America The Beautiful

Fair start at the starting line

Fair start at the Poverty Line

I have often heard the story about how a single parent achieved great success through hard work to raise the family out of Poverty. It is always followed by the claim that anyone can do the same. It is only laziness and dependency that cause people to remain trapped in Poverty. 

The point is not that it is possible. It is, in fact, probable that those without resources will not achieve the success that your parents did. Your parent was not the rule but the exception. Congratulations on your choice of the successful single parent as your caregiver as a child. Most were not able to make the same choice.

Whatever your moral judgment of failure of the parenting by the poor, the fact remains that the success rate is overwhelmingly negative. Your condemnation of that moral failure will not change that fact. Moral judgment never has changed that fact. So we must look for an effective solution if we value the life of every person rather than just those that you find to be deserving.

My commitment is to the idea that every life has an inalienable intrinsic value.  That Right can only be fulfilled if every person is guaranteed food, shelter, medical care, and life skill training [education.] 

When Thomas Jefferson wrote of those inalienable Rights in the Declaration of Independence, he listed Life first. It must be first because Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are impossible unless one can secure the preservation of Life first. That is the reason humans form communities. It is not to protect the right of "Winner takes the Prize" competition that leaves the loser with no resources to ensure survival. It is rather to ensure equal opportunity to achieve from a foundation of freedom from want. That foundation is an equal opportunity starting line to the Freedom to Achieve your pathway to your Passion.

Building Bridges

Create -Educate -  Advocate

My Mission on the internet is to end poverty in America, but sadly I am all too often caught up in the Tribal Conflict. We must build Bridges between Human Beings and remove the walls that make us strangers and then competitors for power, 

Winners create a world of losers in their wake and view them with disdain. Service creates cooperation and builds a common foundation on which we can stand together. If we can make the stranger a friend, there will be one less enemy at the Gate.

Out of this World

The American Tribe is Human

 America is rapidly withdrawing from interaction with the world  The result will be to becoming a second rate Nation. If we do not compete to lead the Pathway to the future, we will follow as an Empire in Decline. It will be extremely hard to "Make America Great Again" if we withdraw into isolation and fall from being the Greatest Nation that has yet existed.  Instead we must BELIEVE IN AMERICA AGAIN.

Ask yourself why we have a Rail system that is worse than the one Japan had when I was there in the 60's. We did not compete with the world in railway system. We do not compete in designing better Roads & Bridges. We don't compete with other Modern Nations that excel in building better Citizen Service. We are now moving toward competing in nothing. 

There is a huge price to be paid by a system that isolates us from the Real World. The Human Race is not made stronger by isolating ourselves into National Tribes that grow weaker as tribe is forced to preserve its power over "the others".  Native American Tribes  tried to compete with migrants without having an Industrial base. and lost The World WILL change. We will lead the change or follow others with our broken roads and coal burning power plants and Gasoline engines . Wake up and smell the sludge in our rivers. Even bottle water in plastic bottles have to come from some pure source. 

THAT IS WHY IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT WE KEEP OUR BORDERS OPEN TO THE CROSS CURRENT OF THE REAL WORLD

The diverse community

ONE Tribe, in ONE World,

  


I am not in favor of moving anyone anywhere even though migration is the story of Human Survival. I favor it as a personal decision. The present occupiers of any geographical area have the power to aid or to resist the migration of other Tribes. 

Ask the Native American how that works out for them. What makes you think our generations of immigrants who took this land from the indigenous population now have an eternal God-given right to protect its occupation from tribes of other cultures? 

Human population is residences of the whole world. 
Sovereign Territories are created by power and will fall to power. The goal should be to improve life for all human beings to reduce the drive to seek survival by moving to what promises to be a better land. 

We need to adopt the goal of ONE Tribe, in ONE World, and end the competition to destroy each other. We need to learn the truth that diversity is the path to the creation of a better future. The goal can be achieved within a framework of a cooperative community operating with a competitive spirit in its people.

