Trump’s mythical health care “plan.”

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

After months and months of our patient waiting, the mountain has delivered to us a mouse.

Donald Trump has presented his health care “plan,” if you could call it that.

Like all things Trump, it is 99% bluster and rhetoric, and 1% (if that) substance.

You can click the above link to see his entire one-page proposal. Here are some of the “highlights”:

On day one of the Trump Administration, we will ask Congress to immediately deliver a full repeal of Obamacare.

Of course. Obamacare has provided healthcare to many thousands of people who otherwise would have difficulty paying for it, or more often, do without it.

Republicans hate it for two reasons: It helps the poor, and it’s “Obamacare.”

It used to be “Romneycare,” but Republicans don’t like to talk about that.

Anyway, to be fair, no sane person would eliminate the program, and throw those many thousands of people into destitution and sickness, unless there was a good replacement. Right?

So here is the replacement offered by the #1 Republican:

As we allow the free market to provide insurance coverage opportunities to companies and individuals, we must also make sure that no one slips through the cracks simply because they cannot afford insurance.

We must review basic options for Medicaid and work with states to ensure that those who want healthcare coverage can have it.

Folks, believe it or not, that is the essence of Trump’s plan: “Review basic options and work with the states.”

Allow individuals to use Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Contributions into HSAs should be tax-free and should be allowed to accumulate.

Health savings accounts already exist. They can be set up only when an individual or employee has a high-deductible health plan in place.

HSAs do not solve the basic problem Obamacare (Romneycare) addresses: Millions of people cannot afford to make contributions to HSAs. The Republicans know this, but concern for the poor never has been a Republican priority — certainly not the priority of billionaire Trump.

Block-grant Medicaid to the states.

Nearly every state already offers benefits beyond what is required in the current Medicaid structure. The state governments know their people best and can manage the administration of Medicaid far better without federal overhead.

States will have the incentives to seek out and eliminate fraud, waste and abuse to preserve our precious resources.

“Block grant” is just a term that means: “Give the states some money, and let them pay for Medicaid.”

The federal government already pays for 90% of Obamacare (Romneycare). Many Republican states have refused this massive support.

Unfortunately, under a Republican administration, “block grant” will be code for: Much less federal support than states currently receive via Obamacare.

Although the federal government cannot run short of dollars, the states, being monetarily non-sovereign, are very much short of dollars. So Trump wants to ease the non-existent burden on the federal government, and place a real burden on the states.

As for “state governments know their people,” this is part of “small government” nonsense.

Does your state government know you? Does even your city government know you? The notion that somehow, state governments are wiser or more honest than the federal government is silly at best and deceptive in fact.

The federal government has had to force state governments to allow equality in education, equality in voting rights, equality for women in athletics.

States have had the most bigoted of governments, that try to place burdens on their poorest people. Even today, states enact voter ID laws, the real purpose of which are to subvert federal voting rights laws and to cheat the poor of their vote.

Oh, and by the way, remember Trump’s plan to allow HSA’s (which already exist)? HSAs are a federal law.

Trump says the states know best, but his program is based on a federal law. He is too lazy to learn what he’s recommending, because he feels he doesn’t need to offer real plans to his followers.

As he says, he could shoot someone in the street, and they still would follow him. That is how stupid he believes his followers to be.

The final part of the above recommendation is most laughable of all: States will have the incentives to seek out and eliminate fraud, waste and abuse. Oh, yeah, states are known for eliminating fraud, waste and abuse.

Think of your state. Has it eliminated fraud, waste and abuse?

And what is the “incentive”? The block grants will be too small, so the states will have to cut payments to the poor. That’s the so-called “incentive.”

Remove barriers to entry into free markets for drug providers that offer safe, reliable and cheaper products. Congress will need the courage to step away from the special interests and do what is right for America.

Though the pharmaceutical industry is in the private sector, drug companies provide a public service. Allowing consumers access to imported, safe and dependable drugs from overseas will bring more options to consumers.

Remove which barriers? You already can purchase many drugs from overseas suppliers. The main problem is overseas drugs may not be subject to FDA approval and inspection, which is why some drugs cannot legally be purchased.

