The Gift of ADD/ADHD

When I was a child, my parents asked me what I wanted for Christmas.  I said a tea set.  They begged me to be like the other boys.  I told them I tried.  The other boys would say "Let's go play baseball!"  And I'd say "No, let's take clothes apart and see how they are made."  Then the other boys would beat me up.

I told my parents about a new disease they made.  They called it hyperkinesis.  (Later they called it ADD or ADHD or both.)  I heard they had drugs for it.  I asked if I could have the drugs.

My mom had a degree in sociology and said psychiatry was bogus and hyperkinesis was not a disease. I reminded her she wanted me to be like the other kids.  She said the other kids were not on drugs, so going on drugs would not make me like the other kids.

In high school when all the kids were on drugs they were then like me.  They would do stuff like take clothes apart to see how they were made.  In class.  The clothes they were wearing.  This was better.  I began to fit in.  Except it was illegal to take such drugs.  I finally got a job in a hospital kitchen, where ADD paid off big time.  I learned ADD was a gift.

Then Uncle Sam said I should register for the draft.  Go to Vietnam like the other boys.  At that point I didn't care about being like the other boys.  I had the gift of ADD/ADHD.  War was not for me.  I filled out a bunch of forms and the military said they did not want me.  1 O.  Women and children first.  I got a job in an import export company.  A small one, perfect for someone with ADD/ADHD.

If your kid is different, it's not a disease.  It's a gift.  If they offer you drugs, decline.  Suggest if they can't keep up with a kid with ADD, perhaps they should take drugs.  That actually works out well.

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The Gift of ADD/ADHD

Doctors are becoming ever more perplexed as to why ever more people are questioning their judgment.  Perhaps it is because ever more doctors are becoming soldiers in the fight for social engineering.

Parents face implacable social forces who want to make money off their children.  This needs to be said.

According to the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), nearly one in 11 American children aged 13-18 and one in 25 adults are affected by ADHD.
The analysis noted that Ritalin and other drugs were meant to be used only for "severe" ADHD symptoms, which according to research data only occur among about 14 percent of children with the condition.
Yet "about 87 percent of children diagnosed with ADHD in the US in 2010 subsequently received medication," it said, warning of "unnecessary and possibly harmful medication treatment".
The study said the main ADHD drugs could have side effects like weight change, liver damage and dwelling on suicide. And the drugs' long-term impact, as a child moves into adulthood, remained unknown.
The study, led by Rae Thomas at the Centre for Research in Evidence-Based Practice at Australia's Bond University, did not dispute the existence of ADHD as a medical condition.
It noted that children who genuinely had a severe form of it ran the risk of failure at school and of social rejection.

One in eleven.  There are zero children who need Ritalin.  There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance until the doctors introduce a chemical imbalance.  There are plenty of kids who are rambunctious, or mature at a different pace, and so what if they face "social rejection"  or face "failure at school."  We all face some social rejection, that's part of life, and no one faces total social rejection.  Failing at school is a problem of how schools operate.  So homeschool the gifted child.  Failing at school is no indicator of future success.  25% of our people drop out, and most do just fine.  Finishing school signifies nothing.

If you look at all these people who go to gun-free zones and starting shooting the place up, they have all had these treatments.  Talk about facing social rejection and doing poorly at school.  I call eleven dead doing poorly at school.

We have drug companies that attract soul-dead welfare queen executives, and parents who think of their kids as a consumer item... or a pet.  "Let's load junior up with whatever..."  Or at best, parents who have no idea who they are up against.

If your kid is on Ritalin, well, you've been had.  Get very expert help on getting your kid off Ritalin, and out of the system.  The stuff is extremely dangerous, and all the doctors know it.    So why do they prescribe it like "an aspirin and rest"?

If your kid acts up at school and faces social rejection, rejoice.  You have a gifted child.  Homeschool the kid, or sail around the world.  Whatever you do, do not drug the kid.  We need eery single one of those kids with the gift of ADD/ADHD. Change your life to organize around the gift.  Do not drug him.

Have a heart.


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Gift of ADD?ADHD - Cheerful Giving

The preacher man this morning was explicating the concept of cheerful giving, and it dawned on me that cheerful giving is an attribute of the ADD/ADHD nation.  We are cheerful givers.  We will give anything and everything away for nothing, we volunteer for anything and everything, although we really accumulate nothing to make giving much of an impact, and we have no skills so our volunteer work seems to be a net deficit for anyone who is managing a task.

But, we look at things from a thousand ways.  We may not be able to design a bridge, but we can tell you immediately if it will fall down, because we looked it at a way you did not.  Bridge builders could concentrate in school and learn bridge-building, we could not and did not.

We warn and are ignored because we know nothing about bridge-building.  But we are right.  (Someone said "you can be happy, or you can be right: pick one.")  We move quickly from task to task, seeing learning, innovating, and are generally just happy.  The powers that be cannot have that: people pointing out error, people not producing like robots, people somehow happy.

So today the ADD nation is drugged.  And we all lose the benefit of their insights, their innovations, their warnings.  The "cure" for ADD, ritalin, is far worse than the disease, for the person forced to take it, and for the rest of us who lose the good of the ADD/ADHD citizen.

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ADD: If It Is A Disease, Why I Don't Want A Cure.

I am so glad I was in grade school before the powers that be discovered the disease known as ADD/ADHD.  Of course, there is no such disease, this made-up disease is merely a means of suppressing individuals who cannot sit still in school through soul-killing monotony.  I'll say it again, if teachers cannot keep up with lively students, drug the teachers with speed, not the students with ritalin.

Everyone says ritalin is overprescribed, but never in their instance.  Parents are conditioned to reflexively accept what doctors tell them, and to become a doctor today, you have to get with the program.

At wikipedia, one would expect far more on the controversy of ADD/ADHD, but even there, the powers that be allow only trace reference.  But let's look at what the site calls a problem, with my comments after each bullet.

Predominantly inattentive type symptoms may include:^[34]

• Be easily distracted, miss details, forget things, and frequently switch from one activity to another
• We are renaissance people...
• Have difficulty focusing on one thing
• We are renaissance people, we get it faster than you can teach it...
• Become bored with a task after only a few minutes, unless doing something enjoyable
• This is an illness...?!
• Have difficulty focusing attention on organizing and completing a task or learning something new
• Only when it is banal or unimportant, in spite of what you say...
• Have trouble completing or turning in homework assignments, often losing things (e.g., pencils, toys, assignments) needed to complete tasks or activities
• We share...
• Not seem to listen when spoken to
• When the speaker is boring: how is you being boring constitute me being ill...?
• Daydream, become easily confused, and move slowly
• Right... we work on serious things, which we are obliged to do in the mind, since you could care less about our creativity...
• Have difficulty processing information as quickly and accurately as others
• As defined by you, not by us...  we are not your little brown-nosers...
• Struggle to follow instructions.
• Only because your are tedious...

