations.

Technology, no matter how advanced or old, is merely a tool to which humans can use to meet needs, both basic and imagined.

The advertising industry has proven its commitment to condition people of all ages to accept artificial and imagined values as their own.

With an annual budget of billions, they hire creative people to persuade the masses to believe and accept that certain products and services are better and superior. Often, the messages are subjective at best, or factual fallacies the rest of the time.

Many bright, creative people work in advertising. Ironically, the intelligent producers are selfish most of the time, seeking to line their own and families pockets with money each week. And profitable their ads often are!

Michael Crockin, author of Jurassic Park, once wrote that “individual intelligence has no proven survival advantage for the species collectively.”

Humanity has a record of using privately possessed cognitive ability to impose their will onto others. Often, this will is for a desired mate, money, resources or territory.

It has been said that had Albert Einstein been truly the world’s most intelligent man. Had this been true, would he have instead sought a peaceful conclusion to the Nazi regime, instead of resorting to a war on mass destruction to kill the so-called “enemy.”

Too often, people think it is ok to kill someone because they killed someone else. But that tarnishes all those who carry out the execution.

What if the convicted might be innocent. Or if DNA evidence 5 years later or a confession clear their name, but only after they have been put to death?

What do you say when a soldier’s conscience leads him or her to refuse to continue to kill? Do we kill them for refusing to kill, simply because our government says someone or some group is the “enemy?”

We may live in a very irrational world. But civil liberties were much of the world outside of a small number of “advanced” countries are much weaker and less developed.

Politicians seek to preserve the social order of the nation, even if it means starting a nuclear war. Take, for example, North Korea. They had a politician threaten to use weapons of mass destruction against the U.S. “In order to preserve our way of life.”

People can get owned by their technologies. Throughout history, men and women have given their lives so as to preserve the culture, or tribe, from which they feel they belong.

What does this mean? That we are afraid of change that will not only end the life of an enemy, but voluntarily give up our own towards that goal?

What is at the root of this? Most likely, basic human drives and needs. They include: the need to sustain the human race, the need for meaning and the need for basic resources like food, water, and shelter.

As awful as it might sound, cheating on a spouse is actually good for the gene pool. This is because extra marital sexual relations adds new life to society, which will have natural uniqueness and strengths. Of course, it is unlikely one of these strengths will be monogamy, but after all the faithful (step) parent may heave more of an example than biology towards infidelity.

A little radiation can help humanity by causing more variation in the genetics. In this way, certain learning disorders and organ malfunctions may help humanity, by giving a number of people with special needs, to occupy governments with something other than funding weapon design with its best doctors and scientists. In the end, it may be the disabled who save the world, in their own special ways.

Of course, many unusual chareristics have there own set of advantages, for both the disabled individual and for society.

Thomas Edison, for instance, was labeled “learning disabled” and was considered “unable to benefit from education.” But he, after 2,000 tries, later said, “I learned 2,000 ways NOT how to make a light bulb.”

Abraham Lincoln, despite having mental illness, helped abolish slavery in the U.S. Disability means “distinct abilities” and is intrinsically neither good nor bad. Like a computer, how you use what you have is what truly matters; a computer is not made good or bad. The program and attitude of its user are the resolute factors.

Now back to the discussion on the need to continue the human race. This need provides inspiration for dating, flirting, and this drive mingles with the need for security and understanding to permit marriage.

Cheating is based on the need for understanding that is un-unfullfillable. It is an emptiness that a spouse can not currently fill.

But that emptiness CAN be filled, by using profound communication. Chiefly, the couple need to trust each other with the need for understanding. They will need to speak to each other on how they feel: about not only each other, but about every day experiences, there dreams, hopes and values.

Even doing such, the couple may discover they cannot connect at this time.

With about half of all marriages ending in divorce, it may be true that many people have sold their soul for that new car, house, and jewelry. Instead of focusing on building their inner-self, relationships and knowledge, they focus on getting more money to buy material wealth.

Indeed, many people focus on giving while at church, then exclaiming about money: getting more quicker, better and easier.

Sadly, they betray not only themselves, but family and friends, and even business associates too.

Capitalism may be the most freedom embracing governmental system the world has ever known, but we need to open our eyes and take responsibility for our development as a complex and complete mature human being.

Money is essentially a way to focus, and thus direct, the actions of others. Precisely, with money, a person or company can have a strong influence on what others do, say and think.

The world is all about whose will is more dominant and powerful. Those with less education or money have less representation in government.

The Trade Unions are important not be they seek to keep wages fair, but because of the psychosocial value. Namely, money can make life easier, and having a job can make life more relaxed. But the best benefits of Unions are the sense of belonging and cooperation. This, plus seeing evidence that they are earning 1/163th of the highest paid employee is very comforting, considering that in the U.S. the highest paid employee can earn 326 times more than, say, a hard-working single mom who scrubs bathrooms ten hours a day to support her two teenage children.

