Saturday, January 12, 2013

Well, It's About Time, Detroit!



2014 Corvette... I like it!  If the powers that be would just let GM fail, we'd have a real renaissance in automobiles, tied in with google cars.  The key would be to open-source all of those auto patents.


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Friday, January 11, 2013

Something So Terrible...

We have problems in plain sight that are in fact too terrible to consider, IF the options are limited to a false dilemma.  Gary North has an excellent essay on social security and medicare, and fixing it.  Or not.

Mish works the actual numbers, to show this will all end badly.

If the false dilemma is social security or death, then this whole problem is too terrible to think about, and if anything, one dreams up a reason he will be exempt:

1.  I have connections

2.  I am a good person.

3.  I am a prepper.

4.  I am very important.

None of those will work.  The one thing that will allow you to thrive is to be able to say "people voluntarily buy from me."  Then you will be fine.  Getting there takes personal transformation.

Let's not say "self-employment" any more.  The accurate term is "customer-employed."  Getting customer employed is personal transformation.

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FluNomics

I'll probably get the flu after writing this, but like many nurses and medical personnel, some of whom are getting fired as an example, there is no way I'll get a flu vaccination.  Yes there are many doctors who say "get the vaccine."  Mine says "Don't you dare!"



How come?  The science is against it.  Odds are great in dice, but don't play out in human action.  Why do some people get the flu and others not?  Immune system.  If you've got a healthy immune system, you'll beat the flu, which like most invaders are pretty wimpy.  You have to run yourself down to get the flu.

We are at a tipping point when so many doctors are so in bed with big pharma that all doctors are suspect to too large a population.  "Public policy" has overwhelmed science. We need to return science to medicine.  As long as it is about public policy, it will be about money for big pharma.

Why are they firing nurses for not getting flu shots (what do they know?) when people with the flu go to hospitals and...  what?  Expose everyone to flu anyway...  Why are they not working as hard on MRSA, which kills 19,000 in the US each year, while flu only kills 3000, depending on who you are talking to...    in any event, MRSA is far easier to control...  IF you do not have centralized medicine.  Centralized medicine is public policy.  MRSA is growing with the success of "public policy"

The vaccination itself in fact weakens your system to some extent.  Why compromise it at all, plus risk side effects?

Our economy does not provide very good matches to what ails us, making efficacy doubtful, in spite of vaccination being a good idea in some instances.

When is vaccination a good idea?  Well, wars lower everyones immunity.  In war, your chances of getting sick are much higher, plus what new and fresh disease from hell that emerges will not have much in the way of enemies in our immune system.  When we are at war, vaccination may be a good idea, but we have no system for meeting the needs of what might emerge in the USA, since the state make flu vaccination "affordable."

Finally, yes, flu can kill, like bath tubs.  And yes, it can make you sick as a dog.  I've had the flu probably a dozen times in my life.  So what?  Serves me right for riotous living.

And if you want a really good immunization dose, get sick and beat it.  Your body will prepare for the next strain, as you reform and begin a regime of diet and exercise.



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Thursday, January 10, 2013

IPR

I read this off-hand comment -

piracy has an economic impact on the owner of the intellectual property,

Prove it.  It cannot be proven.  So now remove that unwarranted claim from the discussion.  What argument is left?


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Happiness

This is debatable, depending on definitions...

There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations ― Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes.
Read more at http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/#1t5qFRQ2I46XdZGt.99 


If by improving one's reality, he means to acquire the circumstances in which one is happy, then that is still a struggle.  We know what lowering expectations means, which is never happy.

Happiness is curtailed by the misery we see around up, most of for which we pay taxes to assure it continues.  But of course there is joy in working on problems that make the world a better place, which I suppose is improving ones reality.  Tricky business, happiness.

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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Transportation Revolution

With MagLev for power and computer control for driving, the cost of transportation in time devoted and money spent will drop to nothing, while employing ever more people.  But it will take deregulation.  At no point can anyone in government have any say so in any aspect of this effort.  Back off!

