Every blogger worth his or her weight in superfluous verbiage (or bioactive fertilizer) should routinely test his or her blog's post-comment footer.

Dear Bloggers of the World:

Every blogger worth his or her weight in superfluous verbiage (or bioactive fertilizer) should routinely test his or her blog's post-comment footer, with its exciting buttons, logos and links.

-- Douglas Castle

p.s. Fellow bloggers...when did you last check yours? It appears that ours is handsomely aligned with multicolored rectangular buttons, many of which may be useless, but all of which are, at very least, nicely decorative. Besides...buttons add to the semblance of buzzworthiness! My chest is just swelling up with pride. Please check your blog's post-comment footer. You'll have me to thank.

p.p.s. Join The National Networker Companies and our growing, evolving GICBC - It's free, and timely. Click on http://bit.ly/JoinTNNW

The Valuing, Respecting and Caring For the Individual Human Being - A Restoration of Basic Decency

This Article was written by TNNW Featured Columnist Douglas Castle and was originally published in The National Networker Weekly Newsletter. You may subscribe to this Newsletter free of charge by clicking on http://bit.ly/JoinTNNW

The Valuing, Respecting and Caring For the Individual Human Being - A Restoration of Basic Decency.

Dear Friends, Colleagues, Members and Human Beings Who Treasure Their Humanity:

The situation is evident. The fact that the situation has largely become embraced as "the inevitable status quo," and does not rattle our cages and make us kick and curse is plain pathetic. It fills the polluted air with the additional stench of burned dreams, accepted sorrows and hopelessness. 

Decent citizens of the United States and  citizens of other industrialized nations who have followed our example (rather like running in front of the next bus after the first one has already crushed your best friend) have become too complacent wih having lowered their standards for Human Conduct, for Government and Corporate Integrity and Responsibility, and...worst of all...for their own value and impact as participants in the process of shaping the future by having a say in it. Most Human Beings perceive themselves as victims rapidly surrendering their fate to self-proclaimed, increasing insensitive and unresponsive "rulers". 

Our society sadly accepts the wholesale mistreatment and disregard of the Individual Human Being, each unique, each with special gifts, and quirks, and dreams and hopes. We quietly lament. We listen to rhetoric. We hear reports of outrageous abuses of power. We forgo any and all of our freedoms in the interest of protection from terrorists -- ironically some of these "saviors" whom we have empowered to run our lives are terrorists in their own rights.

We quietly crave change, live with fading memories of "better times", and live a quality of life that grows worse. We don't have revellion - we are becoming as institutionalized as long-term prisoners. We are letting our lives, our rights, our choices and our futures be handedled by strangers who have no Human interest in us; no interest in or appreciation of our ability to contribute and to participate -- they want us to simply shut up and pay for their mistakes as they herd us around like cattle or sheep. They do as they please, and we exist to help them propagate themselves, their exclusivity and their own insular power. We don't work to better ourselves...we work to benefit them. And when we are no longer stron enough to do the heavy lifting that comnes with menial servitude, they throw us out without a second thought.

Ritualistically robbed of our self-esteem, dignity and our voices, we are a species in great danger. I am concerned for all of us - I believe that as a Human Being myself, it is incumbent to save myself and take as many people as I can recruit to save themselves as well. I am more than just an animal to be taxed, and prodded, and milked and then sacrificed. I am a Human Being. And I resent being turned into a servant and a robot. Do you? Well...do you?

An irresponsible socio-economic social sytem that ravages its constituents is eventually doomed. After a time, it is like an engorged parasite having so fully depleted its host, that it no longer has access to nourishment. If it hasn't a new host (i.e. if it has destroyed the society that hosted it), it too, will die. Nothing survives a relationship that is so one-sided that it kills the weaker party.

I am a champion of the GICBC (the Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community) as an alternative to the entire "us" and "them" system. Here are some of the reasons:

1. Stakeholders (i.e., shareholders, owners) not have to compete with employees, consumers and Society-At Large. Instead of competing, we should be collaborating. Simply put, employed persons give value, and receive wages. They use those wages to a) purchase the products and the services provided by the companies that these shareholders own, and to b) invest in some of those very companies. We are inextricably commected.

