In 1000 words or less

Daily allotments of musings in 1000 words or less

[lyricalirony]

With the clickety clack

Of the typewriter/computer/phone, someone from somewhere is communicating. Be it a direct message, a post, or a tweet, there’s a special something to writing. As writing like this has few constraints.

The use of emojis are common to convey moods and feelings in a visual way. Me, I personally like text smileys and other text emojis. 

With every word that comes out of my mind and onto the keyboard, the neurons in my brain fire up my typing neurons and my thinking neurons all at once. The brain is a marvelous natural computer. 

In truth, it’s one of the reasons why I’m still unsure about my spiritual views. I don’t know whether I’m spiritual, agnostic, or atheistic. 

The reason is that the metaphysics of the universe is undefined. Science itself doesn’t see that as a problem as many scientists may be scientific absolutists. In that they believe that everything that cannot be explained with science is just rubbish.

I still think about how my brain must have to go into more complicated process to do the same thing that I do when I’m sober as I do when I’m high. This is an admission that I write high. 

I find that when I write high, I come up with better ideas inherently. But at the same time, there’s discord in the direction and tone the ideas go.

With my current mind state, I want to express just how different it is to be on a substance and to be writing. The thoughts come quick and tend to overshoot your current plans.

I’m writing now about the act of writing on a keyboard. But how did writers neurons fire when they wrote in pen primarily? It is a completely different writing experience and must benefit your brain a good deal; just as it does with typing, just in a different way.

I believe that there will always be writers and readers, they will just be a declining population. I don’t know how we can compete with movies and video games. Only time will tell.

[lyricalirony]

Greatness should be homework that’s due tomorrow for the rest of your life

When is it time? When is it time, for you to do what you want. Do the thing you really desire. Never? Wrong. The only time is all the time. What I posit is that everything you already do, including leisure is part of your process.

You just don’t know that you’re progressing towards something. Without being deliberate, your thoughts always lead to something interesting. But when you become deliberate, the magic partially disappears, you become self conscious. That’s the problem with experience and creation, they’re partially exclusive of each other.

The process of creation takes away brain space to deliberate and expel simultaneously. While being present and not deliberating, just experiencing, like deciding to watch a movie, your complete mental process is dedicated to it.

At the same time, the brain is just processes that mostly lie in the subconscious. The part of people that seem like choices, are actually in rhythm with the subconscious. People go so far as to say that everything is deterministic.

Therefore, taking all of that together, the only barrier to doing art, making anything, starting a project, is deciding to start. 

I think what’s determined is your likely progress in the pursuit of your craft. Your brain has the capacity to learn anything. The more I write the less mistakes I make, the less grammatical revisions necessary.

It’s all connected. 

All I’m saying is that people should not just be experiencing all the time. Life should be less automatic. You can only do that by doing things you aren’t used to. 

Things like being great. Learn something. Do something that you don’t regularly do. It’s cliche. 

Regardless, what I say has a point. Removing all the flourish, all I’m wanting to tell you is to be deliberate. So you can have the experience of being outside autonomous life. Shake yourself out of routine.

Maybe being deliberate, deliberate in the sense that your actions are not mere reactions, is the solution to strife. 

Maybe I’m claiming too much. I probably am.

If I want you to take out one thing from this is that habit begets greatness. So your daily habits might be wanting. I want to be a writer. So I might just write daily. 

[lyricalirony]

Sufficiently satisfied

Currently, I’m sufficiently satisfied. My psychological health is even in line with this; I am chemically happy. I don’t know what’s causing it, but I currently don’t have any feelings of anguish. I don’t even know if I’m using that word properly. I don’t care though, I’m happy.

           How about you? Have you ever felt this way? Or maybe you always feel this way? I remember a time when my life always seemed that way but now this sense of peace is hard to find. It’s something I chase because it’s a very good state of mind to be in. Today is one of my good days. Instead of having the feeling associated with the meaninglessness of life, I’m having feelings of inner peace.