With cooperation, greater success can happen. Consider Starbucks, which donates to CARE regularly. In 1991, “they were a $20 million dollar company and CARE was a worldwide relief organization.” By 1998, Starbucks has sales of almost $1 billion. On the Starbucks-CARE alliance, CARE president Peter Bell said, “[the alliance is ] having more richness to it than other relationships.” Likewise, Starbucks chairman and CEO Howard Schultz said, “We have to weigh what’s affordable against what we think is right. That’s why we keep giving to CARE even when the profits are tight.” (Austin, 2000.)

The disparity within a company in amounts of pay is 4 to 1 in Japan, which is ranked as the world’s leader in terms of having the most egalitarian economy.

The premise of disproportional pay is that to get a good CEO, they will need to be paid hundreds of dollars per hour. This is based on the scarcity principle of supply and demand. A chairman may think, “If I don’t pay John $350 per hour, GM will hire him and it will cost us $385 per hour to do business at noon, so we are justified in paying John up to $385.” That chairman would probably conclude that $350 or even $360 per hour for services of John would be a good deal for the company, even possibly a bargain.

As logical as this system of pay may sound, it has a serious flaw. Consider this:

A CEO has worked for a company for 38 years. His son is 27 years old and has been in and out of college. The CEO then appoints his son a position in the company. Because he has worked for the company for decades, his appointment of a family member is not challenged, at least by anyone with any real power in the company. Do you think the job for his son will pay well? Or have unfair advancement potential? You get the idea.

An isolated situation of pure fiction?

Here we have a system designed to attract well qualified CEOs (or attorneys, doctors, etc.) But instead you get many abuses of the system where social connection and money lead to unfair practices in the work place.

This whole system is based on the premise that with more and better credentials and experience (to a lesser degree than credentials) predict effectiveness for a job and therefore profit margins.

Lewis J. Perelman said credentials should be “outlawed.” He suggests that college degrees “cloud progress.”

If he is correct, then we may suspect that a hiring system where a prospective has a certificate of competency with not a degree name and now advanced, but a list of competencies with projects they completed, books read and papers written along with an abstract is far more useful and fair to all.

College degrees are the result of a new law in Europe in the 12th century, which provided schools the right to test and award degrees. Because of computers, the Internet and powerful learning technologies, deciding if someone earned a degree or not based on grades and courses may not be the best option for learners or employees (Sloan, 2004?.)

Learners should be empowered from schooling. This means they should be more able to focus their creativity, utilize their intelligence for the benefit of self but with restraint, and be competent, compassionate, loving and lovable human beings.

Employers deserve to be able to find a worker for the job that can actually do the work with minimal training. This means an employer should not have to train a worker to read so they can help edit the employer’s books.

Schools should make a transition from degrees, grades and credits, to in-context learning, development of good communication skills, the ability to be emotionally expressive (Profound Communication) and a list of completed portfolios of achievements.

In this way, an employer will see a prospective employee more as a person with a skill set, then to think “who might they work well with” to achieve an order of magnitude jump in productivity.

If you were an employer, would you prefer to hire an editor for your book of poems who got the highest grade among 10 applicants with a B.A. in English or would you be better off choosing based on individual skills.

Individual skills for an editor of poems may include one with a background in writing from an early age (shows genuine interest in literature,) prefers to write poems over essays (shows a preference for creativity over analysis) and is a parent (shows a higher emotional maturity.) If your poems are generally about observations about growing up in poetry form, then, a match with the above may result in better quality help then simply choosing someone on the basis of degrees, grades, school and cost.

American education is too concerned with self-serving structures. It is more often than not optimized for making incomes for administrators and educators, not for the benefit of students. Evidence of this is in the millions of dollars in the test making industry, while a fraction as much funds go to provide much-needed child-care for single parents wishing to return to school.

Competition can be harmful. “Underachievers do not cope with competition well... and may not even become involved in an activity unless they’re almost certain they’ll win” (Rimm, 1995.)

You may say, “Administrators and teachers deserve good pay because they are providing a valuable service no one else can do.”

First, everyone deserves good pay. Everyone is equal in intrinsic value and should have equal access to resources that allow one and there family to survive. Administrators and teachers are neither more or less valuable than a medical doctor or janitor.

Educational software can help learners of virtually any age to gain new knowledge and competencies, as well as track perspectives and help suggest when certificates have been earned.

If all the certified teachers in California went on strike for 3 months during January thru March, alternatives would be more liberally used over teacher to student interactions.

When much of a labor group leaves a geographical location, more students study to achieve the goal of replacing them. In the mean while, other members of that trade will relocate, at least until the students studying that trade graduate.

Computers continue to become cheaper and faster, smaller and easier to use, not to mention more commonly accepted and even necessary for businesses and consumers alike. This means software will continue to have both more demand and more competition.

This competition helps drive down prices, which is good for business and home consumers. Competition also helps to motivate developers to make more stable, secure, feature-packed and fast software applications.

