Categories
culture politics

Community: Commerce

Commerce is the means by which members of the community interact economically. When building or running a community it is not likely that you would have to actively promote commerce but it is important to be aware that commercial interactivity is a basic element of community and should be a consideration as various decisions are made regarding other aspects of community. In a physical community it may be helpful to have areas where commerce is a central activity.

Commerce generally involves financial transactions, but it can include non-financial transactions as well.

Categories
culture politics

Community: Communication

The communication aspect of a community runs from the formal (newsletters, bulletin boards) to the informal (chatting with neighbors). Without the means to communicate, the various members of what would otherwise be a community are isolated. Communication is also the lubricant that keeps other aspects of community working. Actions by the government must be communicated to members in a reliable way. Commerce flows more freely when there is a means of advertising available goods and services.

I believe that both formal and informal means of communication must be present in order to have a healthy community.The key is to have various channels of communication and to ensure that communication multi-directional (and multi-modal with current technology).

Categories
politics

Dump Cheney

I was so disgusted with the lame excuse offered by our VP – that he is not part of the Executive Branch of government – that I did a little research to see how much of a legislator he is. Vice Presidents have cast 243 votes in the history of our nation (a little more than 1 per year) Cheney has cast 7 votes in just under 7 years so he’s right on track. By contrast, John Kerry was often maligned in 2004 for missing votes on the Senate floor while he was running for president. Although he missed more than 90% of the votes he still cast 16 votes that year. If Cheney is doing 7% of the work of an absentee senator without being part of the Executive branch then he should be working gratis (no charge) because I am convinced that he is not working pro bono (for the public good).

I have never been a big fan of Cheney and I thought he should be replaced years ago, but by now I have long given up hope of that. I was surprised to find A GOP Plan To Oust Cheney today. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really think this plan will happen although it certainly would be a step in the right direction.

Categories
culture

The Law of Abundance

I have thought for a long time about the basic premise of capitalism and economics. Thanks to the discussion on Wealth is Always Distributed I have decided to write down my thoughts on the subject.

Economics are based on the assumption of scarcity. My observations lead me to believe that the only real scarcity is a scarcity of effort, and a scarcity of time. Even when we consider those two scarcities we do not actually have any shortage of resources with which to meet our needs as a society.

This thinking has led me to what I call the Law of Abundance. This law is illustrated in Each Little Bit Helps from last year. I think the law could be stated that we could accomplish anything (besides defying the laws of physics) if people would just get in and help make things happen without asking the questions of scarcity – Is it going to be fair? Will I get paid for my work? How much will it cost? The only question that is asked under the law of abundance is – Should this be done? Once that question is answered then the work moves forward. Questions of efficiency (such as maximizing profits) are laid aside (although answers about efficient means are still welcome).

I admit that this law of abundance is not very useful on an individual, day-to-day scale. As an individual I have to eat and provide for my family so I am not always free to just jump in and do things without regard to what’s in it for me. I am very interested in the development of my community, but unless someone can pay me for it I can’t devote all my time to those efforts – I must still remain gainfully employed. (I’m lucky enough to enjoy my gainful employment but that is not the topic of this post.)

Where the law of abundance works is things like feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. When we operate under this law of abundance we do not let fields lay fallow in order to receive a government subsidy or prop up the price of the crop we could have been producing. Instead we produce the crop and get it into the hands of those who need it. In essence, production becomes more important than profit. We do not avoid hard work so long as the work has value. We would rather have grain rotting in bins than stomachs rotting with hunger while there is any way to provide food.

We often see an attitude similar to this during times of crisis when people pull out all the stops and just make things happen without prejudice, favoritism, or concern for financial repercussions. I argue that we should operate in this mindset more – always where possible. The key is to make sure that we are careful about getting the right answer to the “should it be done” question.

Categories
life

Forging Group Identity

After spending the last few days at Youth Conference, I am thinking a lot about finding ways to help a group of a dozen young men into a cohesive group who will work together and feel as if they can/should take care of each other. Any ideas?

Categories
culture politics

Community: Government

I think that most people have a pretty clear idea of what the government element of community is. We can all imagine city hall as a place where meetings of the community leaders meet and make laws and where members of the community may appeal for changes which they feel should be made. The more I read and study, the more I become convinced that government has no business beyond codifying and enforcing the law. I am also convinced that we almost universally exceed those boundaries by making “laws” to give incentive to certain behaviors (fines for driving a car with a broken taillight, or tax breaks for buying alternative fuel vehicles). While those examples are largely outside the scope of a small municipality, which is where my attention is focused, they illustrate how easy it is to exceed the proper bounds of government.

Categories
culture politics

Think Globally; Act Locally

I think that the idea of “think globally, act locally” (TGAL) points us in the wrong direction. If I base my local actions on what is best for everyone globally it leads to uninformed decisions because I have a very limited knowledge or control over the global repercussions of my actions. No matter how much I study I cannot fully understand the situation, needs, motivations, and perceptions of others. The further they are from me, the more built in error to my decisions. And no matter how good my understanding I have no control over the actions of those other global people.