2. Shareholders are not villains. Dissatisfied employees (and the unions that frequently extort dues from them) are not villains. A small group of greedy people who have direct checkbook access to these companies are the ones who vote raises for themselves while their stock is plummeting (hurting all of the "lesser" owners of stock), while their employees are being fired en masse.

And the government (moving ever closer to Mount Olympus and further from those of us who are mere Earth-bound mortals) gives these greedy folks assets (for which the public will eventually pay), and [wink-wink] charges them with the responsibility of "lending out more money, creating jobs, improving efficiencies, policing themselves better, reducing prices," and other lofty tasks. Hello! These greedy folks simply keep the money for themselves - there is no actual incentive (moral suasion? B.S.!) for them to do anything more.

This is not altruism by any definition... it is short-term, self-serving unmitigated thievery. Our government gives these insiders a reward for their depraved indifference and inhumanity, and we wind up paying for that reward to our own detriment and eventual destruction. Sometimes don't you feel as if we were living in The Matrix movie? 

The only incentive to permit this kind of governance and to comply with its directives is FEAR. We the people have, by abdicating our responsibility to be brave, proactive and vocal, have allow a government to metasticize. It does not serve us. We serve it. It a small group of insiders who are very, very averse to change -- they enjoy their elitist benefits.

And here you thought that slavery was illegal, that due process of law was every person's right, and that (quoting Gordon Gekko) "Greed is good."

Greed is not good -- especially when it involves legalized stealing. Ambition (unless motivated by a lust for power or control) is good because it stimulates innovation, thought, productivity, collaboration, contribution and self-betterment. In sum: better people in a better society.

3. Employees are consumers. No jobs = no wages = no consumption.

4. Shareholders are also consumers. No 401k = no wealth = no consumption = no further investment.

5. Banks were once lenders. No credit or loans to the private sector entrepreneurial enterprise = no spending = no business expansion = economic and emotional depression. Now banks simply take their "free" money and invest it in higher executive salaries and governmnet debt. This is a fiscal twist on waste recycling, but with a commission.

6. The ordinary citizen has no voice in government, or in his or her ultimate affairs. Voting has become a "lesser of two evils" scenario. In light of the recent Supreme Court ruling regarding corporate campaign funding and sponsorship, perhaps it is now a "richer of two evils" scenario.

7. We don't have fireside chats and village meetings anymore... at least not real ones. Decisions are not made with open debate and a popular vote -- they are made behind closed doors and handed down to us like "words from on high." We are not interactive. Leadership has lost touch with its troops. In fact, leadership sends its troops out to die in the interest of gaining power or money.

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Can you imagine a system where the following basic rules applied? :

1. The employees and contibutors all became stakeholders (with profit-sharing and ownership), and had a genuine right to vote, and to even call for a special vote;

2. The employees were rewarded financially and through recognition for entrepreneurship; creating intellectual property; developing technologies which fostered efficiency, sustainability and created a demand for greater new skills and new jobs;  generating greater revenues; for reducing expenses; improving the quality of life for employees in terms of health protection, career advancement and financial security;

3. Revenues came from a diversified group of sources, so that there would not be a dependency upon any one in particular;

4. Employees had a credit union which helped them to become or remain homeowners and consumers, as well as savers and investors;

5. Employees were, in large part, consumers of the organization's products and services, in an enhancement of sustainability and re-investment of profits ;

6. Where collaboration and teamwork were encouraged, and where each individual was accountable, but cared for with dignity.

Yes. I'm talking about a change. I'm speaking of a new form of entity which restores some of the fundamental ideas and principles which have made virtually every great social and technological advancement possible. I'm speaking of the GICBC... The Global Interworked Cooperative Business Community. You can, and should Google that.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle
http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com

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This "Recovery" is Giving the field of Economics a bad name.

This “Recovery” is giving the field of Economics a bad name.

Dear Friends:

Perhaps it’s time we divided economists into two separate groups. No, I am not talking about supply-side and demand-side economists, or about fiscal policy proponents and monetary policy proponents.

