How to Save the World
Tonight I am sick and I am also pissed off. For any of you who know me well, neither of those things happen to me very often, like I don’t think I have had a cold in around two years which is typical for me.
Here is why. There are X number of miners who are now either dead, or in grave danger, and it sounds like around 3 more who died trying to rescue them.
What was this great jewel for which these guys are risking their life or dying? Is it some universal truth?, Saving a child? Creating an eternal utility that will benefit mankind for centuries to come? All of these are things I would risk my life for. Nope, they were going underground to get coal.
Why are they going after coal? This coal will be for the greatest degree be used to be burn, which will heat water, which will boil. When the water boils it can turn wheels. When these wheels turn, they have magnets attached, which push electrons through wires. Those electrons moving through wires, is electricity. These guys are risking their lives, and/or dying so we can watch T.V., and run our I-Pods.
I am all for energy consumption. AS we speak my wife and I both have our Mac’s open, and the T.V. news is rolling in the background.
I am not one to bitch and moan without giving solutions. So here is the solution. Yes I can say this because I have been saying this for 20 years.
To preface this I love military. I love the idea of high tech equipment rolling across the tundra kicking ass on evil people. Lots of my peeps got gassed in world war 2, and my wife would have been speaking German and eating strudel, instead of Norwegian if we had not spent a grip on going into Europe to whoop Hitler.
I am all about righteous causes, and sacrificing oneself for the betterment of mankind. I have lived this my whole life, from being a lifeguard, to teaching, to being a chiropractor.
The fact that we have spent something like a Trillion dollars the last few years on wars to protect us from unknowable enemies that we can’t really put our fingers on, and that haven’t turned out to be exactly what we thought they were is another story. Not saying it wasn’t a good way to spend money. I have a lot of warrior friends who got their chance to test their training, shooting mortars, missiles, flying, and even get to drop out of a helicopter into a building and play street fighter except for real.
I am not a fan in any way of the death that took place on either side as a result of this.
All you need to make electricity is something that moves relatively frequently in quantity that you can latch onto. A common way is burning something like coal, or oil, or making heat from a nuclear reaction that heats water. Once you have steam from the hot water you can turn a wheel, which moves the magnets against the wires, which moves the electrons and makes electricity.
I had the pleasure of meeting a guy a few years ago who is one of the greatest windmill designers in the world. He was working on a bearing for the center of the entire windmill where all of the friction from the spinning is, that would hold the tons up from magnetism. This is the force you feel when you put the wrong sides of two magnets up against each other. Amazingly, it creates almost no friction but can hold a ton of weight.
What if we had given that Trillion dollars plus of war debt to help him build the best windmill he could and then crank them out by the thousands to power up the entire country?
What if we had given that money to my buddy Paul Cross the inventor who came up with a tidy idea on how to use the tide moving in and out to push a simple paddle, which spins a wheel, which makes electricity.
A few years back I met a guy who worked with his wife for a guy named Openheimer. For those of you who don’t know the name, this group spent a few months in New Mexico and created the first atomic bomb. Americans rock at getting together in small groups of brilliant people to peak stuff that moves technology in huge giant steps forward, ie: car, airplane, A-Bomb, computer, internet.
So I am pissed. I am pissed that we just blew a trillion bucks on a war with very little measurable benefit of outcome, that we just passed a health care deal that puts more money toward surgery and drugs that are not really solutions to the cause of health problems, (exercise, chiropractic, nutrition, mental health). Along with this we spent billions of dollars on companies that suck and could not make a profit. I have made a profit every week during this recession. Give me the money, or Shoemoney, or someone else in our crew, and we will make a bunch more out of it creating jobs and improving our country along the way.
All of this happened the week after I just spent 40 hours over 2 weeks making sure my taxes were as perfect, honest and tight as I could possibly make them, just so I can give away over 50 percent of my income to a government that will spend it on programs that give money to people who don’t work 80 hours a week like I do.
So how do we solve this?
Over time I will go into more details but it is this simple.
1. Don’t invest money in killing people. There are very, very few times where killing people makes things better. Hold a gun to one of my friends heads and if I have a way you will be gone in 3 seconds. Other than that, there are very, very few times it makes sense. Stopping other mass murders or genocides is usually a good time to use war.
