Life and Spirituality

E arlier posts in this blog and a companion one mentioned that with reducing manufacturing jobs in the developed world, many jobs could be created by a return back to the land. A postmodern concept was described so that farm lands are in narrow strips along a main road so that a farming rural area can enjoy the advantages of living in a town or city simultaneously. The configuration ends up with a town in front of the home and a rural farming area at the back. A village designed on this concept is described here http://steamcenter.blogspot.in/2014/05/postmodern-designer-villages.html Another post in this blog has described a humane and economical shelter for the homeless called HISA that has semi dormitory style accommodation and a free kitchen. It is described here http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2013/01/designing-shelters-for-homeless_13.html A condition for getting accommodation in a HISA was suggested that all residents shall submit fifty percent of their ...

Rule of 10, 12 or 20 O ften we hear talk of raising the minimum wage in different economies of the world. The people who ask for this are those who have got trapped  into an exploitative economy where a few control most of the wealth and raise the minimum wage of the poor from time to time as feudal lords used to raise the salary of their servants and slaves from time to time. What needs to be addressed instead are income inequalities but those can be done by controlling the maximum wage not just the minimum one. Raising minimum wages could cause maximum wages to rise faster increasing inequalities further and inflation could erode the value of minimum wage even if increased as has happened in many countries. One might say that raising minimum wage could reduce inequality. but  that is a poor way to go about it. There is a far better way that has something to do with a ratio as explained next. It is not an advanced concept. Elementary school children learn about it...

Economics of Greed and Exploitation E ver since the financial crisis of 2008,  economic news from around the world has been enlightening. From time to time, my reaction to some of the reports have been published as blog posts. Recently I combined some of the more important ones into a single document. After editing, what emerged was a brief booklet of fifty pages entitled ‘A Brief Introduction to the Economics of Greed and Exploitation’.     I tend to regard anything under 75 pages as a booklet rather than a book although the publishers tend to classify it as the latter. The booklet is published in full color so that some of the associated color graphics could be included from earlier blog posts that seem to have inspired changes from Japan to Switzerland and also perhaps USA and parts of Europe. The contents consist of seven chapters. The Blogger editor does not seem to reproduce tables faithfully but nevertheless I have copied and posted it here for whatever i...

  Flemish painter - http://www.museum-brotkultur.de T here was a time when some humans developed the notion that all humans are created equal and that it is unjust for some to amass huge amounts of wealth while others grind their butts out. This notion gave birth to the idea of communism. However, the communists forgot that trees in a nearby forest are not all of equal height, that a certain amount of inequality is natural and trying to enforce an unnatural equality may kill the forest. Sans incentives and the need to strive, many humans would rather sit and grow obese. The result was that entire economies slowed down severely and bread lines became longer and longer until they became longer than the communist manifesto. It was therefore soon discarded into the trash can. Some political parties still call themselves communist but that is simply out of nostalgia. They neither mean it nor live by the philosophy any longer. Capitalism thus marched across th...

Linking Bosses Pay to the Lowest wage The Swiss 1:12 Initiative The Internet has made propagation and access of information widely available. Just about anyone in the world can post his her ideas and once posted they become available to just about everyone, anywhere in the world with a few clicks of the mouse. One does not have to search for it in a library as was necessary a few decades ago. Although many thoughts may be of little relevance as thoughts often tend to be, some have the potential to cause significant and valuable changes in the way humans live, love and work. This blog has been publishing articles on health, environment, life style, economy, politics and spirituality for the last several years and some of them have made a difference to our world, hopefully for the better. An article (now deleted) urging a referendum in the Falkland Islands lead precisely to that. An article on inflation in this blog provided a key to how the Japanese could leverage def...

Modern Banking It appears that before the financial crisis a few years ago the Royal bank of Scotland was indulging itself in risky investment gambling. It is a really fun game where bankers in nice white shirts and bright ties play on a computer screen for huge profits. Mind you there is no stress of risk. They gamble with our money. They are smart and talented at the game and therefore win most times. The winnings are distributed under the name of a bonus that is on top of their already hefty salaries for coming in every day to the bank to play the game. But guess what, gambling is gambling and does involve the risk of losing. When they lost heavily before the financial crisis the poor fellows were consoled by their bosses by giving them a bonus anyway, albeit a smaller one. The losses suffered by the bank as a whole were made up by the British Public. The government as a result has ended up with a bigger deficit that they are making up by cutting public programs ...

Economic Wisdom from the Himalayas In recent years there has been much discussion about the one- per- cent i.e. the small percentage of the world’s population that possesses and controls most of the wealth of the world. However, there is one- per- cents in numerous other arenas of human life and perhaps if one examined carefully enough each one of us probably falls in the one-per-cent in some category or the other. One of my neighbors would probably meet the criterion when it comes to ugliness and a friend in the size of his ---    :)   nose. Each one of us is unique and special in some way or the other for sure. If I turn my gaze towards myself, I find that I fall in that category as regards education is concerned. One consequence of this privilege is that one often develops a view point that is different from what ever is being upheld by the ninety nine percent from time to time on all sorts of issues. I have continued to persist with the habit because ov...

Robin Hood and his Merry Men I n today’s complex economy it is useful for the ordinary citizen to understand a few simple principles about economics. That way, they can manage their own money better and also contribute their voice to policy making in their countries. This post is about inflation, its causes and ramifications and how it can be managed  in any country. Money is a used for acquiring goods and services and when the price of goods and services rise we say that inflation is taking place. The price of something depends on many factors but two of the primary ones are 1. Demand and supply balance 2. Extent of Money Supply.   Both factors are easy to understand. If a commodity becomes in short supply then its price tends to rise. If apple crops have been destroyed by untimely frost then apple prices will rise. If the demand for a product increases then too its price rises but if demand falls prices fall or crash. The balance of demand and supply is one...

Earl's Court, Nainital Today my mind went to a fundamental question – how much money does one need for a good life, perhaps the best possible one on the planet. The reason for this thought arose because of worries for a friend and class fellow (Rajat Gupta) who was until a few years ago amongst the richest persons in USA. Then he got involved in legal difficulties because of which not only did the sources of his income stop but he has also been fined and is paying exorbitant legal costs. The net outcome would be that his wealth will reduce substantially. However, on deeper reflection the cause of my worry disappeared as I deliberated briefly on what amount of money is required by a family or person to have a very comfortable and good life style, in fact the kind that much less than one per cent of the population of the planet is able to afford. I presently live in India and my estimates began from here. I arrived at the conclusion that a million dollars of net we...