Many companies will be forced out of business, just like in other industries, including education.

Traditional education in the U.S. today is pathetically inefficient at empowering students as “capable, compassionate, loving and lovable human beings.” (Noddings.) Alternatives exist which are significantly more beneficial for both students and employers, and as a community we need to demand change to education, first by discussing it, then taking action in lawful ways, then evaluating our efforts.

Education is a business run for corporations, paid for by taxes by mostly – you guess it – corporations. It is all about doing what it is told by the community. Unfortunately, big business has more clout in politics than mid to low income tax payers. In short, most schools are more dedicated to paying the employers and suppliers than on focusing how to best empower the students to have a future that agrees with the GOALS AND VALUES OF THE STUDENT.

Some alternatives to the defective education system include computer and online learning, peer to peer instruction/mentering, small democratic groups of no more than 5 students, the shopping-mall concept and facilitator/teachers who may resemble more a friendly reference librarian than an instructor.

My company, USALL Systems, is currently developing educational learning and testing software. It will allow free learning without using the Internet, and for a small fee can connect learners with other learners to help make learning more fun and in-context with puzzles and games. The games will be in real-time with real people, who may be next door or halfway across the world. The software will track progress and let learners know when they have earned a course credit, certificate or degree. Achievements will be legally recognized via accreditation with leading organizations.

Peer to peer learning is based on the theory that when someone is anticipating helping someone else learn, they are more motivated because the learning becomes much more relevant, thus the content is in-context. Plus, substituting a negative experience (being embarrassed in class for being confused or daydreaming) with a positive (being important to the learning of another human being) can be a powerful force in both peer’s lives.

Peers (usually within 4 years of age for children) also have the advantages of being far less intimidating. One of the biggest benefits are the psychological impacts.

These impacts are prone to boost self-confidence, memory, happiness, understanding, motivation, creativity and communication skills. Let’s explore each of these impacts:

Self-confidence is believing, with good reason (based on the past,) that a certain outcome can be attained from deliberate action.

By helping a peer to understand and become competent, with a repeatable track record, the learners share knowledge, thus may develop a trust in themselves that they CAN expect good result or achieving an objective when it is realistic (matches their experience, knowledge and resources like time and money) and they decide to attempt it.

Memory is being able to take in data and recall it without improvement or embellishment. This is good for mathematics and law primarily. When helping another person learn, the one gaining knowledge can remember faster because the context becomes meaningful by association. Hence, because the peer is human, they are important. Being deemed important, the other peer doing the sharing may conclude helping the peer learn is also important. When learning is important, it becomes in-context, which results in “quantum improvements in efficiency:” speed, scope, motivation and focus. (Anschutz, 1995.)

Happiness is probably the most important quality of a peer to peer system, at least for learners and their parents. Without happiness, no amount of money or education will make life enjoyable for the learner. Consider all the teen (and adult) suicides in the U.S. Something has clear gone awry in many people’s lives.

By having Quality interactions with multiple peers, both as sharing to, from, and equal sharing, social skills can develop (provided the peers are allowed to talk about themselves, too, about their concerns, goals, dreams, fears, experiences and hopes) thus affecting the brain chemicals in both peers, and even their immune systems for better health of the body.

Understanding is important, as it is the basis of competence (with the addition of experience and creativity.) Understanding is typically achieved when a learner is able to successfully apply knowledge in some meaningful way. I.Q. tests measure the volume of facts, not understanding of the subject taking the test.

So often, our schools churn out graduates who lack many necessary life skills. Simply put, they waste time learning to regurgitate facts instead of learning the essentials: how to learn, how to communicate, how to be “a compassionate, loving and lovable friend or parent.” (Noddings.)

American homes are full of drugs more dangerous than alcohol, at least in terms of the pursuit of healthy minds, families and children. It is called Television, and it is responsible for being the single greatest threat to humanity, exceeding nuclear weapons and HIV/AIDS.

Television “instructs” its victims to buy things they don’t need, to vote for people not on merit but by how many times they can afford to sponsor your favorite show, to be preoccupied with abnormal psychology without the necessary background or proper content, to look “fashionable” instead of like oneself, and most insidiously, to accept the ideas of program writers and advertisers over reflection, reading, thinking, writing letters, talking on the phone or studying for school or for independent study. Television’s victims may lose intelligence, creativity and social opportunities, but may gain weight, depression, health problems, reduced self-confidence and inability to concentrate. Research shows that TV alters brain waves, and affects the immune system adversely.

Where are our great nation’s next generation of geniuses? Are they becoming real estate tax attorneys instead of physicists? (AOL, 2005.) Or are they a cashier at the grocery down the block earning money for their next “stash,” a cable television monthly payment, as their drug of choice?

The Internet is our greatest hope for salvation as a species. Originally designed as a military communications system to deal with devastation from a nuclear war, it has become a savior for humanity.