Would you prefer to purchase all your drugs — including those that have not been inspected — from overseas pharmacies? What will Trump do to prevent you from being poisoned or from receiving mislabeled drugs?

No comment on that.

By contrast, Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” would provide free, federally paid-for and federal inspected drugs. So you get your choice: Discounted drugs from say, Haiti, or free drugs from the USA.

Which do you prefer?

Providing healthcare to illegal immigrants costs us some $11 billion annually. If we were to simply enforce the current immigration laws and restrict the unbridled granting of visas to this country, we could relieve healthcare cost pressures on state and local governments.

It’s the usual Trump BS about a hu-u-u-u-u-uge cost. His $11 billion would amount to $1,000 a year for each man, woman and child, a wildly inflated number (most estimates are less than 1/2 Trump’s claim). But even then, the people already are here.

To save the federal government’s money would require deporting everyone. Trump never has said how he would do that.

He said he will get Mexico to pay for a wall. Somehow.

Will he also get Mexico to pay for the gigantic increase in federal marshals necessary to round up and incarcerate 11 million people and then ship them to camps or wherever?

To reduce the number of individuals needing access to programs like Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program we will need to install programs that grow the economy and bring capital and jobs back to America.

What a great idea: “Install programs to grow the economy and bring jobs back to America.” Why has no one ever thought of that, before?

Finally, we need to reform our mental health programs and institutions in this country.

Another great idea from Trump: “Reform mental health programs and institutions.” As usual, he seems to think that if he just says it, somehow it will happen, because . . . well because of his greatness.

What “reform”? Who knows. But doesn’t the word “reform” sound great?

In short, Trump’s “plan” is a gauzy, magic fairy tale, — a carnival barker’s description — designed to fool people who he hopes are short of intelligence, and who hate Obama so much they are willing to turn off their remaining brains and follow the piper.

As with all Trump offerings, his “plan” is long on hyperbole but short on thinking and actual planning.

It is a “plan” a high school freshman would be embarrassed to propose.  I’ll bet, when Trump was in school, he always tried to BS his way through his written assignments, so he wouldn’t actually have to learn anything.

He still is doing it.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

 

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
========================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
 Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Confused myths about the poor and what to do about them.

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Here is what people (and not just the upper 1%) tend to think about those below them on the income/wealth scale:

Myth 1. The poorer (than us) are lazy, unintelligent, immoral and unmannerly.
Myth 2. Being lazy, they always have their hands out for welfare and other “free stuff.”
Myth 3. If you give them even small amounts of money, they will cease work, and happily live on charity.
Myth 4. They are born criminals, as are their children, and the only way to deal with them is by punishment.

Never mind that the poor generally work harder than do the rich. (One of my acquaintances opined that the poor are lazy, while we relaxed at our country club pool, and watched the gardeners toil and sweat in the heat.)

And never mind that the vast majority of the rich got that way, not by innate superiority, but by fortuitous opportunities, less available to those who are poorer. (My parents had enough money to feed, clothe and house me, and enough left over to send me to college. I didn’t have to leave high school to work full time. That made a big difference.)

And never mind that very few people know anyone who would rather receive the pittances offered by welfare, than to work for real money. Millions of working poor belie the myth, despite the sneering, bigoted comments about “welfare mamas.”

And never mind that there are few, if any, “born criminals,” and despite American locking far more people into jail than any other nation, crime remains rampant. Poverty is the single most important predictor of criminality.

Seemingly, facts will not erase the myths. Humans have an emotional need to demonize others, as a way to enhance their own self-esteem. “They” generally are viewed as less worthy than “us.”

The result is an ever-widening Gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots,” a self-fulfilling circle of poverty begetting poverty. Ultimately, when the Gap becomes wide enough and harsh enough, there comes a revolution, much to the detriment of a nation as a whole.

So what is to be done? Can we find a way to lift the poorer, without threatening the richer?

One way would be to provide services — the same services for everyone. A good model is the federal highway system.

Poor and rich alike benefit from it, and I haven’t seen any sneering that the poor take unfair advantage of a service that is free to all.