Predominantly hyperactive-impulsive type symptoms may include:^[34]

• Fidget and squirm in their seats
• So let us wander around the room, or school... or neighborhood...
• Talk nonstop
• Generally what we have to say is more interesting than what you have to say, and we are a sharing tribe...
• Dash around, touching or playing with anything and everything in sight
• Well, how come you have it out, are are an inquisitive tribe...
• Have trouble sitting still during dinner, school, and story time
• We "make hay while the sun shines..." can't sit around wasting time...
• Be constantly in motion
• You envy our energy...
• Have difficulty doing quiet tasks or activities.
• We save that for sleep time...

and also these manifestations primarily of impulsivity:^[34]

• Be very impatient
• You are tedious to us.
• Blurt out inappropriate comments, show their emotions without restraint, and act without regard for consequences
• You mean no matter how much you try to oppress us, we keep on happily?  We are genuine, frank? This is a disease...?
• Have difficulty waiting for things they want or waiting their turns in games
• Right, we prefer martial arts, tennis, skiing... games where you don't have to wait for the non-ADD/ADHD people to get it together... so this is a disease...?

  No way would I ever give up my inquisitiveness, my energy, my fascination with the world around me so that I can "focus" and be a good little automaton.  If you cannot keep up with us, then may I recommend angel dust, speed or cocaine? What?  That is offensive?  But drugging irrepressible youths is   not offensive?

Set my people free!

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The Gift of ADD/ADHD

Here is a snippet of an after-class discussion to day...

Jspiers: I havw the gift of ADD... but th wines are not my biz... I simply did a bit of research...
vicbig: by the way, I also have the gift (or calamity) of ADD, for me is a problem
Jspiers: whyis it a problem, vic?
vicbig: I want to know and do everything
Jspiers: and?
vicbig: and I have time management on organizing problems
Jspiers: who says so?
vicbig: I do
vicbig: I know
*** complexton has left channel #worldtrade
vicbig: I jump from one project, idea, etc to another
vicbig: and another and another
Jspiers: ADD is a management problem for others, not for those with the gift of ADD...
Jspiers: vic, that is our job...
Jspiers: it is why we were given ADD...
vicbig: well that's really a new and isnpiring focus
Jspiers: we also look at a problem from a thousand angles...
vicbig: inspiring
Jspiers: why cede any ground to teh myopics who get us into wars and screw up medicine and education?
vicbig: that's true
Jspiers: Why let them drug the kids who have the gift?
Jspiers: teachers want the kids drugged so they can have an easier job..
Jspiers: why drug all the kids, when we can just give teachers crack so they can keep up with those who are gifted with ADD?
vicbig: John, do you know any book or other source of information to help me to take advantage and control this gift?
vicbig: take advantage of it
Jspiers: why control it?
vicbig: I mean take it under my control
Jspiers: you do take advantage of it... but some tight asses dont want you too...
vicbig: and be benefitial, not obstuctive
Jspiers: red some books on fasting... when you fast you learn to look at food and say "hmm... good... but I will wait..."
Jspiers: when you can fast, you can control anything...
Jspiers: or ore to the point, direct yourself...
vicbig: it can belike the best horse that dan go wrong if you do not keep it to your good
Jspiers: more to the point, direct yourself...
Jspiers: and keep in mind it is not that we run all over the place that bothers the myopic, it is our energy...
Jspiers: that's what those lazy drug peddlers dislike about us...
vicbig: direct myself?
vicbig: that's the point
Jspiers: we add make the best equestirians...
Jspiers: sure, when you can say no to food you can say no to anything...
vicbig: ok I will buy a book
vicbig: on fasting
vicbig: Thank you for your time
vicbig: and your advise
Jspiers: my pleasure...
vicbig: It can worth the whole course to me
Jspiers: you do not have the problem, you have a gift...
Jspiers: the myopic have a problem..
Jspiers: drug the teachers, not the kids...
vicbig: Thank you, that is comforting
vicbig: really
vicbig: I have a new sight of this
sjamesusa: vic: you can do it!
vicbig: and I know I have the potential
Jspiers: indeed...
sjamesusa: just keep going forward with your biz and it will work out.
Jspiers: we all do..
vicbig: sorry for buthering you guys with this personal issue
sjamesusa: i've been through hundreds of iterations on my biz but i keep going forward.
sjamesusa: stay close to John's book.. ;-) and you 'll get the hang..
sjamesusa: and to john...
Jspiers: vic, I brought it up...
Jspiers: business is personal...
vicbig: bothering
vicbig: I meant
sjamesusa: biz is fastly becoming a lifestyle!
sjamesusa: my lifestyle.
Jspiers: indeed.. really no oher way to approach it...
vicbig: way to go
sjamesusa: all from the kitchen table!
vicbig: yeah!
vicbig: Ok, it's been a pleasure
sjamesusa: I gotta go now. see you all next week. I love talking about all this biz stuff! ;-)
Jspiers: ok.. see y'll next week...
vicbig: Bye
Log file closed at: 5/27/09 8:24:02 AM

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Drugging Children

The New York Times has a "mock-concern" article that comes down hard on drugging kids in school.  What do you do when you see parents drugging their kids stupidly?  What do you say to parents whose kids have gone off the rails after a decade or more of psychotropic drug experiments.

“These children are still in the developmental phase, and we still don’t know how these drugs biologically affect the developing brain,” he said. “There’s an obligation for parents, doctors and teachers to respect the authenticity issue, and I’m not sure that’s always happening.”

Yes, we have no idea what the long term effects...wait, yes we do, between LSD and Ritalin, the CIA picked LSD to use because Ritalin was too unstable.

“My kids don’t want to take it, but I told them, ‘These are your grades when you’re taking it, this is when you don’t,’ and they understood,” Ms. Williams said, noting that Medicaidcovers almost every penny of her doctor and prescription costs.

This is the 47% who fear without Obama their kids won't get blottoed.  

“It’s scary to think that this is what we’ve come to; how not funding public education to meet the needs of all kids has led to this,” said the superintendent, referring to the use of stimulants in children without classic A.D.H.D. “I don’t know, but it could be happening right here. Maybe not as knowingly, but it could be a consequence of a doctor who sees a kid failing in overcrowded classes with 42 other kids and the frustrated parents asking what they can do. The doctor says, ‘Maybe it’s A.D.H.D., let’s give this a try.’ ”

Kaching!

So what do you say when you here a parent put some kid on Ritalin?  You say "You are harming your child.  The drug is nastier than any recreational drug out there.  The long term effects are horrible.  ADD is not a disease, it is kids being kids. Not all kids learn on the exact same time frame.  Stop drugging your kids, they will be fine."