2. Don’t invest money in treating symptoms. Unless the medical treatment cures the cause of the disease, or at least makes a massive, measurable improvement of function such as insulin with diabetics, don’t spend money on it. Treating symptoms is no more intelligent than smoking dope, or taking coke. You feel better, but get sicker over time. If people want drugs or medical treatments to help how they feel, let them work to make that money. And no, you don’t deserve any health care. God did not make us, or we were not created, with a plaque that says we will always deserve the most expensive healthcare on the planet. There just is and will never be enough money for that, just do the math.
SPEND ANY GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE DOLLARS ON THINGS THAT HAVE PROVEN TO PREVENT ILLNESS NOT TREAT IT
3. Abolish the IRS, and create a consumption tax of a fixed percentage. Everyone would save instead of spend, and you wouldn’t have to do taxes. Even if it wasted a crap load of money, which it won’t think how much time it would save, and the increase in your productivity as a result.Wow, was that so tough?
4. Stop paying instructors to talk to students. Instructors need to be there until the students learn how to read and study on their own, and then they serve no purpose. They only personnel needed for school are to keep the kids in line, and help them on how to learn. While we are on it, don’t force kids to go to school. Education is a gift, but if you don’t want it, don’t force it on them. Let them work when they are young. I did manual labor starting at around age 10, and have worked a job or a business since I was 15. It did me a ton of good. Put all of the education online, well written, and let students guide their own curriculum.
5. Keep the military, train them, buy them the best stuff, and make them bad ass and strong, but give them domestic work to keep them busy, productive and worth the money we spend on them.
6. Stop giving money to people who fail. O.K. if you are born with no arms or some unlucky tragic thing take care of them, and give them a break. Everyone else, get up and work. I promise you when I am old, my hip doesn’t work, and I can barely breathe, I will be doing everything I can to improve my life, the life of my family, my community, and my country. I totally dig this one elderly Asian man (I think Philipino), must be 70, who I see at the beach every summer digging through the garbage for Aluminum cans. Wow he inspires me! So life has been rough? Tough! Talk to my buddies like my friend the graphic artist in Manilla, Jonathan Antonio, who was working for me, literally while his neighborhood was flooding, and water was pouring in through his roof.
7. By the way, read up on drinking 2 oz. of pomegranate juice a day. All of the research shows it clears out your arteries like a drain cleaner. Don’t trust me on this, research it for yourself, but it sounds like a miracle drug to me. (Ask your doctor )
8. Take all the money we save, and use it to develop long term renewable energy sources for the benefit of all mankind.
That is enough to get started. Let’s get those things in place over the next few months, and we should be in good shape.
If you guys decide you want me to head this up, feel free to elect me and I will be more than happy to get these things in place, but you all better be ready to work ☺
Then once we have all of these things in place, the country should be humming along. Then we can show it all on some reality T.V. shows, and the rest of the world can copy us.
You have beautifully cut through all the crap and straight to the core of the issues. I 100% agree that we have to make enormous changes in the way we are running the world, lets run it on common sense rather than greed and things should vastly improve for us all. Love your blog.
ReplyThis article is nice and excellent. A great explanation about how to save the world. It is really very informative and useful article.Everyone have this question. The solution is easy to understand and follow. I like this opinions.Thanks for the posting.
ReplyThank you! Thank you for pointing out all the money being spent by our government on wars that make little if any sense at all. The only thing you didn’t highlight is the connection to oil and energy consumption that has got to be the only reason we think we need to stabilize the Middle East before we leave Iraq.
Yes, we need to harness other — cleaner — forms of energy. But that is not enough: we are fat, dumb, stupid and fairly happy wasting it. Turn the heat back one degree in the winter and a couple degrees upward on the AC in the summer — why should we need to put on our jackets to survive the frigid temps in the mall in July? Why was my friend so cold in her office in the summertime that she was prone to pneumonia? What has happened to hanging clothing outside, and why on earth do we need so much light — take a look at earth from space on any given night.
I love your comments about not investing in killing. It’s criminal — societies behaving as criminals.
No, we do not have a right to the most expensive health care in the world, especially when enormous amounts of money are spent at the (predictable) end of life. However, kids deserve immunizations — and we all deserve to eradicate disease. Kids deserve their broken arms set, too, and kids deserve effective treatment for cancers and so forth. Medicine should be not-for-profit. There is no reason on this earth that the healthcare industry should rake in the cash for its executives. Our four local hospitals did not need to be fully redecorated in the past five years.