"The diverse community" first published April 27,2018, on my Blog:  Short Thoughts too Long to tweet: 

Capitalism must serve Community

               

Community Commonwealth Coalition

     I personally have no problem with what a CEO earns. As long as he is being fair to his stockholders. My interest is that every citizen has sufficient income for life essentials:

1. Food, water, and clothes
2. Shelter 
3. Medical care
4. Education.
5.Transportation

The income of a Nation in the form of taxes, fees, borrowed funds, and created money is the Commonwealth of all the citizens of the Nation. The Preamble to the Constitution specifies the purposes of forming the Nation.  The General Welfare of the Citizens is one of those purposes. 
I cast my vote to end poverty out the Commonwealth. 

Value Life

My prime value in life is Life itself. I spend my writing time promoting social safety networks. The best safety net is a Basic Income Guarantee for every citizen with no connection to wealth, earned income, or any moral test from a Government Bureau for Begging.

I seek to promote a world in which no person fears being denied food, shelter, medical care, or the right to be educated. Government SHOULD NOT give you everything. It should provide you the "Inalienable Right to Life" by giving you income for food, shelter, medical care and education.

If your passions are then to work for a reasonable wage so that you can buy yourself a car and big home and any other toys that you need to follow your passion you should do that. If your passion is walking on the Beach and watching sunsets or singing songs then you should do that. We call that the "Inalienable Right to pursue happiness."

The Government should not be in the business of doing handouts, but it should be in the business of providing for the Constitutionally mandated General Welfare It should be in the business of ensuring the distribution of income for food & clothes. shelter, medical care, education, and transportation to every citizen without "means testing" for work or wealth.

We should not have a Bureau for Begging. The essentials of life are an entitlement to each person governed by the Sovereign Community and paid for by the receipts of the Commons. You need nothing more than an Unconditional Basic Income distributed by the Social Security Administration just as they distribute Retirement income.

Life Essentials

Give us Life

When we separated our Colonies from  the King  the Declaration of Independence declared that  we had an "unalienable Right to Life ......." 

Life is possible only if we can depend on having food & clothes, adequate shelter,  effective medical care, and learning Life skills.  When we formed a Constitution to govern by law we said in the Preamble that one purpose was to "promote the General Welfare". Life is General Welfare.

I fight passionately for the Guarantee of Food, Shelter, Healthcare, and education for every citizen (Be he, Prince or Pauper). It is the only way I know to give a person the freedom to share in the resources of the earth and not just let a privileged few take what they want and deny life to those in poverty. If we all become wage-slaves we will rape the Earth until we destroy it for all life.

Teachings of Jesus

I am confused by how much the vision of Jesus and the treatment of the Poor as the pathway to redemption differs from the vision of modern-day Leviticus style Christians who insist that obedience to Religious Dogma is the Path to Paradise. At age 12, I wanted to be a pastor. At age 16 after some years of study, the church told me that my thinking was all wrong

Jesus taught in Matthew 25: 31 - 45 that service to those in need was service to him and the Reward was eternal Life.

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 

35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 

36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

Modern day Christians call for adherence to the Dogma of their particular Religious views as the Pathway to eternal Reward. Most often those views are of a materialist nature.

WWJD

Along with science and philosophy, I have studied many religions, both old and new.  I have seen both the struggle to find personal wealth & power and I have seen the struggle to protect the poor & helpless from the seeds of greed growing from the same ground.
I never found a religion in which I could find purpose without paradox.  But in myself, I found a singular value in the love of life itself.  I have put my passion where I found my love. I have been the happier for it. I believe the World can be a better place if we know from where we have come.

Supplemental Security Income

Future of Robotics

The Future of technology & Robotics will be to replace Human labor at all levels where cost is lower than the human wage. The only safe low labor cost jobs will be where Humans will work for less income than it cost to build a robotic system to replace them.

That analysis will, in fact, apply to Jobs at all income levels that software can run robots and computer programs more efficiently than Humans can do the work. The necessity of establishing Unconditional Basic Income will be essential unless we are prepared for enacting the barbaric practice of eliminating excess people who lack marketable skills.

We already have Social Security & Medicare paid from FICA taxes on wages. That is supplemented by a parallel program for the Disabled and the lowest income Social Security recipients. It is called Supplemental Security Income [SSI]. It is paid out of the General Tax Fund. 

If we make the SSI program Unconditional for people over 62 without a Means Test from the "Bureau of Begging" and move Medicare payments to that program instead of Social Security payments, we will have the beginning of an Unconditional Basic Income system 
 
You should automatically start drawing SSI and Medicare at age 62. You can start drawing Retirement Social Security at whatever age older than 61 that you chose. The older you are - the bigger the check.

In the meantime, you keep lowering the age limit on the SSI check. Over time it will apply to all adult citizens. Doing it over time will moderate the effect on the Economy while expanding Medicare to cover everyone.

by William Hodge

Birth of Religion

/https://strangenotions.com/the-science-delusion/

Religion had its Birth in the observations made by men about the nature of Nature.  A Shepard or Farmer would observe that the Sun would change the position of rising and setting over time and then repeat the process with the changing of Seasons.
They would observe that their best product of seed or animal would produce the best new crop or births.   They followed the same practice with the discovery of the pharmaceutical properties of Fauna & Flora. That is why Religion invented the rule that you must offer only your best to please the Gods. That gave Power Holders the best stock of seed and semen to grow their capital wealth.  

The Gods did not deliver Religious rules of knowledge on either Stone or Clay tablets. Observation by men of natural occurrences were remembered, measured, and recorded. That is  Science. Scientific observation became Religious Myth and was coded into stories to teach the people of the existence of hidden knowledge that the Priest held as a gift from the Gods That created a Power Source to rule with. 

The power to rule is not easily surrendered even to the observation of better knowledge.  That is why Religion values Belief over Scientific observation for the acquisition of knowledge. Science is dynamic learning.  Religion is static belief.  The World is no longer Flat. I guess Science is more powerful when Belief stops matching what can be proved as a fact. 

Written by William Hodge

Stop Money Creation by Corporate Banks

Central Bank Money

I am a nonconformist in my views about economics and Government. I support the view that the democratically elected Sovereign Government should control the creation and supply of currency.  In fact, our Constitution gives us that power through  Congress

I see money as a contract between parties to trade Goods & Service today in exchange for a "promissory note"  that will purchase a choice of Goods & Service from other Sellers at a chosen later time by the holder of the note. 

That promissory note can be personally held and traded or it can a deposit in a Bank in an Asset Account as Money. It is held as a Bank Asset balanced by a Bank Liability to the Depositor on demand.   The value of that money is determined by the availability of Labor, productive capacity and raw material supply to produce desired Goods & Service and to pay debt & taxes

I also believe that the power of Corporate Banks to create new money in return for a Borrower "promissory note" to repay legal tender money in the future should be ended. Money should only be created by the Federal Reserve Banks and loaned to Corporate Banks for lending to Borrowers based on the assets deposited in the Corporate Bank by Bank Customers.

William Hodge 

Life is more than Labor

Life Changing Labor

I am a Son of the South from agricultural forebears. In my youth subsistence-level labor created by the Segregation system furnished wage-slaves to make growing crops more profitable. Segregation had replaced the Bonded Slave system used before the Civil War mostly used to pick cotton. That was a Prime example of creating slaves to enrich the 1%ers.  

It was the invention of the cotton gin that created this very profitable use of Slave labor and later segregated subsistence wage-slaves to support the 1%ers of Agriculture. Then they invented a Cotton Picking Machine. Now no one picks cotton by hand. Another machine had eliminated what the first machine [the cotton gin] created and changed the culture of the South.

The use of computer technology and robotics to automate both the simplest of tasks and the most complex task will eventually eliminate the majority of the entire labor class and the white collar jobs as well. If we do not find a way to distribute income to create a system to distribute food, shelter, medical care, and survival skills, we may end up in a system that effectively eliminates people or creates make-believe work to keep them busy.

I prefer that all have the freedom to find their own creative path to life fulfillment.  By distributing Universal Unconditional Basic Income to purchase sufficient food, adequate shelter, medical care, transportation, and learning skills to pursue their passions, we can create a new entrepreneurial culture. That will give meaning to each life by permitting the individual personal choice of Life Paths.  We will create for each the unalienable "Right to Pursue Happiness".

by William Hodge

Rowing the National Boat

One Boat many Passengers

I am opposed to SLAVERY of any kind. I want every person to have the choice of working for a wage he agrees to or not work for a wage at all if he chooses.

To achieve that goal we must first understand the concept of the Commonwealth.  It is the Income derived from the use of any land and what lies beneath that land, the water on or below that land, and the air above that land that is controlled by the  Sovereign Nation. 

The evidence that the Nation controls the Right to that income is it has the power to charge user fees or to levy taxes on the privilege granted of private usage for profit or pleasure. Additional proof is that the Government has the Right of Eminent Domain to reclaim for Public use any property that is currently claimed by other entities for private use. It also has the power to tax the accumulation of profit[income] from Private usage to support the General Welfare of the Nation & Citizens.

In a Democratic Nation, it is an implied Right that every Citizen should benefit from a Dividend from his Common share of the Commonwealth. From that grows the concept of giving every citizen [rich man - poor man - beggar man - thief] a Basic Income Guarantee. That income should be enough to purchase sufficient food, adequate shelter, general transportation, effective medical care and the right to learn life skills. 

As technological and Robotics advance there will be less availability of wages from work and greater need of Unconditional Basic Income to escape the poverty of Wage Slave Jobs.  It is past time to begin a scalable program that provides guaranteed access to food, shelter, medical care, transportation, and life skill training.

 by William Hodge

CAUSES OF POVERTY

Parenting Poverty

There are many causes of Poverty

1. Single Parent Poverty - About 60 percent of U.S. children living in mother-only families are living in Poverty   Only about 11 percent of two-parent families are below the Poverty line.

2.  Scarce Availability of jobs and  low wages paid for those jobs

3. Disabilities that make it impossible to work.

4. Lack of training for skilled labor jobs that pay middle-class wages

5. Lack of work ethic that results in an unwillingness to do what is considered a Wage-slave job.  


The result often is generation after generation of people who, due to resulting lack access to good education, health care, adequate housing, proper sanitation, and good nutrition are trapped in a recurring cycle of Poverty.  We have instituted many forms of Welfare assistance that actually trapped the Poor in behaviors that will at least allow them the means to survive.  Finding minimum level employment will actually make life harder due to loss of absolutely necessary benefits necessary to survival.

If we are going to break the cycle of Poverty, we must give everyone [Poor & Rich alike] an Unconditional Basic Income that is unaffected by a "means test" from some   Government  Bureau for Begging    To do that the Income must be Universal Unconditional and above the Poverty Level. Then and only then will every citizen have the power and Freedom to choose his own path in Life that will allow the Pursuit of personally satisfying achievement.

The establishment of Class Rule

Eugene Debs was arrested  June 18, 1918 under the "Sedition Act, which made it a crime to "willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of the Government of the United States" 

Debs did not contest the charges.  He was stripped of his citizenship and given 10-year prison term.  In his comments to the Court, he ended with these words :

"Your Honor, I ask no mercy and I plead for no immunity. I realize that finally, the right must prevail. I never so clearly comprehended as now the great struggle between the powers of greed and exploitation on the one hand and upon the other the rising hosts of industrial freedom and social justice. I can see the dawn of the better day for humanity. The people are awakening. In due time they will and must come to their own".

Much of what he fought for was set on the path of progress in the Great Depression under Roosevelt.  But since the rise of the Power of the extreme Right under Reagan, we are now close to returning to the Path of Oppression by the Oligarch of the Wealthy. The Presidency of Donald Trump could end our era of 

Progressive Progress.  If we can preserve and improve our gains in Health Care we may stop or at least slow the slide into Wage-Slavery and restore the pathway out of Poverty.

What kind of Animal are we?

 Published  simultaneously on  PATREON    https://www.patreon.com/posts/13014925

and on Short Thoughts too Long to Tweet 

To design a successful human society you need to know what kind of animal we are. Are we a cooperative animal or a competitive animal?"

The answer is YES. We all thrive on the prize of the competition and we all share bread with a stranger in varying degrees. Our cooperation builds personal bonds and community solidarity in shared goals.  Competition for the Prize and exceptional Reward for exceptional Performance leads to increased effort and to the drive to find a better way of doing things.  Often it also leads to Poverty & Excess.  