"Don't feel bad, just admit it and stop.  We all screw up our kids somehow, all the way back to the way Adam and Eve raised Cain.  But when you turbo-charge bad impulses with federal dollars, corrupt medicine and money-hungry doctors, the harm is wildly leveraged.  Stop now."

Until we make it clear there is no such thing as ADD, or anything that needs medication, we will never have anyone working on solution to the damage done by drugging these kids  Ands like the article says, we'll never get proper schools, ones designed for kids like me, kids with the gift of ADD/ADHD.

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Book Review: Tuxedo Park

Since it was a book on design and innovation, and on sale, I picked up a copy of the story of Alfred Loomis a bright fellow who did well in the stock market, indeed perhaps one of the top three players, in the 1920's and then went on to do well in science, developing radar and many other innovations just in time for WWII. He even contributed to the atomic bomb, all from his private estate 40 miles north of New York City, a place called Tuxedo Park, where people were so rich they dressed for dinner, the men in a suit we now know as the Tuxedo.

He was born wealthy, and an obviously bright fellow, but the various descriptions of him, from many sources, make him sound the classic ADD/ADHD type. I observed while reading this, happily for him, he was rich and also sent to the best schools, so there were no parents to have him drugged nor had the drugging kids with the gift of ADD begun back then. The description of Loomis on page 70 by his wife is spot-on sketch of the ADD beneficiary (well, we are all beneficiaries of the ADD people).

Loomis was related to all the top families back East in his day, and went into law first and distinguished himself, but got bored and went into Wall Street in the 1920's. Smart enough to write rules that benefitted him and his firm, he got rather wealthy, and spent his weekends doing science with the brightest minds in the world, who were only all to happy to visit his private laboratory in a mansion and share, and often have their most promising work underwritten by Loomis. He was also able to buy the best equipment in the world, a benefit most scientists were keen to avail themselves of by visiting his tuxedo Park laboratory. The book is particularly good since it is composed by, as near as I can figure, a grand niece of Loomis, who was free to simply go into the attics of various relatives and pull out source documents in the forms of letters, ledgers and in one case, roman a clef novels.

As I read all of this, I am even more sorry we do not have free markets. There are countless people with the gift of ADD, but without the money to start projects, contribute, and pass them off as Loomis did. There are extremely few people who can buy and install test equipment, and run experiments as Loomis did. Without his wealth, it is unlikely. Of course, in a free market, everything gets better and cheaper, so everyone eventually has access to all goods and services, but sadly, we are not there yet.

Loomis saw the stock market crash coming, and got out with all of his money, and made money on the depression itself. He left the world of the markets, unhappy at the lawlessness of the Roosevelt administration. It is amusing to read today of policies floated and agreed to... such as allowing failed banks to repopen having put their "toxic assets" in a separate account, as related on page 82. Due to timing and politics, this plan was never implemented during the depression. What is intriguing to me is the possibility that since this is exactly the policy we are doing today, is Bernanke, the scholar of the depression era, implementing this policy today as some sort of esoteric knowledge that gives him the insights that will pull us out? Of course, it is still lawlessnes, and cannot work in principle... but so what.

The inside discussions leading up to the policy of the criminal confiscation of gold in 1933 are recounted here, with Loomis with the bad guys, and on page 88, a argument over the unconstitutional formation of the TVA, with loomis with the good guys, via his proxy, his uncle, Secretary of State Stimson.

Having the gift of ADD myself, I will try a new technique for writing book reviews. I will post note, as I do here, as I progress through a book. I have a dozen book reviews backed up, with no time to review a whole book. Perhaps I can get the book reviews out this way. Of course, I could just take ritalin, but then I would lose my gift. And be of no value to you.

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Update on Book Markets

Re: [spiers] Update on Book Markets


On Wed, 25 Oct 2006 20:32:02 -0700, Paul Snyder
wrote :

> I was interested in the latest on this thread, have you met with the
> buyer? Also, was it really the artist or was it you that had the
> samples made in China?

***Well, Betty David is the artist, and is another "does exactly what I say
works but has never
heard of john Spiers" case. My daughter and I went into her retail store (which
she is shutting
down, wholesaling and retailing does not quite work, as I teach) and were
stunned by the
quality. Her north coast indian designs on the jackets caused me to mention I
had the
chinese do such on carpets long ago. She said she'd been trying, with no luck, I
said I'd have
no problem getting her designs on chinese carpets. this meeting was circa
11/05, we were
both too busy to work on it, so we agreed to meet in jan 06. Late jan 06 we
met, decided
neither of us needed contracts or even agreements... we'd figure out if there
were customers
and then worry about who gets what. She had a series of trade shows to do so I
got her
designs in late feb and sent them to china, and in april I picked up the samples
in China when
i was there. May jun she shopped the samples at her trade shows, and then began
developing designs based on feedback...

I've been swamped, so when I recalled the jiffy lube was next to the high end
furniture store, I
grabbed the samples and did the "would you really buy something like this"
thing, which
generated the buyers name.

Betty wrenched her back and has been out for 2 weeks, and I've been travelling,
so neither of
us has followed up yet. We'll pitch a show at the retailer, if an when we can
find time to get
there..and I'll certainly keep y'all updated.

>
> I am curious about what led up to this event. As I recall, you have
> been working it for some time. If you could please estimate what
> date it was that you first started thinking about this product idea.

***prox oct 1979.***

> Also, how many hours or days in total, do you estimate that you have
> been working it? The latter would include the creative process of
> visualizing the solution, the market research to determine it does
> not exist, the search for an artist, and the mechanics of working
> with the artist to produce the samples. I know it is difficult to
> estimate, so let me give you a guideline - was it <5, <50, or <500
> hours. Thanks!
>
***Well aside from the comment above, this iteration has required maybe 12 hours
in the last
year, including the time I spent speaking with the communists in china, and i've
probably got
a total of no more than $1500 in this. if we quit today, I've got some pretty
cool indian art on
carpets. i am probably ahead. I have no idea how much time Betty has spent on
this.

In a perfect example of market distortion by the fed causing malinvestment, most
of my time
is remodelling a house which I enjoy immensely, but would not happen if the ROI
was not
huge... it is huge since the market is manipulated by politico shenanigans. I'd
be working if
the money was not so easy otherwise...

Also, the book thing is a window of oppty I am exploiting, learning a lot and
taking advantage
of what amazon and google is doing, and I see Apple is linking up with google
and mimicing
amazon in paying associate fees for people who send buyers to Apple's itunes...

I've long wanted to write a case study of how the music industry competes on
design, and
how everyone copies everyone else, with examples, and now I can also embed the
itunes
samples into the story and make money every time someone reads the story and
buys Geo
Harrisons "My Sweet Lord" after reading that it is just a remake of the
Chiffon's "He's so
Fine" ... (the Chiffon's opened for the Beatles when when they first came to
USA, and of
course Geo Harrison had to have heard their hit, He's So Fine." 7 years later,
he has a hit with
"My Sweet Lord, which is proven to be really, "He's so fine" After winning a
1/2 million in
royalties in 1976, the Chiffons record and release "My Sweet Lord".) That saga
was 16 years
long, and finished 30 years ago. Tempus Fugit.