           My baseline is despairing nihilistically. My baseline is a difficult slog. I really hope tomorrow will feel the same. Feeling fine and peaceful is all I want to feel. There’s no guarantee that I will feel that way past today. If there was a god, I’d pray to them every night from now on if I can just feel this way all the time. I hope a feeling of peace like this could wash onto everyone, because maybe this is what allows people to refrain from generating conflict. I am grateful.

[lyricalirony]

New Deals

First let’s agree that there are problems. It’s forecasted that the millennial generation will be poorer than their parents’ and grandparents’ generation. Without any intervention this will be certainly true. But state intervention is bad, isn’t it? That’s what mainstream economics says. Generally, it’s because government policy is untimely. But instead it’s extrapolated as worse than market solutions. Though there’s precedent via the failure of Canada’s Crown Corporations, government regulations are also the reason that society is better off. For example, the minimum wage, occupation regulations, and unions.

           Now why did I title this entry as ‘New Deals’? Well, it’s because that’s what we need. Much like FDR’s New Deal, a deal of some kind would be required to revitalize the economy. A government led spending infrastructure plan would be the stimulus that would be required. How will Canada do that? We don’t have a Bernie Sanders on the wing. We’re at a serious lack of actual leftist politicians. We’re sticking with our current socioeconomic plan: neoliberalism. This is a broad term that almost means nothing. But in this context, it’s about policies that favor market solutions to everything.

           Why would a non-monetary government stimulus be the solution to the economic problem? This is because the economic problem is due to a slowdown in productivity. This is because of a lack of productive jobs growth. The biggest growth in jobs in recent statistics in the United States is by far and away in the health and education sectors. These do not contribute to productivity as much as other job sectors such as manufacturing and technology. Thus, the need for those kinds of jobs that do: construction, engineering, and technology.

           This will drive up productivity and income to the government’s detriment. Because to fund this project they will need to take out loans and really drive up the deficit. Or, they could reallocate tax dollars towards construction projects and decrease spending on less necessary endeavors, in the United States that would be the military industrial complex. For Canada, I don’t know and it’s a shame that I know about the United States’ situation more than my country’s situation.

           So, who will that benefit? The current generation that is coming into the workforce, aka millennials. It will also line the pockets of whoever will fund the government: bond buyers. I’ll close this entry with this and begin to research how the federal government of Canada spends our tax money.  

[lyricalirony]

YOLO

It’s true, you only live once. What should I do with my life huh? Without a reason to live, people are listless. Well at least I am. Without a subjective personal meaning, life is meaningless. This is true because there isn’t an objective meaning to life. Not everyone is aware of this, but there is a lack of inherent meaning in life. You don’t have to believe me but that’s the mode of life I’m living. And I am miserable.

           But in any case, being a materialist disallows me from believing in the transcendence of the human consciousness past the death of the body. This means that I only have this life to leave a mark and to influence anything. And believe me, I want to influence this world. I wand to be a part of the positive wave of changes that the millennial generation is bound to enact—if there is a majority that believes that the current economic paradigm needs to change.

           Either way I believe that getting into a policy internship or getting a master’s degree in economics will position me to be part of that change. But for now, I am stuck in completing my arts degree at MacEwan University. I was stuck with a job in McDonalds as well, but I just handed in my resignation. I hope they really accept it.

           To work for the government is to work for the people. That’s how it will feel in theory. There will be a separation of information between departments so I don’t know how the program will really be. But I’m looking forward to being a part of it. Today is necessary however, the days where I’m working towards a degree rather than working for the government. I am studying at a cost rather than being paid to work. The only incentive is finishing my degree and then getting a possible internship. If I don’t get the internship, I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with my life.