We can have that economic recovery, as long as we have no govt supervision of this.  Too bad it is google, and not Nordstrom doing this.

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Nap Nanny

Her mistake was to cooperate:

The filing of CPSC’s complaint does not mean it’s illegal to sell the Nap Nanny. Anyone who wants to sell the Nap Nanny certainly can, for now. The CPSC may succeed in its attempt to legally ban the sale of the product, but there’s no telling whether that will happen or how long that will take. It matters little, because very few Nap Nannys remain on the shelves. The ongoing battle with the CPSC cost us so much money that it forced us out of business a month ago.

 Respond to your customers.  Play rope-a-dope with regulators. Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.


Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Thirteenth Amendment & Spielberg

Spielberg makes wonderful movies that are untrue, such as Schindlers List (it is a novel), or so distorted as to change the point, such as Amistad (Cinque became a slaver.).  Now he has one on Lincoln, which makes people excited about the struggle to end slavery, the 13th amendment and all that.

Has anyone read the 13th amendment?  It could not be more clear. We are the only modern country in the world that still constitutionally provides for slavery.  That is the same 13th Amendment in the movie.  And it is pretty clear it is black slavery.



We still have slavery, it is just legal.  It bothers me because we are denied the good of these people's competition in the marketplace.  But they rot in prison for competing in say healthcare, pain management, etc.  What a thing to do to people, imprison them for providing pain management services where there is none otherwise.

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Self-Employment as Ultimate Prepping

We all love a system that promises to benefit us, even if it cannot be true.  It cannot be true that you can work for twenty years, earn a lifelong pension, work another twenty, get another pension, and then retire on a third (social security) for what, another 20 or 30 years with others paying you to live.  It cannot be true that you and millions of other can do this, especially when the demographics are strongly against it.  But there you have it, millions assured the impossible is true.  "But I earned it!"

There are millions more who believe that no work is necessary.  By discouragement and incentive there can be enough to get by on, paid for by those same dwindling demographics.  And if you try for better, there is always prison.

Sure we can all see what cannot go on will eventually stop.  But everyone has a plan.  In each persons' specific case, there is an out.  Loyalty to the regime!  Guns and gold!  A foreign passport.  A place in the woods!  Well, I am a doctor!

Why would those work now when they never worked before in history?

All is going extremely well for the powers that be.  There is zero resistance to any step of their march forward to ever more power.  Big solutions to small problems.  Shift the discussion away from what matters.  And ultimately, since the problem is overpopulation of subhumans (in their weltanschauung), invite a cataclysm as a reset button.  Democracy plus election fraud equals control.  There is no extreme you may not visit, since people will never accept the system is too corrupt to stand, that the people will have to be responsible for themselves.  Totaler Krieg: War on poverty, war on terror, war on drugs, war on violence, war on obesity... all fought be someone else

Plenty of people see this.  So they are prepping.  It won't do any good.  The only prepping possible is to be useful.  Who survives?  Short order cooks, musicians, carpenters, tailors.  People who can trade things (get this and that).  When you find yourself in a crowd being sorted out, find out who those people are.  Stay out of the group which includes java-coders, get in with the cooks.  You do not want to go where the java-coders are going.

This may take some reckoning.  Solzhenitsyn lied on his card when he was being sorted out by the Soviets.  His crime was to be behind enemy lines for a few days.  Never captured, just surrounded.  10 years, hard labor.  On his card for occupation he put astrophysicist.  Two years into his sentence he was pulled to an easy jail in Moscow to work on astrophysics.  Such was the Soviet system that no one noticed that he was not in fact an astrophysicist.  Once in prison, who cares if you know what you are talking about.  Rather like working at Microsoft, or being in the military.