I don't know if I've answered your question, but I must reflect: Being ADD/ADHD
is the most
wonderful thing... the ability to think and do 3 things at once, and have the
energy to sustain
it... I realize that it causes trouble in the classrooms, but happily back in
my day they only
beat us, they didn't drug us. Instead of a drug that inhibits ADD/ADHD, I think
they should
make a drug that causes it, and give it to teachers.

John




> > Also this week, after topping off the oil in my car at Jiffy-Lube,
> > I walked into a high end home
> > furnishings store and blew passed the receptionist alarmed at the
> > carpets under my arm. I
> > wandered around until a nicely dressed fellow said "may I help
> > you?" I dropped the carpets at
> > his feet and said "an artist has designed these carpets, and had
> > these samples made in China.
> > She says stores like your will sell these carpets. Is she dreaming?"
> >
> > He replied, "I am not the buyer, just a designer. Here is the
> > buyers name and number. But if
> > he will not buy them, I have clients always looking for new and
> > interesting. Can I take
> > pictures for them to see." "Sure, and just contact the designer
> > direct if you want any made..."
> >
> > As soon as I can find time, I'll meet the buyer, and let you know
> > what he says.
> >
> > Folks, this stuff is easy... must get going!
> >
> > John
> >
> >
> > Compete on Design!
> >
> > www.johnspiers.com

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The Gift of ADD/ADHD

Q. How many ADD kids does it take to change a lightbulb?

A. Did you see that dog?

I've mocked the ADD conceit here many times, and now comes and article that talks about this gift without over mentioning ADD?  Do you suppose someone realized drugging kids does NOT help?

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Gift of ADD/ADHD - How To Treat

Ritalin is a consumer item for most parents, something to give the kid, like a wii box or braces or whatever is popular today.  The powers that be, following Huxley, condition teachers (and some parents) to see a kid who mind can go in ten directions at once and say

"O no!  My kid's mind goes in 10 directions at once!"

A propoer response to realizing your kid has a mind goes in 10 directions at once is

"My kid's mind goes in 10 directions at once.  So what?"

The mind goes in the right direction, it merely goes in 9 others too, at the same time.  So what?

But, the kid cannot study!

No, the course is boring.  By 10 minutes into the lesson, the kid has checked it out nine other ways, and has already figured it out: whole language is bogus.  New math is bogus.  State history is untrue.  If you already know that it is all a waste of time, then why pay attention?

How can you say new math or whole language is bogus.

Well, there is no science to support its efficacy.

But plenty of kids excel with this pedagogy.  No, the only kids who excel in school are those with parental involvement.  Kids spend 8 hours a day in front of essentially TSA workers who drone on about nothing.  They then go home and have their parents teach them the lessons, or go to khanacademy.org, or otherwise learn the topic.  They do well.

Love is defined as wanting the good for the other.  If you love your children, and he has ADD, then homeschool him.  Let him study math, language and music in 4 minute increments, and be finished at 10 am to snoboarding the rest of the day.  One parent may have to quit a job, but if you pencil it out, you'll learn you are probably not giving anything up.

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New Product Development

I am working on a product that solves a problem for writers. Editing on computers was a big breakthrough, but a problem I experience is at some point scrolling back and forth in a chapter gets so confusing that I have to print out the chapter and review it in paper.

Once in paper I make notes of what to move where, what to delete, what to add, then take all that back to my computer and make the changes, starting with the last page working backwards, because the other way around will so distort the page order as I move forward, I'll never follow my notes.

I understand one is supposed to make a outline and write from that, but schools are wrong to teach this to those of us with the gift of ADD/ADHD, because that is not how we work. We are creative and messy. So my solution is to adapt video whiteboard technology to writers who have my gift.

In essence I want to get say 30 pages of a chapter up on an interactive whiteboard at once. While I was checking these out in Hong Kong 2 weeks ago at a trade show, the problem was one of pixels on editing white broads. Theoretically we can get maximum 10 pages readable on one 70" board. For 30 pages, I'd have to string 3 boards.

Also, the editing software would have to accomodate showing that many pages at one time in an editable mode. That software may not exist yet, and ideal would be if googledocs could do it.

A list participant recommended I check out 60" hdtv screens. There are no real high end electronic stores (except Apple) but BestBuy bought high end retailer Magnolia hifi, and sure enough they acted like a high end store when I came in and tried to buy my idea. According to the staff, all I will get with a 60" screen is 60" of wysiwyg from my computer screen. I had 4 guys messing on the problem (I purposely visited on a sunny friday afternoon, place was empty and there was even a pesky comcast salesman trying to sell me too since I was looking at 60" tvs... finally they sent the problem to their "commercial" division, and I spoke by phone with these guys, who will go to their suppliers and look to see if there is anything available to solve my problem. (this, as a process, somehow feels familiar.)

So far the problem gets down to pixels. On a 60" screen, you cannot get a sheet that has been reduced to 8 x 11 readable... but the rumor at best buy was, sony etc have actually produced prototypes that can do it, and dumped the idea since it does not serve the home movie viewing market. Well, I am a different application. I salivate at how much money they must have spent, and that somewhere in a Fukuoka garage is sitting a 90" screen that can resolve a 8x11 sheet....

As I proceed on this I'll update the blog.

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Advertising

David Ogilvy was the enfant terrible of advertising in the 1960's and wrote a few books, in particular OGILVY ON ADVERTISING I have long recommended. He appears to have had the gift of ADD/ADHD, if his CV is any indication. He was an innovator and a truth-teller.

Ogilvy points out most advertising is a waste of money, largely an ego-investment in the form of a valentine to the CEO and crew that run the company. Think of Jack Welch and GE, and all of the money spent to tell us they "Bring Good Things to Life" in spite of the fact they at the time were pursuing business and allying with government programs that much harmed our economy.

The book made one point I found astonishing when I first read it. Ogilvy said never run an ad without a coupon. Now, Ogilvy represented Rolls Royce and Sears. Sears, I can see a coupon. But Rolls Royce? Yes, a coupon for a brochure that advanced the sales job on a Rolls Royce, but far more importantly, showed Rolls Royce exactly the response rate to the ads placed. Ogilvy taught every ad should be keyed ( indentified in some trackable way) and as dollars are spent on ads, you know exactly what you are getting for your money.