[lyricalirony]

Another One

If you thought the last one was forced, then here’s this one. What to talk about? Oh, let’s talk about philosophers, maybe? There’s Albert Camus, he was an existentialist philosopher whose great works include The Stranger and “The Myth of Sisyphus”. The first a book and the next an essay. I wish to read them, but I haven’t gotten around to doing that yet. I don’t know when I’ll have the time.

           I like reading existential comics. They’re comics written by this guy about philosophers with an existential bent to it. The very first one is very different in tone from most of them. It takes the idea of consciousness to a literal maxim. Where consciousness is taken as a single instance of life. The opinion is that every time you lose consciousness and reawaken, it is a new instance of the same person that is not consciously consistent.

           Help me to escape from my job at McDonalds. It’s not a job I can continue working. It’s killing me slowly. I hate working grill all day. I got to quit. I hope there’s no fallout to quitting. I don’t know how they’ll take it, but I really don’t want to be there when the snow’s started falling. I said that I’d work there for at least a year an I’m going to leave in my third month, such commitment.

           I’m not afraid of commitment, I think. I’m just tired from working a job like that. I haven’t really made any close friends, so I don’t really have much to lose. I don’t care for the money. I value my free time a lot more than money. I’d have to be paid at least fifty thousand a year to work that kind of job for a long time, seriously. I’m miserable working there. It’s boring and the hours feel so long. I don’t know how to make friends properly. I’m a fucking Morty. Wubba lubba dub dub.

[lyricalirony]

Because I have to

Today was my first day back to school. I don’t have the mental energy to write this. I’m writing on fumes. But I have to keep writing nevertheless. I don’t know what I’m writing or what about but here it is for you to read. These are my inner thoughts. We’re doing that automatic writing thing again woohoo.

           So here it goes. This is what I think of government. It can be good. But as it is right now there are a lot of reasons the true voice of the population is unheard. Sam rapes pillows. Apparently, that’s what he told me. But whatever who knows who’s going to read this. By the way it’s not really automatic writing because I’m editing. But whatever variant this is it really works, I guess.

           Holy hell I don’t want to go to work. The payoff of money isn’t enough to outweigh my dread of working there. I want to quit as soon as possible. Should I print out a resignation letter? But there’s not enough ink right now. Fuck. I guess I could just call and announce it. But isn’t that a little impersonal? I don’t even give a care.

           Other than work I can talk about school now. There was a lot of concepts today and most of them just slid right off my head. I don’t know how well I’m going to do in these classes but based on how today went, not as well as I would like. That’s just a prediction. I wouldn’t bet on it. I could suddenly turn around and ace them or fail them, we shall see.

           I guess that’s all for now. We just finished watching Rick and Morty from start to finish in about three days. Sam thinks it’s good for his self esteem or something, for his mental well-being. Next, we’re going to watch South Park. He wants to watch the Simpsons, what a nerd. In political news, Bernie Sanders is kicking ass and has a real shot of winning the nomination and will likely kick Trump ass. Yay.

[lyricalirony]

The Good and the Bad

Stories tell of a good and a bad. Regardless of the nature of the bad, whether it is a person an event or society, it is diametrically opposed to the good. But things aren’t so simple. Stories are models of reality. They picture a character that is always positioned as the good that in the end usually triumphs over the bad. What really happens is that there are opposing forces that must be reconciled through actions.

           Ancient stories use violence and victorious warfare as proof of their moral ground as they are favored by a higher power through their victory. In the modern age, these stories are not as compelling. However, the modern forms of these stories like Marvel movies are still commercially successful because either people are lying about their tastes or that writing, and cinema have differing paradigms.

           Modern storytelling is about the human condition. It does not overtly present a good versus evil in an obvious manner, otherwise the story would hinder itself. It wouldn’t be as interesting to see a clear winner and a clear loser, it would all be too obvious. However, we cannot escape the paradigm of presenting a story with protagonist opposing antagonist(s). Stories are always the same the methods are what change, as well as the contexts. Sometimes the protagonist is not clearly good, and the antagonist is not obviously bad. Regardless, there is always that dynamic.