I think that the world would be better served if we were to practice “plan for the future, act in the present.” There are still many elements that I cannot control or know about the future, but my thoughts and actions are now entirely focused on those things which are my responsibility. I also believe that this attitude would encompass those aspects of TGAL which are beneficial. If I think of my future I will do those things which are beneficial to others where that may have a positive impact on my future.

Interestingly, after I started this post I received a link to a book on economics that seems to suggest that one of the causes for bad economics is thinking of the present but not the future.

Categories
culture

Formalism and Details

I have been thinking about the merits of formalism in our laid-back society. I wonder how many people even have a basic understanding of parliamentary procedure or know what Robert’s rules of order are. I suspect that more people are familiar with the details of table manners than are familiar with the details of how to run an organized meeting.

I studied Robert’s rules of order when I was starting as the president of a graduate student organization. Before that I was aware of the general structure of parliamentary procedure but not with the details. Now, as I question if these are dying arts, I start to wonder what we might gain by making people more knowledgeable about these kinds of formalisms. In the world of text messaging is there something to be gained by putting more emphasis on the rules of spelling, grammar and punctuation.

I really would like to know what other people think about this. What is the value of the details? Are we losing those skills in our society?

Categories
culture politics

Wealth is Always Distributed

I’ve been thinking about the whole distribution of wealth thing and I begin to wonder if it is really a problem. What happens when Alex Rodriguez gets paid $25 million dollars a year? (I pick him because I know his salary)

I have heard arguments that if we tax the rich too heavily they will not be motivated to compete – in my mind, there’s no difference between $25 million and $20 million a year – both are more than I can spend so why would I work harder to earn more money if I am already drowning in the stuff. Then I realized something – these guys probably learn really fast how to spend more money than I can imagine because they have it. If I’m making $2 million a month but I have managed to acquire $1.8 million a month in expenses and I can see another $400,000 a month that I could spend my money on, then I am going to be motivated to try to earn $2.2 million a month.

What I realized is that the very wealthy are spending large amounts of money and that money provides work for the rest of us. If someone buys a mink coat for $100,000 dollars I might say that no coat is worth that price, but where does that money go? It does not go into the fur – it goes into the economy. It arrives in the accounts of the store that sold the coat, but then it is used to pay bills, sales commissions, coat makers, mink farmers, mink food producers, etc. Someone will complain, “but they don’t spend all of it, some of that money goes to corporate profits.” Corporate profits are used to produce more goods, pay investors, or expand businesses. For those who want to argue that “investors” tend to be the already wealthy I reply that they are busy spending their money one way or the other. Those people who would hoard their wealth eventually die and pass it on. Somewhere down the line it will still get spent – and there’s no need to worry about the detrimental effect of hoarding – even if Bill Gates were to sit on all his Billions (as if most of his money were not already tied up in charitable causes) it would hardly even register on our national economy.

When someone argues that there is a problem with some people having more wealth than others they do so with an assumption that there is a limit to how much wealth is available. Even if that were true (and I’m not sure it is) that is only a problem if there is not enough wealth to provide for everyone. We all know very well that there is plenty of wealth available to meet the basic needs of our entire society with much to spare.

Wealth is not about cash, it is about cash flow – to be wealthy all you really need to do is flow less cash out than in. Because of the flowing nature of wealth we need not worry that someone else has it, all we have to do is find a way to the waters edge by producing something that others find valuable enough that they flow cash through us. In fact, the worst thing that could happen economically is to set up a system which gives some people incentive to not produce anything.

Categories
life

Seeds, Trees, and Fruit

I read Alma chapter 32 again this week and the analogy of the gospel as a seed. I have always loved the imagery of cultivating the tree of Christlike attributes in our lives through the exercise of faith. As I read through this time it struck me how appropriate the tree imagery was because, like a tree, it can take years of care and nourishment before we truly see the fruits of our efforts even though we will see the evidence that the seed is good, as the tree sprouts, long before we receive the fruit that can truly nourish us. Too often we talk about the gospel as if it is always nourishing to us. I think that it is more accurate to say that the hope of the fruit of salvation is what nourished us early on before we start to receive the fruits of our own tree. Prior to that time any nourishment we receive must come from the fruit of trees which others have long nourished.

The other thing that occurred to me relates to the way we talk about various religions. We may acknowledge that various churches have some truth but we make it very clear that this is “the one true church.” How is it that a bad seed can produce good fruit? We are told that it cannot. This has always bothered me since it seemed that every seed which did not lead to the true church must be a bad seed despite the acknowledgment that other churches are not devoid of truth and I have seen good fruits in the lives of many outside our church.

My newfound realization was that all seeds which bear fruit are good. This is similar to the common Protestant assertion that any Christian church is good. I may prefer my apples to your pears, but I admit that they are both good, nourishing fruit. The difference between our belief and this flavor-of-the-month approach is that we believe that our fruit is actually superior to the competing varieties. What I realized is that while that may be true, we would probably do well to emphasize that just because there is a superior offering available does not make the other options less nourishing. This realization might also help us to admit that more nourishing does not always mean more sweet.