And, by the way, why inthe world have those same hospitals installed branches of Dunkin Donuts in their lobbies? What does that communicate about healthy living?
I am with you 100% on the value added means of taxation. I believe it is also criminal that I am smart enough to have three masters degrees but cannot file my own IRS forms. Every high school graduate should be able to take care of his or her ordinary interface with government — that is, take care of any and all forms required of them.
I am not with you on education. I want to live in a society where learning is expected and required. Our standards are presently too low. I teach college level and graduate level courses and can testify that students are graduating from high school with poor reading, writing and math skills. This is impoverishing us all.
My pet peeve with respect to self-care and health care is helmets — I do not want to spend one penney of public cash on people who want to ride motorcycles or bicycles without helmets. They can be free to do that, but I do not want to pay for their six week long treatment in ICU with a coma, or their next thirty years in a facility for the head injured.
I’ll have to find out about pomegranate juice. Take care, everybody!
ReplyI’ll concentrate on health for the moment- yes, so simple. Spend all the health care money on actual health care, preventing illnesses, not by using batteries of tests leading to treatments for disease, but with health enhancing techniques like eating well, exercise and good sleep. We have become a nation of the semi-ill, filling our bodies and minds with garbage. Let’s get healthy and live productive, satisfying lives.
ReplyYeah, the military expenses are ridiculous with very little to show for them (except for contractor’s profits). It would be much better to train the military for some civilian function and use them in dual-purpose mode. This way you don’t have to go to war to use your military – they’ll be doing something useful.
I totally disagree with “stop giving money to people who fail”. In many areas only the smartest people actually create value. The rest are just dragging along. Think of the crazy startups and how much money their founders make.
The role of government is precisely to make sure that not-so-smart people aren’t left behind. This is why we should give some portion of our salary to the government.
Should we hand over our money to the wall street, who made a fortune in real-estate speculations? No. That is treating symptoms. Real estate is still a huge bubble, trying to steal money from future generations. Until we have a reasonable thinking about how much a house it worth, there is no way to solve this.
We should stop all this “affordable housing” business – easy money only push the house prices up and put people in red. The same with health care – the pricing system is totally broken. There is no incentive to cut costs and thus prices. There is no incentive to think, how to revamp the system. What if we pay for doctor’s education? What if US imports doctors en-mass? What if we use internet to prepare patient cases to cut down the visits, keep a better track of the health history and health issues?
ReplyI agree with you on most of these issues, especially the windmill idea and the school idea. I also think we should do something about companies who do background checks combined with credit checks just to get a job. Isn’t it good enough just to do the background check alone. Maybe check your references. Credit scores have nothing to do with whether you are a thief. So many companies are doing this now just for a minimum wage job in this economy with so many job losses and foreclosures. Something needs to be done. Anyone agree?
ReplyWindmills sound great. Only problem is that GE has put the price up with their back log ever increasing. Where’s competition? This technology in most part have been around for over 100 years.
ReplyWe need all the healthcare we can get. The world cant function if everyone’s sick
ReplyI think its nice to think about saving the world. and its right we must stop these wars and keep these dollars to a useful things
ReplyEveryday we heard about bombing and killing by terrorists around the world. Everyday we are moving a step closer to world war 3. When will it all gonna stop? Can’t we live in peace and harmony and enjoy the beautiful life that god has given us, in love.
ReplyIt’s very unfortunate about the miners… and even worse is how little coverage they have (along with all of the other real problems in the world).. while everyone is still covering Tiger Woods and Jesse James adultery and cheating. The priorities in the world are very bad and it will surely catch up and hurt everyone at some point.
ReplyNever saw the point in forcing children to go to school. Placing unwilling kids in a class is unfair towards the enthusiastic learners. So much more can be achieved if teachers don’t have to waste their time trying to teach things to someone who simply doesn’t want to be taught.
ReplyMost of your policies were matching non violence movement carried out by our great leader Mahatma Gandhji. Hope this world needs another non violent movement from all corners to save from brutal killings. At present world needs peace.