If you look at the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below), you’ll see several possibilities:

Step 1: Eliminate FICA. As we have seen in many other posts, our Monetarily Sovereign government neither needs nor uses tax dollars to fund its spending.

Not only is FICA unnecessary, but it is a most regressive and burdensome tax, punishing lower income people far more than the rich.

And it is doubtful anyone could claim the elimination of FICA, while greatly beneficial to the 99%, would in any way contribute to the so-called “laziness” of the poorer.

Step 2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone. Like usage of the federal highway system, rich and poor would benefit equally. Everyone receiving Medicare benefits does not motivate “lazy” people to stay home.

Step 4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. We already provide everyone with a free education for grades K-12. This free education is a great benefit to all of America.

No advantage to America exists for ending this free education at grade 8. Free education cannot make the poorer lazy. Quite the opposite. It encourages work by fostering a belief their work will be rewarded.

Step 5. Salary for attending school This would provide dollars to everyone, but would be most meaningful to those who otherwise cannot afford to substitute education for work.

It would accomplish exactly what the richer want: Discourage sloth and create a better workforce.

Step 7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Again, this does not encourage laziness, but merely allows the poorer to retain more of their earned income.

Summary: While we probably never will eliminate bigotry, i.e. negative beliefs about people who are members of a different group (from us), we can take steps to narrow the Gap between the 1% and the 99%.

Rather than stigmatize the poor by putting them on the dole, we should provide them with services available to everyone — like the federal highway system — that would encourage and allow them to step up.

And no more sneering from the ignorant, bigoted richer.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

 

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
========================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
 Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

 

Why Bernie will lose

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Today is Super Tuesday, so fearlessly, before the results are in, I will tell you why Bernie Sanders will lose.

First, let me tell you that I prefer Bernie to Hillary. She is a right-wing, establishment Democrat in the Obama mold, though thankfully she is tougher than him.

While Hillary cares little to nothing about the middle- and lower-income groups, she ironically will get the black vote. (Yes, there is a black vote, a white vote, an Hispanic vote and a religious-racist vote.) Bernie will get none of those, and there is a reason.

Bernie’s “Medicare for All” and free college for all are great ideas, not only for the poor and middle, but for all America. If implemented, they would “make America great again” much faster than Donald’s self-proclaimed greatness.

But, Bernie has fallen into the trap of accepting the enemy’s starting position.

The enemy is the GOP, the Party of the Rich, whose every thought, every waking moment, is devoted to widening the gap between the 1% and the 99%.

It began with the Tea Party, whose “cut taxes” raison d’etre meant, “Cut the taxes on the rich,” but also meant “Cut spending on social programs that benefit the 99%.

That was the sneaky part, because according to the Tea Party, once you cut taxes, you also have to cut spending, and where is the big spending? Social programs.

Which brings us to the trap, otherwise known as “The Big Lie.”

I can express “The Big Lie.” in just five words: “Federal taxes fund federal spending.”

Those five little words have done more damage to the American economy, especially to the 99% of us who are not rich, than any phrase in the English language.

They are a lie. Even if the federal government didn’t collect a penny in taxes, it could fund all of the “Ten Steps To Prosperity” (See below), with no difficulty.

Unlike state and local taxes, which are used for state and local spending, there is no fiscal relationship between federal taxes and federal spending. The state and local governments are monetarily non-sovereign; the federal government is Monetarily Sovereign. And that makes all the difference.

When you pay federal taxes, the dollars go to the U.S. Treasury, where they are destroyed. Destroyed?? Yes, destroyed. And here is the proof:

Throughout the year, the U.S. Treasury will receive about $3.3 trillion tax dollars. But, if ever you wish to know how many dollars the Treasury has, you never will be able to find the answer. The U.S. Treasury has no dollars.

How is that possible? How does the Treasury pay its bills?

To pay a bill, the Treasury sends instructions (not dollars) to the creditor’s bank, instructing the bank to increase the balance in the creditor’s checking account.

At the instant the bank obeys those instructions (and not before), dollars are created and the U.S. money supply increases.

The bank then sends the instructions to the Federal Reserve, which in turn, asks the Treasury whether those instructions are valid. The Treasury says, “Yes,” and the instructions “clear.”