As a small business grows, small amounts of experience inform the entrepreneur as to what precipitates a customers buy. the unique offer of the entrepreneur, in the process of designing and redesigning based on market feedback, also shapes any advertising message, at its most effective, within the enterprise and as the ever better designs are being developed. It is a pas de deux between design and advertising message, the one working with the other.

in big biz, since the taxpayers ultimately support the corporations whether they fail or thrive, especially if they fail, advertising is just spending money to aggrandize oneself and support the regime. When Union 76 advertises how the oil company is advancing green initiatives, it is simply coordinating its activities with the state, and charging the cost to the taxpayers, not the customers. The rank and file celebrate bringing Union 76 into the fold of the green movement, when in fact it is a defeat.

But back to efficacious advertising. The idea that advertising will necessarily grow a business of course is nonsense. The ads must be effective, Ogilvy's small point that efficacy could be tracked caused a furor when he mentioned it, but in fact it did little damage, since, as I said, most advertising is pointless and paid for by taxpayers, not consumers, anyway.

One aspect of the damage done by government intervention in the market is since the big bucks in advertising is misallocated in the area of promoting the regime and the big biz/big govt axis of evil, what advertising skill set that is out there is malinvested in inefficacious means. Little if any work is done in the area of solid art and science of advertising.

Ogilvy's point is critical for we who actually provide a value in the marketplace. We can know if advertising is efficacious as it runs. I lay out in my book some ways of using the principle of subsidiarity to get the most effective advertising, but it should be read in the context of Ogilvy's work.

Until the time comes when advertisers have a model that guarantees a return on your investment (Google is moving in this direction) you are on your own, but can be well guided by Ogilvy, and the tried and true practices of small businesses.

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Talk to Two Customers, Call Me In The Morning

I'd like to make an observation about being self-employed.  Now this just may be peculiar to we who have the gift of ADD/ADHD, but my heart and mind soars from the depths of discouragement to the heights of bravado, in spite of the fact that I know it is never as bad or as good as I think it may be at any given extreme.

One thing you learn is to just accept the feeling, but don't really act on it.  There is always, though, something that can get you grounded and balanced again: marketing.  Forget about what you are feeling, and just get your product or service in front of customers.  Their sober assessment will get you back on the straight and narrow.

It does not matter where you are in the process, at any point you can speak to customers, whether you are in the beginning, where you are still a consumer, or you've made the switch to where you are now a producer.  No mater where you are in the continuum of building your own business, contact with customers is always edifying, one way or another.

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Taxation Done Right: No Fight Flight Fraud

A tax lawyer, Charles Adams, wrote a book back in 1982 called Fight Flight Fraud, The Story of Taxation.

He covers the history of taxation, from at least 3000 BC, to his time, 1982.  His thesis is taxation is the price we pay for for a civilized society, following Holmes, but the state almost always gets it wrong.  Taxing is tricky, and he shows, through historical example, where taxes go right and where they go wrong.  Taxes done wrong invite fight, flight or fraud, or some combination thereof.  And his history of the world revolves around tax policy, and its effects.  It is a fascinating trip.

The book is fundamental to any business library.  His study is comprehensive and entertaining.  My first criticism would be general... please, if you have serious content, do not lay out your book like a coffee table book.  Those of us who have the gift of ADD/ADHD get lost in such books.  The book was a gift for my birthday. It is big, 9x`12. .  It has lots of pictures  I spent a month jumping from picture to picture, reading bits here and there, and not making much sense of it.  I finally forced myself to read through from the beginning, and found the book is a treasure.

There are nuts who say the income tax is unconstitutional, and this lawyer agrees.   Not only was an income tax introduced twice, twice it was ruled unconstitutional and overturned.  Three times is the charm, and there it is.  It is still UNconstitutional for 2 reason he lays out, as a lawyer, but by 1982, USA was no longer  nation of laws.  He outlines the relentless effort on the part of American counterrevolutionaries to undo the constitution, successfully.

It was also fun to read a book contemporaneous to 1982, where many of his allusions come from that era.  A trip down memory lane, to boot.

He does not like our tax system, and his criticism of  the system 1982 would be all the stronger for today.  If you love the state and want to preserve it, then this is a game plan for avoiding revolution while funding the state.

Under Reagan there were some changes to the tax laws, but they only served to make collection wider and more efficient, not better.

A couple of interesting points.  In many cases Jews fled to Moslem safety in the face of Christian ferocity.  In one instance, welcoming Jewish perspicacity, a Moslem potentate declared Jews tax exempt.  The Jewish elders appealed to the fellow to make no such rule, for in time it would invite envy and repercussions.  The Jews have not forgotten the disaster of Joseph and their experience in Egypt.

Liberals love to point to high-tax Sweden as the workable ideal for USA.  What I did not know is Swedes are an aggressive, world class tax avoidance people.  Important detail that.  Their aggressiveness would make an Italian blush.  And on the other hand, their tax collectors would make an SS officer blush.  We can all name famous Swedes, none of them live in Sweden.  As soon a Bjorn Borg started making money in tennis, he got out of Sweden.  Swedes work hard to get way from Sweden.  When speaking admiringly of Swedish polity, that should be noted as a downside to their system.

It is his critique of the USA tax system, in light of all others, that is the harshest.  And he was writing in 1982,  imagine what he would say today.

For my part, I do not buy his thesis that “taxation is the price we pay for a civilized society .. and we can get it right. “  Taxation is one price we pay for a state, but we do not need a state.  Yes, the state can make taxes more tolerable, but since crisis feeds state power, why would the powers that be ever make life easier?  Abusive taxation may invite fight, flight or fraud, but as this history shows, the state has endless ways of countering all three.  And none more prolific than the United States.

Further, his history shows, but he does not note, that when taxes are low, the burden fairly distributed, and the government careful in spending it, we have peace and prosperity.  Well, we see that today in places like Andorra and Hong Kong, where most people have no tax burden whatsoever, becasue people tend to be self-governing when there is no state to cause malinvestment and polity distortions.  The conclusion would be eliminate the state and taxation, but he will not go that far.

But as a lawyer, his livelihood depends on the state, so as a lawyer, he will always prefer the state to his clients. 

When the US was being formed, watchers around the world were observing and commenting.  One such observer, Immanuel Kant noted an internal contradiction, a fatal flaw in our system.  You know that we have a system of checks and balances, the legislative, the judiciary and the executive branch.  Lawyers are officers of the court, that is to say, they are officers in one of the three branches of government.  For an officer of the court to serve in any other brach of government is both a conflict of interest and an abuse of power.  Kant warned such a flaw would bring down our system.  It did.

A supreme court justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes, at the top of the judiciary, is the one who said taxation is the price we pay for for a civilized society. And take a wild guess where the quote is written in stone?  Over the entrance of the Internal Revenue Headquarters, a division of the executive branch! Do we need any more evidence of perfidy than that?

One step in recovering freedom will make the implicit conflict of interest, explicit: no lawyer may serve in the legislative nor executive branch.  I think we would have avoided much grief if we listened to Kant.