A nuclear detonation on a city may cause a lot of damage locally, but won’t destroy satellites. Only a high altitude nuclear detonation can do this. The most famous example was project Starfish Prime near Hawaii. “A small nuclear warhead was detonated in the ionosphere, causing thousands of televisions, computers and even street lights to fuse.” (Childress, 1985.) This phenomena is known as an EMP. This stands for Electromagnetic Pulse.

Already in the U.S. the government has found a way to emit a signal in one billionth of a second without a nuclear detonation, to fuse electronic circuitry. This technology, they argue, will allow fleeing suspects to be stopped with less danger to everyone. Causing the engine to fail is believed to be far less risky than using a spike strip, especially on a busy metropolitan highway.

Unfortunately, with every technology, there are risks. Persons with heart pacemakers will die from a strong EMP. In fact, microwave ovens emitting only small levels of EMP radiation are hazardous to users of pacemakers. Apparently, the government is willing to take those risks, endangering innocent pedestrians and travelers who might be too near at the time the EMP is emitted. Many communities have laws which tell police to not pursue a vehicle for minor infractions if such pursuit might be a significant danger to public safety.

Television is good for the law enforcement industry, by glamorizing material belongings and power, while at the same time neglecting to show how wonderful caring, mature human relationships can be. How often do you see two people hug on a basis of an emotional connection, as opposed to a confused impulse, other than happily married persons?

The primary theme of television is how to be a good consumer. Only rarely will one be able to view anything about WHAT it means to be a good consumer or WHETHER or not it is a good thing.

Consumerism can add significantly to a nation’s Gross National Product (GNP). But many experts say a high GNP does not always guarantee a good quality of life. Bartering, for instance, can improve the lives of groups.

Consider a 16 year old babysitter. She could work minimum wage of $8.50 per hour putting cans on a shelf, thus add to the GNP. Or, she might care for her neighbor’s 5 year old, get paid $7 per hour, but not have to pay income taxes, pay for a car or ride a bus. Plus, as a babysitter, she can intermittently do homework. If you were that 16 year old, which would you prefer?

Not everyone shares the same definition of “quality of life.” Does it mean an easy life? One with many friends, or an intimate or significant other? Do you have it with a good education? Or a meaningful life? Or one that is exciting? Or a predictable life? Or to have many luxuries? Probably one or more of the above agree with you experience. What if you have a meaningful life that is difficult? Or a significant other who makes life very difficult? Or to have a good education but no friends? Maybe you have one or more not listed above.

The media teaches us that easy is good: easy TV dinners, easy to use computer software, easy to find, easy to do. But wait: home-cooked meals are usually healthier, software that is more difficult for users may have more features and stability at lower cost, when your home is vandalized, the last thing you want is for your valuables to be easy to find (second only to human and pet safety,) finally easy to do means functionality is reduced and cost increased.

Even more deadly, we are given the notion that relationships should be “easy.” Easy for what? To follow a sequence in a mindless fashion: seek, meet, date, buy diamonds, marry, have children, buy a bigger house, finance big debt with loans and credit cards.

In San Diego county, about 25% of the teenage girls are mothers. This may suggest that they allowed their boyfriend to be intimate. To be liked by that boyfriend, these girls were purposely “easy” to help preserve their relationship, usually with hopes to advance it to become more stable and long-term.

The “easy” or “hard” framework of thought makes relationships linear: either they are more or less. This cheats both men and women of all ages from more fulfilling and meaningful interactions, by making romantic relationships point towards sex, instead of emotional connection, spiritual growth, and sensory based relationships.

Sex, as discussed earlier, is empty without a context, just as are letters in a Scrabble game don’t mean anything until organized into a word. Sex is programmed into human thought to lead to the creation of new life (physical) and emotional, spiritual growth of the partners, thus making shared sensory expressions desirable.

Sex can be powerful, in that it also “uses every one of our senses and, of course, engages our emotional brain circuits as well” (Katz and Rubin, 1999.)

Sex (and pornography as a perceived step towards sex) is the bait that can lead to profound maturing and development psychologically and socially. Therefore, sex is like a nice meal that gets you to voluntarily attend school. While at this abstract school, you develop as a person and may become a parent.

Parenthood not only keeps humanity continuing, but givens purpose to all the emotional and spiritual growth, and a generation of wealth can then be shared with one’s progeny.

But the children also bless the relatives as well, especially their grandparents. Virtually every grandparent feels a strong joy to see the children of their offspring.

But other relatives may be happy, too. Life is about dealing with problems, not avoiding them. By being a relative, the number of people whom are canedates for getting advice, helping with careers or food, and allying with increases.

Former U.S. president, Benjamin Franklin, for instance, accepted one of his relatives as a confident and business partner for many years. Relationships of sharing in business are easier when the two people are related and already have some trust to build upon.