           There are indeed stories that are written like personal journeys where there are no clear antagonists. But the journey itself is riddled with conflicts because it is conflicts and events that power a story. A structure that is taught in middle school is the Freytag’s pyramid which is a way to analyze a story. It claims that in every story there is initial incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and a denouement. This is the basic structure of storytelling.

           To get back to the main point, the good and the bad/the protagonist and the antagonist, presents morality. Morality is a difficult topic to cover and I will not dig into it here. The point is that morality is a conceit of the human condition. Basically, every person when faced with moral dilemmas must act. This is what the protagonist is made to do, to be given choices and chooses an action. To make them relatable, a protagonist is made to face moral issues and make moral decisions that make sense in their context.

           Modern stories make moral dilemmas that allow for ambiguity and that makes these stories alive and interesting. These stories model real life much more closely as they present and resolve problems in interesting ways by presenting unique contexts. Thus, depending on the moral lens, a decision made by the protagonist could be interpreted as good in one way and bad in others. This is the current paradigm of storytelling. Where will storytelling take us in the future?

[lyricalirony]

A Simple Review of Capitalism

Capitalism has been by far the most successful socioeconomic system that has existed on Earth. The father of capitalism was Adam Smith an 18th century political philosopher who was the first to state that along with land and capital, labor had value as well. From its humble beginnings it has spread throughout the world as a dominant strategy for economic supremacy. The freedom of market actors to act as they please—for the most part—enabled by liberal governments.

            What is the legacy of capitalism? Its positive effects on the world is the raising up of the quality of life of people lucky enough to be under its wings, the increase of wealth of nations who adopted it, and the drive to focus on innovation and competition. Capitalism has been praised as the reason for increases in life expectancy, wealth, and innovation. It does this by insisting a market solution for all problems. This results in efficient allocation of resources in a marketplace where economic actors compete to retain relevance. Thus, the market solution that capitalism insists is touted as the driver of innovation which itself is the driver of quality of life increases.

            But in recent history it has been demonstrated that its positives may be overplayed, and its negatives are underexamined. First, the quality of life increases in these capitalist countries were not due to unfettered capitalism, it was despite capitalism. Government regulations in the form of child labor laws, minimum wages, and the breaking up of big oil are examples of government intervention that guaranteed the welfare of the masses. If capitalism remained unbridled, the American capitalism experiment would resemble the subpar and inhumane practices of the developing world, where many people work under slavish conditions.

While it’s true that in the past innovation was not in the nation’s interest, and capitalism brought the change in paradigm for innovation, it may not be necessary now. This is the second point. Innovation is the key to growth and does not need any prodding. If it is economically favorable to innovate, there will be innovators, this is regardless of whether it was funded through government or market-based operations. An example of this is the iPhone, the discoveries it took to make the iPhone were largely if not exclusively government funded. It was putting these discoveries together that made the iPhone. Thus, it is not exclusively private companies that drive the economy.

Since we covered innovation already, the last point is exclusively about competition. It is widely believed that a competitive market solution is always the optimal solution to problems. But they do not realize that the big resource companies do not run against each other in a market, they act like cartels and boost their prices by having agreements. Also, the idea of competitive markets with many competitors is an unrealistic assumption as the truth is there are dominant firms that have monopolistic power over the market. This is due to their size and influence. Think of McDonalds. Fast food prices rarely move in disjunction with theirs.

A final point, the competitive assumption that doesn’t even truly exist is the bane of the ecological world. Global warming is accelerated by the actions of big companies. They refuse to change their methods due to the established routines they have crafted. It is thanks to these companies that economic booms have been made but it is also thanks to these companies that the world is heating up. Using their monopolistic power, they evade paying the costs to the environment that they solely are responsible for. The solution is a new economic system or a private enterprise to run on a new model that they themselves establish using publicly owned green technologies. This would be the ideal. But realistically, it will be a public change with a reluctant private change. Unless brave newcomers figure out how to run a company in an environmentally conscious way, climate change will mostly go unabated.