ReplyI agree to not invest money on killing people. But why the most of the money in the planet are invested in the war factory? Is it come from the need of people to protect them self or the need to earn more money by killing people? It’s very confusing and most of the times people invest money to war and guns to earn money by killing people and claim to do so to protect them self. It’s ironic. I have been there too.
ReplyAnd totally agree about the productivity in military and what you propose for it.
I agree with you on most of these issues, especially the school idea. Everyday we heard about bombing and killing by terrorists around the world. Everyday we are moving a step closer to world war 3. The role of government is precisely to make sure that not-so-smart people aren’t left behind. This is why we should give some portion of our salary to the government. So much more can be achieved if teachers don’t have to waste their time trying to teach things to someone who simply doesn’t want to be taught.
ReplyWhile I do agree with you about the whole “killing” aspects of war, as well as spending more on ounces of disease prevention rather than metric tonnes of medical cure, I’m going to have to disagree with you on the tax system. I mean, this might simply be the fact that you go into very little detail about it, but from what I can pull from it, said simple consumption tax would have to be unduly large to match the same governmental revenues as, say, income tax. Are there any other nations that do it this way? A little more detail rather than a passing unrelated mention on a list would be nice as well.
ReplyWouldn’t the world be such a better place with renewable energy? Unfortunately, the problem isn’t that its non-existantbut rather the major coal and fuel producers are unwilling to let go of their multi-billion dollar business for the greater good. It also doesn’t help that most of these corporations fund government officials and basically puppet representatives into doing what is in the corporation’s best interest and not the common people. A good majority of representatives in government sweet talk the public into votes and then once they are in the position to make good on such claims, they are stopped by these big businesses that threaten to withdraw their financial support unless they do exactly the opposite of what they promised the public.
Let’s face it. We need to get a hold of our government. Politics should not be a lucrative profession. They should be like teachers: underpaid yet still willing to do their job because of the love they have for the future generation. Maybe if our politicians were more genuine than what we see now, they wouldn’t be so easily swayed by a big paycheck and that is when we’ll see a drastic move towards renewable energy.
As for your proposed list, I have this to say:
1. The concept of keeping the military busy is what keeps the public interested and supportive of it. Not everyone is sent off to murder a population, yet we don’t hear about it, therefore do not care. It still boggles my mind that we raise our hands in absolute anguish and cry unfairness whenever a soldier of our nation is killed or injured and yet there is not a peep out of any of us in regards to the tens of thousands of civilians caught in the middle of a war that is not even justified in my opinion.
2. Easy said but not so easy to do. The pharmaceutical companies make so much money of of drugs that relieve our symptoms and cover up our actually diagnosis of an illness at the same time. What on earth is restless-leg syndrome? And why do I need a medication to cure my anxiety when it could possibly lead to paralysis or death? Why has diabetes not been cured yet? It isn’t because we haven’t found one, but rather no big company is willing to invest money into something that is going to kill their entire business. Let’s face it, diabetes is a multi-million dollar business now with test-strips, glucose meters, low carb meals, low carb snack, sugar-free this, sugar-free that, how to eat properly, diabetic recipes, etc… We -do- have a cure for diabetes, the labs just don’t have the funds to produce it because they are relying so much on the common people to fund the billions of dollars they need for research. Check out Dr. Faustman’s work at http://www.faustmanlab.org/ and maybe we can actually start fighting back this monster.
3. Let’s face it. The “temporary” income tax is here to stay. There is way too much money that the government receives from this. Furthermore, low income individuals will eventually have to pay more taxes to compensate for the larger income bracket’s tax breaks. Bad, bad idea.
4. Kids need to be told what to do. Hell, if I was given the option to not go to school I would have ditched it by the time I was ten. Unfortunately, these days you cannot find a job with a high school diploma or a GED unless you want to put these kids into physical labour, then you’re just asking for a beating when the child labour laws go down the drain. To fit the universal standard, education is absolutely essential. Take education out of the equation and you’ll be seeing your country fall into third-world status.
5. Good idea. Everyone needs a strong military, there is no doubt about that. The problem is what countries do with their military that leaves a sour taste in my mouth. I can see the conspiracy nuts going crazy over this one though. “They’re coming to restrict our rights! It’s martial law! Martial law!”
6. I’ve always had a problem with this. If the government gives hands-out, I would safely say that about 50% of the people receiving them are actually in need of it. Welfare is a disaster right now. The problem with changing it is that there are going to be people in need who will be short-changed. When you have a population of millions it’s impossible for them to keep tabs on everyone.