Trust can be built up with non-relatives, too, but often doing so takes more time. But if both people are honest and interested in each other, then the relationship can advance. This is true for sexual, emotional, spiritual and sensory (a.k.a. “physical”) relationships alike.

For sexual relationships, a deal breaker can include lying, invalidating feelings, and disagreeing on money or the number of children to have.

For emotional relationships, a deal breaker can include not accepting the partner’s emotions or values.

For spiritual relationships, a deal breaker can include not acting with integrity or by rejecting cherished principles.

For sensory relationships, a deal breaker can include misinterpreting the physical contact, or by pursuing the sexual element too aggressively. This kind of relationship is also known as a “physical” relationship. However, I have put a slant on it to include the same qualities of sexual, emotional and spiritual relationships, because otherwise, a purely physical relationship would be rather empty and purposeless. An exception: certain massage therapy and energy healing work.

Television teaches that the emotional and spiritual axises are non-existent, while the sexual is a deemed reward, and that either can be bought with money, as a good job, good education or good stature in the community by being rich or having an expensive car.

These values are compatible with selling cosmetics to women, to get men with more money. Men are not alone in wanting sex, because it can lead to emotional, physical and spiritual relationships. The longing for those needs that sex can lead to makes women want to be sexy and attractive, so they buy products made from slaughtered cattle, and whale fat, and other chemicals. This is a concern among some scientists that eye liner and lipstick may cause Mad Cow Disease, a rare but fatal disease for which, like HIV/AIDS, has no known cure. But usually can only be detected with either a brain scan or a biopsy of the brain. Mad Cow Disease results in a steady decline in mental ability until the victim is total senile and dies.

Then there is plastic surgery. Women get breast implants, fat removed and nose reductions, as common procedures. It is a medical fact that more than 25% of women with breast implants report reduced or total loss of feeling in the breasts. With liposuction, there is a reduced length of time the body can live without food, or heat, as fat is essentially protective tissue. With an operation on the nose, a lot of money changes hands, but there benefits are not proven.

If someone does not accept how you look today, how can you expect to remain important to him after age 30, when most women gain 5-10 pounds, or when you get pregnant and gain 15 pounds post-pregnancy, on a semi-permanent basis? If a man loves you today for who you are, is that better than spending thousands and only being desirable for a few years, then becoming a single mom?

It should be noted that research shows women with cosmetic surgery are significantly MORE likely to attempt and die due to suicide. Plus, silicone implants can leak, and are suspected of causing immune system problems and pain, as well as unsightly permanent damage to the skin.

If you have $2,000 and want to attract a desirable man, why not use that money to take a one or two month vacation from your normal job and attend some classes at your community college, while using the Internet to email some interesting men (or women) using a site like www.match.com and make update a blog on www.yahoo.com During the weekend, you might go to parks (and perhaps a beach) and ride the public transit system while smiling, and saying hi to those of your liking. (Men, you, too, may want to try some those steps instead of going to get a hair graft.)

For women, appearance is important to get attention and emotional, physical, spiritual and sexual needs met. For men, hair implanting has that too, plus often want to appeal younger.

Men’s pursuit of a youthful appearance is because they want to attract younger women. A young woman as a wife or girlfriend helps him feel younger, so he can pretend he did not waste most of his life on worthless things, like excessive material wealth and traditional education. A secondary reason is that younger women tend to be less independent, and so his career and education are more valued by a 20 year old than by a 40 year old woman.

The main reason men cheat and divorce is because men feel younger with another woman, which gives the man a false sense of being about to step back in time. Again, there is a desire to recover from years of education and a career that was most certainly not satisfying or pleasant for him.

Education is usually designed to require a lot of time and money, so the test makers can make big profits and so there are jobs for the graduates of the “meat-grinder” system that grades people as those they were cattle or gravel used for a road.

If you argue against traditional education, most college graduates will feel offended. You would be attacking their ego. It is fact that when a terrorist interacts with a hostage, over a few hours the hostage starts to get offended when the terrorist is insulted by the very people attempting to recover them safely by negotiating with the terrorists.

The ego is a protective voice within all people. It seems to ensure our basic needs are met so that we can give to others. When property harnessed, it can keep us from being so giving as to have nothing to meet our own necessities. However, it can be neglected, and theory make unreasonable demands on what we aks or expect from others.

Because of this, the ego has developed a bad reputation as demanding too much of our mental energy and as being a promoter of selfishness.

To help dispel this allegation, we can examine the mentality of a 3 year old baby. As she matures, she will be better able to share toys. Infants are extremely insecure, so they have a very active ego. But, they have not yet learned to be a Capitalistic adult.

A Capitalistic adult has learned to disable his ego, and instead replaces it with a limitless need for more money, a better wife, smarter children, a nicer car, a better job and longer vacations.

Such a mentality is an exercise in futility. Had the ego not been suppressed, he may instead want to meet his human needs, using a fraction of the resources, then his ego could make him concerned about his image, so he might volunteer at a homeless shelter, and donate to charity in greater amounts. Further, his ego may lead him to want to develop his personality for the selfish reasons of being a better husband, dad, employee (or employer) and citizen.