[lyricalirony]

In the moment

Usually people have a hang up about the past or a preoccupation about the future. So why don’t we talk about today. Today in all its glory is the right now. If you’re really living today, you can’t passively describe it. You can say things like ‘Today is beautiful’, that’s acceptable. But to go and describe the day’s proceeding means going from present minded to past minded.

           How does a person really live in the moment? First focus on what’s right in front of you. Take in what’s going on and just experience it. Refrain from thinking about the past or worrying about the future, that’s the basic idea. Today is a good day as any to start living in the moment.

           But why live in the moment? Because living in the moment is making the most of life as it is. You take off your worries about the future and ruminations about the past and just live. Living like this means living with less anxiety, less worries. It is living without having background thoughts about the not now. Focusing on the now lets you have more control over your right now. Control of your right now is what leads to control of your future.

[lyricalirony]

The coming economic crisis

The next crash is coming whether you’re ready or not. The world’s banks and economists have already called it, they’re just debating on when it’s coming. The key word is when. Some think it’ll be in the next year and others the year after that. Regardless, the crash is coming and today I will be discussing my idea about the cause of it.

           According to the bureau of labor statistics, productivity, a key driver of economic progress is stagnating. In comparison to prior years, productivity gains have been slow. This is not the only cause as there is the trade war that Trump has precipitated, but productivity slowdown is a concrete concept that is partially responsible for the coming economic crash. There are two reasons for productivity slowdown, and they are all predicated on a generational shift.

           It’s all because of the baby boomers. The generation of people that came out of the high birth rates after World War II. I mean it’s not they’re fault that they are born but it is the shift of this generation that is causing the slowdown. This is because the baby boomers are moving into the next phase of life, retirement. The theory is that older, more experienced workers have more human capital and in turn have higher productivity. As the boomers leave, younger less experienced workers take their place and produce less than they do. This is one theory for stagnating productivity.

           Another possible reason is the changing nature of the economy, which is still dependent on the generational shift. According to the bureau of labor statistics, the job sector with the highest gains is healthcare and education. This is due to number of retirees coming in who need care. The economy is already anticipating this great transition. This is not to bash on the work of healthcare providers and educators, but in the economic sense their work is not as productive as the work done in other sectors. As the proportion of jobs is turning more towards care-based services, total productivity then cannot increase rapidly by definition.

           This analysis is not comprehensive of all the reasons for the coming economic crisis and doesn’t even completely explain productivity slowdown but should be enough background to see that the economic crisis is partly a natural consequence of generational changes. By the numbers it is a crisis, and something the world’s governments must deal with.

[lyricalirony]

To whom it may concern

I regret to inform you that you have been rejected from the final round of applicants. This is not to say that you are underqualified for the position. It is unfortunate that we have had to reject you due to the sheer number of applicants that we have received. Thank you for your interest and persistence. May you take those qualities with you in your future endeavors. Sincerely, Management.

           This was the email I received from the last job I tried to acquire. It’s bullshit. There are so many applicants to choose from, ooh. That doesn’t mean that any of them had as much to offer as me. How could I be constantly rejected? I have been at it for almost two years now, trying to gain meaningful employment. There just doesn’t seem to be any room for me.

           However long it takes, I’m going to get a career that I value. In the current state of the economy, people are leaving the workforce in droves. There are people who have given up on gaining employment and many are retiring. I’m young and have just recently graduated. I don’t have the luxury of giving up. I haven’t shouted into the abyss yet. No marks made. I can’t just give up no matter how hopeless it looks.

           I graduated from university with a degree in the social sciences. It’s not the most popular degree or even make the list for most valuable degree, but it was something I was interested in and I thought it couldn’t hinder my job prospects. That’s what I thought and still think. But looking to my peers with their business degrees on their way to becoming fulfilled adults just made me feel like an outsider peering in. How could there be such disparity between people. It was all over the choice of program of study.

           They say that post-secondary schooling is valuable in and of itself, that employment shouldn’t be your first thought when obtaining a degree. But I beg to differ. The way they price these schooling experiences should be contractual agreement currently that one will gain meaningful employment at the end of their journeys. Otherwise, how would we pay for them? We can’t be tacked with such high-priced debts and not be given the means to pay them off. Are we expected to pay them off minimum wage? It’s already difficult to live off minimum wage. How can we be expected to pay off our loans that way?

           So, to whom it may concern. I have not given up, nor will I ever. But you have given me a lot to think about. My place in the world as a worker, consumer, and member of society. I have gotten the expensive piece of paper that doesn’t seem to be improving but instead has degraded my standard of living. I will not be taking my life today. I will not be taking an easy way out. If you read this note, know that it is not a suicide note. I have not been defeated, I am merely recuperating. If I sent you this email, it’s because you are either someone who I deal with regularly or someone I admire. I just want you to know that I’ll be gone awhile. You will not know where to find me. I will be okay.

[lyricalirony]

It is better to be

You know when Hamlet asked the question: “to be or not to be?” He was considering whether it was better to be dead or alive. It’s clear that it’s better to be is it not? Even though there’s ultimately no point. There’s a local, in time and space, meaning for your life. Your very existence affects the world no matter what.

           Looking to Buddhism, they say that life is suffering. Although they hold that belief, they do not advocate for suicide because they believe that consciousness passes on and reincarnates. They have a belief in reincarnation. They believe that your consciousness or soul, after death, moves on to be past the cycle of life and death or reincarnates into another earthly body. The Buddhists also believe that desire is the cause of your suffering. To be able to curtail desire then is the path to becoming enlightened.

           There are many beliefs to life and life after death. One that is fatalistic is the atheistic view. Though atheism is just the belief in no god figure, it also translates into no belief in an afterlife. Most atheists believe that death is permanent, and that death is just the final sleep. This runs in line with Hamlet’s nihilism. What good is the temporal life for? It is just a series of life-sustaining activities, mixed in with uncertain events. There is no salvation.

           Yet I still believe that it’s better to be. This is because of the local importance of your existence. Just think about it, your actions will affect the actions of others surrounding you no matter what. These links of actions make larger actions and have system-wide effects on systems such as the economy. As someone that doesn’t really have any power, I agree that my effect in causal chains is very limited. But that I have an effect at all says something about my existence. The important thing is that I have hope that I will have more influence.

           Lastly, to not be means you have no effect at all. You have no say or experience of the is of life and you have no ought. You have nothing if you don’t exist. There are those that say that life is an exercise in futility. In the long run, it is to be determined if that is true or not. Nobody knows the mastery that humanity may be able to have of the galaxy it inhabits, maybe even the universe. That will determine whether life in its entirety was futile or not.

           To close I still believe it’s better to be. Because like Nietzsche said, every one of us will be footsteps for the overman. In this he means that the next generations will have our achievements and creations to be used for its endeavors. Nietzsche believed that our ultimate purpose is to make way for overmen; the people that will better the world for humanity. In my interpretation of Nietzsche, we are the overmen for past generations, and we must use the past as footrests to see a new horizon. Isn’t that enough reason to be alive?

[lyricalirony]

Get ahold of yourself

Is it slavery or mastery to obey a previously dictated rule for yourself? I think it’s slavery. Not enough willpower.

How do you become master of yourself?

By demonstrating your will.

The command that you have before the doom.

But it’s much better for everyone if most of us were followers rather than leaders. It’s a privilege to lead, that’s why you should take it as a responsibility first and as a right second.

Ignore this command and you will regret it.

[lyricalirony]

What are dreams?