And all that time, the Treasury doesn’t own a dime, not a penny. Even those thousand of sheets of dollar bills the Treasury prints every day aren’t money.

The money supply does not include tax dollars received by the Treasury. Not “M1,” not “M2,” not “M3,” not L, not “total debt.” No measure of America’s money supply includes federal tax dollars received. They cease to exist, once they are received.

Why does the government levy taxes? There are several reasons for this, mostly having to do with history, but none of these reasons has to do with today’s federal spending.

The sole result of federal taxation is to reduce the money supply. (By contrast, state and local taxes do not reduce the money supply)

And this brings us back to Bernie. He hired Professor Stephanie Kelton to head up his economics advisory. She is an expert in Monetary Sovereignty. She knows federal taxes don’t fund federal spending.

Despite the advice she must be giving him, Bernie has tied himself into knots, trying to explain how taxpayers won’t pay for his Medicare for All, and college for all, and other social programs — because he will raise taxes on the rich.

And no one believes his explanations, because he begins with “The Big Lie.”, that federal spending is funded by federal taxes. He should have explained the real reason why no tax increases will be needed — also in five little words: Federal taxes don’t fund federal spending.

Bernie will lose because he is playing the political game. He doesn’t believe Americans are smart enough to understand the truth.

Here is what he should have said: The speech. (Click the link to read it)

Early on, had he told America the truth, and given voters time to absorb and to discuss and debate the truth, he not only would have won the election, but more importantly, he would have built America faster and more powerfully than any President in history.

The truth would have set Bernie free, but he missed his chance, and now we all will pay for it.

Next November, hold your nose and vote for Hillary. She’s not much, but she still is better than anything the Republicans offer.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

 

===================================================================================
Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
========================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
 Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY

Must you die? The fight for immortality.

Twitter: @rodgermitchell; Search #monetarysovereignty
Facebook: Rodger Malcolm Mitchell

============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================

Here is a post with many questions and few answers. It is a “think-piece,” designed to help us ponder the future of humanity.

Life exists, so it must have had a beginning.

I don’t know where life on earth began. Here on earth? On other planets of the solar system? Other galaxies?

I don’t know when earth’s life began. Was it a one-off, or has it begun here many times?

I don’t know how life began. What precipitated the merger of chemicals that led to the long-running time line leading to you and me.

I don’t know why life ages as it does. An insect may live a day; a mouse, a year or two; a human, a century; a tortoise, a couple of centuries; a tree, several centuries. Some cancers seemingly are immortal. Why the differences? What causes the differences?

Are there evolutionary purposes?

We living things all have one thing in common: We continuously battle mortality.

And yet, in one sense, nature has solved the problem. Nature has given us immortality. I am part of a line that extends back billions of years. I have been alive, or some past version of me has been alive, that long.

If life began just once (that “one-off” possibility) I am related to every living thing — to all the insects, mice, people, tortoises and trees in history. On one vast tree of life, I am a leaf.

Or if life began more than once, is it a forest of life, in which I am a leaf on one tree?

I have children, grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews, some of whom also have younger relatives. My long, multi-billion line of life will continue.

I don’t know exactly what life is. That is, I don’t know the boundary between life and non-life. Is life RNA? Is a virus alive? Here is a definition I found on the Internet:

Scientifically, living things have major unifying characteristics. They are composed of cells, have genetic material, need energy, reproduce, respond to stimuli, maintain homeostatis and adapt to their environment.

That author suggests life requires cells. If so, a virus isn’t alive. Is that the boundary? Cells?

Nature solves the mortality problem very simply, by what we call “reproduction”: An old cell divides and magically produces two young cells. What are the characteristics of “old” that allow a cell to divide and somehow eliminate those characteristics?

Some old men can produce viable young sperm, which when merged with an egg, young or not so young, will result in a zygote, the youngest of all cells.

What was lost or gained by that merger? Age was lost and youth was gained, but specifically what does that mean?

What are the characteristics of an old cell? In reproduction, does something “old” leave the cell? Does something “young” enter the cell? Or is this all accomplished by a simple rearrangement of existing parts?

It’s as though I purchase a new car, drive it for 20 years, then by a rearrangement of its parts, create two new cars.