7. Same with 8 glasses of water a day and veggies, veggies, veggies. But until the over-medication stops, people will continue to take the easy way out. Let’s face it, we’re lazy.
8. Amen.
In conclusion, if it’s not too bold to say: Big corporations are evil. That’s the problem right there.
ReplyI can understand your frustration with the current system, however I think you misconstrue the fact that our healthcare is the most expensive in the world not due to the fact that it is the best (although we are up there) but due to the fact that our healthcare system is a for-profit system. Obviously it is more expensive because there are people taking a cut off the top.
I think it is appalling that you think that the wars were even partially justified due to the fact that your buddies got to jump our of helicopters…why not just go skydiving?? There was absolutely no reason to go into Iraq. Afghanistan, yes, but not Iraq.
And finally, how are you going to power cities that have little to no wind with windmills? I agree that clean energy is the way to go but I believe it is a combination of all clean energies that is the key, not just using one and going with it.
Overall, at least you care about the future, but maybe you should research your ideas before professing them to the masses.
ReplyIts a nice post on the current issue that is sorrounding the people of America.
ReplyActually this is a useful message and I want to give my message as well. We can save the world by correcting our small mistakes. Lots of silly mistakes should be avoided by each individual and then the earth can be saved easily…..
ReplyYou want to stop war, great idea. Who benefits from war? Why the arms dealer and the banker who lends the money to rebuild the country that’s been destroyed of course.
Don’t you ever wonder why it is that when you have a majority of people who are social people and opposed to war it still doesn’t stop. There must be some truly evil people working very hard to keep it going. Find them and remove them from power and you would go a long way to ending the chaos and unnecessary waste on this planet.
They are probably not the ones you think they are. You won’t find them in newspapers, look for the ones not in the newspapers, they are more likely to be the ones.
Sounds cryptic I know but the best way to find out something is to really take a look and question afew things that are taken for granted.
ReplyDave
I’m all for the development of alternate forms of energy, as I believe it is–and will continue to be–a national security issue. However, if I’m reading you right, you want to stop paying instructors to teach kids. It *looks* like you want everything online. I’m not sure that’s the best idea, but I see the direction. Additionally, your point about giving our military domestic work. Can you explain in more detail? There is a potential roadblock to that idea vis a vis the border, for example.
ReplyCheck out Reverend Billy Talen. He has been dumping Coal mine mountain tops in Chase ATM lobbies across NY since Chase finances The mountain top removal. Ask how many millions of dollars in back unpaid fines said mining company has…and yet Chase continues to lend and Uncle Sam overlooks the overdue fines. I am sure in our budget we could use the (I believe this figure is close) $93 million dollars in fines in our public coffers.
ReplyThis is a great article; very impressive.The fact that there are other options for us to obtain electrical power without causing death, black lungs or other health ailments to fellow humans, should be seriously considered by the government. This is not going to be an option that is considered; however, our government does not know how to or understand the meaning of budgeting. The easiest solutions are generally the ones pushed to the back burner.
ReplyRealize that the bigggest problems in the world have not changed much through the years. What has changed is the speed with which we find out about them. Media coverage means that the public is well informed about all events in the world. If you want to save the world use that media to get your message across.
ReplyI Agree. We Spend So Much Money On Seeminly Outdated Energy Sources. If We Spent Half As Much On New Sources We’d Have Plenty Left Over For Health Education. ect. Less People Would Die For A Meaningless Cause
ReplyInteresting article. Some of your points I agree with such as abolish the IRS. How nice it would be not to have to get those taxes done every April 15th. Also your point about people working for their money. Don’t give anyone a free ride. I do disagree on the education point about letting people not get an education if they don’t want it. Kids don’t have the common sense to realize what lack of an education will mean. As parents and adults we need to make sure they do what is in their best interests.
ReplyThis idea makes sense. It no longer is feasible (or sensible) to continue paying for symptom treating or warmongering. America needs to say no to wasting tax payer’s dollars and put money towards solutions, not wasting funds on band aid type causes.
ReplyAs for your list, the education diss makes sense.
Reply1) A soldier is trained to kill.
2) I agree. We should get rid of chiropractors. Massage ain’t gonna cure old age.