Yes, canaries are dying, people are prepping, but not in any way that will matter.  We are at the point where free religious would be advocating hard fasting, prayer, sack cloth and ashes.  But since religion in USA is bought and paid for, the bishops are calling for tweaking the health care bill, through the courts.  And gun control. Attabishops!  Go get 'em.  Win one for the Messiah!  Never mind Catholic saints built a system of free hospitals so no one went without health care before the state took over health care, a system the Bishops abandoned. Never mind it is lack of gun control by civil authorities over the US military that leads to countless Moslem children slaughtered overseas and revenge taken on the only Christians at hand, churches founded by Thomas, Matthew, Bartholomew and Philip themselves.  Honor the sky pilots!

Self-employment is sack cloth and ashes.  It is personal transformation.  There are no atheists on a sales call.  Steve Jobs' dying words were "wow."

Yes, we are on our own.  Fix the term "self-employment" by more accurately saying "customer-employment."  There you go.  Now you are on the right track.  We are on our own, but a limitless demand from customers awaits us.  Serve customers and you are no longer on your own, in'shAllah.




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Monday, January 7, 2013

It's Faster

If you search this blog you'll find plenty on Plan A and Plan B, the two bases from which to proceed in building a business.  Plan A is when you create your own designs to be made at the best factories and Plan B is where you buy items off the shelf from a factory to sell.

Occasionally I will entertain, in the right place and right time, in a sequence of discussions on this very basic point, and although it is painful for me to repeat it all again, I know I will find something as to motivations if I listen.

I got a call from someone who complimented me on my book and then asked for recommendations as to CPA, lawyer, customsbroker, sales reps and so on.  I asked her if she had customers, "sure, everyone loves my product."  Sigh.

To make a long story short I argued what constituted a customer (ready willing and able) and why until you have that you could not possible have a reason to retain, or decide on what criteria, professional help.  That comes AFTER you have customers.  Same with biz cards, bank accounts, etc....

The person over the last two days objected to Plan A because Plan B is faster.  Aha!  And yes, faster, but not in a way that she anticipates.

First things first, the customer is the most important thing, and the getting product right is the hardest thing.   If the product is easy (Plan B), that is some off the shelf item, then the customer is hard to get, because such items do the customer no good.  If the product is hard (Plan A), that is designed to customer demand, then the customer is easy, because it is, well, designed to demand.

Now the person said "Plan B is faster."  Does this not betray the orientation of the entrepreneur as being self-interested instead of customer-oriented?  That is another reason why Plan B is disadvantaged: it is clear to the customer you are about cutting corners and in it for yourself.  Yes, Plan B is faster, to failure.

Plan A takes time.  I replied to her it is the difference between fast food for dinner and a homecooked meal.  Yes, one is faster, but it will make you sick.  The other makes you strong.

"But everyone loves my product."  But everyone is not forking over the money to meet your needs to do this work.  It took some explaining, but my correspondent came up with a way to test her hypothesis with the samples she has.  We;ll see how she does with Plan B.

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Good Competition

Chinese reforms continue apace:

The Ministry of Finance has announced that from January 2013, more than 780 products, including milk powder for infants, robots for vehicle production and some rubber products, will enjoy lower import duties.

When China faces economic challenges, it cuts tariffs.  This is an example of the right economic move n economic difficulties.  And the communist press features a Chinese conomist who says it is not enough:
"As a responsible country, China needs to increase its imports, which is important in building healthy bilateral trade and reducing trade friction," Wei said.
In the first 11 months of 2012, China's exports grew 7.3 percent from a year earlier, while imports grew 4.1 percent, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

And while we have a major policy flaw of housing boom and bust, and a minor one of section 8 hoursing, only China is advocating reform

Effectively curbing corruption in this field will help consolidate the image of a government resolute in its efforts to protect the people's well-being, as many Chinese have become extremely sensitive to skyrocketing housing prices and any mishandling of housing resources.

USA could stand to worry about government corruption.  As it stand now, there is no discussion of this widespread problem.

Yet Chinese authorities are capable of getting it wrong, such as here...