At best, we have learned how to delay death. We live longer now. For billions of years, nature brought my life span to the mid-30s. Now depending on the country, people live to 80.

The big jump has taken place in the past century, thanks to science.

For billions of years, a comparatively short life span was part of human evolution, and being part of evolution, it had evolutionary benefits.

For reasons I don’t understand, dying after 30+ years worked for our line. Humanity was created and survived. Economically and evolutionarily, the formula was successful.

Now, in a relatively sudden change, we live more than twice as long. How did the shorter life span provide an evolutionary advantage? Would humanity be at less risk if we were, for instance, more like insects, who live short lives but reproduce faster? Or would we be safer to be more like trees, living even longer and producing many seeds?

Barring an earth-ending astronomical event, humanity will continue in some form. But in what form?

Will our longer life change our environment, and if so, how will our new environment change our life?

In this regard, we have published two articles: Are we the interim species? and The human interim species: If we can’t save the pale blue dot, how can we save ourselves?

They both discuss adaptation, primarily in terms of Artificial Intelligence — adapting our brains to changes in the environment by copying our brains into computers.

That is one form of life-extending evolution, whereby we become an electronic species. Here is another:

Inside the cloning factory that creates 500 new animals a day
Mark Zastrow

Woo Suk Hwang has been cloning domestic dogs for years and now wants to help endangered species.

His team also routinely clones pigs with genes susceptible to disease to be used for drug tests, and breeds of cattle prized for their meat. In total, the group produces about 500 cloned embryos every day across all species.

Next up is the Ethiopian Wolf. Low numbers of individuals creates low genetic diversity that can reduce the ability of a species to reproduce and survive.

The Sooam lab hopes to preserve these gene pools by cryogenically banking the cells of as many individual wolves as possible. If an animal dies in the wild, Sooam could thaw its stored cells, create clones using domestic dog surrogates, and reintroduce them.

The lab also hopes to start work later this year on the dhole, fewer than 2500 of which remain in the wild.

The dhole will test Sooam’s cloning expertise: it is more distantly related to the domestic dog and classified in a separate genus. Can cloning actually help conserve endangered species?

Luigi Boitani, a conservation biologist at the University of Rome, thinks cloning is a “waste of resources” that should be reserved for extreme, near-extinction situations.

Sooam says its main aim is to provide the technical means to make clones – it’s up to governments or conservation organisations to decide when to produce clones, at what scale, and how to reintroduce them. And canids may just be the start.

There is no deal-breaker for cloning humans, other than morality and scientific desire. Nature creates identical twins, daily. Presumably, we repeatedly could clone from individuals who live long, i.e. resist death from certain environmental challenges: Heat, cold, radiation, sunshine, lack of water, etc. Eventually, the entire species could own those attributes.

Or, we could evolve our species in another way:

First fully approved ‘off the shelf’ stem cells launch in Japan
Steve Gschmeissner/SPL
The long anticipated age of the stem cell is upon us. Temcell prevents organ transplants attacking their hosts but will be followed by therapies for more common problems

AFTER decades of hope, hype and disappointment, say hello to the world’s first fully approved, mass-produced stem cell product.

Bags of Temcell are packed with 72 million living human cells, and will be launched in Japan later this month as a treatment for people whose organ transplants have turned against them.

The stem cells in Temcell come from healthy donors and can be multiplied to produce billions of standardised cells.

Developed by a company called Mesoblast in Melbourne, Australia, Temcell will be sold in Japan by JCR Pharmaceuticals. Mesoblast is now carrying out the extra trials that are needed if Temcell is to be approved by US regulators next year.

The launch is a milestone, because it propels stem cell therapy into the mainstream pharmaceutical industry. Stem cells from a donor can be cheaply manufactured in large batches, and supplied off the shelf using a business model much more like that for typical drugs.

In a few decades, stem cell therapy could be as normal as prescribing conventional drugs. Whether it is eyes, hearts, lungs or spinal cords that need repairing, living cells could be available to do the job, coming pre-packed in syringes or bags, or taken from centralised stem cell banks.