The ego is important to humanity because it helps him or her to want to be in balance with others. In our hunter-gatherer days of hundreds of thousands of years ago, the ego kept tribesmen and women from having the audacity to abandon the tribe or be totally non-conforming. In other words, the ego makes us want to fit in enough to co-exist peacefully, as it regulates our giving and accepting of gifts from others. Therefore, the ego is important throughout both pre-history and today and shall remain beneficial without end.

When the ego is not healthy, it can prevent us from experiencing love. The purpose of this is to solicit using our actions to make things right: this may be as simple as crying in the arms of a good friend, talking with a good friend, talking with a caring therapist, or writing a letter or in a journal or an Internet Blog (e.g. www.yahoo.com ). In many cases, persistence is rewarded and necessary.

The ego seeks to protect our reputation. Our reputation is the second most valuable thing you will even own: your body is number one in importance. This is accomplished by being concerned with how others perceive us. The third most important thing is our mistakes; they are resources for us to build with, as successes are far less useful in terms of building who you are.

The ego’s primary protection is for the body. Without food, water, shelter, air and other humans, life simply could not continue. The ego can trigger fears to help shield us from risky situations, especially that which could lead to us being injured or killed.

Whenever we read of the “ego preventing love” we can translate that to mean “there may be unresolved hurts which may temperately block our experience of love, so we need to probe our inner thoughts and emotions to reach our full potential as loving, compassionate, lovable beings.” Both translations are interchangeable, but the former uses more words, thus the previous is preferred since it is only 3 words long versus 33 words. Precision is not always necessary.

Sigmund Freud had some wild ideas that, over the years, have become increasingly controversial and disputed, including his notion of the Id, or ego, element of the human mind. It is unfortunate so many men and women have accepted his unfounded ideas for so many years. Reevaluation Counseling (RC) draws a sharp contrast to his misguided theories, but that too requires time before it either is given under merit.

Speaking of wild ideas, consider abortion. No other animal terminates a life on the basis of an anticipated future. Normally, new life must fight the elements, including other animals, to survive.

One of the aspects of love is that the two people become very concerned for each other, which motivates them to give of their time, effort, resources, and safety to help sustain the life of their valued person. This applies to lovers and platonic friends, children and relatives equally.

The reality of this caring is an emotional bound and – some instances – to the death one while caring for a loved one. Many other animals exhibit this behavior, which serves to help maintain survival for the species.

Whether or not abortion should be legal is a book in and of itself, and is definitely beyond the scope of this report. However, no life should be terminated for actions that appear noble but are in fact based on false premises.

First, it is assumed that because a pregnant woman has responsibility, she can make a decision for the baby.

Second, if the baby is born, will have a full life.

Third, the baby will be unhappy (or even resentful) being poor of his or her parents in adult life.

Fourth, adoption will lead to an unsatisfactory home and future.

It is my position that the woman should have the right to decide her fate including when and if she becomes a mother. However, some suggestions for policy makes and those with an open mind follow below:

The U.S. government should absorb much more of the costs of maternity. Being a parent should not be limited as a privilege of the rich and middle classes, primarily of the post college graduates. Denmark gives its citizens up to one year of paid maternity leave, for both the father and mother. They are a world leader in maternity benefits.

Abortions due to low money should be curtailed. People with money are often lucky with rich family or some connections, or submit to the education system. Surely, some of the poorest babies will be valuable to the fabric of society with some great invention, research or other contribution. Of course, all people are important, just some allow society, and a civilization, to advance more rapidly. Farrah Gray, at age 14, became the first African-American teen to become a millionaire. His mom was on General Assistance, a form of Welfare from the U.S. government. (Learning Annex, August 2005.) Often, the poor can be very compassionate and giving for the benefit of others.

Technically, a fetus is made of human deoxy-ribonucleic acids (DNA), but lacks what most of us characterize as human: A personality. This argument used with stem-cell research.

Stem-cells are believed to be coaxable into producing new organs for the sick, that exactly match the DNA of the injured patient. President Bush opposed this research strongly at first, but is becoming more moderate as of August 2005.

The three U.S. states with the least restriction on genetic and human cell research are California, New York and New Jersey. Biotech companies flock to these three states.

Biotechnology is a new and powerful technology. It holds the promise of a world with no hunger, little sickness or suffering. But it can create viruses more deadly than the HIV/AIDS virus.

It has been alleged that HIV/AIDS was present in green monkeys, which were willfully infected with the Polio virus, slaughtered and their kidneys harvested.

The kidneys were then pulverized then the viruses either killed or weakened. Jonas Salk and his rival Sabin made substantial wealth on these medicines, called “immunizations.”

Besides a very small number of people (mostly children) getting sick, a few of these died, presumably from the immunizations. However, medical doctors in the 1970s-80s listed very few reasons for death as being linked to the immunizations. Many opponents of immunizations point out that fact as proof of a conspiracy. To the defense of these opponents credibility, they often did research and found out information at their own expense. And yet, activists like Ida Honorof claim they got a mail fraud filed against them, in a unfounded allegation against the U.S. government’s USPS. This made mass mailings of literature difficult, because in the late 1970s the Internet was not existent and first class cost twice as much as bulk mail.

Whether the drug companies were honest may be a mystery like John F. Kennedy’s true killer. But it is not generally disputed that the drug industry makes Billions of dollars each year (that is several million dollars every day!) And they are probably allied with the Food and Drug Administration of the United States.

Take, for example, herbs. Humans have been using plants for thousands of years. Many animals use plants for medicine, too. As many as 25 percent of prescription drugs contain an ingredient derived from higher (flowering) plants. (Foster and Duke, 1990.) Elephants have been observed to consume distasteful plants while ill. Interestingly, those medicinal plants are not eaten for food by them.

Many foods have medicinal properties, too. “Sow Carrots in your Gardens, and humbly praise God for them, as for a singular and great blessing” was once said by Richard Gardiner, circa 1599. “Carrots may be a prime bet for blocking cancer, especially smoking-related cancers, including lung, lowers blood cholesterol and prevents constipation” (Carper, 1988.)

In the United States, it is illegal for health food store employees to suggest or recommend medicinal herbs, or risk losing their license to sell herbs. This obviously protects the profits of investors and the economy. Seeing that herbs cost so little, much less tax is generated from a peppermint tea to treat upset stomach than a prescription medicine.

Speaking of the economy, the system is setup in such a way that there are more workers than jobs. This is achieved mainly by the 8 hour, 5-day work week. Many Trade Unions would tell you that if every American worker had employment per day of no more than 6 hours, or 30 hours a week, there would be work for nearly everyone who wants work. Plus, less money would be spent on health care, due to fewer accidents, less eye strain and wrist injuries from typing, and families would be more rested, resulting in a greater happiness for parents and more time helping them with homework and learning. It is therefore your author’s stance that 30 hour weeks are improvements for replacing full time positions.

By the way, homework is said to have some negative effects, such as “loss of interest in academic material and physical and emotional fatigue,” among others (Kralovec and Buell, 2000.)

Common problems for elementary, secondary and college students with school and socialization include “severe deficits in basic academic skills such as reading, spelling and math; generalized failure and below-average performance in content area such as science, social studies and health; deficient work-related skills such as listening well in class, note taking, studying, and test taking; passive academic involvement and pervasive lack of motivation; inadequate interpersonal skills” (Means, 1994.)

The amounts of funding for education often varies widely, even within a relatively small distance of miles. Take for example, in East Aurora, Illinois, students may get for high school as much as $7,800 or as little as $2,900, simply because of the neighborhood were they live (Kozol, 1991.) Although these figures were fact in 1987, evidence suggests a similar trend continues today.

In our future, our technology will increase to the point that only a small few will need to work while the rest of us pursue ways to donate and volunteer out time for the betterment of our community and world. And, perhaps, our next generation will explore our solar system and attempt to populate and transform planet Mars.

Experts often agree that we have the technology today to colonize Mars, but we lack the political drive and commitment to actively embark on this novel dream, but that may change soon.

When we do send humans, we might want to pick criminals, such as those sentenced to death. Indeed, Christopher Columbus on his second voyage sailed with a fleet that included many convicted criminals. This seemed like a good policy for England, and was based on the premise no human life would be encountered in this new world, now known as North America.

The Native Americans, as it turned out, became exploited in a way the Jews see parallel to Adolf Hitler. With force, the crew of Columbus’ voyage mutilated and killed thousands of Native Americans (Zinn.)

The English sailors wanted gold and sex, and rarely used restraint from getting what they wanted. Some time later, unwashed blankets from patients who died in England from infectious Polio, were given as gifts to the Native American tribes. Efficiently, large numbers of the enemy were infected and shortly after died. This is considered by historian Howard Zinn to be the first instance of the use of a biological weapon against an enemy the world had ever seen.

As humanity matures, we will, collectively, be more compassionate and accepting of other peoples. Let’s face it, unless a people it totally eliminated, there is a good chance some very distance relative of yours will fall in love with the progeny of an individual or race you accept or hate. Race mixing is natural and healthy. Over time, those who can be at the greater peace with all other humans shall become more prolific in influence culturally and genetically.

Every human on this Earth has equal right to be here: to have all necessities met, to have freedom and liberty, to be able to start a family and work. Race is no more than natures optimization for people within a confined or isolated geographic area. With technology, our genetics as humans is naturally optimizing with every generation to reward those who are more creative, expressive with words and nonviolence, quick to understand and possess the traits Stanford professor Nel Noddings said should be the goal of education: for learners to be “competent, lovable, loving, compassionate human beings.” (Kohn, 2004.)

Second to television as the greatest threat to humanity are nuclear weapons. Russia has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the entire Earth... twice. The U.S. has enough weapons to destroy the entire Earth 10 times.

It has been suggested by historians that nuclear weapons might have been used 6,000 years ago. This claim is based in part on two ancient Indian Epics: the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Here there are quoted from Childress’ book published by Adventures Unlimited Publishing (used by permission):

[it] hurled a single projectile

charged with all the power of the Universe

An incandescent column of smoke and flame,

as bright as ten thousand suns,

rose with all its splendor.

It was an unknown weapon,

an iron thunderbolt,

a gigantic messenger of death,

which reduced to ashes

the entire race of the Vrishnis and Andhakas

The corpses were so burned

as to be unrecognizable.

Hair and nails fell out;

Pottery broke without apparent cause

and the birds turned white.

...After a few hours

all the foodstuffs were infected...

...to escape from this fire

the soldiers threw themselves into streams

to wash themselves and their equipment.

-The Mahabharata

[it was a weapon] so powerful

that it could destroy the Earth in an instant

A great soaring sound in smoke and flames

and on it sits death...

-The Ramayana

Dense arrows of flame,

like a great shower,

issued forth upon-creation,

encompassing the enemy...

A thick cloud swiftly settled upon the Pandaua hosts

all points in the compass were lost in darkness

fierce winds began to blow.

Clouds roared upward,

showering dust and gravel.

Birds croaked madly...

The very elements seemed disturbed.

The sun seemed to wavier in the heavens.

The Earth shook,

scorched by the terrible violent heat of this weapon,

Elephants burst into flame

and ran to and fro in a frenzy...

Over a vast area,

other animals crumpled to the ground and died.

From all points of the compass

the arrows of flame rained

continuously and fiercely.

-The Mahabharata

Wrote Childress, “When Mohenjo Daro was first excavated, people were just lying dead in the streets, often holding hands, just like the ancient Indian Epics had indicated.” See page 91, of Childress’ book, for a black and white photo of the dig site showing this.

In summary, humanity has a violent history, and history forgotten is often repeated more quickly. It is therefore imperative that we reduce or avoid television, do a lot of reading and writing, try to be good listeners and friends, while taking responsibility for not only our actions, but those of our politicians. Collectively, we can change ourselves, so we can elect leaders into office who will listen to the citizens. By changing ourselves, we can change the world in lawful and significant ways. By reading a large amount of non-fiction books, you are making the world better for yourself, your family, your community, country and world.

Stop working for minimum wage, go to school or study on your own, then choose a career that suits you. Take action today: stop selling your soul to jobs that are unnecessary and possibly harmful to Trade Unions, the environment and especially yourself.

Please feel free to contact the author at 800-71USALL for comments, suggestions or questions about this work, or how to take responsibility for and improve your life forever. Usallsys@aol.com Sincerely,

Eric Sebastian Meyer August 25, 2005

Works Cited:

Childress, David Hatcher. VIMANA AIRCRAFT OF ANCIENT INDIA AND ATLANTIS. (C) 1991. Adventures Unlimited Press: Stelle, Illinois. Pages 61-62, 91 (b&w photo.) Excerpts used in accordance with publisher’s terms for extended length passages of text for the Indian Epics.

James, William. 1890-1950, Page 194.

Houghton Miffin Company: Boston and New York. Page vii.

Katz, Lawence C, Ph.D. and Manning Rubin. 83 NEUROBIC EXERCIZES TO HELP PREVENT MEMORY LOSS AND INCREASE MENTAL FITNESS: KEEP YOUR BRAIN ALIVE. (C) 1999. Workman Publishing Company: New York, New York. Pages 22 and 51.

Noddlings, Nel. Stanford University. Quoted in Alfie Kohn’s book.

Pennington, Andrea, M..D., C.A.c, with Abigail Pennington, M.D. PENNINGTON PLAN: 5 SIMPLE STEPS FOR ACHEIVING VIBRANT HEALTH, EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING, AND SPIRITUAL GROWTH. (C) 2004. Penguin Group: New York, New York. Page 9.

Perelman, Lewis. THE END OF EDUCATION. Page

Raizen, Senta A., Peter Sellwood, Ronald D. Todd and Margaret Vickers. TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION IN THE CLASSROOM: UNDERSTANDING THE DESIGNED WORLD. (C) 1995. Jossey-Bass Publishers: San Francisco, CA. Pages 41-42.

Sloan, Douglas. [from a popular encyclopedia under ‘degrees’ on pages 91-92.]

Torricelli, Robert G. QUOTATIONS FOR PUBLIC SPEAKERS: A HISTORICAL, LITERARY, AND POLITICAL ANTHOLOGY. Rutgers University Press: Piscataway, NJ. Page 150.

Zinn, Howard. A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.

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