Strict measures have been announced to curb soaring prices of hotel rooms and buffets when visitors swarm to Hainan, a tropical resort island, during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday.
It's stipulated that hotels should reduce their price of rooms by at least 10 percent during the holiday, compared with last year's prices.
The highest daily cost for a standard room, including the extra service fees, should be less than 5,000 yuan ($802).

Well, wait a minute!  Some resorts make their money on such weeks, pay for all of the upgrades and repair with that shot of super-income.  If not, they need to charge higher year round, meaning there are no deals for poor people at other times of the year.  What will happen is the restaurants and everyone else who sells anything will shoot up their fees, so the money will come into them, and poor people will be miserable doing nothing but sitting in a hotel room during the festival.  going to hire enough police to check all prices at all times and places?  Some holiday!

Let the market work.  This regulation will distort the economy and cause people to open other unnecessary hotels to get around the "base rate" rule and then hurt everyone.  Leave the merchants alone, subject to the tender mercies of their ruling customers.
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Sunday, January 6, 2013

Paid Vs Unpaid Protesters

It is not uncommon for protestors or supporters to be paid by the people who desire a crowd to show up.  One problem in tolerating such behaviour in USA is other people learn to do it as well, a scandal.

When a politician wants an illegal addition in Hong Kong, the people of Hong Kong take to the streets immediately. Immediate protest keeps people free.

Learning from Chicago politicians, one of whom is in the White House, the Hong Kong politician offers money to people who will show up to a support rally.


Since Hong Kong has a free press, unlike the United States, the fellow is exposed right quick.

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Coming To You: Flu

I've been blogging on the flu for years, for anything so intensively managed by the state is bound to go round.  Drudge has a scare graph showing all states with reports of flu, and give the impression of Stalingrad conditions.  18 children dead!  Well, how many die of it each year, how many actually died of the flu, and so on.  Every year it is the same thing, and afterwards we find out it is largely hoax.  One constant is the flu vaccine on offer never addresses the flu going through the population.

Solution: unregulate medicine.  Let every pharmacy in USA make its own flu vaccine, locally, with everything ready to go to fight the strain that emerges.  Regulation leaves us with a few heavily regulated factories spewing out poisons.

Here is an excellent image of America.  Champaign Illinois government paid firefighters stand by while a man drowns.  (I could not finish watching the horrible video.) Citizens who begin to organize to save the man are threatened by police with arrest.  the result of letting this man drown will be calls for more money for the city fire department.  Yes, I understand a rescue of someone drowning is tricky, and there are rules to follow, I know, I have my Red Cross water safety card, and lifesaving 101, do not get near a drowning person.  They will kill you.   Plenty of people die each year trying to save a drowning person.  But I also know that fifty men with ladders, ropes, and tough guys willing to wade in for a three minute romp in the water can save a life.  Unless there are paid firefighters and cops around.

This happened in Alameda, Ca, and many other places.  And the answer is always the same.  Fire departments need more budget.  This goes on in the UK as well, where paid firefighters refused to wade into a 3 foot deep pond to help a man who drowned.

Volunteer firefighters are willing to break the rules, with level heads, and get the job done.

We have the means to get these jobs done, flu and water rescue.  by turning too much work over to too narrow a group we all stand by while they non-perform.  Why?  We can have health and safety if we want it.  We already have the capacity?  Why do we elect to turn it over to a group too small to help us?

Paid firefighters are about what is in it for them.  Volunteers are about getting the job done.

A fire or rescue is an economic event, but not a market event.  The market cannot address the problem of a disaster like a fire or a drowning person.  Therefore, it is best dealt with by charities, such as volunteer fire fighters ( which is a tradition world wide in history, and paid fire fighters only showed up with progressivism).  Flu on the other hand is an economic event that can easily be dealt with in the market.  That should be unregulated.

We've got the means.  Or do we prefer to stand by and watch a man drown?  People get sick with massive flu vaccine available, but the wrong one?  We can change this.  With a little freedom.

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