When people are talking about dreams, they’re talking about either one of two things. The visions that come out at you at night or your aspirations. Are they different or are they the same? Those aren’t the right questions to ask. It’s this: (How) are they related?

           They’re both called dreams so they must be related. I put the brackets around ‘How’ because the question, ‘Are they related?’ is the first question that must be answered. Before we look to researchers let’s think about it. During a pleasurable dream what is usually happening? This is a subjective experience and can be answered in many ways. The realism of the dreams doesn’t even matter. From my subjective experience I can attest that my dreams are in fact either pleasurable moments I can already have or experiences I’m aspiring for.

           That’s the connection. Dreams can sometimes have an aspirational aspect to it. Some people even claim that they can read into a person’s inner psyche using their dreams, but we don’t need to get into that. What’s important is that the connection has been established. There are similarities between the two dreams as one can be aspirational somewhat. The other definition of dream, the waking world aspirations, are also somewhat like sleeping dreams because they lie in the recesses of your mind. They do not usually take the forefront of your active mind. This must be why they manifest in your dreams.  

           In short, what are dreams? Dreams are usually powered by your unconscious mind that is active when you’re sleeping and, in the background, when awake. The unconscious is the part of your brain that handles autonomic features of your body along with passive memory processing. It is debated whether the unconscious exists but there does seem to be a connection between dreams and waking reality.

[lyricalirony]

On the common days

When there’s nothing going on that’s particularly important, I find that I am lost. Lost in the sense that my purpose is obscured by the monotony of the everyday. So, what to do in the common days? I thought that I must tweak my senses in order to improve my outlook. It didn’t help. Even my highs took on a common perspective. Instead of providing insights, it induced me to sleep.

           What am I saying about the common days? That the looming future becomes secondary and one becomes stuck in the nonsense of the days. My writing has become scarce. I am uninspired. I need a fresh breath of inspiration. If I can’t find it in the highs, must I find it in a low? But there’s nothing to be low about except the knowledge of the common doom that awaits us all. But I am a long way away from that day.

           Right now, I long for the nectar of inspiration. Is it the common days or just my frequency of writing that is drying up my inkwell? Maybe it’s not the common days, maybe my mind is just exhausted from crafting stories, like it was an exhaustible well waiting on more rainfall.

           Regardless, I await the time where I can write freely and unfettered. The common days makes the future look unimportant and unable to write further. I am at the mercy of my passions. Please grace me with something, anything. Is this what writer’s block is?

[lyricalirony]

“We need a One World Government now”

That’s what I said to my peers. They heard it and burst out laughing. It was the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done. Everyone thought I was a freaking commie. They won’t stop calling me comrade. But it was something I truly believed.

           There are days when the sun would get too hot that classes would be cancelled. We’d have to stay in our houses and max the air conditioner. It got so bad in some places that you could cook an egg on a parked car. This was the state of the environment. In this country and many others, there were unbearable heat waves.

           For there to be world peace there are a few conditions that must be met. A livable economic floor. Meaning people at the bottom can live off their wages with relative comfort. The economic deprivation that comes out of the current economic system is the consequence of making decisions based on market outcomes.

The second important condition is to provide meaning in people’s lives. Changing the economic system into one where there are welfare nets for everyone might eliminate inequality extremely. The lack of inequality makes people not aspire as much. The lack of aspirations decreases their overall happiness because aspirations are specific objects that work to increase happiness.  This is the unfortunate outcome of raising up the quality of life worldwide. However, the consequent raising of happiness of the populations with rising happiness more than makes up for the decreases sustained.

Lastly, economic actors need to act unselfishly. Innovators, researchers, inventors, managers, anyone that has significant influence are especially required to. This is required as a workable economic system in one where all resources are accounted for in decision making requires all to work towards a common goal. Lucky for us there is a common goal in sight. Global warming. With the danger defined it was clear that we could act now. But who would believe the ideas and opinions of a high-schooler?