3) If you are poor, a larger proportion of your income goes towards consumption.
4) Good thing you are not a real doctor.
5) This point contradicts the first one.
6) Some people are just lucky. Some people work hard, fail, and lose everything.F**k’em?
7) Snake oil.
8) The U.S. has the largest coal reserves on earth. If wind power made economic sense, the Dutch would be energy independent.
@joe:
ReplyUmmm… Chiropractic and massage are two different things.
Wow man, this really resonates with me. I 110% agree. I can’t even begin to respond here. I feel a blog post coming on.
ReplySounds dangerous.
ReplyI agree…but just to add a little more to the subject. What about the so called “war on drugs” that money pit is even deeper then the war in Iraq. If we could toss that money in as well. Could you imagine how much that could get accomplished.
ReplyMan, you’re out there, aren’t you? How about one simple solution…just take big money out of politics. All those lobbyists are the reason we have misguided foreign policies and pay little attention to a long term prosperity.
ReplyMainly agree with this, but in particular with the final point. When there was the incentive the Atom bomb was pretty much produced from a standing start in about 4 years or so. If that sort or effort could be put into Nuclear Fusion then we’d have an effectively limitless source of electricity.
ReplyI agree with this whole post. Especially about environmental issues. Really people, do you need to be watching tv, playing on the computer, etc. all at the same time? SO many awful things could be prevented if people just consumed less.
ReplyIn response to your remark that “Massage ain’t gonna cure old age,” — first, as DK points out, massage is not at all the same thing as chiropractic. And second, I beg to differ with you: chiropractic maybe IS gonna cure old age. At least, it has certainly been turning my own so-called Golden Years (because of all the GOLD one has to spend to keep going, I suppose) into something a whole lot better than they were. Just a few examples of what has changed for me in two years of regular chiropractic adjustments:
1) both shoulders were pretty much frozen in place, unable to be raised farther than parallel to the floor, and plans were begun for surgical replacement of both, as soon as my latest hip replacement had solidly healed. NOW I CAN RAISE BOTH ARMS OVER MY HEAD — NOT TOTALLY PERPENDICULAR, BUT GETTING THERE, GETTING THERE! PAIN HAS DECREASED FROM A DAILY 6 OR 7 OUT OF 10 TO A 3.
2) my spine was a mess of non-flexibility. NOW IT IS, ACCORDING TO DK, “SHOCKINGLY NORMAL”.
3) my right foot looked like a gray, inflexible block at the end of my leg. I had no sensation in the toes or the sole, and the surgeons had said all they could offer was to “fuse it”. NOW I HAVE SENSATION ALL OVER THE FOOT, AND CAN MOVE IT ALMOST FREELY. WHEN DK WORKS ON IT, I CAN HEAR AND FEEL THE VARIOUS BONES MOVING AS THEY USED TO DO YEARS AGO. My question here is, why propose surgically fusing those bones if they were already fused together by stuck cartilege??
Could go on at great length, but that’s enough. Chiropractic may not actually extend one’s life (and that’s a debatable point for another time), but it certainly “cures” a lot of the conditions that make old age miserably uncomfortable and painful for so many of us. As a former skeptic who is now a Believer in chiropractic, I challenge your assumption.
ReplyWow, it really sucks that miners are always placing their life at risk. In response to one of the comments above, yes the media is a good way to get the message across. But they almost always only cover the bad thing happening, and not the good.
ReplyMakes a lot of sense and people to take it into consideration. I believe myself that we all should take a part.
ReplyThats intense! The government should worry more on making tech. to help with out country instead of fighting invisable enemies!
ReplyGreat article. I think the solution you outlined is right on!
ReplyInteresting article.Gives me something to think about…
ReplyI have always been an advocate of education. It is the most important form of capital, it never ends. And I am also an advocate of letting a person do what they want. I left school for a couple semesters because i wasn’t ready. But my mother forced it on me and now I have a ton of crap grades following me around. Now that I am ready for school, I have been in the past 3 or 4 semesters of returning, getting straight As. I seriously think that forcing school, especially college, on a person is a horrible idea.
ReplyDK,
These are amazing points. I can’t wait to hang out with you and soak up your DKness.
ReplyI really appreciated reading this. I’m currently attending college trying to work on this very same problem, and I love it when someone tells it like it is.
Reply