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Enough Who Know

There are enough people who know, who have their facts straight, in every field, and they are easy enoough to access, so their is not reason to get trapped in hoaxes like "cancer screening" or ADD/ADHD, or HRT. You just have to ask around.

One reason medical "care" is so expensive, is we all have to pay for these hoaxes, when the price of goods and services include employer-paid medical, which feeds these hoaxes.

When one has employer-paid healthcare, and the system-supported doctors tells you to have a colonoscopy, well, why not, it's only $25 co-pay and it could save my life! Except, it costs us overall tens of thousands and the chances of the procedure saving your life are slim to none.

This article mentions the distress people experience when they are told the tests are positive for cancer, when it fact it is a false positive. I was once told I had cancer of the pituitary and that I was sterile. Well with 3 kids that I know about, that part had to be wrong, and as far as pituitary cancer, I grew up around enough doctors to doubt it seriously. Sure enough, false positives.

There is an alternative to all this nonsense, with is especial barbarity directed at women, but we have to love our freedom to have it.

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A Little Lesson/Assignment

This blog is going to go silent for about six weeks, until early January 2015.  I spend about two hours a day doing research and placing my outraged screeds and rough drafted content up and, happily somewhat organized, a happy thing for someone like me with the gift of ADD/ADHD.  These are my most creative and productive two hours, to which I will devote to the draft.

But I have enough rough content to produce my third book, how to grow once you've started up.  You have customers, and now you need more.

For years people have asked for an advanced class, and my response has been the advanced class is to actually execute the info in the intro class.  

The paradox was the improvements in communication and transportation after the "Fall of the Wall" in Berlin 25 years ago atomized businesses to where functions were farmed out (warehousing, accounting, sales) and the headquarters itself could be removed from the port city. Where once you could simply call another importer you knew from down the street about some problem, now you go to the web.  But that web information may rate high in a search, but not be reliable.  My courses have been unique in validity and reliability, according to the participants.

Now there is a new void.  We have lost at least one, probably two, generations to FIRE (Finance, Investment, Real Estate), people who would have once started small businesses have answered the siren call to trade the new false economy.

In my classes I can see patterns of what is missing, and in practice I shake my head at the waste of time and money in the areas of finding new customers, marketing, trade show work, finance, product development.

Another indicator the time is right is there are plenty of people who are writing on the same topic.  This is good, it means the need is being met.  But the fact of the matter is what I have is better content than what I am seeing, for whatever reason, so I am obliged to write mine too.  But I have the others at a disadvantage, I am actually doing what I describe, and have done so for forty years now.

And the next forty years promise to be even more exciting.  The pendulum is swinging back, small is beautiful again, "get big or get out" has failed, and people want new choices in goods and services.

Yes, if you are on any of my lists you'll hear about the book as it gets toward publication, or if not, email me at john at johnspiers dot com and I'll put you on a notification list.

And since you've read this far, here is a wee assignment if you like:

Listen to this lecture, part one and two...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FlAjxdEgBY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWk-GSNlfs8

(Incidently, At 2:45 seconds into part two, Simon Sinek asks ... “how do you find the ones who just ‘get it’ Before you are doing business with them, vs the ones who don’t get it”  (pointing to the 16% laggards.)  I've been teaching that for 30 years, I learned it from the people I worked for the first ten years.  The kind of info people used to pass on inside small businesses.)

and then reflect on what you heard as you study this promo piece.

http://www.apple.com/watch/films/#film-design

Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.

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Whose side are you on?

Folks,

Dean, a few weeks ago, asked a very good question: “Whose side are you on?” regarding
videocamming oneself in an encounter with police for self-protection. The idea for a product one could buy that allowed one to videotape their encounters with police perhaps would make
a good item to develop and sell, perhaps worldwide.

Just so happens the following weekend I took a road trip to San Francisco with a retired police
detective, and with both of us gifted with ADD/ADHD we spoke constantly for 12 hours
straight driving time (each way) with neither getting a word in edgewise. We will call this
retired officer “B.”

AS to citizens with an attitude, B’s view was “how things go depends on how the officer
handles it.” It is always a small group of the same officers who get into the fights and
problems.

Fresh out of the academy, B’s first Field Training Officer (FTO) stopped on Alki (a popular
drive in Seattle) and showed him a brief case with marijuana, cocaine and heroin in it. “I plant
this on @$$#*)@&” the training officer said.

His second FTO parked outside a lesbian bar where patrons (matrons?) parked across
abandoned railroad tracks. Technically that is a parking violation, so the FTO wrote up all the
gals, just to make life a wee bit more miserable.

B had been in the Navy 8 years, some in Viet Nam, so he already knew there can be good
guys and bad guys in any service. He just resolved to be one of the good guys.

B started as a young cop in the late 60’s during the student riots and the black militancy
movement. For his part the riots were more shoving matches, so he never felt the need to
keep whacking when a student fell down. When he pulled over Aaron Dixon, the head of the
Black Panthers in Seattle, for illegal lane change, B got a full ration of attitude from several
Blacks in the car. His rule was “never escalate,” so he ignored their taunts, gave Aaron a
caution, as he would anyone else, and let him go.

One of the ongoing complaints Blacks had in the ‘60’s was cops would always handcuff
Blacks after an arrest, and rarely handcuff whites. It was up to the arresting officer whether
to handcuff or not. My friend spotted a Black with a felony warrant sitting in a jack-in-the-
box restaurant and went in and arrested him, in spite of the felon being surrounded by his
friends. The felon hesitated, stood, and presented his wrists for shackling. B said, “Sir, will
that be necessary?” The felon said “no!” and they walked out to the squad car and drove
down town for booking.

(The imbeciles who write police procedures rules decided instread of handcuffing fewer
Blacks, the solution would be to handcuff everyone, behind the back, on every arrest. Now
they handcuff old ladies, suspects dying from gunshot wounds, and even handcuff people
who are NOT under arrest!)

Another time some fellow in a martial arts outfit had several cops at bay with some fearsome
looking moves. The cops were ready to assault him when B approached, bowed deeply martial
arts style, and repectfully requested the ninja nutjob to accompany him downtown. The
fellow complied when shown a little respect.

Once when responding to a call in a flophouse a tenant drew a 357 magnum revolver from
under his blankets and pointed it in B’s face, as B’s partner dropped back to draw his weapon
and fire... B had already grabbed the gun by the cylinder, so the nut could not fire the
uncocked gun. Turns out the fellow had stomach cancer and wanted to commit “suicide by
cop,” but B would not oblige.

Most cops are like this: calm, level-headed, competent without an axe to grind, wanting to
see things turn out OK for everyone involved.

That’s not to say he never had to get physical. He recounted one time he and his partner had
to drag a very thoroughly beaten prisoner out of the back of the squadcar when a uniformed
lieutenant happened by, looking over the scene with a scowl. Without any question the
lieutenant said “Good work, men...” and walked on. That was rare. But it did teach him that a
cop with a beaten prisoner is given unquestioned credibility.