Temcell is just the first of a wave of products that bring this dream closer to reality. Mesoblast has similar products in advanced clinical trials for treating more common conditions, including chronic heart failure, lower-back pain and rheumatoid arthritis. And other companies are hot on its heels. “I believe this is the first of many successes that will be seen over the next several years,” says Stephen Huhn, chief medical officer of StemCells in Newark, California.

We can lengthen our lives by creating electro-mechanical proxies for our aging or damaged body parts — arms, legs, organs, Artificial Intelligence brains.

We can lengthen our lives by creating real replacements for our aging or damaged body parts via stem cell therapy.

We can lengthen our lives by adjusting our environment to be more agreeable to our cellular being, including not just protecting the ecology, but by the prevention of wars, murders, diseases and even impacts from meteors.

And if we give ourselves longer lives, will this gift have a black side? Will the earth become unsustainably burdened with humans? Or will we, to compensate, lose our sexuality and as a result, our diversity?

What will a world of humans having a median life span of 200, 300, 500 years look like? How will its economics reflect the new type of population.

Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Monetary Sovereignty

 

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Ten Steps to Prosperity:
1. Eliminate FICA (Click here)
2. Federally funded Medicare — parts A, B & D plus long term nursing care — for everyone (Click here)
3. Provide an Economic Bonus to every man, woman and child in America, and/or every state a per capita Economic Bonus. (Click here) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. Free education (including post-grad) for everyone. Click here
5. Salary for attending school (Click here)
6. Eliminate corporate taxes (Click here)
7. Increase the standard income tax deduction annually Click here
8. Tax the very rich (.1%) more, with higher, progressive tax rates on all forms of income. (Click here)
9. Federal ownership of all banks (Click here and here)
10. Increase federal spending on the myriad initiatives that benefit America’s 99% (Click here)

The Ten Steps will grow the economy, and narrow the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and you.
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10 Steps to Economic Misery: (Click here:)
1. Maintain or increase the FICA tax..
2. Spread the myth Social Security, Medicare and the U.S. government are insolvent.
3. Cut federal employment in the military, post office, other federal agencies.
4. Broaden the income tax base so more lower income people will pay.
5. Cut financial assistance to the states.
6. Spread the myth federal taxes pay for federal spending.
7. Allow banks to trade for their own accounts; save them when their investments go sour.
8. Never prosecute any banker for criminal activity.
9. Nominate arch conservatives to the Supreme Court.
10. Reduce the federal deficit and debt

No nation can tax itself into prosperity, nor grow without money growth. Monetary Sovereignty: Cutting federal deficits to grow the economy is like applying leeches to cure anemia.
1. A growing economy requires a growing supply of dollars (GDP=Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending + Net Exports)
2. All deficit spending grows the supply of dollars
3. The limit to federal deficit spending is an inflation that cannot be cured with interest rate control.
4. The limit to non-federal deficit spending is the ability to borrow.

THE RECESSION CLOCK

Recessions begin an average of 2 years after the blue line first dips below zero. A common phenomenon is for the line briefly to dip below zero, then rise above zero, before falling dramatically below zero. There was a brief dip below zero in 2015, followed by another dip – the familiar pre-recession pattern.
 Recessions are cured by a rising red line.

Monetary Sovereignty

Vertical gray bars mark recessions.

As the federal deficit growth lines drop, we approach recession, which will be cured only when the growth lines rise. Increasing federal deficit growth (aka “stimulus”) is necessary for long-term economic growth.

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Mitchell’s laws:
•Those, who do not understand the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty, do not understand economics.
•Any monetarily NON-sovereign government — be it city, county, state or nation — that runs an ongoing trade deficit, eventually will run out of money.
•The more federal budgets are cut and taxes increased, the weaker an economy becomes..

•Liberals think the purpose of government is to protect the poor and powerless from the rich and powerful. Conservatives think the purpose of government is to protect the rich and powerful from the poor and powerless.

•The single most important problem in economics is the Gap between rich and the rest..
•Austerity is the government’s method for widening the Gap between rich and poor.
•Until the 99% understand the need for federal deficits, the upper 1% will rule.
•Everything in economics devolves to motive, and the motive is the Gap between the rich and the rest..

MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY