tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63294281276441311482024-03-13T19:00:33.862-07:00Forums for a FutureEdward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-22808920315362786102022-12-27T14:25:00.000-08:002022-12-27T14:25:41.566-08:00What 'Critical Theory' Is Actually All About<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><b><i><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This
is a copy of an essay which appeared in the Perspective Section of the Oct. 23
Sunday Edition of the Tampa Bay Times.<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tampabay.com%2Fopinion%2F2022%2F10%2F20%2Fwhat-critical-theory-is-actually-all-about-column%2F&data=05%7C01%7Ckerenner%40usf.edu%7Cfceb6cd3802242afbad208dab502920f%7C741bf7dee2e546df8d6782607df9deaa%7C0%7C0%7C638021319879910619%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=JWpvH6OGfgW482w%2FyHxnkTTgTw8MzEBXbNpXZtcSv6M%3D&reserved=0"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2022/10/20/what-critical-theory-is-actually-all-about-column/</span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-family: "Cambria",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Cambria",serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">What ‘Critical Theory’ Is Actually All
About</span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Cambria",serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><span style="font-family: "Cambria",serif;">It is a method of seeking answers when the
purported </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Cambria",serif;">solution is actually part of the problem</span></b></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Edward Renner, PhD<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">LaSonya Moore, EdD</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Critical theory” is a
straightforward but important area of study that is often misunderstood and
maligned. And yet, it’s pretty simple: It studies how reforms are necessary
when a government agency or function (the courts or criminal justice process and
the like), or an academic discipline (for example, law or history) contribute
in major ways to the very problem that they are intended to solve. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here’s an example.
Critical <i>law </i>theory emerged as a specific sub-field more than 50 years
ago in the United States when feminist scholars documented how women who
reported their rape to the police were further victimized by the legal process.
The result was revisions to the criminal code to eliminate those barriers and
to create a new understanding of “sexual assault.” In short, the goal was to
prosecute the perpetrator and not blame or further traumatize the victim.
Nothing controversial in that.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Currently, the
discipline of history is questioning whether commonly accepted accounts of the
past may actually be contributing to the persistence of racism, requiring
reconsideration from the perspective of the present. Designating lynching
locations in the south as National Historical Sites is an example of
re-focusing that history.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When the specific
focus of critical theory is about racial issues, it is a sub-area of study
known as “critical race theory,” whether it is about a civic process, such as
how the justice system functions, or within the structure of academic
disciplines such as history. Simply put, racism is structural, not just
personal.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Many states, including
Florida, have passed laws restricting the teaching of critical race theory in
their colleges and universities. The legislative purpose of these laws is to
restrict the teaching of critical race theory and other topics that lawmakers
have labeled</span><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #2f2f2f; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif;">as </span><span style="color: #2f2f2f;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“divisive
concepts.” When Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the “Stop Woke” Act, he had his
picture taken behind a sign that read “Freedom From Indoctrination.”</span></span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqBHq6fGr5sPa_N-zbdcq2sFv4NunZ21zHDuZx0y-OfWIf-Chlraf2cS25FL2Nf7xeukPJqnjqR8BF7NIaI8zrNA5VhoSVZzHYXwkura0fvnc5ohTkmtv7BEyuhuYi0lxxspdCP74RqeSIb-2FcEOQw7LIoKDOD1k_ZmV3xWGYniclk-6foCp-7loz/s657/WOKE%20pic.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="351" data-original-width="657" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqBHq6fGr5sPa_N-zbdcq2sFv4NunZ21zHDuZx0y-OfWIf-Chlraf2cS25FL2Nf7xeukPJqnjqR8BF7NIaI8zrNA5VhoSVZzHYXwkura0fvnc5ohTkmtv7BEyuhuYi0lxxspdCP74RqeSIb-2FcEOQw7LIoKDOD1k_ZmV3xWGYniclk-6foCp-7loz/s320/WOKE%20pic.png" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But “critical theory”
— whether it’s critical law theory or critical race theory or something else —
isn’t intended to indoctrinate. It simply investigates why systems fail at the
very problem they’re supposed to solve.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For example, in the
United States today, one of the most prominent racial areas of national concern
is the large number of failing, largely minority, urban schools. The Pinellas
County school system provides a classic case study of such failing schools
resulting in discipline and achievement gaps between Black and white students.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 2015 the Tampa Bay
Times identified five elementary schools in predominately Black neighborhoods
of St. Petersburg that went from successful, partially desegregated schools in
2006, to racially segregated, failing schools a decade later. As a result of
their investigative reporting, Pinellas County schools undertook a 10-year, wide-ranging
reform effort called “Bridging the Gap.” </span><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f;">While the outcome assessments are ongoing, the annual reports
have been positive.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How does critical race
theory help to study this problem? From the perspective of critical race
theory, a common misperception of our schools is that there is a hierarchically
organized set of independent elements that proceed in a circular sequential
order: A causes B, B causes C, and C causes A. For example:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When students do not
behave, teachers cannot teach. When teachers cannot teach students do not
learn. When students do not learn, the schools fail. When schools fail students
do not behave.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When a school system
becomes segregated — as in urban, largely minority, failing public schools,
illustrated by the five Pinellas schools — then these vicious circles are about
minority students and their parents, and the situation becomes a racial issue.
In this case, the behavior and achievement of the Black students becomes the
focus of attention.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However, vicious
circles have neither definite starting nor end points. One starting point
focuses on the students and their parents, and implicitly blames them. A second
starting point implicitly blames the teachers. And a third implicitly blames
the schools.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When none of the three
are prepared to accept responsibility for the failure of the other two, no
solution is obvious, and the problem appears intractable.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How to break the
circle? That is the problem to be solved. Should we train the teachers in
classroom management or give them diversity training? Should we discipline or
use positive behavioral modification procedures with the students? Should we
modify institutional and situational factors that result in largely minority
schools? Which of the elements is broken and who should be held responsible to
break the chain?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Critical race theory
provides an alternative perspective on how to approach these issues.
Specifically, that the success of any school is a function of the
teacher/student relationship, that the success of the teacher is a function of
the school/student relationship, and that the success of the student is a
function of the school/teacher relationship.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Simply put, no one of
the three sets of relationships can succeed without the other two sets of
relationships also being successful. Each is dependent on the other two. They
are interactive and not organized hierarchically. They are simultaneous, not
sequential.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To empirically
evaluate the critical race theory perspective, we have used three public
databases for the 2013-14 academic year (the semi-annual Civil Rights Data
Collection series, the Pinellas County Schools’ website, and the Florida
Department of Education accountability reports). This is the last set of public
data before the investigative reporting by Tampa Bay Times resulted in the
reform efforts now in progress by the Pinellas School District.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In these five schools,
from 2006 through 2015, the level of segregation increased from 51% to 80%
Black, and the schools declined from a state-issued letter grade of B- to F.
Teachers had transferred out of the schools, or resigned from the system,
resulting in new, inexperienced teachers at the beginning of each school year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> By </o:p></span><span style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: large;">2015, 59.9% of the
students failed to meet grade-level academic standards, and the schools
received a failing grade of F. When students did not learn, there was lack of
parental support; only 11.1% of the teachers felt they received positive
parental support. When there was a lack of parental support, there was a high
rate of teacher turnover, resulting in 45% of new, inexperienced teachers.
Schools with new, inexperienced teachers had more classroom management
problems, resulting in 390 formal disciplinary actions. When classroom
management was an issue, only 14.4% of the students were seen as well behaved.
When students misbehaved, there were many referrals (2,165) for staff and
administrative support. When there was no school history of administrative
support, only 57.2% of the teachers looked forward to coming to school each
day. When teachers did not want to come to work, morale was low, with only 44%
reporting positive morale. Schools with low morale had a failing grade of F. In
failing schools, only 8.3% of the teachers felt parents were involved.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Three sets of
dysfunctional relationships. Every negative element made every other element
worse. It was a vicious circle, spiraling downward ever faster.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the comparison, we
selected five of the most successful elementary schools, which had remained
integrated over the same period, 2006 through 2015, but had a stable white
majority (70% to 66%).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In these schools,
84.8% of the students met high academic standards, and the schools received a
Grade of A. When students learned, 100% of the teachers experienced strong
positive parental support. When there was parental support, there was a low
rate of teacher turnover with only 5% of new, inexperienced teachers. Schools
with experienced teachers had no serious problems which resulted in formal
disciplinary actions. When classroom management was not an issue, 100% of the
teachers felt their students were well behaved. When students were well
behaved, there were only 8 referrals requiring staff and administrative support.
In the schools with a history of a stable experienced staff working together as
a team, 96.8% of the teachers looked forward to coming to school each day. When
teachers wanted to come to work 86% reported having positive morale. Schools
with high morale were successful (earning the schools an A grade). In the
successful schools, 100% of the teachers felt the parents were involved.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the end of this
successful continuum, there was a clear, positive, mutually reinforcing
climate. Happy teachers, with cooperative students and parents, had a
high-performing school. A school with happy and stable staff had manageable
classrooms. And a successful school with cooperative parents had stable and
happy teachers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Traditionally,
educational research has focused separately on schools (for example,
comparative achievement, quality of facilities), teachers (for example,
retention rates, credentials, personal characteristics) and students (for
example, preparedness, achievement gap, head start) as if they were independent
issues, each with their own independent solutions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">From the perspective
of critical race theory, one cannot blame the teachers, the students, or the
failing schools themselves. None alone can fix the problem. Instead, one must
blame the process that binds the three together in a specific way, at a
specific time and place, as illustrated by our case study of 10 elementary
schools in Pinellas County.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Critical race theory
is the necessary perspective for informing “Bridging the Gap” of its specific
obligations to the five failing schools in Pinellas County. It is a
well-established area of scholarship that identifies how the specific issues at
a particular time and place are actually contributing to the problems for which
they are the intended solution. </span><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #2f2f2f;">In no way is this being “woke,” as critics
would dismissively claim.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A broader and more
sophisticated understanding of both our physical and social worlds is the
engine of change we recognize as human progress. Change always has been and
always will be disruptive to someone’s comfort level. Clearly, this has been
the case for critical race theory with some elected officials who would prefer
not to have their current political agendas disrupted in this way.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We did not need to be
“protected” from knowing about five failing schools in St. Petersburg or the
location of historical lynching sites in Florida. A healthy and thriving
democracy depends on this type of uncensored scholarship. It is something that
needs to be cherished, supported, and protected.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: medium; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> Criti</o:p></span><span style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: large;">cal race theory
is not an indoctrination of individuals, it is the foundation for creating
improvements and lasting change toward eliminating racism in the United States.
It is the political censorship of critical race theory that is a dangerous form
of indoctrination.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="color: #2f2f2f; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Edward Renner is a
retired University Professor who has been a faculty member at the University of
Pennsylvania and the University of Illinois. He has served as an Adjunct
instructor at the University of South Florida. LaSonya Moore is an assistant
professor in the College of Education at the University of South Florida in St.
Petersburg.</span></i><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="color: #2f2f2f; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p>Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-83585458625557742172020-09-28T07:55:00.000-07:002020-09-28T07:55:17.221-07:00The Long Term Financial Impact of COVID 19<p> The rationale for the early opening of the country was
economic: <b>Our national economy could not afford to stay locked down.</b> The
actual truth is the exact opposite: <b>Our national economy could not afford to
open early.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">Edward Renner</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the US in 2019 was
21.747 trillion dollars. It was projected to grow by 2.2% in 2020 to 22.2
trillion dollars. That was before the economic impact of COVID 19 and the “stay
at home” orders issued in March and April.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b>What Happened Then?</b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">By the end of the second quarter of 2020 (June) the GDP
has fallen to 19.408 trillion dollars, a direct loss of 2.4 trillion dollars to
the economy, as officially compiled quarterly by the Bureau of Economic
Analysis (BEA) of the US Government.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">To put these numbers in perspective, the total budget for
the Federal Government for the 2019-2020 fiscal year was about 4 trillion
dollars. The expected revenue was about 3 trillion dollars, resulting in an
anticipated deficit of about 1 trillion dollars to be added to the national
debt.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The actual dollar costs of COVID to date can be estimated
by adding the 3 trillion dollars stimulus to the 2.4 trillion reduction to the
GDP, for a total economic cost of 5.4 trillion dollars from January to the end
of June 2020.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">What cannot be determined is the cost of each of the
components of COVID 19 and the economic benefits of partially lifting
restrictions in May and June. These impacts are imbedded in source data and could
not be separately identified by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">What we do know is the daily number of new cases
occurring in the US in comparison to other countries of the world. The US chose
to start reopening the economy much sooner than Canada, Europe and Asia, contrary
to the criteria established by the Center for Disease Control based on scientific
knowledge.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">As a result, the number of new cases by the end of July swelled
to the point where they are roughly double what the numbers were in May/June. The
number of new cases then started to decline again once new mitigation measure
were adopted in some states.</p>
<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTV70U5VdzmXaypW661Qp-_dBl_kbjHi8nWvuWMx82IHYyLxcvQ5BQf-ZzDPlFvbpTCDzbMVIzaYTKMni02iWaXJLqmyCkXvh1a2vICdNuTuFdkAFiAlTsj7JgEZsLLWwzGVqvD_36O4Y/s949/US+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="949" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTV70U5VdzmXaypW661Qp-_dBl_kbjHi8nWvuWMx82IHYyLxcvQ5BQf-ZzDPlFvbpTCDzbMVIzaYTKMni02iWaXJLqmyCkXvh1a2vICdNuTuFdkAFiAlTsj7JgEZsLLWwzGVqvD_36O4Y/w532-h297/US+3.jpg" width="532" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">In contrast, other nations, such as Germany, stayed
closed-down longer, brought the number of new cases under manageable control
through mitigation measures, testing, and contact tracing. As a result, they
are in the process of successfully re-opening their economies. </p>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS6fEfpDwZw_6QRZTos23WKRdaJl5ZnOMr4VnIZ6YEQIadhUYDxjlFpVYV9teil4b5Cos6OVn6Rl3z-m0jA6zuUNcBhHqUoURzjZNZ3ri6_x6_AYwPSn68iPaRGV3EOTgzy0iK5XviYrw/s942/Geermany+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="942" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS6fEfpDwZw_6QRZTos23WKRdaJl5ZnOMr4VnIZ6YEQIadhUYDxjlFpVYV9teil4b5Cos6OVn6Rl3z-m0jA6zuUNcBhHqUoURzjZNZ3ri6_x6_AYwPSn68iPaRGV3EOTgzy0iK5XviYrw/w619-h344/Geermany+3.jpg" width="619" /></a> </p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Source: New York Times data
base. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-coronavirus&region=TOP_BANNER&context=storylines_menu">https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-coronavirus&region=TOP_BANNER&context=storylines_menu</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b>What Are the Financial Consequences of Re-opening too
Soon?</b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The financial cost of COVID to the US economy before
starting to reopen was about 500 billion dollars of lost GDP (CBO) and 2.5
trillion dollars of stimulus money, for a conservative estimate of 3 trillion
dollars due to the first wave of new cases.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Using the costs of the first wave (3 trillion dollars) as
an estimate, the surge of at least twice as many new cases after partial
reopening would require a 6 trillion dollars stimulus to offset the loss of GDP,
and to hopefully return us by Sept/Oct to where we were when we first started
to re-open back in May/June.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">However, since we started to reopen too soon, some additional
amounts of costs and time would be required to stay closed down long enough to reduce
the number of new cases to a manageable level to be able to safely open-up,
like Europe, Canada and Asia countries have done.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The United States, at the very least, has made a 6 trillion-dollar
mistake if we act immediately to bring the virus under manageable control. If
we fail to do so, the cumulative costs will continue to grow. These are unnecessary,
but real, cost that could have been avoided by following the scientific advice
of health experts, like the other developed nations.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b>What Will Be the Long-term Effects of This Mistake?<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><b> </b>Before the virus, the Federal Government was expected to
have a 1 trillion-dollar budget deficit for this fiscal year. However, with the
3 trillion stimulus the annual deficit for this finical year will be 4 trillion
dollars, raising our total national debt to 101% of our GDP.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p>If we add an additional 6 trillion-dollars new stimulus
money to the annual deficit, the ratio of debt to GDP will be 127%. This is not
sustainable, and it would require sever austerity measures that would likely
push the economy into a recession.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p>But, not containing the virus also has economic costs.
The GDP of the US lost a record breaking 9.4% in the second quarter of 2020 (BEA).
Unfortunately, as the price for our bungling, we have given our economic
competitors who prevented a protracted COVID 19 impact – such as China and
Germany -- a significant advantage for years to come.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p>This is the unequivocal financial message we should be
receiving from our Federal Government.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"> Yet, beyond the unnecessary financial costs, the
continued disruptions to our social and personal lives, and our deeply diminished
position in the world, there are a still an undetermined number of needless
deaths – perhaps in the 100’s of thousands – for our moral conscience to bear.</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Our response to COVID 19 has
been a collective national disgrace.</p><div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.5pt; border: none; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in;"><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p><b><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sources</span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%;">: Bureau
of Economic Analysis: Table 1.1.5 Gross Domestic Product (page 5) <a href="https://apps.bea.gov/national/pdf/SNTables.pdf">https://apps.bea.gov/national/pdf/SNTables.pdf</a><span class="MsoHyperlink">; </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: windowtext;"> Gross Domestic
Product, Second Quarter 2020 </span></span><a href="https://www.bea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-07/gdp2q20_adv_0.pdf">https://www.bea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-07/gdp2q20_adv_0.pdf</a><span class="MsoHyperlink">; </span>The
Federal Budget 2020 <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/fy-2020-federal-budget-summary-of-revenue-and-spending-4797868">https://www.thebalance.com/fy-2020-federal-budget-summary-of-revenue-and-spending-4797868</a></span></p>Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-46340240608496776482020-06-18T10:50:00.016-07:002020-06-19T08:42:30.865-07:00Excessive Use of Force by the Police<p align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Police Reform Is Not an Intractable Problem<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: cambria, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Edward
Renner and Thom Moore<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The killing of George Floyd filled the streets with
protesters. Unfortunately, the nation has been here many times since the 1960s.
Perhaps an example from then can provide an illustration of how to do better now.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">A member of the Black Coalition challenged us “An ambush
is being planned, and if it happens, more Black people than police officers
will end up getting killed. What are you going to do about it?”</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Thom and I were professors at the University of Illinois
in Champaign/Urbana. At the time, there was outrage in the Black community. A
small child was left alone in the house when Mrs. B, a Black mother, was
arrested on her front porch for assaulting a police officer who had asked to
talk with her son.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">As we learned later, whenever the police use force, they
will often charge the person they had harmed with assaulting a police officer
or resisting arrest. The Prosecution would then drop those charges in exchange
for a guilty plea of disorderly contact, and any complaint against the officer
was officially resolved with no recourse. That was the case with Mrs. B, and
was the reason prompting the visit from the member of the Black Coalition.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Clearly, there were racial issues with policing in our
city. Then, no less than now, the challenge of “What are you going to do about
it,” required at least a personal commitment and an honest answer.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The ambush – if it was ever considered -- never
happened. In response to the challenge, Thom and I examined the previous four
years of court records to identify every instance of assaulting or resisting a
police officer and the name of the charging officer. If assaulting or resisting
was an action initiated by the citizen, then every police officer should have had
an equal chance of being the one dispatched to the scene. We went to the police
department to obtain the data on patrol assignments that was necessary to
calculate the probability statistics. It took over one year and required going
through open hearings at meetings of the City Council.</p>
<p style="margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">When we
crunched the numbers we found that the officer on Mrs. Bs porch was involved in
so many of the cases where the arrested person “assaulted” a police officer or
“resisted arrest” that the odds were one in a million that it could have
happened that way by chance. </span>Two other officers had one chance
in 10,000 of encountering so many citizens who assaulted or resisted. (The
results of this methodology were later published in <u>The Journal of Police
Science and Administration</u> in 1975.)</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">We presented our finding privately to the Command of the
Police Department. The Lieutenant in charge of records said “They have
identified the three people we know are our problem officers, and we have not
done anything about it. I think we should cooperate with the research.” The
Chief agreed: “What records do you want?”</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">We replied, “If you give us access to the records, and we
give you the results, you will be in exactly the same position you are now in with
the three officers in question. You will know there is an issue, but if you
attempt to deal with it, it will put you in an adversarial position with the
front-line officers and the union, and you will be unlikely to do anything with the new information.” We suggested an alternative:</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">“Let us describe the results of our study to all the
officers at the change of shift briefings. We will give each officer a
confidential code number where they can see where they stand on the use of
force in the probability distribution.”</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Clearly, if the If the ambush had occurred, each officer
could have been the one dispatched. They carry each other’s grief. That was no empty possibility. On one occasion the
police had responded to a call in the north end and were fired upon. A photo of
the patrol car, with the bullet holes, was on display in the police briefing
room as a daily reminder</p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing">It is in each individual officer's best interests to find a solution
to the problem. <span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">They
collectively own the issue and must come to assume responsibility for it
themselves.</span> We agreed to work with the officers to help resolve community
relations issues, provided the Command would create an internal culture to make
that ownership possible.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The officers formed a community relations group to meet
and work with us and our students. One of the projects was to have each officer
interviewed by a student at the end of their shift to record any incident where
the citizen did not behave in the way the officer anticipated. The collection
of “critical incidents” provided a data base for categorization, analysis and
public discussions about actual sources of potential conflict. One of the
incidents would be handed out at each shift change for the officers to discuss with
each other. One day, I was walking across the street while an officer was
engaged with a citizen. He looked up and hollered: “Hey Renner, I have one for
us here,” meaning an incident for the file.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The Command never knew the name of any individual officer
on any data collection, but every individual officer personally knew where they
stood. With this internal climate, the officers were assuming responsibility
for their collective ownership of their relationships with the community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">It seems strange – and perhaps unforgivable – for the need
to be revisiting this story from fifty years ago. What we described was a
project that involved the police, the university, and the community in a
transparent, data driven exercise of discovery and change.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">We submit that this is one example of what collaborative
relationships can look like. These relationships are not only possible,
especially with today’s data collection and communication capacities, but
essential for both police agencies and their communities.</p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">The simple conclusion of our project, published jointly with
the Command in <u>The Police Chief</u> in 1976, was: <i>Police Community
Relations Is a Continuous Ongoing Process, Not a Product.</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<div style="border: none; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;">
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><br /></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing">Edward Renner is a retired professor living in
Hendersonville, NC., and Thom Moore is a retired professor living in Urbana,
IL.<o:p></o:p></p><br />Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-38393997262337955442019-03-24T13:42:00.000-07:002019-03-24T13:42:17.443-07:00Build the Wall: A distraction from debt
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Build the
Wall!” A distraction from debt </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Edward Renner<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The biggest threat to our
national security is borrowing against the future, not the southern border. The
Federal debt and the future economic security of the country should be the
context for the debate over building the wall.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The current Federal debt
is $22 trillion, and over the term of President Trump, expenses will exceed revenue
by $866 billion per year based on current projections (see Box). The recently
proposed 2019 budget would increase this amount to over $1 trillion per year.</span></span></div>
<v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" id="_x0000_t202" o:spt="202" path="m,l,21600r21600,l21600,xe"> </v:shapetype><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN6mdYWY6zdLXICwAyASlTSSYBVgBPVHU1JE5nV8ICJ7ueKrW-m1p0QVxiDbse_TEDBGwNuFooylG399J2cCcSOBSlfRqk3thdikibj2bXQqDuOsqbryJZMVWMudsIgh4L3ujZs0rO5pc/s1600/Table.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="804" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN6mdYWY6zdLXICwAyASlTSSYBVgBPVHU1JE5nV8ICJ7ueKrW-m1p0QVxiDbse_TEDBGwNuFooylG399J2cCcSOBSlfRqk3thdikibj2bXQqDuOsqbryJZMVWMudsIgh4L3ujZs0rO5pc/s400/Table.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">An individual has no
reference point for such amounts of money. So, let’s turn those amounts into a
personal example which parallels the current debate about funding the wall.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Suppose your uncle – let’s
call him Sam – has an income of $50,000 a year with a no cash reserves. He is
due for a $500 raise at the end of year. His current debt is $52,000 (104% of
his income). This means he has been borrowing money every year to cover several
thousand dollars of excess living expenses. Now, he wants to borrow a relative
small amount of additional money to purchase something that has no commercial
value – say a portrait of himself.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Suppose further that,
instead of the $500 raise, an anticipated market correction (10%) occurs, and
his actual earnings drop to $45,000. When that happens, he will have to borrow
$7,000 to stay even, for just for the first year. His total debt will jump to
120% of his reduced income. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Under these conditions, why
would Sam want to buy the portrait in the first place, and why would anyone
lend him any more money? Sam may soon need to default on his house mortgage, as
did many people in 2008, and move back home to live with his parents.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Borrowing money to build
the wall is the same as Sam borrowing money for his portrait. Like Sam, the
current Federal debt is 104% of the national income which is measured by the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This debt will increase to 108% under the current
budget of the US Government (see Figure).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqkX-f_FyZ7eZ55n4CMCUS3Wf6jUu_szGY2XVxqEKT8QdFxszGAOzEWhVMTdUhflsGTYZMpgmJVG0pVyrQFAq0MZev4qDCptx7pkeRqMXKHd18EyKt0JSds9pod01oM0FqQI_Eb46vHpc/s1600/Trump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="637" data-original-width="892" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqkX-f_FyZ7eZ55n4CMCUS3Wf6jUu_szGY2XVxqEKT8QdFxszGAOzEWhVMTdUhflsGTYZMpgmJVG0pVyrQFAq0MZev4qDCptx7pkeRqMXKHd18EyKt0JSds9pod01oM0FqQI_Eb46vHpc/s640/Trump.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">When the Federal debt
exceeds the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – which is now the case -- and
interest rates are larger than economic growth – which is now possible – then
the entire national debt becomes more expensive. This situation requires even
greater borrowing and/or a reduction of government services. Both can restrict
growth, widen the gap with the cost of borrowing,</span> <span style="font-size: 12pt;">and trigger a downward spiral of accelerating debt and
additional austerity measures. As a result the nation gets poorer each year.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But, the big catastrophe
occurs when the next recession comes -- as many expect in near future. When the
GDP drops, the nation is caught in the same trap as Sam when his income fell by
10 percent. That is what happened to Greece. No cash, big expenses and no way
to borrow more, which would only have made the situation worse. The parallel,
with Sam moving back home, is significant reductions in social programs, such
as Medicare and Social Security, and other big budget areas, such as the
Department of Defense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The economic stimulus required
to reverse the recession of 2008, was possible only because the national debt
had been reduced to manageable levels as a result of the “peace dividend”
during the Clinton years. The stimulus spending over the Obama era produced a
period of steady economic growth, but at the cost of a huge increase in the national
debt (104% of GDP) to a level that is not sustainable. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The current projections
are for economic growth to slow in the future. Without growth, similar to Sam’s
anticipated $500 raise, the ratio of debt to GDP increases wildly, as it did
over the G W Bush era as the result of annual budget deficits, the recession
and reduced revenue from a tax cut. Any reoccurrence of these events, all of
which are currently on the table, will crash the economy again. But, this time there
is no capacity for additional borrowing by the Government to stimulate a recovery
-- just as Sam has no capacity to come up with an extra $7,000 per year.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Building the wall doesn’t provide national security, it is
not an immigration policy, and it does not serve the body politic. It only
fulfills a campaign promise akin to Sam purchasing his portrait. Building the
wall is a distraction, while a real storm, the growing national debt, is
gathering on the political and economic horizon – a distraction that </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">puts at risk everything that defines the American Way
of Life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The real Uncle Sam would
never do this.</span></span></div>
<div style="border-color: currentColor currentColor windowtext; border-style: none none solid; border-width: medium medium 1.5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;">
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Data Sources:
Congressional Budget Office, Office of Management and Budget, compiled at </span></span><a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://fred.stlouisfed.org/</span></span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;"> and </span></u></span></span><a href="https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/</span></span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">. See also </span></u></span></span><a href="http://www.usdebtclock.org/"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.usdebtclock.org/</span></span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-85699756846624379922019-01-17T18:05:00.001-08:002019-01-17T18:06:03.743-08:00Ransom for wall is bad government
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">An abridged version of this essay, “Ransom for wall is
bad government,” was published in the Jan. 4, 2019 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tampa Bay Times,</i> A08, in response to Trump’s 1/3/19 demand: “Wall
money or else”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let’s Just Be Reasonable<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Edward Renner <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">President Trump is currently holding government workers
hostage to get money for his wall. “I will not sign a temporary budget that
does not include money for the wall.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Maintaining a functioning civil service in time of
political dysfunction is essential for national stability and international self-respect.
Civil servants should not suffer because political leaders cannot find a way to
set new spending priorities for the coming year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For Congress to negotiate a payment for the wall as a
condition for returning government workers to the payroll would undermine
fundamental democratic principles of our country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The two issues must be separated: First, by introducing a
bill to extend the Federal Budget at existing levels of spending until an
agreement can be reached on a final budget, and second, by introducing an
independent bill for funding the wall. Each Bill should be decided on its own
merits through established procedures: If passed by the Congress, either signed
or vetoed by the President; and, if vetoed, either over-ridden by Congress or
not. Those are the constitutional rules.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If the wall is to add $5 billion to the public debt the
essential question is whether that amount of new spending is best spent on
health and social security, or on boarder security. And, if the $5 billion is
not to be added to the federal debit, then the then the question is what
existing government functions are to be eliminated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The budget is an important public debate to be resolved
on its own terms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The wall is an occasion for extensive civic give and take
on at least the issue of whether a physical wall or legislative immigration
reform is the proper solution. The wall is not something to be obtained by
ransom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The use of hostages as a demand for ransom has been
rejected as public policy by the United States. In June of 2013, the US
government signed an agreement with the other members of the G8 against paying
ransom for hostages. The purpose was to take away the capacity for terrorists
to use this mechanism. The logic was simple: If holding innocent people hostage
was an effective way to get money, it would be used repeatedly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The same logic applies to the current standoff. If the
strategy works once, it will be used again. Holding anyone hostage to gain a
financial concession is absolutely incompatible with democracy and has no place
in the internal political process of the United States.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let’s just be reasonable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Edward Renner is a retired university professor. He blogs
on current social issues at </span><a href="http://forumsforafuture.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://forumsforafuture.blogspot.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></div>
Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-20685902041340392432018-09-25T11:43:00.000-07:002018-09-25T11:43:00.693-07:00Is Free Tuition the Handwritting on the Wall?<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The following article was published by EducationDive on why free tuition at public institutions may be the only way to achieving a nationally competitive workforce inclusive of the 99%.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.educationdive.com/news/is-free-tuition-the-writing-on-the-wall-for-college-as-a-personal-expense/532666/">https://www.educationdive.com/news/is-free-tuition-the-writing-on-the-wall-for-college-as-a-personal-expense/532666/</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>By LaSonya Moore, assistant professor of special education in the College of Education at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg, and Edward Renner, courtesy professor, USF.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Is the announcement by the <a href="https://www.educationdive.com/news/nyu-school-of-medicine-to-pay-full-tuition-for-all-students/530362/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">NYU School of Medicine</span></a> of free tuition the beginning of an inevitable evolution toward free public higher education in the US?</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Since the 1960s, <a href="https://nscresearchcenter.org/current-term-enrollment-estimates-fall-2017/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center</span></a>, college enrollment has steadily increased until it peaked in 2011 at 20.6 million students. Over the next six years there has been a steady decrease in enrollment, down to 18.8 million in the Fall of 2017. Over this period there has been a series of institutional failures, and the creditworthiness of institutions of higher education <a href="https://www.educationdive.com/news/moodys-higher-education-sector-outlook-negative/512351/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">has been downgraded by Moody’s</span></a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Over the 56 years that the Higher Education Price Index <a href="https://www.commonfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/2016-HEPI-Report.pdf"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">has been computed by the CommonFund</span></a>, it has outpaced the Consumer Price Index by 160% and has maintained that pace over the past six years with 2017 showing <a href="https://www.commonfund.org/news-research/blog/post-hepi-inflation-rate-increase/"><span style="color: blue; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">the largest one-year increase</span></a> since the recession of 2008. One result has been a non-sustainable growth in the <a href="https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2018/07/25/why-is-college-so-expensive/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">size of student loan debt</span></a>. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWl_W5hGbH25RQ4Gc4iWiu80fU_bNvVRKjTQU7v2W_D-tu-Xr6PUwQ0b3lOfAIa-P5YqO0PSWutoYTmsgTO1oKxXEWgNOU_5noiWJyfyqB3udFzZZajHUllnui7rmjli5reyjOYF_6ajk/s1600/FreeTuition2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="622" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWl_W5hGbH25RQ4Gc4iWiu80fU_bNvVRKjTQU7v2W_D-tu-Xr6PUwQ0b3lOfAIa-P5YqO0PSWutoYTmsgTO1oKxXEWgNOU_5noiWJyfyqB3udFzZZajHUllnui7rmjli5reyjOYF_6ajk/s320/FreeTuition2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In partial response, curriculums have been adjusted to be more practical and job centered, increased focus has been given to student recruitment and retention, and colleges and universities are now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/education/learning/transfer-students-colleges-universities.html"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">competing for transfer students</span></a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">While strategic planning is certainly required, it alone will not be sufficient if the six-year graph is capturing an inflection point that is the beginning of a long-term trend. Such a divergence of enrollment and costs is related to two additional issues, for which there is growing awareness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Disruptive innovation</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">The limiting case for the two trend lines is consistent with the prediction by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen that <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/15/hbs-professor-half-of-us-colleges-will-be-bankrupt-in-10-to-15-years.html"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">more than one-half of higher education institutions will be bankrupt</span></a> over the next decade or so, following Circuit City, encyclopedias and others as the victims of “disruptive innovation.” Looming in the background is an economic crisis for educational institutions similar to that experienced in 2008 by financial institutions. With the continual expansion of Open Educational Resources (OER), the availability of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and independent certification of competence, there is reduced educational need for a traditional college experience. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">While the doubling rate of knowledge is difficult to measure, the suggestion that half of what one learns over a four-year degree will be outdated by graduation suggest an alternative role to be filled by nonresidential, remote digital continuing education.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Income, wealth and social disparities</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">In practical terms, if cost continues to rise, fewer students will be willing to assume increasing amounts of student debt. Over-recruiting of marginal students and diluted standards may provide temporary numerical relief, but in the longer-term deepen disillusionment and public confidence, setting the stage for a future larger crisis. Such a crash is increasingly likely with limited annual economic growth in a time of rapidly increasing national debt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Projecting increased costs and reduced enrollment to their limit provides a graphic picture of the richest 1% bringing a ton of money to the Registrar of the remaining institutions to purchase the additional social, cultural and civic benefits of the four-year college experience — while the 99% are bystanders looking on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Beyond tinkering</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">If disruptive innovation and even greater inequalities are the outcome of sticking with the status quo, then tinkering with enrollment strategies, student loan forgiveness, deferred maintenance, more adjuncts and practical job training will not be sufficient.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">If the goal is to ensure the K-16 pipeline, a much bolder vision will be required.</span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Free tuition for all at public institutions may be a necessary current policy debate to have in the U.S. The pending economic crisis facing public institutions could offer the opportunity of following other Western democracies by restructuring financial support as a public cost, rather than bailing out the status quo as was done in 2008 for the financial system. This would create an education system where excessive wealth cannot provide, nor poverty deny, access to public higher education, creating a new system where only competitive ability and personal motivation are the currency of exchange for entry. Such a change may be the only way to achieving a nationally competitive world-class workforce that is inclusive of the 99%. </span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;">Without radical thinking, the handwriting on the wall suggested by the NYU Medical School announcement of free tuition may signal the beginning of end of the dead idea that knowledge is a commodity to be purchased as a personal expense, rather than a national investment in the future of the nation itself.</span></div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span>Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-77038468162205089432018-07-18T14:00:00.000-07:002018-07-18T14:00:00.761-07:00The Economic Side of Suicide<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<i>Published in the Tampa Bay Times, 06/22/2018, page A007<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<b>The Economic Side of Suicide</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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The US Government’s Center for Disease Control recently released data on suicide rates. For the three year period ending in 2001, to the three year period ending in 2016, the suicide rate in the US increased 25%.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The increase has been treated as a mental health epidemic. Individual are encouraged to learn the dangers signals and seek help for themselves or their family and friends.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Yet, in over half (54%) of all the instances the individuals did not have a known mental health condition.<o:p></o:p></div>
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One way to try to explain such trends is to ask what else was changing at the same time. While two similar trends do not prove the two are related, identifying those relationships often offers clues to how better understand what is causing the problem and how it might best be solved.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of all of things that have happened since the turn of the century up to the present, what are the most remarkable? <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>The financial crisis of 2008, economic globalization, the loss of well paying jobs to technology and the wealth and income disparities between the 1% and the 99% are prime candidates.<o:p></o:p></div>
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If we take 2001 as a reference point, when suicide started to increase, what do we know about changes in wealth during the same period:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The best-off of the poorest 20% of the population were<span> </span>60% poorer in 2016 than in 2001<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The middle class person with the median level of wealth was 17% poorer in 2016 than in 2001<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The worst-off of the richest 10% of the population were 19% richer in 2016 than in 2001<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_WRQVL7aey9btFVUUHwKD6rSq6iFImHuJ-wgNCGSYoUQ42lSq6gwW4xx444ATdCZp_gurQj48YCXF9riHowNqKFk1AnQ_5mFEBiK1kI9UUYerg4r58_-LNXuCMBuOtKtK4k2MCjX1Dlw/s1600/graph1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="530" data-original-width="658" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_WRQVL7aey9btFVUUHwKD6rSq6iFImHuJ-wgNCGSYoUQ42lSq6gwW4xx444ATdCZp_gurQj48YCXF9riHowNqKFk1AnQ_5mFEBiK1kI9UUYerg4r58_-LNXuCMBuOtKtK4k2MCjX1Dlw/s400/graph1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The figure helps to explain why the richest nation in the world has:<o:p></o:p></div>
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The housing crisis of 2007 resulted in millions of foreclosures. Those owners then competed with existing low income people for affordable housing. As a result, the number of renters increased by nearly 10 million by 2016, driving up rental rates in the face of reduced financial resources. Families living in poverty have no place to go and cannot afford where they live. That is hard on the human spirit. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As financial hardships continue to grow for the majority of the population, and in particular for the poorest among us, suicide rates have gone up. Is this relationship between the concentration of wealth at the top and suicide rate simply a coincidence? If not, what are the implications?<o:p></o:p></div>
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To define suicide as a mental health epidemic implies that we should help the poor and over-stressed to better accept their fate as an individual responsibility. The alternative is to define the rapid rise in economic inequality as a situational cause and as a social responsibility.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The alternative solution is not difficult. The economic hardships that cause despair, loss of personal identity and hope, can be reduced through free entitlements available to all, rich and poor alike; such as: universal health care, and quality public education through college based on personal motivation and academic ability, not family wealth and ability to pay. Such universal entitlements account for why all of the other western democracies have lower levels of income and wealth inequalities. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Often it is more effective to have a level playing field by fixing the situation causing the problem, rather than constantly trying to repair those who have been damaged by the situation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As a Professor of Psychology, I have been convinced for over 40 years that many of the problems we consider to be “mental health” or individually based, cannot be separated from the context in which the person lives.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Sources</b>:<o:p></o:p></div>
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Center of Disease Control: <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/suicide/index.html" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;">https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/suicide/index.html</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Urban Institute: <a href="https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;">https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Congressional Budget Office: <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/114th-congress-2015-2016/reports/51846-familywealth.pdf" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;">https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/114th-congress-2015-2016/reports/51846-familywealth.pdf</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Pew Research Center: <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/19/more-u-s-households-are-renting-than-at-any-point-in-50-years/" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;">http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/07/19/more-u-s-households-are-renting-than-at-any-point-in-50-years/</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Prof. Edward Renner is a retired university professor. He blogs on current social issues at <a href="http://forumsforafuture.blogspot.com/" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;">http://forumsforafuture.blogspot.com</a>. He may be reached at erenner@kerenner.com</div>
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Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-32462429962023989322016-05-13T14:37:00.000-07:002016-05-13T14:37:53.272-07:00Information and National Security<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Chapter 24.1 from Living in the Future Tense: Information, Knowledge and National Security. This
material may be reproduced and the Exercise used with appropriated citation. </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">National Security vs. Privacy of
Information <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Edward Renner<o:p></o:p></div>
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<p class=MsoNormal>
<i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;mso-themecolor:text1'>For 5,000 years,
humans lived in the past tense: “Yesterday was the same as tomorrow. “ For
the next 500 years people lived in the present tense: “Today can be
whatever we want it to be.” But now, for the next 50 years we must start
living in the future tense: “Tomorrow’s social, economic and political
constraints must become today’s reality.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
</div>
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<o:p> </o:p></p>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">“</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"> </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">The right
of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,
against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants
shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and
particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to
be seized</span></i><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana;">.”</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: right;">
Amendment IV, U. S.
Constitution, Dec. 15, 1791<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Julliette Kayyem, a former Assistant Secretary at the
Department of Homeland Security wrote: “A nation free from threat wouldn’t be
free.” Therein lies the dilemma.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Under what circumstances does the government’s need for
access to private information trump a person's right to privacy? The issue is a
dilemma because the problem is not simply a “never” or “always” issue, and
because 21<sup>st</sup> century digital communication technology has created
totally new situations that did not exist when the constitutional constraints
were created in1791. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Two recent events have brought the extrapolation of the
Fourth Amendment to 21<sup>st</sup> Century into contemporary focus. The first
is the FBI’s legal challenge of Apple to gain access to the contents of a
specific iPhone in order to obtain the contacts of a known terrorist. The
second is the release of the Panama papers disclosing the extensive use of offshore
shell corporations to hide large amounts of wealth by the rich and famous from
taxation. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Both the fear of terrorism and the anger over America’s richest
individuals having an estimated $1.2 trillion stashed in offshore tax havens are
highly charged issues. Accessing private registers of stocks and bonds and
transferring the information to a public record would allow tax collectors to
find and tax this hidden wealth. However, the cases should not be the occasion
for emotional either/or arguments between security and taxation versus privacy,
all of which are statutory responsibilities of government. Rather, the debate
should be about the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">general concepts</i>
that define the constraints between government’s need to know and an individual’s
privacy, which can then be applied to any specific case. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Fortunately, social science research on human decision-making
has provided knowledge about why making such decisions are often difficult, and
how to resolve the resulting dilemmas. Under highly emotional conditions, such
as fear or anger, people’s attention becomes narrowly focused and they often
make choices that are objectively poor; likewise, strongly held ideological
beliefs and values can bias judgements. One solution to this human weakness is
to first establish a rational frame of reference before attempting to make the
decision. This decision-making process requires participants who are not
competing to win their point of view, but rather one’s who share the mutual
goal of finding the best possible solution. The decision then becomes a matter
for cooperative democratic civic participation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
An essential part of restoring respect to our democratic
political process is to rise above our current practice of making such
decisions based on fear, anger or ideological beliefs and values, rather than
using social science knowledge and factual information to make rational
decisions. In such cases, the rational context is a matrix which establishes
the general principles as a legislative matter. The matrix itself does not
provide the answer, but rather is a process for solving the problem.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The methodology<u><o:p></o:p></u></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<u>Step 1: </u>There are a limited number of
considerations for determining the issue of when government’s access to
information should trump personal privacy. In this illustrative exercise I will
limit the number to three obvious ones.<u><o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->How essential is the access?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->How intrusive is the access?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->How adequate are the safeguards to prevent
abuse?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In an actual application there can be as many considerations
as can be rationally justified.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<u>Step 2</u>: Rate each of the issues on a scale ranging
from 1 (not at all) to 100 (always). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are established psychometric procedures
for creating such scales that can be used reliably.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<u>Step 3</u>: Weight the relative importance of each of
the considerations by allocating a total of 100% between each of the three.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Application<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Of course, different people will assign different scores.
But, that is exactly the point; it is to provide an objective basis for civic
discussion about the reasons for any given score and its relative weight. For
example: How reasonable is my assumption that access to the iPhone’s contact
list is unlikely to identify anyone who has not already been identified or who could
not be identified in other ways? Or, is there any good reason to treat accessing
information from off-shore sources as more intrusive than requiring a W-2 form to
be submitted by a recognized employer?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The matrix focuses attention on the assumptions on which
the ratings are made, and on identifying the relevant facts and information. The
methodology can be applied to any situation that requires establishing the
appropriate balance between government intrusion and personal privacy. With the
matrix, it is possible to compare qualitatively different situations, such as
terrorism and tax evasion (i.e., apples and oranges).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Results<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The matrix yields a score between 1 (reflecting a
situation where government access would be an unreasonable invasion of privacy)
and 100, (where there would be absolutely no doubt that access was an absolutely
reasonable intrusion into individual privacy). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a civics
exercise, the process allows for widespread participation in four ways:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Individuals can engage in a face-to-face
discussion about their own ratings in a structured way that promotes thoughtful
reflection.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The exercise is actually a class from my university
course. Newspapers, schools, social media and any other institution can use the
method as a tool for promoting participatory civics.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The matrix is a research tool for scholarship on
issues of public policy. Professional surveys can provide descriptive statistical
distributions showing averages and the range and extent of deviations. This
allows social comparisons for individuals to see where they stand with respect
other groups of people (e.g., male vs. female, younger vs. older) and where
there is consensus. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Substantial civic discussion can directly
support a legislative process based on public participation and consensus
rather than on legislation authored by lobbyists representing special
interests.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Conclusion<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Such a process is a modern replication of the Commons
Green where popular civic participation can take place. Once the general principles
are identified, they can be given legislative status to enable the FBI or IRS
to know the legal constrains for doing their job. Of course, such legislation
is likely to find its way to the Supreme Court. But, such a process of
functional democracy would rescue a court of elderly Justices from being the
ones extrapolating “unreasonable” from 1791 to modern times in the narrow
context of a terrorist’s iPhone or a cloud based data file. Rather, their task would
be to decide if the process and resulting legislation had established what is
or is not an unreasonable intrusion into privacy today.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Decision making as a rational process is an example of
democracy at work in which popular participation can replace the fact-free
ideological chatter that has been the defining characteristic of the current
political process. We have the capacity to do this. The time is overdue for
modern knowledge and technology to become the currency of politics as the means
to meet the new challenges -- such as environmental collapse or an unstainable
national debt -- of living in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
(Use the Exercise Box below to create your own matrix for
defining the basis for the balance between security and privacy, and for
discussing your perspective with that of others in the service of finding
common consensus.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
________________________________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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stroked="f">
<v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/>
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<v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/>
<v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/>
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<v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/>
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<v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/>
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style='position:absolute;margin-left:-5.15pt;margin-top:4.55pt;width:59.15pt;
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o:title=""/>
<w:wrap type="square" side="right"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Edward Renner
is a retired university professor who writes on the modern human challenge of
how to live sustainably and peacefully on a crowded planet in the 21st Century.
A prepublication draft copy of his most recent book is available at </span><a href="http://www.livinnginthefuturetense.org/"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">www.livinnginthefuturetense.org</span></a><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">. He may be reached at </span><a href="mailto:erenner@livinginthefuturetense.org"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">erenner@livinginthefuturetense.org</span></a><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Exercise</span></b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">The issues<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(1)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Should the
government be able to force Apple to help the FBI gain access to the content of
a specific iPhone in order to learn the contact network of a known terrorist?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">(2)<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Should the
government be able to access registers of stocks and bonds and transfer the
information to a public record that would allow tax collectors to find and tax
hidden wealth?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Directions<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Assign a score of 1 to 100
for each of the three considerations for both the iPhone and Panama Papers.
Give a relative percentage weight to each of the three considerations such that
their sum is 100%. Multiple each score by the weight and record the calculated
value of each consideration. Add the values to obtain the score for each issue.
This final sum will be a score between 1 (government access is an unreasonable
intrusion into protected privacy) and 100 (government access to private
information is absolutely reasonable).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; margin-left: 4.65pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 600px;">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: .25in; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td colspan="4" nowrap="" style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: .25in; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 6.25in;" width="600">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">iPhone<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 125.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="167">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Consideration</span></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">s<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 90.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="120">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Score
(1 to 100)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 107.4pt;" valign="bottom" width="143">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Weight
(.01 to 1.0)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 127.05pt;" valign="bottom" width="169">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Value
(Score x Weight)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 30.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 125.3pt;" width="167">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not Essential = 1,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Very Essential = 100<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 90.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="120">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 107.4pt;" valign="bottom" width="143">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 127.05pt;" valign="bottom" width="169">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 30.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 125.3pt;" width="167">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Very Intrusive = 1,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not Intrusive = 100<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 90.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="120">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 107.4pt;" valign="bottom" width="143">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 127.05pt;" valign="bottom" width="169">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 30.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 125.3pt;" width="167">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Inadequate Safeguards =
1,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Adequate Safeguards = 100<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 90.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="120">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 107.4pt;" valign="bottom" width="143">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 127.05pt;" valign="bottom" width="169">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="border-bottom: none; border-left: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-right-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 125.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="167">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sum<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-right-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 90.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="120"></td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-right-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 107.4pt;" valign="bottom" width="143">
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1.00<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-right-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 127.05pt;" valign="bottom" width="169"></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="background: silver; border: none; height: 15.0pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 125.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="167"></td>
<td nowrap="" style="background: silver; border: none; height: 15.0pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 90.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="120"></td>
<td nowrap="" style="background: silver; border: none; height: 15.0pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 107.4pt;" valign="bottom" width="143"></td>
<td nowrap="" style="background: silver; border: none; height: 15.0pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 127.05pt;" valign="bottom" width="169"></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 7;">
<td colspan="4" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-right-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 6.25in;" width="600">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Panama Papers<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 8;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 125.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="167">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Consideration</span></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">s<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 90.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="120">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Score
(1 to 100)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 107.4pt;" valign="bottom" width="143">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Weight
(.01 to 1.0)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 127.05pt;" valign="bottom" width="169">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Value
(Score x Weight)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 30.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 9;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 125.3pt;" width="167">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not Essential = 1,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Very Essential = 100<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 90.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="120">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 107.4pt;" valign="bottom" width="143">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 127.05pt;" valign="bottom" width="169">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 30.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 10;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 125.3pt;" width="167">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Very Intrusive = 1,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Not Intrusive = 100<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 90.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="120">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 107.4pt;" valign="bottom" width="143">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 127.05pt;" valign="bottom" width="169">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 30.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 11;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 125.3pt;" width="167">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Inadequate Safeguards =
1,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Adequate Safeguards = 100<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 90.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="120">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 107.4pt;" valign="bottom" width="143">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 30.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 127.05pt;" valign="bottom" width="169">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 12; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 125.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="167">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sum<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 90.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="120"></td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 107.4pt;" valign="bottom" width="143">
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1.00<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 127.05pt;" valign="bottom" width="169"></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">After completing the exercise
consider comparing your responses, and the reasons for them, with others by
posting your scores and comments, and by reading and responding to the comments
posted by others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-83945666288861873812016-04-02T07:41:00.000-07:002016-04-08T14:24:39.353-07:00Three Myths of the 2016 GOP Presidential Debates<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Published in the Tampa Bay
Times, Saturday, April 2, 2016.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
Debunking U. S. Debt Myths</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Edward Renner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 10.0pt;">The federal debt is too big compared with the size of the
U.S. economy, and it’s getting worse. But there is a mythology surrounding the
“why,” and it’s important to debunk it point by point to understand the real
reason — that we’re going deeper and deeper into debt because we won’t tax
ourselves to pay for the government we want, instead running up the debt year
after year until it is actually larger than the entire economy. (This chart
shows the debt as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product — that is, as a
percentage of the U.S. economy as well as federal revenue and spending.) Let’s
dismiss three myths, one by one.</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnppE56aLL0x44X45OIDuwG60ssUBTpg4IIOfP535bSiLNt0rZKTs4dorzHhOw5UyNHfZQqCJUp-5oJPbwFM4PR3HzBBaByupjKL-azrSkI1ND1J5KbWd5wPYrbiXA1kfFoupaIHF7dlc/s1600/Myths.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnppE56aLL0x44X45OIDuwG60ssUBTpg4IIOfP535bSiLNt0rZKTs4dorzHhOw5UyNHfZQqCJUp-5oJPbwFM4PR3HzBBaByupjKL-azrSkI1ND1J5KbWd5wPYrbiXA1kfFoupaIHF7dlc/s400/Myths.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="right" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: right;">
Source: <span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, U. S. Office of
Management and Budget</span><u><span style="color: blue; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 7.0pt;">Notes:
The annual budget deficit is the amount each year that federal spending exceeds
federal revenue. This annual difference has been added to the cumulative
federal debt each year from 1981 to 2016, plus the interest due on the borrowed
money. These annual deficits account for the rapid growth of the federal debt
over the last 35 years. A high level of debt is very dangerous in the absence
of economic growth. The debt, combined with its carrying charges, goes up
really fast when not covered by growth in the GDP — such as was the case during
the Great Recession — even if revenue and spending remain constant, requiring
more of the spending to be directed to debt carrying charges, leaving less for
government programs. And when the debt exceeds 100 percent of the GDP, an
accelerating downward spiral can spin out of control, hurting the economy,
killing jobs and cutting the GDP, thus intensifying the problem by increasing
the amount by which the debt exceeds the capacity to pay. This is what happened
to Greece.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Myth No. 1.
The Federal Government has grown too big and too expensive</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The size of the Federal
Government, measured relative to the US economy, has remained constant at about
20% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) since the Reagan administration in
1981. The factors associated with an increase in the GDP over these years – a
population growth of 90 million people, economic globalization, new
technologies and digital communication – are also associated with an increase
in Federal Spending – a modern army, roads, airports, higher levels of
education, international agreements, and structures for world travel, trade,
finance and mass communication. Failure to have kept pace with changing times
would have been a failure in the roles and responsibilities of government
itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Myth No. 2.
Taxes cuts will be good for the economy and create jobs</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Prior to 1981, taxes were
always increased to pay for government expenses. To cover the cost of World War
II and to reduce the nation’s war debt, the marginal tax rate was over 90% on
income above $400,000 from 1951 through 1963, a period of working class
prosperity. At the start of the Reagan period, the national debt had been
reduced to its previous highs of around 30% of GDP after the Civil War and WWI.
The tax cuts of the Reagan period did not stimulate economic growth to replace
the loss of tax revenue as promised. Instead, the tax cuts resulted in spending
exceeding revenue each year, thus creating annual budget deficits that increased
the cumulative national debt – year by year -- to over 60% of the GDP. The end
of the cold war (1991) eventually provided a peace dividend in which revenue
exceeded expenses, creating an annual surplus that allowed the total national
debt to be reduced to less than 60% of GDP by the year 2000. However, rather than
continue to use this annual budget surplus to reduce the national debt, additional
tax cuts under President George W. Bush, combined with the added expense of the
war on terror, increased the national debt to over 80% of the GDP. Then, the
financial crises of 2008 further reduced government revenue and required an
economic stimulus package that increased the national debit to over 100% of GDP
under President Barack Obama.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Myth No. 3.
Government regulations are hurting business, killing jobs and are bad for the
economy</span></i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lack</i>
of regulation that produced the financial crisis of 2008, created massive unemployment
and undermined the economy. The US is already one of the least regulated
economies in the world. Over the last decade, the World Bank has ranked the US
no lower than seventh and as high as third on ease of doing business. The
rankings are based on the amount of required government procedures, and on the types
of regulations on employment standards and production practices. Singapore,
Hong Kong and recently South Korea are the principle competitors for greater
ease of doing business. In contrast, 31<sup>st</sup> (out of 34 market
democracies) is the average rank of the countries with whom the US is most
comparable in worker safety, economic security and environmental standards. </span>Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-1488077036575635342016-03-08T11:40:00.002-08:002016-03-08T11:40:29.695-08:00Ownership of Knowledge<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">From <a href="http://www.livinginthefuturetense.org/">www.livinginthefuturetense.org</a>,
Chapter 9.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Is the Ownership and Control of
Knowledge an Issue?</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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</w:wrap></v:shape><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The digital age has produced
significant changes in our everyday life. But, the disruptions we are most
familiar with – Facebook, Google and Amazon.com – are but the tip of the
iceberg. Largely hidden from awareness is the transition into a new era where
business, education, employment and the role of government will significantly
change, all within single lifetime.”</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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Edward Renner, Forums
for a Future<o:p></o:p></div>
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There is no precedent for how to make the transition from
the present into the new digital age. In the future, the current source of
wealth and power -- land and resources -- and the means to achieve them --
legions and mercantilism -- will no longer be effective. This will make
everything negotiable, including the purposes wealth and power will come to
serve. These two issues – means and purpose -- must be brought into conscious
awareness to safely navigate passage into the new digital era.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<u>The Means to Power and Wealth</u><o:p></o:p></div>
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The means to power and wealth for the first 5000 years of
human history was the control of land and sea. This required soldiers and ships
and was geographically defined. For the next 500 years, natural resources and
industrialization was the means to wealth and power through mercantilism
defined by material physical objects. Now, for the next 50 years, ownership and
control of information and knowledge through transactional exchanges in virtual
time and places will become the new reigns to wealth and power.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Wealth and Power<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Before 1500
AD<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Past
Tense<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1500 to 2000<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Present
Tense<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">2000 to 2050<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Future
Tense<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Number of Years<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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5000<o:p></o:p></div>
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500<o:p></o:p></div>
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50<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Source<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 1.95pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;">
Land<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 1.95pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;">
Sea<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 119.7pt;" width="160">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 1.95pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;">
Natural Resources<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 1.95pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;">
Industrialization<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 105.3pt;" width="140">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 1.95pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;">
Information<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 1.95pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;">
Knowledge<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.3pt;" width="152">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 1.95pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mechanism<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 119.7pt;" width="160">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 1.95pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;">
Legions<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 119.7pt;" width="160">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 1.95pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;">
Mercantilism<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 105.3pt;" width="140">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 1.95pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;">
Transactional<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 114.3pt;" width="152">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 1.95pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Location<o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 119.7pt;" width="160">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 1.95pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;">
Geographical<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 119.7pt;" width="160">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 1.95pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;">
Physical<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 105.3pt;" width="140">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: margin; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.0pt; mso-element-top: 1.95pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: center;">
Virtual<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the reason the current assumption is that knowledge
and information are intellectual property: A period of protection is provided
by patents (20 years) and copyrights (70 years after the death of the author)
to give the creator an exclusive monopoly to make money as a reward for their
creation. The belief has been that this incentive will stimulate innovation
that would otherwise be absent, to the advantage of everyone.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While intellectual property rights might seem like a natural
extension of land and resources as the means to power and wealth, there are
collateral consequences which call into question whether these extensions are
any longer appropriate. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC0VZdNlmpvlL1hBH4TezLRzKZxcIiwWBKlE9oepVF3WFmVrwsJphkDbDKqMKdFSgberXs9nE_HMhUJx93Qb34XvLDfn1IEzxjUWMOC7qvqSl4_bcRAWK4V1b-T2HmLRcgmO4iJPej9-8/s1600/09QuoteBox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC0VZdNlmpvlL1hBH4TezLRzKZxcIiwWBKlE9oepVF3WFmVrwsJphkDbDKqMKdFSgberXs9nE_HMhUJx93Qb34XvLDfn1IEzxjUWMOC7qvqSl4_bcRAWK4V1b-T2HmLRcgmO4iJPej9-8/s200/09QuoteBox.jpg" width="185" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a simple example, drug companies have used their patient
protection to make large profits which have supported lobbyists to influence
government policies that promote profits at the expense of health. In
free-trade agreements, economic development for poor nations has been made
contingent upon the enforcement of US patent protections when those countries
are in no positon to reject foreign investments. Without these special
arrangements big pharmaceuticals would be required by market forces to sell
their pills at a lower price; as a result, health becomes an expensive
commodity. Trade has never been truly free, it is regulated by governments,
which is why identical drugs are less expensive in Canada and cannot easily be
imported in to the US.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In education, the role of public schools and colleges has
been the primary means for achieving equality of opportunity and upward
mobility in the US. However, this essential role for supporting democratic
values is threatened by the commodification of education. Reductions in
government support for higher education have opened the path for venture
capital to flow into every aspect of public education: Tuition increases
resulting in high levels of student loan debt as a personal responsibility, for
profit on-line learning, digital textbooks, adaptive learning technologies, and
the privatization of public schools. All of these, and many more trends, serve
private interests, not the public goal of elevating general knowledge to be an
effective civic mediator of wealth and power. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But even more disruptive is the impact on employment and the
human condition. Geoff Colvin in his article in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fortune</i> (Oct., 22, 2015) described how controlling knowledge and
information allows for off-loading the cost of land, resources and labor and
degrading their value: The world’s most valuable retailer (Alibaba) holds no
inventory, the largest provider of accommodations (Airbnb) owns no real estate
and the largest car service (Uber) owns no cars. Owners of physical assets are forced
to compete with each other by cutting wages and accepting slimmer profit margins,
creating a race to the bottom for the majority of people.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wealth and power will continue to accrue to those who own
and control transactions, rather than the material products. Although Apple is
considered a manufacturer, it produces no products; it has capital assets worth
$172 billion, but a market value of $639 billion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In contrast, Exxon Mobil has most its value ($330
billon) in physical assets ($304 billion).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u>The Purpose<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At issue is whether we create a universal market economy
where everything only has value as an economic transaction; or, whether we must
retain essential processes of living which are not reducible to commercial
ownership.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The alternative assumption is that knowledge and information
are common wealth, and that the unquestioned transition from natural resources and
industrialization to knowledge and information must be broken, or else global
wealth and power will increasing be centralized into fewer and fewer hands at
the expense of the human condition.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The simple case is the belief that neither health nor education
is an economic commodity, and that the process of business is more important
than the products of pills, textbooks and the occupational skills of individual
workers. If these trends continue, health, mind and body will become a
commodity in which the human condition itself is a derivative of financial
products.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the more fundamental level is the belief that profits
should come from the mass distribution and use of new innovations. Simply, the
purpose of knowledge and information is not to serve as an instrument for
financial gain, but for an improvement in the human condition. As a practical
example, rather than profit from a pill for $1,000 for one person, make it
available for $1 for 1,000 people. One basis for the belief that modern knowledge
and information are common wealth is that the pace of change is so fast now
that the time line from innovation to full application must be immediate. The
foundation for this potential has resulted from most creative work being paid for
by public research grants conducted by non-profit institutions, and supported
by a context of public investments in universal education, and the arts and
humanities. Public domain is the new context.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The larger choice we have to make is whether the role of
government in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century is to continue to facilitate the
transition to information and knowledge as property, or to reconceive whether
all means for wealth and power, including the air, land, sea and natural
resources, should also be administered as common wealth. Are not we all –
peoples and our institutions – temporary tenants on a planet we neither
invented nor created.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This new digital era of human history will
provide an opportunity for an alternative human social history. The danger, if
it does not, is that this will be the final chapter for the physical existence
of the planet and for the continued evolution of the human condition. Can human
intelligence take human kind to a higher level, or will we crash because we
cannot let go of economic value as the ultimate measure of human progress? Is
this as good as it gets -- the grand finale of the great human experiment?</span></span><br />
Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-84734164703216504222016-02-02T13:35:00.000-08:002016-02-17T14:33:35.310-08:00Knowledge as Public Domain<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Living in the Future Tense, Chapter 17.2: Knowledge and
Information and the Human Condition<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Wisdom and the Human Condition</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Edward Renner<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<p class=MsoNormal>
<o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<![if !mso]></td>
</tr>
</table>
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<w:wrap type="square"/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKiBCgYnXyhJ4-cdlLB_kAUZjvm5_xGcTJtQlDxDs52QFKCmFUPP3yW-HAI2HmeGz7-GSJY8Txx_h-zA4BMKH6ZYaP1DJlE9yo9Bn0iutz-ioALhpJ2LaIfBjeaW1l2aqq0R9LvUfZZo/s1600/Bar+Graph+HS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKiBCgYnXyhJ4-cdlLB_kAUZjvm5_xGcTJtQlDxDs52QFKCmFUPP3yW-HAI2HmeGz7-GSJY8Txx_h-zA4BMKH6ZYaP1DJlE9yo9Bn0iutz-ioALhpJ2LaIfBjeaW1l2aqq0R9LvUfZZo/s640/Bar+Graph+HS.jpg" width="167" /></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">For 5,000 years, humans lived in the past tense: “Yesterday was the same
as tomorrow</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">.” </span></i>Elders
had a lifetime of personal experiences and they maintain the oral history of
the society. They were the keepers of the existing knowledge and wisdom that provided
meaning to their lives. This meaning was mediated by leaders who were seen to
have the capacity to communicate with the Gods who were responsible for their
external fate at the hands of nature. This imperial wisdom dictated the human
condition for most of human history.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p><br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">For the next 500 years people lived in
the present tense: “Today can be whatever we want it to be.”</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Roughly from 1500 to 2000 A.D., humans made a
gradual but incomplete transition to living mostly in the present tense. The
transition started with Columbus and Copernicus who showed that the earth was
round and that the sun, not the earth, was at the center of the universe, which
we now understand to be the solar system.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Increasingly, scientific information created alternative
belief systems about the purpose and meaning of human life. Human fate was seen
to be less at the mercy of the gods, and increasingly as a function of human
ingenuity and instrumentality. The nation state came to replace the church as
the principal keeper of the knowledge and information which dictated the human
condition. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">But now, for the next 50 years, we
must start living in the future tense: “Tomorrow’s social, economic and
political constraints must become today’s reality.” </span></i>We must live
today as if it where tomorrow or else there will be no tomorrow for our
children. There are still vestiges of living in the past tense with their roots
in religion, as well as global economic, political and social institutions
rooted in the nationalism of the present tense. This time, however the transition
must occur over the time span of an individual lifetime: that of the
millennials. The Millennial Challenge is to reconceive our collective body of knowledge and wisdom for living peacefully and sustainably on a crowded planet in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century as the new defining moment for the human condition.<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Millennial
Challenge</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;"><o:p></o:p></span></i> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we lived in the present tense under the umbrella of the
nation state, the human conditions were largely dictated by the time and place
where any given individual had the fortune or misfortune to happen to live.
What makes this transition – The Anthropocene -- unique is that nature itself is
at the mercy of human activity rather than the reverse as it has been in the past.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiLXCNe1ggtcXYangkH4U_ohwnDznH68P-4ShDtAAI6X6LgPcYNo_Yf5VqPGcd-kASrrZ7-l3IcvRKoci9WaX-rcLAZcahGK7l4T97Lgvn41zRFieQBgXbyvzYtA4kDktE3mjSNIPIg6I/s1600/Quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiLXCNe1ggtcXYangkH4U_ohwnDznH68P-4ShDtAAI6X6LgPcYNo_Yf5VqPGcd-kASrrZ7-l3IcvRKoci9WaX-rcLAZcahGK7l4T97Lgvn41zRFieQBgXbyvzYtA4kDktE3mjSNIPIg6I/s200/Quote.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<p class=MsoNormal>
It is time to turn away from our elders, the past, and
from ourselves, the present, and to see the future in the faces of our
children.<o:p></o:p></p>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->As a result, the major populations
of the world must within the period of a single life time come to share a
mutual understanding that civilization as we know it is at risk. The challenge
is essential although seemly impossible. Yet, there is a precedent: In 1982,
one million people demonstrated in New York Central Park against nuclear
weapons and for an end of the arms race. The powerful nations of the world
backed down from the arms race of the cold war with a series of disarmament and
nonproliferation agreements that dramatically reduced the stockpile of nuclear
weapon, all within one lifetime. There is reason for hope.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Role of the United
States</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first order of business is to put to rest the dominate economic
and political ideologies upon which living in the present tense has been based:
consumerism, deferred environmental costs and continuous economic growth, as
well as tax reductions, reduced government regulation and limited roles for
government. Among all of the nations in the world, the United States has
exemplified and set the standard for living in the present tense. As such, the
United States has a special obligation to lead the transition toward a new
alternative.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Living in the present tense was a grand experiment, but we
now know that it is not sustainable. The question is whether the Unites States
in the midst of its affluence can reconceive itself as essential for its own
survival. This will be a crucial test of whether the democratic process which
provided the freedom for capitalism to thrive has the capacity to be
self-correcting when it has sown the seeds for its own limit.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Relinquishing the Past
Tense</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The second order of business is relinquishing the residual
elements of living in the past tense. There are still those who believe in a
past in which intermediators with God dictate the human condition.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Spanish conquistadors were bound
by the king of Spain to read “The Requirement” to all foreign people, in order
to give them a chance to submit, before attacking them. It informed foreign
powers their lands had been donated to Spain in 1493 by Pope Alexander VI.
Thus, as an agent of the one true God, the conquistadors gave indigenous people
the opportunity to submit to the obedience of the Pope and the King of Spain
(Ronald Wright, Stolen Contents).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today, there are Christian candidates for the presidency of
the United States and Muslim Jihadist who, based on such articles of faith, are
engaged in a modern reenactment of 1493. This residue of religious wisdom has
survived relative unscathed five centuries of human intellectual progress. The
political, economic and social ideologies of the past and present are dead
ideas as alternatives to the knowledge-based rational civic discourse required for
living in the future tense.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Claiming the Future</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The third order of business is dealing with our beliefs
about knowledge and wisdom itself. If knowledge becomes a commodity, as land
was when people lived in the past tense and as natural resources are for those of
us living in the present tense, humans will lose the capacity to claim a sustainable
future for their children. There is no longer a time or place for ideological
posturing. The Modern Era has provided us with the scientific information we
need to shepherd the very plant on which our lives depend. If we fail, it will
not be because we did not know better.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzUKD_5b7fE1NGiLvXGJqG0dKszDOVQO4kk5ecgxGdqhAfLF1imx71Mly1f5Al9HLGSiPot0fRCUBflCKOtXk31v0Sud5PDIIz85ST035JmWqrx6ORIE_GuuA55_pJ8ky922ssq5puI5w/s1600/Slim+Pickens.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzUKD_5b7fE1NGiLvXGJqG0dKszDOVQO4kk5ecgxGdqhAfLF1imx71Mly1f5Al9HLGSiPot0fRCUBflCKOtXk31v0Sud5PDIIz85ST035JmWqrx6ORIE_GuuA55_pJ8ky922ssq5puI5w/s320/Slim+Pickens.png" style="cursor: move;" width="309" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dr. Strangelove</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Dr. Strangelove, the 1964 black comedy on the nuclear
age, a fanatical US general launched an air strike against the Soviets which,
if successful, would have unleashed a “doomsday device.” The air strike was
averted, except for one B52 bomber which avoided interception. When the bomb
door jammed, Major Kong manually released the mechanism and, cowboy hat in
hand, rode the bomb to the ground, setting off Armageddon and ending civilization
on earth as we know it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thanks largely to the UN, humanity has found a way so far to
live under the mushroom tree, albeit imperfectly. The new challenge for the
United Nations is to once again find a way to avoid the end of civilization as we
know it, but this time due to environmental and societal collapse. The task
will be no less easy or less expensive than ending the Cold War which made
Armageddon a real possibility. Unfortunately, the spirit of Major Kong is still
alive and well, cowboy hat in hand, recklessly calling for military solutions
to the early warning signs of the global deterioration of the human condition. Avoiding
creating a modern Mad Max military response to global collapse will require new
principles for reconceiving how to address the effects of human activity on the
planet.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Three Principles</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The three principles from the Forms for a Future podcast
provide a framework for reconceiving how to live in the future tense. One is
political, one is economic and one is social; none alone are sufficient. All
three must be considered simultaneously because each is dependent on the other
two. If there is any doubt about how to act, think of these three principles:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(1)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>World citizenship needs to become
increasingly more important than the national citizenships of the world.</i> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fate of our children and grandchildren is every bit as
much, if not more so, at the mercy of stoking a coal-burning economy in the
developing nations of China and India, as it is in the domestic decisions made
in Washington. Consider a ring of concentric circles with the individual at the
center, with “we” the next circle extending through local, state, national and
global as successively larger circles. In the very distance past, the
individual mattered most, with significant help from the others who were physically
very close by; global was irrelevant. We are approaching reversing that order.
I would like to see the United Nations offer a certificate of dual world
citizenship to every person in the world as an opportunity to act as part of a
world community. Personally, each of us can think and speak in our duel role as
citizens of a nation and also citizens of the world, even without a formal world
citizenship document. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(2) We need to
increasingly put our trust in the power of balance rather than winning or
owning the balance of power.</i> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Using the accepted world statistical standard for low wage
jobs (less than two-thirds of the national median wage), the United States has
the largest percentage of its workforce in low wages jobs and pays its low wage
workers the lowest percentage of the median wage of all the OECD countries. A
person can accept someone having two homes as long as everyone has a least one,
but it is not acceptable for a bank to be too big to fail and a person too
small to matter. Nations can accept differences in absolute wealth as long as
there is not famine, migration and civil disorder. The power of balance is a
necessary self-imposed limit on economic inequalities and political policies
that consciously discards some lives as less important. It is the role of
governments to be the keeper of this balance within their domestic authority,
and to restrain their aspiration to be the final authority on world affairs
through superior military power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(3) We need to
increasing treat all knowledge and information as belonging in the public
domain, not a commodity for financial gain.</i> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The availability and application of existing knowledge and
information for improving the human condition are more important than creating
ever more new pills, gadgets and consumer goods that only the wealthy can
afford. In the past, owning land and natural resources, such as oil and water,
has been the means to wealth and power. While intellectual property rights
might seem like a natural extension of land and resources as the means for
gaining wealth and power, shorting knowledge for financial gain will condemn the
human condition to lacking the capacity for living peacefully and sustainably
on a crowded planet.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In practical terms this means reducing copyright and patent
protections, not increasing them as we are currently doing in our “free trade”
agreements. In terms of the general disruptions produced by the digital
information age, this means the financial savings generated by the displacement
of human labor and judgement by robots and intelligent machines must not go to
the owners of the technology, but rather to provide useful alterative social
roles with real economic value to those who are discarded by it. The cumulative
benefits of knowledge and information must now be democratized to include
everyone. The human condition is not for profit if we are to live in the future
tense. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is time to turn away from our elders, the past, and from
ourselves, the present, and to see the future in the faces of our children.
This is the Millennial Challenge, and we have one lifetime to accomplish the
transition, globally. What an exciting time to be alive.<o:p></o:p></div>
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_________________________________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></div>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><span style="font-family: "cambria" , "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Edward
Renner is a retired university professor who writes on the modern human
challenge of how to live sustainably and peacefully on a crowded planet in the
21st Century. A prepublication draft copy of his most recent book is available
at <a href="http://www.livinnginthefuturetense.org/">www.livinnginthefuturetense.org</a>.
He may be reached at <a href="mailto:erenner@livinginthefuturetense.org">erenner@livinginthefuturetense.org</a></span>Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-40794282345932417862015-12-21T13:23:00.000-08:002015-12-21T13:23:55.341-08:00The Fantasy of Life in a Fact Free World<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Adapted from Chapter# 14, <a href="http://www.livinginthefuturetense.org/">Living in the Future Tense</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The End of Truth:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Fantasy of Life in a Fact Free World<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Edward Renner<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;mso-themecolor:text1'>For 5,000 years,
humans lived in the past tense: “Yesterday was the same as tomorrow. “ For
the next 500 years people lived in the present tense: “Today can be
whatever we want it to be.” But now, for the next 50 years we must start
living in the future tense: “Tomorrow’s social, economic and political
constraints must become today’s reality.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
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<o:p> </o:p></p>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">We know from archeology that whole
societies have collapsed in the past. Then, they had the excuse of not knowing
any better; that is no longer true. The paradox is that the more we know, the
less knowingly we are living our lives. How can the Information Age also be the
Age of Stupid?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKhyULV6dZYDUx5ItOANmIVypk0Ve9qQKKtXR-3WRf8n3ROS_OW74dKaA8Rx8tYV5BEhnQWMZnNzOZZG-twaOjq2-sE5VAYk8eJGuoZZ3_kpGhpO20pN-fTEmx47E9rC_5-QX-puEiqYo/s1600/LIFT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKhyULV6dZYDUx5ItOANmIVypk0Ve9qQKKtXR-3WRf8n3ROS_OW74dKaA8Rx8tYV5BEhnQWMZnNzOZZG-twaOjq2-sE5VAYk8eJGuoZZ3_kpGhpO20pN-fTEmx47E9rC_5-QX-puEiqYo/s320/LIFT.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
In the past, a societal collapse was sometimes initiated by
a lifestyle that overused the natural resources<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 16px;"> necessary to sustain their population as in Easter Island. At other times it
was due to an external catastrophe such as the role of drought</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in the Maya collapse, or a conflict between people that could not be resolved
politically as in Nordic Greenland. Regardless of the initial cause they all
shared a common factor of an entrenched belief system that failed to see the
warning signs. By ignoring truth tellers the societies became the author of their
own misfortune.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The most difficult part of human change is letting go of the
security of existing beliefs and values to embrace the uncertainty of a
different future. The result is often the loss of the capacity to see, hear or
speak the truth.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We have not yet learned that lesson. The challenge of our
time is how to live sustainably and peacefully on a crowded planet in the 21<sup>st</sup>
Century. This will require alternative economic, social and political process.
Instead, we are persisting in pursuing the fantasy of narrow, single-minded
ideologies based on economic growth, consumption and nationalism.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yet, we know the planet cannot support the energy intense
lifestyle of the developed countries and also fulfill the comparable aspirations
of developing nations, in particular those of China, India and Brazil. As
emerging markets, they are essential for the survival of free-market capitalism
in the developed countries, and in particular for the United States. The
developing countries cannot give up using coal if they are to emerge as
consumers, and the developed countries cannot give up growth if they are to
maintain their current lifestyle.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The dilemma of the necessity to embrace the uncertainties of
a global community without the capacity to change is a prescription for either mutual
environmental collapse or internal civic disruption and external conflict
between nations and regions over who will be forced to abandon their
aspirations and accept harsh austerities.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We need a global energy initiative and an alternative sustainable
global economy, not ideological wars in Washington over global warming and, in
the Middle East, over securing Western influence and the New American Century.
Our invasion of Iraq and the Arab Spring did not bring democracy to the Middle
East; indeed, just the opposite.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<p class=MsoNormal>
<span style='font-size:10.0pt'>When introducing a song
during a concert in London a member of the Dixie Chicks said:</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>
<i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>“</i><i
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>Just so
you know, we are on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this
violence, and we are ashamed that the President of the United States is
from Texas.”</span></i><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span
style='font-size:8.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=right style='text-align:right'>
<span
style='font-size:8.0pt'>Dixie Chicks, 2003<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0LZKo4sp_ZMbG7UkNyKAyaQh-F6KpaDaU4FCUJJQ6rhdxdGwGF66kKBsaRxBBBSLMvao6k4Iypky_C9xHF3BYjtXNCXmCCQhh7Zjn_o6cbZgGAi_izfxCQCTbX1lhIeZYfSS_kkjUnIU/s1600/Quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0LZKo4sp_ZMbG7UkNyKAyaQh-F6KpaDaU4FCUJJQ6rhdxdGwGF66kKBsaRxBBBSLMvao6k4Iypky_C9xHF3BYjtXNCXmCCQhh7Zjn_o6cbZgGAi_izfxCQCTbX1lhIeZYfSS_kkjUnIU/s320/Quote.jpg" width="320" /></a>The Iraq war has spread into a regional conflict and growing
sectarian divide. The Islamic State (ISIS) now controls large areas of both
Iraq and Syria. The US and its Gulf allies are providing arms to the rebel
forces in Syria while Russian and Iran are supporting the Government of Assad.
In Syria alone, 12 million people have been displaced, 300,000 killed and 4
million have fled the country creating a world-wide refugee crisis.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Three trillion dollars later, and still counting, the war
without end continues. The national debt has soared without – for the first
time in the history of the US – a war tax increase to pay the cost. Instead,
the debt has been thoughtlessly passed on to our children who will have no
realistic way to deal with it. The physical infrastructure required to be
competitive in a global economy has been allowed to decay, and the social
programs necessary for a strong functional democracy – education, health,
economic security and poverty assistance – are collapsing. The nation is
divided with racial and ethnic tension while the level of poverty is increasing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnTz2tUpDeBImnW8TNttPDcumRTNGfAC21eAcZ9i5suwbQZdS2Ml24YpzkQAD-7YigPztBIsQYZRPitkxS7OQWX7fNluTAm8yhjrvfrp_GtuUZt-ONybQYsA4XdyvVzo3Q0e2DjvRV4YM/s1600/Dixie_Chicks_Entertainment_Weekly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnTz2tUpDeBImnW8TNttPDcumRTNGfAC21eAcZ9i5suwbQZdS2Ml24YpzkQAD-7YigPztBIsQYZRPitkxS7OQWX7fNluTAm8yhjrvfrp_GtuUZt-ONybQYsA4XdyvVzo3Q0e2DjvRV4YM/s320/Dixie_Chicks_Entertainment_Weekly.jpg" width="243" /></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The public backlash against
the Dixie Chicks for speaking their mind about the war was vindictive. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Country station stopped playing their music.
The Dixie Chicks did not back down; they answered their critics with a cover
picture on Entertainment Weekly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
picture that then Managing Editor Rick Tetzeli (2002-2009) regards as his
favorite cover – an endorsement of the right – indeed the necessity -- to speak
to truth.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the end, they were proved to be right. But, their career
was over for saying they were ashamed the President was from Texas!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What has gone wrong in our country?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Speaking the truth has lost its currency, politically,
economically and socially. Political Action Committees (PACs) have reduced
civics to marketing and politicians to puppets. Eleven million VW cars world-wide
lie about their emissions and those who perpetrated the financial crisis of
2008 knowingly said to each other at the time: “You will be gone and I’ll be
gone.” To complete the circle, wealth and income inequality have placed power
in the hands of the super wealthy who own the PACs which serve their own
private, not public, interests.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 364.5pt;">
The commercial consolidation of
the media and journalism, and the commodification of higher education, is
silencing the last frontier of truth telling. Each episode of terrorism
increases our willingness to accept more intrusive surveillance and limits to
privacy as a necessary sacrifice for keeping freedom and democracy safe.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Those who speak to truth are not answered with substance,
but are labeled as dangerous. Chelsea Manning is imprisoned, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange are living in exile as criminals for revealing failures of
public trust by the very government whose essential function in a democracy is
the keeping of that trust. We are withdrawing into the fantasy of living in a
fact free world, where repeating ideological myths of greed, patriotism and
hate have displaced civic political discourse.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When societies have collapsed in the past it was because
they silenced truth tellers by holding on to the false security of ideologies until
it was too late for change. This time, it not just the collapse of the US that
is at stake, but of the planet itself. And, it all started back in 2003 when we
stood by in silence and watched while the Dixie Chicks were sacrificed to the
patriotic fantasy of the exceptionalism of the new American Century.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Maybe it is time for a Dixie Chick reunion concert. We owe
them one.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
_______________________________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></div>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->Edward Renner is a
retired university professor who writes on the modern human challenge of how to
live sustainably and peacefully on a crowded planet in the 21st Century. A
prepublication draft copy of his most recent book is available at <a href="http://www.livinnginthefuturetense.org/">www.livinnginthefuturetense.org</a>.
He may be reached at <a href="mailto:erenner@livinginthefuturetense.org">erenner@livinginthefuturetense.org</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-75791476015332652912015-12-18T07:20:00.000-08:002015-12-18T07:20:25.053-08:00The War on Terror<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">National Security</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Edward Renner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The number of refugees, asylum-seekers and
internally displaced people worldwide has, for the first time in the post-World
War Two era exceeded 50 million people</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
United Nations High
Commission for Refugees, 2014<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Following the San Bernardino shootings by a Muslim couple
there has been an increase in popular and political support for stronger and
more effective armed attacks on Muslim extremists.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The current foreign policy assumption is that a military
response (the war on terror) can significantly reduce the number of terrorist
incidents and thereby promote greater political stability, protect our national
security and contain the increasing number of refugees, stateless and displaced
persons. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since 9/11, when the United States declared the war on terror,
the special war funding authorizations by the US Congress reached $1.7 trillion
by 2015. These are direct war costs which are budgeted separately; they do not include
base-line funding for the Pentagon, nor the costs for airport security,
surveillance and other activities of homeland security. In total, the military receives
about 60% annually of the US discretionary budget. During this period the number
of terrorists incidents, organizations, and the geographic areas controlled by
terrorists, have increased substantially since 9/11.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFS_zaREkv5mCKhVpG6RRlbrsf4ksJp1c_xkgjFOUIZYiNolUyG6etdjYaYMITngziUbk7zg1EyAW9U7PHGD7Q3_qtauBzwyiZuJ4w1fK0e0yEu_RjTI0vpbVEOKyrUF-1AGl8JlyYaps/s1600/Security.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFS_zaREkv5mCKhVpG6RRlbrsf4ksJp1c_xkgjFOUIZYiNolUyG6etdjYaYMITngziUbk7zg1EyAW9U7PHGD7Q3_qtauBzwyiZuJ4w1fK0e0yEu_RjTI0vpbVEOKyrUF-1AGl8JlyYaps/s320/Security.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;">Sources:</span></b><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;"> UN High Commission for Refugees, US Congressional
Research Service<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 8.0pt;">And the Global Terrorist Data Base</span> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Clearly, the War on Terror is not having its intended
effect. The concurrent increase in refugees, financial costs and number of incidents
does not establish which ones are causes or effects, or whether other factors
are causing all three. Their joint upward trend, however, should raise the
question of whether our heavy military presence in the Middle East <span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is contributing
to the very problem for which it is the intended solution</span>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNvcNm9BkPk2iz0K0bVy9RyY25alb4vdBNsU9ugIkQbBKodnXNqMBbSOFsvpehSqin0nPA84R4cH9i3IpFzciQta9Bqz2_UQQeMdSjZGbguVd12uqcCU5ZS7oB92jyK3w8KzL6-C6sPNQ/s1600/38Threeinabox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNvcNm9BkPk2iz0K0bVy9RyY25alb4vdBNsU9ugIkQbBKodnXNqMBbSOFsvpehSqin0nPA84R4cH9i3IpFzciQta9Bqz2_UQQeMdSjZGbguVd12uqcCU5ZS7oB92jyK3w8KzL6-C6sPNQ/s320/38Threeinabox.jpg" width="206" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Policy makers should consider whether our heavy<br />
military presence in the Middle East, and the $1.7<br />
trillion allocated in war funding since 9/11, have<br />
created more problems than they have eliminated. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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</v:shape></span><span style='font-size:8.0pt'>Policymakers should consider
whether our heavy military presence in the Middle East, and the $1.7
trillion allocated in war funding since 9/11, have created more problems
than they have</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt'> </span><span
style='font-size:8.0pt'>eliminated.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->The principle alternative to the
current military assumption is that climate change (drought, migration),
economic globalization (poverty, inequalities) and political instabilities
(statelessness, oppression and warfare) have increased the number of refugees,
asylum-seekers and internally displaced people. Desperate and hopeless people
resort to violence, provoking counterproductive military responses that actually
increase the number of refugees while incurring huge financial costs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The implications of this alternative assumption is that if
the war costs were redirected to deal with the underlying causes of migration,
poverty and oppression, terrorism would be declining, not increasing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since we must choose how to best protect our national
security, what are the ways to do so? Clearly there is not a simple answer, nor
necessarily an either or choice, between military and economic, political and
social strategies. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Reasonable people of good will can recognize and respect the
perspective of others, and try to find common ground for rational solutions.
Such choices should be based on information and knowledge as much as possible.
Now, is not the time for dogmatic ideological beliefs and values to dominate
thoughtful debate over two conflicting perspectives and their implicit policies.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
_________________________________________________________________________________Edward Renner is a
retired university professor who writes on the modern human challenge of how to
live sustainably and peacefully on a crowded planet in the 21st Century. This
essay is adapted from Chapter 8 of his forthcoming book; a prepublication working
copy is available at <a href="http://www.livinnginthefuturetense.org/">www.livinnginthefuturetense.org</a>.
He may be reached at <a href="mailto:erenner@livinginthefuturetense.org">erenner@livinginthefuturetense.org</a>.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-31054526955959963532015-11-09T11:05:00.000-08:002015-11-09T11:22:52.249-08:00Embracing Difficult Issues<!--[if !mso]>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Should Reading My Syllabus Carry a
Trigger Warning?</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Edward Renner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The American University
Senate adopted a resolution that discourages instructors from granting student
request to be shielded from certain readings or discussion by trigger warnings
and course exceptions. The resolution was in part a consequence of a request by
the library for guidance on how to handle student requests to flag books for
controversial content, and a pledge by the student government president to push
for trigger warnings on course syllabi. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Now days, most course syllabi
are available on-line. My syllabus includes a graphic icon for every class – a
picture that is more memorable than any 1,000 word summary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbFSx1JxhmXerB6SJLLS_XUSWcMxest7MD0JI9EQgiKjchmrlN1xpn622N_02Y8ubd_ElhlT-xdMaez4G627EkdDYvPNL3IDtdTM5GQNwJquNsdXBQdWsmtLLX7vlo0U9ZFBlhFN0BF8k/s1600/IconSudanChild.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbFSx1JxhmXerB6SJLLS_XUSWcMxest7MD0JI9EQgiKjchmrlN1xpn622N_02Y8ubd_ElhlT-xdMaez4G627EkdDYvPNL3IDtdTM5GQNwJquNsdXBQdWsmtLLX7vlo0U9ZFBlhFN0BF8k/s400/IconSudanChild.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">One of those is a Pulitzer-prize
winning photo taken by Kevin Carter in 1994 during the Sudan famine. The
picture depicts a famine stricken child crawling toward a United Nations food
camp located a kilometer away. The picture shocked the whole world. No one knows what happened to the child. The photographer was widely criticized
for not having saved the child. Three months later he committed suicide due to
depression<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The topic for that class is not
famine, but an exercise in critical thinking: How many different perspectives and
implicit assumptions can be brought to bear on how to think about the picture
and its context, including the shift in attention from the world letting
millions die to the specific fate of that child, and the individual ethical
responsibilities of Kevin Carter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">I have had many students tell
me they did not sleep well that night. However, that exercise on thinking about
how to think haunts the course. References to “Class 03 Cognitive Tools for
Thinking” come up frequently throughout the term in the context of actually thinking
about the academic content of IDH3400: “The Social and Behavioral Sciences.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="Default">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape
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o:title=""/>
</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_AMQD_uAxDGyegwG7NPlIOxtOMNcRCEsVkAJ3HUFkPErQ8ZCXk0kBaee8UAceA3szzOj2yz3fcdO3f7OFfPARAU6C4Hi5x28_i3CrqFTgrK4IEEZJ7VbDAfBoN2dMd55wCPjy9m0tdEA/s1600/casket07.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_AMQD_uAxDGyegwG7NPlIOxtOMNcRCEsVkAJ3HUFkPErQ8ZCXk0kBaee8UAceA3szzOj2yz3fcdO3f7OFfPARAU6C4Hi5x28_i3CrqFTgrK4IEEZJ7VbDAfBoN2dMd55wCPjy9m0tdEA/s400/casket07.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="Default">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Another image was the picture
of caskets returning from Iraq. The picture prompted the US government to close
the area to the press, prohibiting any future such pictures to be show to the
public as too sensitive and disrespectful to those who serve. A brother of a
woman in my class was on active duty in Iraq. Road side bombs were a frequent
danger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">This picture is a context for
some of the most difficult conceptual issues of political science. It is why
political science is no less important than computer science. It is not just
abstract theory. The discipline has very direct implications for determining the
limits of censorship in a democracy and for the impact of political decisions
on individual people. Yes, a woman in the class was in tears, but we did not
avoid the power of this moment for an intense lesson in civics. We were all meaningfully
disrupted; as we should be, often.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Should my syllabus carry the
trigger warning: “<b>Reading this Syllabus
May Be Disruptive.</b>” Would that warning be sufficient, or should such potentially
disruptive material be a necessary, or at least expected, element of every
course syllabus? Perhaps we have it backwards. Maybe there should be a trigger
warning for any course that is not disruptive; then, students could consider
not taking it and we could question why it was even offered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The icons I use are intended
to be disruptive, as is the course. I want my students to respect the
behavioral and social science to be as intellectually demanding as their math,
chemistry and physical science courses. The question of our time is how to live
peacefully and sustainably on a crowded planet in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century. In
my mind this question trumps STEM in importance. This is the challenge of the behavioral
and social sciences; the risk of labeling any topic essential for meeting this
challenge as disruptive is the danger to be avoided.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">__________________________________________________________________________</span><br />
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Edward Renner is a retired university professor
who writes on the modern human challenge of how to live sustainably and
peacefully on a crowded planet in the 21st Century. A prepublication draft copy
of his most recent book is available at <a href="http://www.livinnginthefuturetense.org/">www.livinnginthefuturetense.org</a>.
He may be reached at <a href="mailto:erenner@livinginthefuturetense.org">erenner@livinginthefuturetense.org</a>.</span><!--EndFragment--> </span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-57187793524934153882015-10-05T19:59:00.001-07:002015-10-17T12:07:09.394-07:00The Future of Work<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Bleak Sept. Jobs Growth Report No
Surprise</span></b></div>
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Edward Renner<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;mso-themecolor:text1'>For 5,000 years,
humans lived in the past tense: “Yesterday was the same as tomorrow. “ For
the next 500 years people lived in the present tense: “Today can be
whatever we want it to be.” But now, for the next 50 years we must start
living in the future tense: “Tomorrow’s social, economic and political
constraints must become today’s reality.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">“</span><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Jetsons are a family residing in Orbit City…George Jetson lives with his family
in the Skypad Apartments: his wife Jane is a</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">
homemaker<span style="color: #1c1c1c;">, their teenage daughter</span> Judy<span style="color: #1c1c1c;"> attends Orbit High School, and their early-childhood son
Elroy attends Little Dipper School. Housekeeping is seen to by a robot maid, </span>Rosie<span style="color: #1c1c1c;">, which handles chores not otherwise rendered trivial by
the home's numerous </span></span></i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push-button"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">push-button</span></i></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> Space Age<span style="color: #1c1c1c;">-envisioned
conveniences</span></span></i><span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<span style="color: #1c1c1c; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Wikipedia, August 2015</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b></b><br />
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<b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The low level of job
creation and lack of gains in hourly pay for private-sector workers after the
financial crisis should not come as a surprise to anyone. We need to stop thinking
that private-sector job creation is the path to an economic recovery. Instead,
we need to be talking about the distribution of work and wealth in the economy
of the future; this is the path to a sustainable recovery.<o:p></o:p></b></b></div>
<b>
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</b></div>
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Remember George Jetson from the 1962 TV series, with his
driverless car and his one-hour per day, two days a week job? Then, the
expectation was that benefits of technology would be felt by everyone. Everyone
would have more leisure time, more happiness and stronger families. We’d all
experience a New Renaissance of art and culture. The future was going to be less
work and more play, and it was only one lifetime away!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAtid6QewEJ2optipVkq5H0kqbJWub64Xyv7RWLX70kuQOMyuXFl-0vz-TXj7lzCls6__AddOuJUHRavdpAVMnYcd5Sz5n0QxTErojsSQu190Z3jcl8dzV3uhwUBkDEUVgB-xfO8MSzk/s1600/Jetsons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAtid6QewEJ2optipVkq5H0kqbJWub64Xyv7RWLX70kuQOMyuXFl-0vz-TXj7lzCls6__AddOuJUHRavdpAVMnYcd5Sz5n0QxTErojsSQu190Z3jcl8dzV3uhwUBkDEUVgB-xfO8MSzk/s1600/Jetsons.jpg" /></a></div>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->Although it was never
made clear when in the future the Jetson’s lived, it is now clear we are on the
verge of actually making that transition from the present to the future. Today,
cars can park themselves and Google has experimental driverless cars on the
California highways. Robots like George Jetson’s Rosie have already started to
replace workers. But, most important of all, we are well on the way toward the
end of work as we know it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The increased productivity resulting
from technology will continue to eliminate jobs and reduce labor cost for each
article produced and every type of service delivered. Pumping our own gas,
using ATMs and auto-checkouts are just the beginning. The elimination of entire
occupational careers in the immediate future will be just as true for jobs requiring
higher education and technical skills as those requiring less education and
simple skills.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At the high end, more than half of all higher education
faculty are now part-time. These adjunct professors get paid by the course and
do not have job security or benefits. A report from the University of
California based on U.S. census data found that 25% of adjuncts received some
sort of public assistance, such as Medicaid, food stamps, cash welfare or
Earned Income Tax Credits. This highly educated group is now among the working
poor.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At the other extreme are health, homecare and fast food jobs,
paying at or near minimum wages. Half of these workers are also on some form of
public assistance, similar to Adjunct Professors. To qualify for these subsides
a family’s income must be below an eligibility criterion. For the school lunch
program – which last year served over 30 million children -- it is 130% of the
poverty line. Today, someone would need to work 63 hours a week at minimum wage
for 52 weeks to earn the $23,850/year required to support a family of four at
the poverty line. But, a family of four cannot live on that amount of money <o:p></o:p></div>
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This elusive search for an economic recovery from the
financial crisis of 2008 has presented us with the opportunity for a real
choice: We may either continue on the current economic path of fiscal
austerity, tax cuts, low interest rates and deficit spending intended to
stimulate private sector corporate growth to create more jobs, or we may chose
the political alternative of creating a public-works, social-development path for
actually making the transition into a future that would fulfill the
expectations that inspired the Jetsons TV series in 1962.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
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If we continue on the current path, the aging faculty will
never be replaced. The next level of savings is for a few elite universities
and well funded information technology companies to use the new electronic
communication capacities to create high quality practical courses that can be
administered locally by low-paid facilitators. When we reach this point,
information and knowledge increasingly will be a commodity under the control of
those who own it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZvg-sWGtKsKwphb3dSGV1uX2ofrnU3rHO7ju5prL-5xbIGmi8xtAFHRLwydqIOKSf6HFRRfzY_G-Qmj9eB9lVz6KqX0sePvlPkrNEIrcY1CFqir9DTuyC5C4nEaAZ7rm8CPAptOYXsYU/s1600/Replacement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZvg-sWGtKsKwphb3dSGV1uX2ofrnU3rHO7ju5prL-5xbIGmi8xtAFHRLwydqIOKSf6HFRRfzY_G-Qmj9eB9lVz6KqX0sePvlPkrNEIrcY1CFqir9DTuyC5C4nEaAZ7rm8CPAptOYXsYU/s1600/Replacement.jpg" /></a></div>
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->For the fast food
worker the future is no better. They are constantly reminded that they are
lucky to have a job at all. There is now a commercially available iPad point of
sale system that allows a credit card payment at the table. You pre-pay your
order from the online menu and a runner delivers your food. In a restaurant in
Japan, the runner is a robot who looks remarkable similar to Rosie.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The
profit from the increased productive per hour of human labor will continue to
go into the pockets of those who own the knowledge and information responsible
for the technology, not to those who apply it.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In the US, the top one-tenth of 1% now have as much wealth
as the bottom 90%; this is similar to just before the great Depression of 1929.
All of the gains in prosperity of the middle class following the end of WW II
have now been reclaimed by very wealthy. We need to find an approach more
appropriate for 2015 than 1945; the economic growth that put people to work
following the war is not a 21<sup>st</sup> Century solution. Today,
environmental constraints, globalization and post-industrialization technology
will limit private-sector job creation and wage growth in the US.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Currently, we are once again creating an economy in which
most of the people have little money to spend. Unless we reverse the current
strategy, the economic engine will stall, creating hardship and social unrest
as it did before. However, choosing the alternative political path of
public-sector social development will require a radical change in how we think
about the distribution of work and wealth, and about the economy of the future.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
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The diminishing amount of private-sector work will have to
be shared. In the short-term, to replace the lack of traditional job growth and
inadequate hourly wages, public-works projects can provide meaningful employment
to create the infrastructure required for a new energy efficient green economy
of tomorrow. The New Deal, after all, was the start of the way out of the great
depression of 1929. In the long-term, public-sector entitlements,
compensations, responsibilities and civic activities will have to expand to
fill our social needs, to occupy our time and to constructively engage our
minds. Sports, recreational facilities, music, art, hobbies and civic
participation will become the new social fabric to replace roads, bridges and
other physical definitions of human progress</div>
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. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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However, for this to happen in the economy of the future, a
much larger proportion of the profits from information and knowledge must fall
to those who apply it, not to those who own it. Simply put, the accumulating wealth
from information and knowledge must increasing belong in the public domain,
rather than a commodity for personal and corporate financial gain. Redefining
the purposes to be served by wealth is a social value to be implemented through
the democratic political process. At any given time,the nature of the economy is a
function of our social beliefs and political choices.</div>
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</div>
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To actually make such a transition to the Jetson’s Utopia, the
role and functions of government needs to be much different in the future than
they are today. Perhaps the most mind altering change will be the necessity of
expanding, not reducing personal entitlements. We need to believe that a
social, not economic, fabric should be the basis for describing the human
condition. A starting point for making a gradual transition to this future
economy could be the introduction of a mandatory 40-hour maximum workweek at a
realistic living wage as the minimum, thus sharing the existing work and
creating a more inclusive economy.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Life in this alternative future will be no less
busy, just very different. The concept of a balanced life not dominated solely
by economic values has other precedents</span></div>
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<br />
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Manfred Max-Nerf, a third world economist and university
professor, worked with the Peace Corps. He tells the story of a village where
10 women would each spend the whole day making one basket. The Peace Corp
volunteers showed the women how they could make 20 baskets a day if they
specialized their tasks and formed a production line. When the volunteers
return several months later the women were using the new production methods,
but still only making 10 baskets a day. When asked why, they replied: “Now we
have so much more time to spend with our children.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The women in the village did not necessarily lack
industriousness, they may simply have used good judgment. Our current obsession
that the sole purpose of information and knowledge is to drive gains in corporate
profitability may not be industriousness, it may be simply be a matter of bad
judgment. In its most basic sense, the new lifestyle in the village enabled by
the application of technology is fundamentally similar to the anticipated life-style
for the Jetsons, all within the time frame of a single life time – that of the
Millennials.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The shift over hundreds of centuries from land and resources
as the source of new wealth, to information and knowledge in the 21<sup>st</sup>
Century, provides us with the political opportunity to define this new source
of wealth as a public resource, not as private property. Politically,
establishing knowledge as open-source and public would allow human progress to
be measured as improvements in the human condition rather than as GDP units of economic
growth.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
By choosing a public rather than private-sector strategy for
personal economic security, traditional work as we know it will no longer need
to dominate our life and define our sense of self. What an exciting time to be
alive, simply by starting to live in the future tense.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
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_____________________________________________________________________________</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
Edward Renner is a
retired university professor who writes on the modern human challenge of how to
live sustainably and peacefully on a crowded planet in the 21st Century. A
prepublication copy of his most recent book is available at <a href="http://www.livinnginthefuturetense.org/">www.livinnginthefuturetense.org</a>.
He may be reached at <a href="mailto:erenner@livinginthefuturetense.org">erenner@livinginthefuturetense.org</a>.</div>
</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-31001081739488945272015-01-16T11:09:00.000-08:002015-01-17T07:25:11.434-08:00Cheap and Fast Trade-off for QualityJanuary, 2015<br />
Living in the Future Tense #05<br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">When Fast and Cheap Is Not Good Enough</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Edward Renner<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">For 5,000 years,
humans lived in the past tense: “Yesterday was the same as tomorrow. “ For the
next 500 years people lived in the present tense: “Today can be whatever we
want it to be.” But now, for the next 50 years we must start living in the
future tense: “Tomorrow’s social, economic and political constraints must
become today’s reality.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a boy, I
knew that my grandfather respected the John Deere dealer. At 15 I got my first
job in agriculture. A John Deere tractor did the heavy work. Although I lusted
to drive it, I was never allowed to do so.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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My chance to own my tractor came when I purchased 3 acres in
western North Carolina. As an urban back-to-the-lander, everything I know about
tractors I learned from Keith, who runs a small engine repair shop near
Hendersonville North Carolina. His specialty is to fix and resell used
tractors.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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I now know that my grandfather’s deep sense of loyalty and respect
for the legacy of John Deere was well deserved.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 1933 when small farmers were losing their land, houses
and equipment to foreclosures, the exception was tractors financed through John
Deere. The company, though losing money itself, told farmers who owed them
money to keep the tractors and pay as much as they could when they could. The
nation needed food, and the farmers needed their tractors.</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXt3ZDkLFYGisM75il9BTfSGXZQFY2er6IVI5v9ZLM9kdiFmuSqfJWuxAP5FjvYot4apLWYg2hpnommmSQRAd6Pu7W79zpIS8PtBM6WxbFpKHijs1wCig5DfQRwUWDQkk5FczPj2cx_rQ/s1600/JDQuote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSHYsaw4PG-eQ-hzK-ABwVKdJDAf6yabxCuLD-jAVIHLJfcamI49SYCGNnzCVg9oTnfgaC9ihr81g5_D5IBwoiU44CMoAxAxSuc9vGh4omjJEz86vvL8UZWmqxZIypLUppPdWeakN_ZMU/s1600/tractor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSHYsaw4PG-eQ-hzK-ABwVKdJDAf6yabxCuLD-jAVIHLJfcamI49SYCGNnzCVg9oTnfgaC9ihr81g5_D5IBwoiU44CMoAxAxSuc9vGh4omjJEz86vvL8UZWmqxZIypLUppPdWeakN_ZMU/s1600/tractor.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
Keith has a classic 1941 Model B John Deere tractor. This model</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
was the most popular one in the company's history, remaining in</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
production from 1935 until 1952. With the exception of the occasional</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
replacement part it is still mechanically sound and functional. It has</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
already seen more than one owner out. Photo courtesy of Keith. </div>
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But it is not 1933. The small farmer with his own tractor is
a thing of the past. In 2000, John Deere obtained a banking license in
Luxembourg giving it the ability to finance the sale of large equipment used by
corporate agri-business throughout Europe. In 2012 it celebrated its 175
anniversary with record sales of over $36 billion. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In 2003, not to be closed out of the small rider mower market
by cheap garden tractors from China, John Deere sold the use of their label to
Home Depot. Now, you too can have a John Deere label for a two hundred dollars
premium price, but other than the green and yellow paint it will be just like
the ones for sale beside it with a 500-hour life expectancy before major
repairs or replacement is required. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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But this essay, like most legends, is not just a story about
tractors. The John Deere legend is about the political and social consequences
of achieving cheap prices and easy access at the expense of reduced quality. What
economic globalization has created is the 21<sup>st</sup> Century mind-set that
fast and cheap is an acceptable trade-off for quality.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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John Deere is not alone. Levis did the same thing for Wal-Mart,
as other brand names have done for big market retailers. This is the new
normal.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The modern way to make a profit is by shifting the commercial
focus from quality and customer loyalty to cheaper prices and more accessible markets.
While this may serve the financial returns of global corporations in the short
term, it is not necessarily in the best long-term interests of individuals, the
nation or sustainable living on a finite planet.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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But, the potential damage is magnified when this global
economic mindset also intrudes into the political and social aspect of our
lives. In particular, that a cheap (lower taxes) smaller (fewer regulations)
government is also best for our general wellbeing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXt3ZDkLFYGisM75il9BTfSGXZQFY2er6IVI5v9ZLM9kdiFmuSqfJWuxAP5FjvYot4apLWYg2hpnommmSQRAd6Pu7W79zpIS8PtBM6WxbFpKHijs1wCig5DfQRwUWDQkk5FczPj2cx_rQ/s1600/JDQuote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXt3ZDkLFYGisM75il9BTfSGXZQFY2er6IVI5v9ZLM9kdiFmuSqfJWuxAP5FjvYot4apLWYg2hpnommmSQRAd6Pu7W79zpIS8PtBM6WxbFpKHijs1wCig5DfQRwUWDQkk5FczPj2cx_rQ/s1600/JDQuote.jpg" height="185" width="200" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;"> </span></a></div>
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If we insist on lower taxes and smaller government with
fewer regulations we will not have effective food inspections, air traffic
controllers, parks and recreation, affordable public education, and all of the
other services that living in a complex global world requires. Adequate taxes,
effective government and a high level of social wellbeing are each fully
dependent on the other two.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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What would have happened in 2008 if the Bank of America had
said to the people who had lost their jobs “keep your house and pay what you
can when you can”?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Bank of America would have been better off in terms of
customer loyalty, and perhaps financially, if they had done so. Certainly the
homeowners and the nation would have been better off. In the end, the bank had
to pay a 17 billion dollar settlement for their predatory loan and automated
foreclosure processes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The John Deere legend perhaps explains why I bought a 15
year-old garden tractor manufactured in Kentucky for which I was able to download
a complete mechanical schematic and parts list. This summer it hauled 5,000
pounds of gravel, mowed my field and carried logs from the forest for firewood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last week it wouldn’t start. I replaced the
ignition solenoid for $14.03 plus shipping and it is working fine again. With
the exception of an occasional replacement part, I expect it will see me out,
thanks to Keith, unlike the one I might have bought new from Home Depot.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Fast and cheap is not a substitute for quality, either for
us as consumers or for our government. Two out of three is not good enough.<o:p></o:p></div>
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_________________________________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Edward Renner has
been a Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the
University of Illinois in the US, and at Dalhousie University in Canada. He is
now retired and teaches one course, Forums for a Future, as an Adjunct
Professor in the Honors College at the University of South Florida. . He blogs at
<a href="http://forumsforafuture.blogspot.com/">http://forumsforafuture.blogspot.com</a></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
on the modern challenge of living sustainably and peacefully
on a crowded planet in the 21st Century. He maybe reached at kerenner@usf.edu.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-24386214220794620822015-01-15T07:46:00.000-08:002015-01-15T08:41:49.761-08:00Low Wage Jobs Are Bad for the CountryLiving in the Future Tense #04 January, 2015<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">When First Is Last</span><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Edward Renner<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">For 5,000 years,
humans lived in the past tense: “Yesterday was the same as tomorrow. “ For the
next 500 years people lived in the present tense: “Today can be whatever we
want it to be.” But now, for the next 50 years we must start living in the
future tense: “Tomorrow’s social, economic and political constraints must
become today’s reality.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My wife just
walked through the door declaring “I may never again shop at T J Maxx!”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
She had just seen the store’s advertisement for clerks and
supervisors at $7.93/hour.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The large number of low wage jobs is one reason why the
World Bank, in its business <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Environment
Ranking 2014,</i> ranked the US fourth out of the 185 nations of the world in which
it is<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>best to do business.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Some of the other criterion are permitting indefinite
out-sourcing of permanent jobs, not requiring paid vacation time nor giving
notice or severance pay for redundancy dismissal, to list a few examples of
what makes a country good to do business in.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other countries that are similar to the US, but are less easy
to do business in, have government regulations that provide workers with higher
levels of economic security and benefits. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One such comparative set of nations are the members
of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which account
for 85% of the world’s economy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A report by the OECD, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Employment
Outlook 2014</i>, sheds some light on what it means to be one of the best
countries in which to do business, and whether that is something the US should
want to be.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0mdlzldAsjcGoNzb5BvQLb_S2guSoMlQmf4K0Q2UxM0QXTL6L8V3J-zIZRJdMQb9sCgFMVd37reBc4IVPE2PRnp9mSzx1H9iFSOMMuqfT5QIDNMd5w5LK2uJwKIOGLkBxgKUNQcjU6-M/s1600/Low-Wage+Work+JPG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0mdlzldAsjcGoNzb5BvQLb_S2guSoMlQmf4K0Q2UxM0QXTL6L8V3J-zIZRJdMQb9sCgFMVd37reBc4IVPE2PRnp9mSzx1H9iFSOMMuqfT5QIDNMd5w5LK2uJwKIOGLkBxgKUNQcjU6-M/s1600/Low-Wage+Work+JPG.jpg" height="311" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: OECD Employment Outlook 2014, Table N, page 288.<br />
Data for Norway 2009, France 2008, the Netherlands, 2005</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Of all of the OECD countries, the US has the largest
percentage (25.3%)of its workforce in a low-wage job (less than two-thirds the
median wage) and pays its low-wage workers the least amount of money (46.7% of
the median wage).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB8Do_QlHLNKM8VnAsEUAhhBNE8q_6HgxmKOKzHiL-xoJMiIE5Z6lQ2nXFGlYv-9zzyA5Yg-WMZqaYVwXLg0eM3E_zlyWa4AzPVT_WJJhBcDTeuTnK3L6eTmxVLhXIuI-BByfBS1t40xU/s1600/Low-Wage+Earnings+JPG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB8Do_QlHLNKM8VnAsEUAhhBNE8q_6HgxmKOKzHiL-xoJMiIE5Z6lQ2nXFGlYv-9zzyA5Yg-WMZqaYVwXLg0eM3E_zlyWa4AzPVT_WJJhBcDTeuTnK3L6eTmxVLhXIuI-BByfBS1t40xU/s1600/Low-Wage+Earnings+JPG.jpg" height="320" width="315" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: OECD Employment Outlook 2014, Table N, page 288<br />
Computed from OECD data on 1st to 5th decile earnings ratios</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is important to understand that this data is compiled by
experts from the member countries and are the agreed upon benchmark for these
comparisons. They are not “just statistics,” but an occasion for civic
discussions about the proper balance between the ease of doing business and the
social price of the US becoming a low-wage economy – a country with a shrinking
middle class and a large gap between the rich at the top and all the others at
the bottom.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Should the US strive for first place -- to be more like
Singapore and Hong Kong, which topped the World Bank ranking – or rather to be
more like the European Union countries with whom we share a democratic political
process?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One reason why the US is in last place among the OECD
nations is that we have allowed corporate money to corrupt the political process
toward favoring business over individual wellbeing. As voters we have accepted
their purely theoretical message that little government regulation and low
taxes are best for the country.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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In contrast, the actual reality is the exact opposite.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Historically, lack of regulations
has led to corporate excess. Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900’s introduced
anti-trust legislation as the corrective action to end abusive labor practices
by the large industrial monopolies. The regulations of Franklin Roosevelt’s New
Deal in the 1930’s corrected the unsanitary conditions in the meat packing and
food industry, established industrial safety standards, and constrained the
financial sector from the speculations responsible for the great recession.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxRqtL0vofPsqN-vefNJ4U2pWYlYycV7lq8Tw-Gsnlr4QDOgUyU9k-25ATWTOGm2sW2EWo3xAvvlAQ8rWxKZiQuW6DtOOVg1Q5IFG5aY9HVz31_VNbvIDiCh5xOCo4SbI0U7wLF6jZ9sU/s1600/Quote.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxRqtL0vofPsqN-vefNJ4U2pWYlYycV7lq8Tw-Gsnlr4QDOgUyU9k-25ATWTOGm2sW2EWo3xAvvlAQ8rWxKZiQuW6DtOOVg1Q5IFG5aY9HVz31_VNbvIDiCh5xOCo4SbI0U7wLF6jZ9sU/s1600/Quote.jpg" height="233" width="320" /></a></div>
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In this Century we have
experience the cumulative negative results of de-regulating the progressive
legislation of the Roosevelt eras. First there was Enron, then the mortage
bubble of 2008, and now there are more financial troubles on the horizon, such
as the pending student loan defaults.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Likewise with taxes. Sufficient</span>
tax rates are essential for general well-being. People need to be healthy.
Public parks, community centers, art and recreation make life livable for
everyone. Schools have to prepare students for success. A living wage is the
basis for equality of opportunity, social stability and personal happiness.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Over the decade preceding the OEDC report (2002 to 2012) the
average measure of inequality in the member nations declined from a score of 3.44
to 3.38. In contrast, the magnitude of inequality for the US actually increased
from 4.66 to 5.22, the highest of all OECD nations. While the rest of the
developed world held steady through the great recession, it became an
opportunity in the US for the wealthy to increase their ability to restrict
government regulation and to increase their share of the income. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The prescription for swinging the balance back from
corporate excess to greater individual well-being is to move toward greater
similarity with the OECD countries which share our democratic political
processes: A steeper income tax on the very wealthy, a living wage for low-wage
workers, more public entitlements such as universal healthcare, and sufficient government
regulations to insure that workers are not treated as disposable components of
a global economy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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What is difficult to understand is why this pending end of
the American Dream – once the envy of the world -- could be possible in a
country with freedom of the press, democratically elected leaders and a
political philosophy of equality of opportunity.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The essential role for government is same today as it was in
2008, 1929 and 1908. Theodore Roosevelt had it right, an essential role of
government is to protect individuals against the abuses of corporate power.<o:p></o:p></div>
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________________________________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Edward Renner has
been a Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the
University of Illinois in the US, and at Dalhousie University in Canada. He is
now retired and teaches one course, Forums for a Future, as an Adjunct
Professor in the Honors College at the University of South Florida. He may be
reached at <a href="mailto:kerenner@usf.edu">kerenner@usf.edu</a>, and blogs at
<a href="http://forumsforafuture.blogspot.com/">http://forumsforafuture.blogspot.com</a>
on the modern human challenge of how to live sustainably and peacefully on a
crowded planet in the 21st Century.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-83126299316425728682014-09-17T09:16:00.001-07:002014-09-17T09:16:40.695-07:00For too many, working more means making less<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -40.5pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Living
in the Future Tense # 03, September 14, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -40.5pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Reprinted in the Tampa Bay Times, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Restoring Dignity to Work </span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></b>Edward Renner</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">For 5,000 years,
humans lived in the past tense: “Yesterday was the same as tomorrow. “ For
the next 500 years people lived in the present tense: “Today can be
whatever we want it to be.” But now, for the next 50 years we must start
living in the future tense: “Tomorrow’s social, economic and political
constraints must become today’s reality.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
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<w:wrap type="square">
</w:wrap></v:shape> In my leisure time, I do
woodworking.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My signature piece is mirror made of two interlocking
circles. It sells for $175, of which 15 percent ($26.25) goes to the store less
$90 for materials, which leaves me with $58.75 net for 8 hours of work. That is
about the minimum wage of $7.25/hr.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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I could sell more mirrors if I charged less, say $140 each.
In that case $42 would go to the store, less $180 for material, which would
also leave me with $58.00 net, but for 16 hours of work.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Why would anyone work longer hours for the same amount of
money?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Yet, my situation is similar to the one faced by most low
wage workers who are often criticized for making the same choice as mine.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Today, someone working at minimum wages (discounting any
overtime differential) would need to work slightly more than 63 hours a week
for 52 weeks to earn the $23,850/year required to support a family of four at
the poverty line.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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But, a family of four cannot live on that amount of money. Some
of the short-fall is made up through subsides such as food stamps, Medicaid,
and the free school lunch program – which last year served over 30 million
children.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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To qualify for these subsides a family’s income must be
below an eligibility criterion. For the school lunch program it is 130% of the
poverty line. Even if it was possible to work more than 63 hours, it would
simply remove the eligibility and leave the person no better off in the end.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg2QOtjCOX4LXwjlfD2SfJSmSdro6BekEOk6_OleyyP9IUZKdNFeRKk5E9bcs2ZtZ6CRzTNcNVh3-Z2OKpqsWM1koLhVitNw_Rwj7LkwyHtVa_NJKvxp_sTcdkRj8J0xX9Oi4PJIz-OTU/s1600/LWCalculator.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg2QOtjCOX4LXwjlfD2SfJSmSdro6BekEOk6_OleyyP9IUZKdNFeRKk5E9bcs2ZtZ6CRzTNcNVh3-Z2OKpqsWM1koLhVitNw_Rwj7LkwyHtVa_NJKvxp_sTcdkRj8J0xX9Oi4PJIz-OTU/s1600/LWCalculator.jpg" height="200" width="180" /></a></div>
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<br />
That is exactly the reason I charge $175, work 8 hours and
make one mirror.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a>If the goal of the American Dream is that everyone should be
rewarded for hard work, what minimum hourly wage rate is required?</div>
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<br /></div>
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A minimum wage of $10.10/hour is currently being proposed.
At that rate, if two adults continued to work 63 hours per week between them,
the family would then lose their eligibility and not be any better off financially
than they are now with the subsides. That is not the American way. But even retaining
the subsidies would not solve the problem simply because the qualifying line is
too low to cover the actual cost of living.</div>
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsuLmLVL3ho-3EHmYvjLbK96gLuVsCT_PHOPor-74YkiG6Zkhdl9ds9BTw5rDx71dNzWSnBWbOQ2gAFQpLKRUiV00kFKOcAU51DCh2w0VDjy2SRrNaZ95jsqjH91ybdWOmO3dREj53qP0/s1600/Min+Wage+Graph+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsuLmLVL3ho-3EHmYvjLbK96gLuVsCT_PHOPor-74YkiG6Zkhdl9ds9BTw5rDx71dNzWSnBWbOQ2gAFQpLKRUiV00kFKOcAU51DCh2w0VDjy2SRrNaZ95jsqjH91ybdWOmO3dREj53qP0/s1600/Min+Wage+Graph+copy.jpg" height="295" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The
poverty line is an official government statistic calculated each year to
provide a consistent indicator of poverty. Because the official poverty line
under estimates real needs, eligibility for assistance is frequent set as at
some larger percentage of the poverty line. The eligibility line show in the
graph is 130% which is the 2014 criterion for the free school lunch program,
established by Congress in 1966. The Living Wage value of 210% of the poverty
line was determined for 2014 by using the MIT living wage calculator based on
official regional economic data. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Historically, the criterion for a living wage has been a
matter of debate.<span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> </span>The best current
indicator is the MIT living wage calculator. It is based on the actual living
cost in different regions of the US. The results show that a couple would need to
work 136 hours at current minimum wage to cover the average cost of providing a
low-wage family of four with food, clothing, housing and medical care.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, it is impossible for two adults to work a total of
136 hours each week for 52 weeks each year and take proper care of their
children. But, it is no longer just the fast food industry and retail stores,
such Wal-Mart, that do not pay a living wage. It has become a national
standard. A recent study by the Labor Center of the University of California
found that “nearly one-third of the country’s half-million bank tellers rely on
some form of public assistance to get by.” This is at a cost of $900 million
dollars per year in the form of food stamps, tax credits, Medicaid and the
Children’s Health Insurance Program.<o:p></o:p></div>
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However, if the minimum wage was increased to about $15.00/hour,
then two adults working 63 hours per week between them would make a living wage
for a family of four. At this pay rate there would be a positive incentive to
do so. That is what the striking fast food workers are asking for.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But, this should not be the end of the story.<o:p></o:p></div>
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My lifetime of work provided me the dignity of a pension, now
to be topped-up by earning minimum wage for continuing my leisure time hobby.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In contrast, for the low wage worker there is no pension or leisure
time. The 63 hours are most often composed of juggling several part-time jobs
that intentionally do not include health insurance nor provide for retirement. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The families of 30 million children who need a subsidy for
their child’s lunch is a national embarrassment. It isn’t that we can’t afford
to pay higher wages. The profits at the nation’s banks topped $141.3 billion
dollars last year. The public subsidies, the indirect costs of poverty, and
excessive corporate profits and executive pay, such as the $552,000 median
salary of the CEOs for whom the tellers work, are the real expenses. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Transferring some of these actual costs into living wages
for workers would be good for the economy. Fewer people working long hours, but
earning a living wage, would result in more jobs for others, little unchosen
unemployment, and a heathier and more equitable society. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The US has one of the lowest levels of minimum wages and
highest levels of poverty of all the developed countries in the world. Most similar
countries avoid the high financial and social costs of extreme poverty simply
by requiring a respectable minimum wage for work, and by providing some universal
entitlements, such as health care and mandatory retirement benefits, that
effectively supplement everyone’s wages an equivalent amount.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sure, a hamburger might cost a little more, but other public
and personal expenses would be far less. In the end, the total cost to the
economy, by most calculations, is actually less expensive than what we have
now.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Where has
the dignity and shared prosperity gone which 40 hours of work at a living wage should
provide?</span>Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-78230706727949724742014-09-17T08:21:00.000-07:002014-09-17T08:21:55.166-07:00A good thing turns bad if there is too much of itLiving in the Future Tense #02, August 28, 2014<br />
Reprinted in the Tampa Bay Times, September 8, 2014<br />
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When More of a Good Thing Is Bad</h2>
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Edward Renner<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6mpbAp0nYV4zK0nZorKLFc_D3c0CHJVvoHumddF9STfSL_3TREbw1ghFwKnhN-YKZVlyFw-rB7c6XsaWBb7QbQGOwSAolPTXoEeTASWjVmQew_-pMmwYKKv0IHQLx5Bt-RClXulCMmO8/s1600/LIFT+Box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6mpbAp0nYV4zK0nZorKLFc_D3c0CHJVvoHumddF9STfSL_3TREbw1ghFwKnhN-YKZVlyFw-rB7c6XsaWBb7QbQGOwSAolPTXoEeTASWjVmQew_-pMmwYKKv0IHQLx5Bt-RClXulCMmO8/s1600/LIFT+Box.jpg" height="161" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6329428127644131148" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: Cambria;">If something is good, surely more must be better. But it is
not necessarily so. It is true that when you are alone or don’t have any money
that a friend or any amount of money is very valuable. But, the more you have
of either, the less valuable any additional friend or money becomes, just as a
meal for a hungry persons is more important than for someone well fed. What we
often don’t fully appreciate is that both too little and too much are extremely
damaging, but in very different ways and for very different reasons.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Cambria;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">I recently received a friend request from someone I did not
know.</span><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Why would a complete stranger want to be my friend? Maybe,
it was because they liked my last column? A new Fan!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Cambria;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">No, It was because we have the same last name. It turns out
he had over 3,000 friends, many with our last name. It turns out he had more than 3,000 friends, many with our last name.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Cambria;">So, when is a few friends not enough, and a large number too many? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Cambria;">Facebook now has 1.11 Billion members. The 10% with the
fewest friends have less than 10 friends each; but the 10% with the most friends
have 500 or more friends, some up to the maximum limit of 5,000.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria;"><br />The typical Facebook participant has between 100 and 190
friends: These include close friends, colleagues, some personally unknown
associates, and even some family. With some, they have a genuine reciprocal
relationship, for others mainly one-way communication.</span></div>
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This number is very similar to the 150 people that social
science research has show that most people can manage in a meaningful way.
Facebook is a much more immediate and personal than e-mail, which in turn was
more immediate and personal than the Post Office.<o:p></o:p></div>
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</span><o:p> </o:p></div>
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</span><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">However, to collect 5,000 friends has little if
any redeeming social value. In fact, what is true for the distribution of friends
on Facebook is also true for the distribution of wealth in the US.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" unselectable="on"></a><strong></strong><strong><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhDtfVbKJDgTMOMwvJyH4uOYzh3xKzWiaDSlpzFQMpRPdE87_VwlvdTMPPFLIk0G_qzK1ctlXa6uwu4APeEsjaXNQsHjteo_HC_0mmD9nh65sfs8lZ6cAM0x-L3cKtHn0Fnzr1mtT3O9I/s1600/ChartExcess+copy.jpg" height="236" width="320" /></strong><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />The
Distribution of friends on Facebook and the distribution of wealth in the US
are identical functions. For both groups of people the upper 10%, and in
particular the upper 1%, have an excessive number of either friends or amounts
of money</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><br /><br />The important difference is that the supply of potential Facebook
friends is endless, and individuals with an excessively large number of friends
are the primary victims of their own excess: Too many superficial friends may
be the means to loneliness no less than too few friends.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;"><br />In contrast, there are only so many dollars in the economy.
The supply of wealth is limited. How wealth gets distributed does make a
difference. In this case, the primary victims are the 90% of individual who do
not have an equitable share of the wealth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /><br />
</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" unselectable="on"></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">At the poor end of the distribution a small additional amount
of money makes a big difference for the person with little money. At the rich
end of the distribution any additional amount of money does not make any noticeable
difference.</span></span><span style="font-family: Cambria;">This fact is neither new nor radical. In classic free-market
economic theory it is the “law of diminishing marginal utility.” But, this well
established economic principle seems to have been forgotten by the current
economic policies that have allowed the excessive accumulation of wealth by the1%. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">One way to correct this distribution is to increase the
minimum wage to be an effective living wage, including adequate food, shelter
and health care. However the very rich have used their money and influence to
blocked this simple reform. Clearly, their excess has not trickled down as the promised
alternative; indeed, just the opposite.<br /> <br /><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">The damage this false argument has caused is great compared
to the economic stimulus and improved quality of life that would result from a
greater degree of equality.<br /><br /> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">In a democracy, individuals are generally
free to behave in self-serving ways as long as it does not harm others. That is
why a few people are free to choose to distribute their social energy to accumulate
an excessive number of meaningless friends. <o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="color: black;">
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Perhaps, the question we should re-consider
is whether, like Facebook, to permit a few people to accumulate excessive meaningless
amounts of the national wealth, when the result is so harmful to the national
level of well-being.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<strong></strong>Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-44038072131881824662014-06-03T08:50:00.001-07:002014-06-03T08:50:56.108-07:00Privacy versus the Right to Information<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Living In the Future Tense #1, May 28, 2014 </span><br />
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</span><b><span style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri; font-size: small;"></span></span></b><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri; font-size: small;">Privacy versus the Right to Information </span></span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri,Calibri; font-size: small;">
</span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"></span><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Edward Renner</span><br />
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The European Union court ruled on May 13, 2014 that Google must give people a say in what comes up when they are googled. This has touched off a counter charge in the US as both an unfeasible and unreasonable form of censorship.<br />
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The legalistic perspective is a conflict between the public’s right to obtain information and the individual’s right to privacy. But, that is too specific. It is based on old ways of thinking. <br />
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The digital age has altered every aspect of our lives, including what we believe to be either good or bad. </div>
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The response by Wikipedia, Facebook and all of the other corporate giants affected by the ruling was quick and strong. Yet, they all have carefully protected secrets of their own.<br />
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This suggest the critical issue is not individual privacy versus the public right to know, but rather whether the distinctions between individuals and corporations makes sense today. <br />
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Individual citizens must disclose and pay income tax on their world-wide income. Google, Apple and all of the other technology giants have secret sums of cash stashed in tax shelters concealed by complex accounting facades. The corporate world of finance is still largely secret. They have proved to be too big to regulate, too big to fail and too big to jail. <br />
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If people are like corporations, we too should be able to protect our secrets. But, as is increasing the case, if corporations wish to be treated as individuals, they too should be transparent. Google and the others cannot have it both ways. </div>
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As it now stands, individuals are small enough to fail and jail, but important enough to be required to disclose and pay taxes on world-wide income. But the corporations are too big to fail or jail, but not important enough to be required to disclose and pay taxes on their world-wide income. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZJUmgRoktqjjuBFqC_akFqqW72Ljph1fP4CCUVzwYYEruAdp_vPsXaXlqwwrpQnOt6h-DrJJjJBe2lgPzN8C5GP9i8RMfsWIsziF4Zjvj0qsaJtbf9jfPox-bReX8KsNNHabc8aaS63E/s1600/LIFT01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZJUmgRoktqjjuBFqC_akFqqW72Ljph1fP4CCUVzwYYEruAdp_vPsXaXlqwwrpQnOt6h-DrJJjJBe2lgPzN8C5GP9i8RMfsWIsziF4Zjvj0qsaJtbf9jfPox-bReX8KsNNHabc8aaS63E/s1600/LIFT01.jpg" height="258" width="320" /></a>The <span style="font-family: Calibri;">time frame for
change today is no longer millenniums, nor even centuries, but rather decades. Decades
define an individual lifetime. The Google case is about how today should be re-structured
to accommodate the inevitable future conflict between individual and corporate
privacy.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Technologically, transparency is big part what the next
50 years are about.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The Google debate is not about whether individuals should or should not live in glass houses, but whether privacy by corporations for commercial profit, and by a democratic government for security, is acceptable, while equivalent personal privacy is an unacceptable form of censorship. </div>
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The National Security Agency secretly spied on US citizens and foreign leaders of our own allies. In Florida the House and Senate leaders met secretly to re-define voting districts. True transparency is neither a by-product of whistle blowers or good investigative reporting. </div>
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Transparency is a value. It is a way of life. It is an entirely new mechanism for successfully living in the future tense. It must be universal and not selective. Privacy as only a tool for profit and control is very dangerous for individuals; whereas, transparency as a tool for public accountability is essential. </div>
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Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-68291376224301200542014-02-23T14:32:00.003-08:002014-02-23T14:34:45.788-08:00Lecturing Other Nations Won't Fix Climate Change<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This essay may be freely reproduced and distributed with
appropriate attribution. Reprinted in the Tampa Bay Times, February 23, 2014,
P6.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lecturing Other Nations Won’t Fix Climate
Change<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Edward Renner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 984
AD the Vikings established a remote settlement in Greenland. The chiefs over-used
the land and its resources to support a luxury life-style for themselves. When this
most western outpost of European society collapsed 500 years later, “the chiefs
had preserved for themselves the privilege of being the last to starve.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="right" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">From <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Collapse</i>
by Jarred Diamond</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Last week (February 16, 2014) Secretary of State John
Kerry in a speech delivered in Indonesia called climate change “the world’s most
fearsome weapon of mass destruction.” He urged Indonesia, and other Developing
Nations, to limit their rapid growth in greenhouse gas emissions.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Developing Nations, like Indonesia, have been
unwilling at the UN sponsored international conferences on climate change to
agree to reduce their rapid growth in emissions because of their essential need
to reduce the large proportion of their population living in extreme poverty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, if they continue to increase emissions at
current rates, they will crash the capacity of the planet to support a growing
world population of over 7 billion, bringing the Developed Nations down with
them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But, the stark reality is that no Developing Nation will
reduce greenhouse gas emissions unless the US and other Developed Nations first
take meaningfully steps to assist them in alleviating extreme poverty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Developing Nations have nothing to lose by waiting.
We have everything to lose by lecturing them to do more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Developed Nations grew their prosperity by deferring
the costs of protecting the capacity of the planet to support human life. As
the worst offender, the US has the largest historical ecological deficit of any
nation in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On a per capita basis we, of all the Developed Nations,
are the weapon of mass destruction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At the UN International Conferences, we have refused to
pay “backwards” for the harm already done in proportion to what we are asking the
Developing Countries to pay “forward” as future prevention. That is what the
Developing Nations have asked for as a basis for reaching an international
agreement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">By standing firm, all we will gain for ourselves is the privilege
of being the last society to collapse.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">_____________________________________________________________________________</span></div>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY90JIpHsniDNkGW0wy9e2bIfj-ugJ7TTGq73ajhQYMGcXwd3lvYaHQfxDnAvJtxTUM5hGV1RTIaworraKGU2V8DmAYqcBql7clAUTdXz4eotTtMcYpP8pvK-jnU4u0IjVT3Q6sxwJ6kg/s1600/US.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY90JIpHsniDNkGW0wy9e2bIfj-ugJ7TTGq73ajhQYMGcXwd3lvYaHQfxDnAvJtxTUM5hGV1RTIaworraKGU2V8DmAYqcBql7clAUTdXz4eotTtMcYpP8pvK-jnU4u0IjVT3Q6sxwJ6kg/s1600/US.jpg" height="233" width="400" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV18YRWtzzXagRZjsc3KPjkLzMk6eNEtY0B3laD7IGSgh2cvDEk6CVkdCRcU8h_lWFSWwn6EGb1ukbin9L3WsaUVVq8rdL5fImHbd7Heew_OPDs8pvHBX4euYZlDHHoK9MoST0UUwEzPE/s1600/Indonesia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV18YRWtzzXagRZjsc3KPjkLzMk6eNEtY0B3laD7IGSgh2cvDEk6CVkdCRcU8h_lWFSWwn6EGb1ukbin9L3WsaUVVq8rdL5fImHbd7Heew_OPDs8pvHBX4euYZlDHHoK9MoST0UUwEzPE/s1600/Indonesia.jpg" height="237" width="400" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The per capita consumption of natural resources and wastes produced (Ecological Footprint) in the US is greater than the national supply (Biocapacity). The difference is the size of our ecological deficit. Our long-standing over-consumption has been possible only by depleting the surplus of natural resources (such as lumber) from developing countries like Indonesia. Many Developing Nations have had their natural resources reduced to the point of no longer being able to support their own population, which is the current reality of Indonesia. Yet, the Developing Countries are faced with growing demands from Developed Nations for even greater free trade access to their shrinking biocapacity</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><br />
<div align="left">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div>
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">From the Global Footprint
Network: </span><a href="http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/trends/indonesia/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/trends/indonesia/</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /><a href="http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/trends/united_states_of_america/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/trends/united_states_of_america/</span></a></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="border: currentColor; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></o:p> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Edward Renner blogs at <a href="http://forumsforafuture.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: blue;">http://forumsforafuture.blogspot.com</span></a></span>Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-29098674440273449842013-05-18T07:29:00.000-07:002013-05-18T07:29:51.386-07:00Carrying Capacity<div style="text-align: center;">
<div align="left">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A version of this essay was published in the <em>Tampa Bay Times</em> on Sunday, May 19, 2013, P1-2. This essay may be reproduced, reprinted and republished.</span></div>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Saving Our Planet:</span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Why Climate Change Has Not Inspired Action<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Edward Renner</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">While Climate change has entered the national
conversation, it has not received popular support nor resulted in a cooperative
international approach. New measurements show that the climate-changing gas
carbon dioxide is at the highest atmospheric concentrations -- 400 parts per
million – in at least three million years. And yet a recent Gallup poll shows
that only a minority believe that global warming will “pose a serious threat to
them or to their way of life during their lifetime.”</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">One possibility is that the focus on climate change has
let us, as individuals off the hook because there is not, really, anything that
each of us can do personally that will make a difference. Yet, we know that
something very significant is happening to the environment about which
something must be done.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">With such a disconnect, and so little political will,
action seems impossible. But there is a way. If we would shift our focus from
climate change to the concept of C<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">arrying
Capacity</i>, then are there many necessary things we can do ourselves, over
which we have direct control, including holding our elected officials and
global corporations accountable for specific changes in public policy. </span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What is Carrying
Capacity?</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Carrying capacity is a well-established biological
concept: It <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">is the maximum
population size of the species that the environment can sustain indefinitely,
given the food, habitat, water and other necessities available in the
environment.</span></span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As a practical <span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">metaphor</span>,
a row boat can hold a limited number of people. Add one too many and the boat
will sink and everyone drowns. Likewise, the planet can support a limited
number of people. Add too many and its capacity to support life will collapse.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course the planet is far more complex than a rowboat.
But only in two very simple ways:</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">First, the impact on the planet of adding one more person
to the population of the US is the same as adding 10 people to the population
of Mexico. This is because the average American uses more resources and makes
more waste than the average Mexican. Similar to the row boat, it is not the
number of people that is important, but their combined weight. For the planet,
this is the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Effective Population</i>; it
is the number of people multiplied by their average impact which is the total
burden of the human footprint on the planet.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Second, nature is not a static situation like a row boat
floating in still water. Nature is a dynamic system in which all the elements
influence each other over time: When a growing population cuts down trees to
clear land to grow food, the result is soil erosion decreasing the amount of
food to feed the increasing number of people who are cutting down the trees. In
a similar way, the row boat, when exposed to stormy weather rocks and dips in
ways it did not when in still water.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the past, individual societies have collapsed when
they exceeded the biological capacity of their local geographic area. When an
area and thus society collapsed, other areas and societies emerged. Today,
however, human activity is damaging the carrying capacity of the entire planet,
and there is no other place to go. On August 22 we will have used as much
resources and created as much waste as the planet can replace and absorb in a
year. At that rate, it takes 1.4 planets to support our current life style.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We are depleting the planet of its resources to support
human life. That is the issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3p1sZfS7lfu_yrd7BZcQpFCsk6CrSyT7amFxObm09A1MEuG0VPnAUJgWy3N4OtyAyhtuo6dsLEPuVbOyTUpdbJiwYzhvaEMnYWn-ipBhQAihe591DbBHaY6OzbrkqWHiW_8qc0lPfejU/s1600/WorldPop+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3p1sZfS7lfu_yrd7BZcQpFCsk6CrSyT7amFxObm09A1MEuG0VPnAUJgWy3N4OtyAyhtuo6dsLEPuVbOyTUpdbJiwYzhvaEMnYWn-ipBhQAihe591DbBHaY6OzbrkqWHiW_8qc0lPfejU/s320/WorldPop+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Clearly, there is a theoretical limit to how long the
effective population can continue to increase all the while reducing the
biological capacity of the planet necessary for living. Growth is finite.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><br />
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Tipping Point</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When collapse occurs in nature, there is a “tipping
point” in which the accelerating demands produce a rapid decline in capacity.
The process is similar to the over-crowded row boat which, with the addition of
a small amount of extra weight, starts to take on water, which, the moment that
happens, causes the boat to take on even more water, and it quickly sinks. Once
the tipping point is crossed, neither the boat nor nature can continue to support
life. For thousands of years this has not been an issue for the planet.
However, it is an issue for those of us alive today. We are the ones who will
be responsible for bringing our planet to the tipping point.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In nature, the rapid collapse occurs due to “Forcings.”
These are incremental changes of one element that forces additional depletions
in all of the other elements, which in turn trigger even greater reductions in
each of the other elements. This leads to an accelerating Titanic-like downward
spiral toward total collapse.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Jared Diamond in his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Collapse</i> has chronicled how past societies which existed and
thrived for hundreds of years – some more than a thousand – have collapsed over
the period of one lifetime when a single forcing -- such an extended drought
--- pushed the society beyond its tipping point. Today, climate change is
Nature’s mechanism for causing forcings – drought, desertification, famine,
water shortages, and dead seas, to name a few. The social, political and
economic consequences of forcings are the ingredients for societal collapse: migration,
social unrest, war lords, starvation, economic recession and growing
inequalities in which a very few are rich and powerful while the vast majority
are poor and weak. Civic order cannot withstand large numbers of desperate
people.</span><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcw20bDlwr7xDvh4B5gbG0en_SRbsv2r9iVckxQipzwlSYTiQi3FtDpt4YXhF-Ow1v2Ms1mrY7Qf6z5zSAakTpsIdqPkUiHkVsVPZjozotzqME_9Bf_0Icb42Vx7-3FiQfWJxwmmCXnhc/s1600/Collapse+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcw20bDlwr7xDvh4B5gbG0en_SRbsv2r9iVckxQipzwlSYTiQi3FtDpt4YXhF-Ow1v2Ms1mrY7Qf6z5zSAakTpsIdqPkUiHkVsVPZjozotzqME_9Bf_0Icb42Vx7-3FiQfWJxwmmCXnhc/s320/Collapse+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The failure of national governments, dysfunctional
internal political process and regional and ethnic conflicts are early warning
signs of impending collapse.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p><br />
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Avoiding the
Tipping Point</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fortunately, unlike the ways of nature, carrying capacity
is something we can do something about. We have knowledge and control over all
of the elements responsible for staying within the carrying capacity of the
planet. We can measure the biological capacity of the planet to provide the
resources we use and to absorb the waste we create. We already know how the
growth of the effective population is exploding at the same time as our
resources are shrinking. Although we do not know exactly where the tipping is, we
do know that it is within the lifetime of the majority of people alive today.
Given a six thousand year human history on the planet, that is all we need to
know. The choice is ours.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If, between now and 2015, just 3% of the effective population
would reduce their total footprint by 25%, and by 2020 the percent doing so
doubled to 6%, and by 2030 double again to 12.5%, and by 2040 to 25%, and by
2050 to 50%, then the total footprint of the effective population would be
reduced, and the danger of crossing the tipping point would be averted. The
collective effective footprint of the human population on the earth would start
to decrease at around 8 Billion, even though the actual population is projected
to reach 9 Billion by 2050.</span></div>
<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="744" scrolling="no" src="https://skydrive.live.com/embed?cid=720F470BD950D54A&resid=720F470BD950D54A%21120&authkey=AIu-rWH8DyfqbD0&em=2&wdAllowInteractivity=True&AllowTyping=True&ActiveCell='Cumulative'!P43&Item='Cumulative'!O6%3AU47" width="662"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
<table bgcolor="#ffff00" border="4">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="100%"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">An Interactive Graphic<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: yellow;">To see the effect of
different levels of participation or different percent reductions enter
alternative numbers from 0 to 100 without the % sign in the highlighted chart.
A negative number in the "% Reduction" column will illustrate the effect of
continuing to increase the size of our footprint.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="background-color: yellow;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Half the population eventually reducing their impact by
25% over the next 37 years is not an unreasonable possibility. The largest
population growth is in underdeveloped countries with relatively small per
capita footprints. The largest footprints are in developed countries which have
the capacity to make the necessary adjustments. </span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The impact of total distances traveled and the efficiency
of transportation, the amount and sources of energy used, and what we eat and
how it is produced can each be divided into sub-categories, which can be
further broken down into the hundreds of specific everyday actions over which
we have personal control, such as using fewer plastic water bottles, driving
one less mile or eating less meat.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A small percentage of people making regular small
contributions, and encouraging progressively more people to join with them, can
have a large cumulative effect. </span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, while these individual efforts are all
necessary, they alone are insufficient. Rather, they must be our daily reminder
that public policy issues, such as effective mass transit to replace personal automotive
commuting, the infrastructure of alternative energy sources and national
policies independent of the short-term self-interest of big agriculture, big
oil and multi-national corporations are essential.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This challenge is of particular relevance to those of us
living in the US, because we are putting in jeopardy our way of life, far more
so than China who is our major competitor. We are the biggest offender in the
world of per capita over use of natural resources. We have more to lose than
any other nation if, collectively, the human race exceeds the carrying capacity
of the planet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWtD0jb0FkjqG30cgBSqD9ECmQxAGecJi2bK0Dgh1gvKYeI3NJoQSa9a3ouyc4txGC-9_d1BNWtgkri0WAHHunP3fkK-NS8AehWJg9qcrySPtxrB4eRDozSodRHs59hay6bJWWUgSJSbk/s1600/ChinaUSovershoot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWtD0jb0FkjqG30cgBSqD9ECmQxAGecJi2bK0Dgh1gvKYeI3NJoQSa9a3ouyc4txGC-9_d1BNWtgkri0WAHHunP3fkK-NS8AehWJg9qcrySPtxrB4eRDozSodRHs59hay6bJWWUgSJSbk/s320/ChinaUSovershoot.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We have become distracted from the necessity for
institutional and political accountability by the emphasis on the abstract
threat of climate change over which we have little direct personal control. Climate
change is simply the most important of Nature’s mechanisms for causing
forcings. In contrast, carrying capacity can be documented down to the number
of gallons of gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel refined; the tons of
fertilizer and pesticides used; the number of wind farms created; and, the BTUs
of coal and oil that must be remain in the ground. These are all subject to public
political control, and the policies required to regulate these events are
known.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What is absent is the social and political awareness to
shift our focus away from the abstract event of climate change, and our
necessary but insufficient personal responsibility for it, to the collective
and essential government and corporate accountability for specific and
measurable policies and practices of not using more resources and producing
more waste than the planet can replace or absorb in a year.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This, we know how to do. </span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The political, economic and social discussions we need to
have are not whether we need shift the burden from primarily a personal
responsibility to one of greater government and corporate accountability, but
rather the most feasible ways to do so.</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">_______________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Edward Renner is a Professor in the Honors College of the
University of South Florida. He may be reached at kerenner@usf.edu. An introduction to his University level course, <i>Forums for a Future</i>, is available in pdf format from USF at <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://tiny.cc/7ij7fw"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">http://tiny.cc/7ij7fw</span></a><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">,</span></span> or free in iBook format from iTunes at <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/invitation-to-forums-for-future/id533089665?mt=11"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/invitation-to-forums-for-future/id533089665?mt=11</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">.</span>The
environmental data is from the Global Footprint Network data base: </span><a href="http://www.footprintnetwork.org/"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://www.footprintnetwork.org</span></a><o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-31150935034934556842013-03-24T09:32:00.000-07:002013-05-17T07:15:09.488-07:00Can MOOCs Save Academic Freedom?<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Can MOOCs Save Academic Freedom?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Edward Renner</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup>1</sup></span>
University of South Florida<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Abstract<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 10pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The commercialization of higher education
over the past 50 years has embraced MOOCs as the next big growth opportunity
for venture capital. However, the realization that M00Cs are our last stand to
protect the fundamental purpose of academic freedom has been lost in the
current distraction of debating the relative value of online as opposed to
traditional classroom teaching. Our academic challenge is to use MOOCs to
elevate general public knowledge to be an effective civic moderator of wealth,
power and belief. If we do not, commercial<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
</i>control of information will become the currency defining the human
condition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Historically, the three forces that have defined the human
condition and human progress have been economic wealth, political power and
social beliefs and values. Like the keeper of the fire, academia in the role of
keeper of knowledge, has sought to preserve and protect the light of reason and
wisdom against the excess of wealth, power and fanaticism. This is the ultimate
modern purpose of academic freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Although globalization is commonly treated primarily as an
economic concept, its impact on political power and social beliefs and values has
changed the frame of reference for how we must now think about academic
freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The digital communication revolution that has flattened the
earth into a global playing field is disrupting higher education in the form of
massive open online courses (MOOCs). However, the value of MOOCs as a powerful
force to protect the fundamental purpose of academic freedom has been lost in
the current distraction of debating the relative value of online as opposed to
traditional classroom teaching. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of far greater importance for human progress and the nature
of the human condition is the essential prerequisite of independent critical
thinking that can neither be bought nor suppressed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This noble justification of academia is now more than
theoretical, it is actually possible – but not without a struggle. The commercialization
of learning that has overtaken higher education over the past 50 years has embraced
MOOCs as the next big growth opportunity for venture capital. In this sense, MOOCs
have become the last stand for the defense of academic freedom because ownership
of knowledge and information is the key to controlling the political power and
social beliefs and values determining the distribution of wealth in the 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup>
Century.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoQuote" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Unfortunately,
academics are typically weak warriors, and our colleges and universities are
deeply compromised fortresses for combating power and belief in the service of
greed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, at the University of
Wyoming, the mining industry was successful in the early removal of a “Carbon
Sink” sculpture which called attention to the dangers of climate change.<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">2</span></sup>
At the University of Iowa, the appointment of a director for the Center for
Sustainable Agriculture was blocked by agribusiness because the nominee’s research
supported the mission of the Environmental Protection Agency.<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">3</span></sup> The
student loan crisis provided a financial accounting of shifting the cost of a
college degree from a public to a personal responsibility, to mention only a
few illustrations of the commodification of education.<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">4<o:p></o:p></span></sup></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoQuote" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On
the one hand, MOOCs offer the opportunity to fully democratize knowledge and
learning, by facilitating the flow of all information into the public domain. Finally,
with open online courses there is an opportunity to make teaching and learning available
to everyone. Now, the ultimate civic accomplishment of balancing the dynamic
resultant of the three forces of wealth, power and belief in the service of
human progress and the enhancement of human condition is possible.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoQuote" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But,
our institutions, as owners of copyrights and patents, contribute to making
knowledge and information a commodity by removing it from the public domain.
Apple is attempting to control the K-12 academic market in which an iPad can replace
many of the functions of a physical classroom. State legislators see the cost
of education going down and control of content going up through online learning.
AAUP is confronted with a dilemma that the instrumentality of job protection as
the strategy of choice for defending academic freedom will be compromised by
MOOCs. Colleges and universities are searching for a business model to survive in
a competitive market in which a few winners supported by venture capital
provide courses administered by others with a minimum of financial support from
state governments.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoQuote" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The
potential endpoint is an economic market which owns the political power and social
beliefs which determines the preconditions for the distribution of wealth,
globally and nationally.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoQuote" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">MOOCs
may well be the last stand in defense of academic freedom if knowledge is to
increasingly belong in the public domain, and not increasingly become a
commodity. This is our academic challenge. We must own and use MOOCs to elevate
general public knowledge to be an effective civic moderator of wealth, power
and belief. If we do not, control of information will replace resources, just as
resources replaced land, as the currency defining the human condition. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Seeing knowledge as public domain, not as the newest
commodity market, can secure our legitimate place in human progress as the
keeper of the fire. We must now occupy learning. In the long term, MOCCs can provide
a strategic and powerful defense of the ultimate purpose of academic freedom,
not job security in the short term.<br />
_____________________________________________________________________________<br />
<span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-size: small;">1</span></span></span></span></span>
Professor Renner teaches an MOOC in the Honors College at the University of
South Florida.<br />
<br />
2 University of Wyoming officials sped up, touted removal of
anti-coal sculpture. </span><a href="http://trib.com/business/energy/emails-university-of-wyoming-officials-sped-up-touted-removal-of/article_4f9332ee-d83c-5d58-a38b-19e913ba739d.html"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">http://trib.com/business/energy/emails-university-of-wyoming-officials-sped-up-touted-removal-of/article_4f9332ee-d83c-5d58-a38b-19e913ba739d.html</span></a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span class="MsoHyperlink"><br /><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: Calibri;">
</span></u></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference">3</span> Thomas Bartlett. Field of
Discourse, <u>Chronicle of Higher Education,</u> June 27, 2010.<br />
<br />
<span class="MsoEndnoteReference">4</span> The Making of Corporate U, Topical
issue of <u>The Chronicle Review</u>, Oct 17, 2010.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"> </span></o:p></div>
Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-81518887019139927222012-11-13T16:47:00.000-08:002015-12-21T11:03:17.370-08:00The Difference Between a Reference Point and a Criterion<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The Difference
Between a Reference Point and a Criterion<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Edward Renner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Donald Eastman III, the President of Eckert College, wrote an
op-ed piece in the Tampa Bay Times about the limits of online learning: “…what
works for most students…is a small classroom…where a respected authority…is a
spellbinding revealer of mysteries – not simply because he or she knows things
we don’t, but because a gifted teacher reads the audience the way an actor
reads the room…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 14.25pt;">
<span style="color: black;">On
July 17, the University of Toronto announced that it had joined Coursera.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In response, Clifford Orwin, a professor of
political science at the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>U of T, wrote
in The Globe and Mail that “the classroom experience is at the heart of
education…The electricity that crackles through a successful classroom can’t be
transmitted electronically.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Pamela
Hieronymi in her essay in the Chronicle declared that the capacities of online
technology “should not be confused with the training provided by one mind
interacting with another.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In
short, the chorus of critics is that online and virtual is a shoddy imitation
of the real thing. Such declarations miss the point. They are assertions that the
ideal traditional classroom is the real <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">criterion</i>
against which online should be compared, rather than serving as a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">reference point</i> for comparison with other
alternatives.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
issue of whether the new technologies are consistent with a hypothetical ideal appropriate
for the specific circumstance of lecturing to a captive audience at a fixed
time and place is a meaningless theoretical exercise. The essential exercise is
comparing this particular circumstance with other circumstances using an objective
external standard.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
standard at one extreme is a situation in which hardly anyone learns anything. At
the other extreme is one in which almost everyone learns everything. These two limiting
distributions can be plotted on a graph in which the X-Axis is the proportion
of the material learned and Y-Axis is the proportion of the class.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In
practice, of course, both limits can only be approached. Every class results in
an actual distribution defined by the standard deviation around the average
amount learned. The distribution for any class can be plotted on the same graph
as the two limiting cases. This simple graphic provides an objective external
standard for comparisons between different circumstances and different teaching
methods. The only question is, on the average, how close does any particular
effort approach a limit, and what is the spread between the students who are
most and least successful? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
classic example this kind of research has been carried out over the past
several decades on the teaching of large enrollment introductory physics
classes. Typically, students in these classes could calculate answers to
problems using formulas, but they were unable to apply the concepts to answer
simple basic questions.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Harvard
Professor Eric Mazur found that after a semester of lecturing, on the average, students
understood at best about 30% of the material. However, 60% understood the
material when it was presented online, and the classroom was “flipped” to
practice applying the concepts in small discussion groups. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigzxJRJKEmI1h6rok_8sMX6C0pS6NLUuh4KecpM5Kuvk2Ov0OB9FOaql9fbMFt54uIzg8Abpc9TyBvqpJt0uIb5BzEcniQqjv6IwK_7jfAKHh2bz8II6tjK7tDvGeDds1WifrjqFCD8_Q/s1600/Figure.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigzxJRJKEmI1h6rok_8sMX6C0pS6NLUuh4KecpM5Kuvk2Ov0OB9FOaql9fbMFt54uIzg8Abpc9TyBvqpJt0uIb5BzEcniQqjv6IwK_7jfAKHh2bz8II6tjK7tDvGeDds1WifrjqFCD8_Q/s320/Figure.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Professor
Carl Wieman of the Science Education Initiative at the University of British
Columbia has carried out controlled experimental studies on this method. In a
recent study published in <u>Science</u> he found that the online presentation
of the material followed by peer group discussions in the classroom more than
doubles the average amount of material mastered. In addition, 90% of the
students reported enjoying the interactive teaching techniques more than
traditional lectures; while only 1% disagreed (8% were indifferent). In
addition, levels of student engagement and attendance were significantly higher
with the flipped classroom.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This is the
type of information that needs to be informing policy discussions over the
relative effectiveness of different circumstances and methods of teaching, not
declarative statements comparing the new digital communication techniques with
a theoretical classroom.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">What is
of theoretical importance is identifying the variety of dimension that account
for the means and standard deviations of the distributions of actual students, under
different specific circumstances. Like all such comparisons, there are large
individual differences. The result for different groups provides comparative
empirical reference points; none of which are an ultimate criterion.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We might
suspect, much like a flipped classroom of today, that back when experienced
professors interacted with students personally known to them in small classes,
that the average amount learned was relatively larger compared to classes today.
Currently, many large lecture classes are often taught by overworked adjunct
professors who often do not even have on-campus offices. Given budget
constraints that trend is likely to continue.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Also, we
might reasonably assume that a technologically challenged professor would do much
worse trying to teach on line, than doing so face-to-face, no matter how large
the live class. Just as the newly appointed Millennial professor might do much
better using the new technologies rather than trying to teach using face-to-face
lectures. A class of adult learners may very well respond differently to the
two modes of teaching relative to a homogenous age cohort of Millennials.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Such individual
differences as these are of great theoretical importance. They can be empirically
identified and dealt with strategically by doing the best job possible with the
resources we have. These differences will not be addressed, however, by
refusing to accept responsibility for change ourselves in light of the many new
circumstances and teaching methods now available.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In
the fall of 2007, after a 15 years absence from undergraduate teaching, I became
an Adjunct Professor in the Honors College. I figuring a small class for me to
enchant would enhance my retirement. The course met three times a week and had
three required full length textbooks. Now, in 2012, there are no textbooks. The
Monday and Friday classes are virtual, there are no (zero) classroom lectures.
All substantive material is delivered online. Students write, comment and
challenge each other throughout the semester, meeting on Wednesday for a
moderated exchange of ideas.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">My
biggest surprise was how much easier it is now, with 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> Century
digital technologies, than it was before to have even higher levels of student
engagement with each other, the material and the professor. The technologies
are more respectful; they allow students to do their work in the time and space
that best fits their life and their circumstances – which for many includes a
job. Socially, they are more collaborative and participatory. Technically, they
allow efficient access to material that is more comprehensive, engaging and up
to date. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Each
year as the class became more online with less lecturing, the student
evaluations and level of performance went up. The quantitative evaluations are
now exclusively positive and “strongly agree” the most frequent response to all
items. Having gone from three to one formal class each week has raised the
sobering possibility that zero might be even better. I expect for some, perhaps
even the majority, that that might be the case.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">However,
I quite enjoy the weekly meeting, and rather than face that possibility my
current scholarly effort is focused on creating a metric for social science and
humanities courses that, like the concept test in physics, can be used to
measure changes in the level of cognitive complexity and critical thinking that
takes place over the term. My subjective evaluation alone is not sufficient.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We need
to recognize that the art and science of teaching and learning in the 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup>
Century is now different. Our challenge is how to systematically go about using
the new technologies to enhance teaching and learning without making
declarative statements bases on our beliefs, as if they were something more
than just that. We have the capacity to reflectively apply the science and
critical thinking we teach our students to what we ourselves are actually
doing. Our own teaching is the ideal place to demonstrate the power of scientific
inquiry and critical thinking that we claim to be our non-replaceable purpose as
teachers. </span></div>
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</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Edward
Renner teaches in the Honors College at the University of South Florida <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329428127644131148.post-39010677763485314082012-11-13T12:25:00.000-08:002012-11-13T12:26:52.103-08:00Occupy Learning
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Occupying
Knowledge and Learning<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Edward Renner <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The communication technologies of the 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup>
Century have threatened both the time-honored ways of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">delivering</i> education and its social and cultural <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">purposes</i>. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The debate over delivery is whether the digital technologies
and online applications are actually a means for enlightenment. Many do not
embrace the new technology because they believe them to be a “shoddy imitation
of the class room experience.” Or, that it is the millennial mind that needs to
be fixed, certainly not their teachers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The debate over purpose is whether online is primarily a
financial tool to create new revenue streams by video recording lectures to
reach distance and nontraditional students, or an opportunity to systemically restructure
the substance and nature of higher education.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Educational Divide</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">These internal debates over delivery and purpose have
created an educational divide that rests on false either/or distinctions
between live classes and online material, rather than the complementary aspects
of how to most effectively use the technologies for teaching and learning. These
debates go to the core of how, not whether, the roles, functions and
responsibilities of higher education have changed as a result of the digital
revolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The new communication technologies are neither a second-rate
educational experience nor a cheaper commodity. To view them as such is to
diminish their value. Failure to embrace and use their potential is to cling to
the dead idea of a 500 year old concept that lectures and books are still the
primary currency for teaching and learning. Both have been replaced by the new
communication technologies, binding delivery and purpose together into a new 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup>
Century entity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The divide is paralyzing change, while higher education is
failing to come to terms with unsustainable increases in tuition and the need
for wider and more successful access.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A Void Waiting to Implode<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The public debate over financing higher education grows more
urgent every day. When the student loan bubble bursts – as it surely will –
higher education will be required to reposition itself, if it has not heeded
the warning and done so proactively.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On the nontraditional side there is no such confusion. The commercial
on-line and for-profits have both a marketing advantage and a clear strategy.
Their products are practical, job centered, and non-critical. They are not part
of the liberal elite, and their negotiable content better serves the
preservation of traditional social values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Education as a commodity fits the bill of state legislators who are
feeling the political heat of rising costs of public education as austerity
measures causes state revenue to be replaced by tuition increases.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The competition for educational dollars will only continue
to grow in the face of continued financial constraints. This transfer of title
to greater standardization, less physical structures and lower cost is well
underway.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">However, contrary to its manifest appearance, the real story
is not about the healthy democratic process of government oversight finding a
balance between consumer protection and corporate profits. It is about the role
and function of teaching and learning in the 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> Century as the
instrument of human progress. This is no small issue. The ownership of both knowledge
and learning has replaced economic growth as the gatekeeper of the human
condition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are only two ways the merger of delivery and purpose
can go: Either there will be a further commodification of knowledge with the
for-profits competing with public institutions for the educational marketplace,
or traditional institutions of higher education will re-invent themselves to
actually serve the dual role of centers of public knowledge and to provide
massive open online learning opportunities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Owning Knowledge and Learning<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Occupy movement provides a conceptual context for the
unification of delivery and purpose into a new 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> Century entity
in which lectures and books are replaced by the power of the new digital
communication technologies. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) can be widely
inclusive of the general public and still personally responsive and
individually evaluative of registered students.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of the purposes of my MOOC “Forums for a Future” is to
expand the physical, social and temporal boundaries of the class to be able to include
the parents, extended family and social network of the students so they may
share their educational experience with significant people in their personal life.
This simply inflates and enriches the reach of the course at little extra cost.
In addition, because the course is online and fully public and self-paced, anyone
is free to drop-in, or to fully participate. Finally, any existing public
interest group – such as church discussion group -- can create their own
section by physically meeting together at a set time or in virtual space. If
they wish, they can invite university students to drop in, or even to participate
with them; this is something students who have completed my course may do for
credit as facilitators, or as paid participant observers for evaluation. In every
variation, there are interpersonal interactions among self-selective groups who
are able to use the opportunity provided by an open door classroom to tailor
their participation to suit their own unique needs as learners.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The new technologies have given us the opportunity to
restructure both how (the delivery) and what (the purpose) we teach as the
counterforce to education becoming simply another commodity. It is time to close
the false distinctions of the educational divide and to occupy both knowledge
and learning as the new role and function of public higher education in the 21<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup>
Century -- as the essential instrument for the enhancement of the human
condition. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Good
education is both disruptive and essential for democracy. The content and who
controls it does matter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Edward
Renner teaches in the Honors College at the University of South Florida<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Edward Rennerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13880613019923328135noreply@blogger.com0