On the other hand, one of the best friends he made on the force (opposites attract), a famous
officer, was notorious for aggressiveness. They met and became fast friends during riot-
control baton training during which the fellow severed his baby finger clean off, and kept on training.
This officer was regularly in the papers for his over-the-top incidents. He was taken off street
patrol and put on Harbor Patrol after he brought in a hitchhiker beaten to a pulp. “Hitchhiker
resisted a ticket...”

B’s motivation for being a cop is probably fairly typical: to serve and protect. He enjoyed
stepping in and defending the defenseless and hustling the dangerous off the streets.

There had always been fairly light anti-drug abuse laws, but with Nixon there came the “war
on drugs.” B volunteered. To make a long story short, over time, you name wrong cops can
do, B got around to it, short of murder.

In fact, it was an offer to B for a contract killing that caused him to finally retire. Seattle cops
as murderers is not unheard of, about 1972 one had murdered a snitch in an alley off Pine
Street unaware the snitch had wired himself. Somehow News5 got the tape and led the 11
oclock news with it.

Some say it is just a matter of firing bad apples. Short of murder, no cops gets fired, unless
unloved by the brass. Officers who step out of line get an “attaboy” and nobody has to say
anything directly to get “the job done.” When some prominent citizen has been raided twice
and no drugs show up, the judge says “last time” to a warrant, the brass says “last time” to
the cops, and the cops understand, “this time find drugs.” And they do. As the officers
invade, one anonymous officer throws a felonious amount of dope in a closet and moves on.
Another officer discovers it, the arrest is made. The defense lawyers polygraph the officer
who discovered the dope, and the officer truly swears he did not plant the dope. Conviction
guaranteed.

Problem was, after years in undercover narcotics and intelligence, B found himself tempted
by an offer for a contract killing, and decided enough was enough. He was offered Harbor
Patrol too, but he was afraid the first time he came across a yacht with coke, he’d be back in
trouble.

The people who manage police forces have all studied Max Weber, and all accept the
definition of government an entity within a certain geographic boundary with a monopoly on
violence. The bottom line is violence, the last resort is violence, and the police wield it. B
just did not want to cross that line so far as murder.

There are alternatives to Weberian ethics, such as the last resort being a jury, or other
premises, but let’s deal with what we have.

We have a system of good cops, yet it generates bad cops, and a system that has a hard time
recruiting good cops. The powers that be like having bad cops on the force, for special jobs.
The bad cops distort the whole profession.

Some people see a cop tasering someone and say...”I’ll never be a cop..that is sadistic...” Of
course some people see a cop tasering someone and says...”I wanna do that!” It is a
downward spiral.

Cops are of course used as political pawns, enforcing whatever campaign du jour the political
class cooks up. At the same time while enforcing laws cops are short-manned as politicians
feather-bed with yet another gardener in the parks departments but leaving police staffing
undermanned. If something bad happens and people demand “more police!” then they can
raise more new taxes for those, too.

The police officer was invented bout 150 years ago, spread to USA about 100 years ago, and
undergoes “reform” about every 20 years, because it just does not work out. Most law
enforcement, property protection and peacekeeping in USA is in private hands anyway, to
mover to 100% private would cause no disruption.

Back to the question "Whose side am I on?" I am the side of the police who are put in an impossible bind, and
consumers who do not get their money’s worth. Police are in a system that suffers from an
internal contradiction: taxpayers are obliged to pay, but the police are not obliged to serve.
The Supreme Court has ruled so.

There is a useful detour in this argument: while our discussion was flowing on this topic a
few weeks ago, and in regards to other discussions of private vs. govt provision of goods and
services, people have emailed me to encourage me to promote Congressman Ron Paul for
President, for surely he is a good man who will make a difference. I agree, his philosophy is
Jeffersonian free market/small government, and no doubt with him as president we’d see
good government trickle down to local police departments who would fire any and all bad
apples, sound money so police pensions were secure, less government campaigns distorting
the economic landscape and we’d have bad cops fired, and better and more good cops
working.

But this misses the point. Ron Paul is a politician. He believes some government is
good. The undeniable fact is every good and service government might provide is better
provided by private business. Private business is superior to even good government. So to
settle for “good government” is to settle for less tham optimum distribution of material
goods and services among humankind. My argument is we can do better than the “good
enough” of good government.

So the question is “whose side am I on?” My friend who committed crimes as a police officer,
a system that led a good cop into perdition? The government that deployed and destroyed
him pursuing political ends? A police sargeant who threatens a kid with false arrest because
the cop does not have the maturity to ignore some snotty teen, and thus makes good cops
look bad? The good, straight cops whose pensions are empty? Cops who are at risk
because their back-up is a sub-par hire, or worse yet, there is no back-up because there is
money for a gardener but not for a cop? Their problems all go back to the same source:
government interference in what ought to be privately contracted.

When I say “let’s turn all police work over to private enterprise” I am coming up with a
solution to the problem, a solution that would bring us more better cheaper faster in
protection of persons and property. Soon enough the material benefit of security in persons
and property would be available to then poorest among us, as surely as everyone has a cell
phone today. It is not an alternative universe to the one we have, because most of our
security is now in private hands, and we can resume having it all there again. Dealing with
security would be like dealing with Home Depot or Saks 5th Avenue, not the government.
(Indeed, a most excellent San Francisco cop I know quit and moved up to Head of Security for the entire
Home Depot Corp.) The best people working as police now would be working in these
private biz as police. People in security business would be properly deployed and
compensated if they were in the free market, not in the obviously failed experiment of having
some police work handled by government. Isn’t the one who wants to get rid of the job of
“police officer’ the one on the side of the cops?

John

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Love Of Money is the Root of All Evil

If the Bible said "love of Disco is the root of all evil" I could relate to that.  Those were some very fun times, some wicked things were done, and it was a lot of fun.  I loved it.  But that is not what the Bible says.  The Bible says "love of money is the root of all evil."

I guess if you have the gift of ADD/ADHD, making money is never a problem, and if something is never a problem, you don't worry about it.  Certainly people around me worry about me and money, just not me.

But that love of money quote got me thinking, the ban on usury provided a negative hint, and how usury concentrates power in ever fewer hands to the point it takes extremely few people to "call the shots" is clear.

When world problems come to mind, they can all be understood as love of money at the root, and usury as the means to the present end.  Iraq, Ferguson, the coming stock market crash, any and all problems can be traced to too much power in too few hands, effected by usury.  Do I believe usury (taking or giving interest on a loan) should be outlawed?  No!  Just make it unenforceable in law.  End of that regime.

I've been reading much on this, and this week can across a book online on the topic...  S C Mooney, Usury, Destroyer of Nations.  Mooney does yeoman work carefully taking down every religious and social argument pro-usury.  Very good stuff.  I cite Dr. Gary North here often, since his stuff is good, but North is pro-usury, with which I obviously disagree.  North has made a lifelong concerted effort to critique the entire Bible for economic wisdom, and it is good stuff, but he gets something central, usury, wrong.    This blindness put him on the losing side of an argument with Mish on hyperinflation, North and Mish being of the same school of economics, the Austrian, and Mish gets it right.  Mish just yesterday returned to the topic and this is a good summary of the right side of the debate.  His foil this time is a Forbes writer, it is sad to see Forbes go so downhill so fast.  Ironic, a magazine that promoted usury sells out due to usury.  (Forbes sold out to a Hong Kong outfit.)  One point Mooney concedes is there will never be business loans at no interest.  (I'll say it again, all loans are charitable events, if you have money with which to make more money, invest as a co-owner, not take a (relatively) sure thing from someone taking a risk.  )

Looking around the world where USA is failing to a degree it cannot be blamed on Obama (no one can do this much damage) it looks pretty grim.

So I was astonished to see, unbidden, with no particular impetus, business loans at no interest, crowdfunded by Kiva.  Now, when Kiva first came out, it was micro-finance at interest crowdsourced.  So I could see it was the evil Grameen Bank Mohammed Yunis look-alike bringing micro-evil to Islam, the last bastion of usury-free business.  But Kiva-zip is crowdsourced loans at no interest!  I (and other on this list) jumped in to make small loans at no interest, and the borrower picked up $10,000 total well within the timeline.  I am very keen to find out the metrics... do no-usury loans subscribe faster better?  What is the average loan size?  What was the impetus for this effort? And so on and so on.

Now, this new thing is immediately contrary to patterns and practices of this corporation we call the USA.  You cannot make charitable loans in USA to businesses without someone imputing interest and paying taxes on the imputed income.  So either the giver or the beneficiary will be in trouble with the IRS.  That is just how capitalism works, and the USA as a corporation has over the centuries taken on patterns and practices of capitalism, which is "love of money" above all else.

Good on Kiva for offering this...  the people making the loans will have to fork over more money to the IRS for having done so, or more likely, the beneficiaries will become targets of the IRS, but either way,  we are now designed to crush good things before they get started.  In capitalism, the IRS works for the bankers, and to the degree no-usury loans displease some banker, business loans at no interest will be crushed.

But started it did.  When the market gets wiped out in the next couple of months, just recall in the chaos there are good systems we can adopt.  ( http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/08/david-stockman/does-the-wall-street-casino-seem-dangerous/  This too...  http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/08/19/crisis-collapse-in-world-capital-flows/ Remember, just like last time, 2008, and every time before, the powers that be will tell you "no one saw this coming."  Plenty of people saw it coming.  Just no one will do the right thing.)

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Deregulate Medicine Now

When I was a kid, I was in the emergency room often, since I had the gift of ADD/ADHD. No one every worried about the cost of health care, because the Catholics had an awesome range of hospitals whose prices reflected what people could pay, and the difference was made up by charitable donations. Nobody went without health care.  But then big government got access to unlimited credit, and socially conditioned people to worry about "health insurance" instead of health care.  By driving up costs through monopolies (patents) and control over how many beds may be licensed for health care, the Catholics were driven out, and now the corporations run the shows, even in hospitals still bearing Catholic names.

While awaiting the birth of a daughter, I recall reading the early registries of admittd patients from a historical record in one of Providence Hospital display cases.  Names redolent of soul, Asia and native predominated.  These people could not pay, but they got fixes and cures.

I also recall when kids with glasses had to be careful because their glasses cost an arm and a leg, and countless people had to go without reading because optometry was a racket for these doctors to charge too much to do too much.  Some effort was made to deregulate optometry, and the pushback assured us untold gnerations of people stumbling around for lack of glasses if optometry was deregulated.  I am wearing a pair of 1.25 glasses I got for $8 at a Walgreens, now that optometry has been deregulated.

The hegemon is a thug, and professionals like to have a thug enforce their private rents.  Here a doctor is threatened for charging a low price to the poor.  We need strict separation of health care and state.

Completely deregulate medicine.

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Advertising

David Ogilvy was the enfant terrible of advertising in the 1960's and wrote a few books, in particular OGILVY ON ADVERTISING I have long recommended. He appears to have had the gift of ADD/ADHD, if his CV is any indication. He was an innovator and a truth-teller.

Ogilvy points out most advertising is a waste of money, largely an ego-investment in the form of a valentine to the CEO and crew that run the company. Think of Jack Welch and GE, and all of the money spent to tell us they "Bring Good Things to Life" in spite of the fact they at the time were pursuing business and allying with government programs that much harmed our economy.

The book made one point I found astonishing when I first read it. Ogilvy said never run an ad without a coupon. Now, Ogilvy represented Rolls Royce and Sears. Sears, I can see a coupon. But Rolls Royce? Yes, a coupon for a brochure that advanced the sales job on a Rolls Royce, but far more importantly, showed Rolls Royce exactly the response rate to the ads placed. Ogilvy taught every ad should be keyed ( indentified in some trackable way) and as dollars are spent on ads, you know exactly what you are getting for your money.

As a small business grows, small amounts of experience inform the entrepreneur as to what precipitates a customers buy. the unique offer of the entrepreneur, in the process of designing and redesigning based on market feedback, also shapes any advertising message, at its most effective, within the enterprise and as the ever better designs are being developed. It is a pas de deux between design and advertising message, the one working with the other.

in big biz, since the taxpayers ultimately support the corporations whether they fail or thrive, especially if they fail, advertising is just spending money to aggrandize oneself and support the regime. When Union 76 advertises how the oil company is advancing green initiatives, it is simply coordinating its activities with the state, and charging the cost to the taxpayers, not the customers. The rank and file celebrate bringing Union 76 into the fold of the green movement, when in fact it is a defeat.

But back to efficacious advertising. The idea that advertising will necessarily grow a business of course is nonsense. The ads must be effective, Ogilvy's small point that efficacy could be tracked caused a furor when he mentioned it, but in fact it did little damage, since, as I said, most advertising is pointless and paid for by taxpayers, not consumers, anyway.

One aspect of the damage done by government intervention in the market is since the big bucks in advertising is misallocated in the area of promoting the regime and the big biz/big govt axis of evil, what advertising skill set that is out there is malinvested in inefficacious means. Little if any work is done in the area of solid art and science of advertising.

Ogilvy's point is critical for we who actually provide a value in the marketplace. We can know if advertising is efficacious as it runs. I lay out in my book some ways of using the principle of subsidiarity to get the most effective advertising, but it should be read in the context of Ogilvy's work.

Until the time comes when advertisers have a model that guarantees a return on your investment (Google is moving in this direction) you are on your own, but can be well guided by Ogilvy, and the tried and true practices of small businesses.

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