The division (or distinction) should be between “W” economists and “M” economists. “W” economists are those bright, well-spoken (and well-compensated) economists who hail from either Washington or Wall Street (both are locations well-known for pushing and printing paper and propaganda), while “M” economists are the “Main Street” bunch who actually step outside of their offices and observe the economy. This latter group has a tendency to be a bit more conservative…perhaps even a bit more (dare I say it) realistic. They are not cheerleaders and manipulators – they are observers, analysts and reporters who have a propensity to deal with the truth in present tense, as opposed to the “W” crew who are wont to engage in wishful thinking.

If the United States is “recovering” from the worst of the recession, well, then my bulldog craps kryptonite.

Speaking of which, the following piece is excerpted from an item which crept into my email inbox from The Daily Reckoning.

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Eric Fry, reporting from Laguna Beach, California...The recession is over. Everyone says so. Well, not everyone actually...just economists...especially economists from Wall Street and Washington.

In a research note entitled, "Return to Normalcy," John Silvia, Chief Economist at Wachovia, gushes, "With the war against the Great Recession over, our newly reappointed head of the Federal Reserve now seeks to take us back to normalcy in the financial markets. Let's trust that he too ushers in a decade of prosperity.

"After World War I," Silvia explains, "American voters longed for a return to normalcy and elected Warren Harding, whose administration began a decade of economic growth. For Ben Bernanke, the return to normalcy we expect will lead to at least two years of economic expansion but with some volatility along the way."

Okay, so two years is not quite the same thing as ten years. But at this point, most Americans would settle for two months of "normalcy."

"Two important indicators - industrial production and leading indicators index - suggest continued economic growth," says Silvia, explaining his optimism, "Industrial production registered its seventh straight increase and these data suggest the economic recovery began in the second quarter of 2009."

Upbeat macro-economic projections from the likes of John Silvia illustrate that economics is less a "dismal science" than a "faux science" - guided by prejudice and misguided by personal experience.

Of course the economists on Wall Street believe the recession has ended. Why wouldn't they? Former Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, shipped enough taxpayer money to Lower Manhattan in 2008 to employ every Wall Street economist for life...along with every Wall Street CEO, proprietary trader, managing director, vice-president, secretary, security guard, lunch-runner, limo driver and yoga instructor.

Similarly, the economists in Washington have absolutely no reason to doubt that the recession has ended...because the recession never arrived in Washington in the first place! Government employment in the Greater Washington DC region has jumped more than 10% during the last eight years, while retail employment has gone nowhere. And this divergence has accelerated as the recession has deepened!

Unfortunately, the employment trends depicted in the nearby chart are not the trends that typically produce national prosperity. If government employment were to continue rising while private sector employment fell, the economy would become less productive...at least that would be our guess. (Picture the post office operating every McDonald's in the land).

Thus, the recession may be ending for Wall Street economists and government workers, but not for anyone else. Adult male workers, to name just one conspicuously under-employed group of Americans, are hurting big-time...

"Male employment (aged 25 to 54 years old) plunged 114,000 in January and is back to levels last seen in June 1996," observes David A. Rosenberg, an economist who toils neither for Wall Street nor Washington. "Almost 10% of what was once considered the 'breadwinner' part of the workforce has been extinguished during this recession. How could anyone realistically be excited about recovery prospects knowing this?"

Furthermore, Rosenberg notes, "the average duration of unemployment rose to a record 30.2 weeks from 29.1 weeks in December; and for the first time ever, we have more than 6.3 million Americans (up from 6.1 million in December) who have been looking for a job with no luck for at least six months. That is an unprecedented 41.2% share of the pool of unemployment... The level of unemployment today, at 129.5 million, is the exact same level it was in 1999."

Not surprisingly, therefore, your average American laborer is noticeably less optimistic than your average Wall Street economist. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index plummeted from 56.5 in January to 46 this month. Even more telling, the "present conditions" component of the index dropped more than 20% from January, to its lowest reading since 1983. At the same time, the "business is good" component of the index dropped to its lowest reading in the 43-year history of the Consumer Confidence Index.

If these are the signs of recovery, it is a very strange recovery indeed. ####

Okay. I don’t necessarily agree with or endorse everything these chaps say, but in this particular case, they are absolutely right in both their assessment of the economy-at-large, and of the economists who are breathing their own ether.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

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