Class

Stop asking the government to fix this growing inequality. It is important to understand that a large pool of wealth is a bad thing. It doesn’t matter who has it, or what they use it for. It won’t be used as well by any one person as it would by many persons.

Accumulated wealth provided the capital necessary to build the society in which we now live, but we no longer need standing pools of resources when liquid capital can be extracted in small amounts from crowds to generate large sums with surprising speed.

The wealthy are no longer a necessary evil, now they are simply evil. Pools of money, simply by the nature of the money system, are able to grow larger by controlling production and receiving compensation for access, rather than actually producing anything of value. Like leeches or ticks, these sums of money extract wealth from those actually producing it, simply by having the monetary clout to open or close the doors.

Historically these pools are seized by violence. In recent history they have even been seized by the masses, but violence has a tragic cost and the problem, still, is not who owns the pools, it is their size. Without relying on government authority to demolish these giant financial engines, we can create a powerful disincentive towards the accumulation of a dangerous amount of wealth. We need not use violence, because shame will do the trick.

As I had tried to say earlier. If you see someone so rich that they don’t need to work, saying something about sacrificing for the nation. Spit right in their face. If you meet a person who is getting the degree that will get them the most money, just walk away, don’t hide your disgust. If you meet someone that really believes they can somehow save enough money to protect them from all the what-ifs in the world, pat them on the shoulder, look them in the eyes, and really try to feel compassion for a creature so petty and confused, so small.

It might not work great, but it costs nothing, and almost everyone can participate. Shame the wealthy, the defenders of the wealthy, and those with ambition to be wealthy. Shame them right out of existence.

Axiom

A solution should be less complex the more complex the problem is.

I’ve been thinking about this little guideline for weeks now. Its not a moral statement. It is a statement about processing information. I guess I should amend it. If you intend a solution to be successful, it should be demonstrate a simplicity commensurate with the complexity of the problem.

What I mean is that complex solutions work for simple problems, like those in the physical sciences, the kinds of problems faced by engineers. These are well understood systems with known variables. The problems are easy to define and the solutions easily demonstrated, checked, and rechecked. Compare these to the problems faced by social, biological, and ecological scientists, where systems contain numerous causal linkages, and each issue is known to effect other issues in unknown ways.

It comes down to a balance. The complexity of the problem multiplied by the complexity of the solution will yield a value, an index of complexity if you will.  I would say the human mind is capable of effortlessly effecting solutions in problem/solution systems up to a given level of complexity, and maybe with diligence and thoughtfulness attain an even higher level. However, at a certain point, a level of complexity is reached where it is impossible to know what you’re doing. Too complicated a solution to too complicated a problem yields a basket of effects and externalities that can not be accurately predicted. It is certain that some of those externalities will be negative.

In this way, even with the best intentions, if you try too hard to solve too big a problem, you’re going to do harm to people in unexpected ways. This is my hands off principle. Its the main reason I’m wary of any policy solution to a global or national level problem. Policy is always a complicated mess, and seems very likely to do more harm than good in response to a complicated problem.

I haven’t said anything in a while but I wanted to get this out.