If we can find a stable environment between the Poorest and Richest within the drive to attain the most or all of everything, we can build a safe foundation to build Freedom from Want and establish a stronger Democracy.  If Poverty dominates our Economic System we will suffocate Democracy & Freedom in favor of rule by the Oligarch of 1%ers. 

Cash IS NOT Money

Moving Money

Originally written and Published on my  PATREON  site   June 7, 2017.



What would happen if you had a Gold coin that you could melt down and sell the Gold in that coin for two Gold coins? If you know the answer you will understand why coins ARE never worth and CAN NEVER BE worth the face value on the coin.  The face value is recorded in an Asset Account in a Federal Reserve Bank or a Corporate Bank and the coin is used to transfer that value from one Bank account to another.

That is the same purpose as a Federal Reserve Note. It is simply a printed receipt for Money recorded as numbers in a Bank Account. Coins differ from a Federal Reserve Note only by being printed on metal instead of paper. Both are used to move the printed value from one Bank Account to another. It may move through several the hands of more than one buyer/seller before ending up as a Bank Deposit as an asset for which the Bank is liable to the Depositor. Checks -  Credit/Debit Cards - Drafts all serve the same purpose 

Cash Money exists nowhere and has never existed anywhere except as a printed value that the Printer of that receipt claims he will exchange a thing of real value for. The ultimate value of the dollar is established by the fact that it is the only way you can pay your taxes or any "dollar valued debt" you owe. You must obtain dollars to pay your taxes and other debts. Debt gives them value.

No matter what you think money once was, I assure you isn't now and never will be. It is just a bookkeeping system to determine who has purchasing power for Goods or Labor. It has the advantage that trades can take place over a span of time, unlike Barter which occurs as a single transaction, It makes trading Goods & Service fungible instead of requiring concurrent agreement at the time of the trade. It is the lifeblood of World Commerce.


https://www.patreon.com/commonshare

Commonshare of the Commonwealth

Ownership has cost

The Sovereign Nation owns the land we live on, the wealth beneath it, and the air above.  Private ownership is a privilege that is granted in return for the payment of fees and/or tax on profits earned or for satisfaction gained in the private personal use. The monetary gains by the Sovereign Nation are the commonwealth that belongs to the Sovereign community.  How they are distributed depends on who holds the Power to control distribution. 

The fact that we pay our property tax or lose our property is the proof that private use is a privilege that you must pay for. The right of "Eminent Domain" is additional proof that the Government can take what it needs for the "Common Good" as long as you are compensated for your improvements.

The power to tax personal possessions & monetary wealth is the source of the "commonwealth".  In a democratic nation, all of the people are entitled to a dividend on their Common share of that wealth. I am a strong believer in the Right of every Citizen [rich or poor] to receive their dividend on what they own in common, just as a Corporate shareholder does. If the Dividend is adequately used for the General Welfare of the Citizen, poverty will not be a plague upon the population.

Income offers Choice

Choice is the key to freedom

Ownership of  Property in the Capitalist Economic System for both self-use and for retraction of profit from ownership is hallowed ground.   But property can be reclaimed by the government if taxes are not paid or by  Right of Eminent Domain if it is needed for the common good.  Is ownership therefore only partial and therefore it is a privilege and not a Right?  It is still the cornerstone of unearned income & wealth as opposed to income earned from labor and is the cause wage-slavery.
  
When residential property is owned but not used, the owner would like to have someone to pay for its use. If another person desired the use of that residence and had the resources to rent the unused residence, that renter would do so unless he wanted to be homeless. If that person lacked resources or wages,  he would be homeless. That is the power of ownership over those who have only their labor to obtain life essentials. They can be either trapped in Poverty or forced to be a Wage-Slave to undesirable jobs without the Freedom to choose.

 To ensure Freedom to escape poverty or wage-slavery is to find a way to distribute money to the person who has none. The fairest & simplest solution is to provide an unconditional Basic Income Guarantee to every person [rich or poor] large enough to buy sufficient food, adequate shelter, and effective medical care. It is the simplest solution for distributing basic Goods & Service to every person.

I recommend using the existing Supplemental Security Income [SSI] program without a Means Test of a need in order to distribute. It could be distributed to all with no need for a large Government Bureau-for-Begging that will exercise "Shaming" as a power tool