Dollars and Sense

I quote Princeton economist and New York Times editorialist Paul Krugman in my book (from The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008).

Here’s his editorial today: Degrees and Dollars.

What should we study? What careers are worthwhile? What companies and organizations should we build? What type of country do we want to live in? What kind of government do we want running it?

I don’t know, but some days I have ideas.

P.S. – For anyone who’s interested, I’ve been corresponding with a literary agent who is keen on my book idea. I’m now putting together a proposal that will hopefully pique the interest of a publisher. For the past two weeks, I’ve allowed myself to be victim of a terrible lack of confidence and focus. It’s taken some extraordinary exercises and a series of small realizations to get on track. My fingers are crossed.

 

Creating Balance and Health Behind Bars

Here is an NPR article on silent meditation that I love. Inmates in Alabama practice seated silent meditation for minutes, hours and days at a time.

Meditation is weird, intimidating, and a nuisance at first. I can only imagine most of the first reactions inside the prison.

But if it helps convicted criminals and death row inmates feel good about their lives and treat each other more peacefully, then it can do wonders for everyone. I hope that the warden, who supports the meditation classes, meditates himself.

The trailer to the documentary, The Dhamma Brothers, about the inmates’ meditation practice.

Meaning, balance, health and happiness.

Authors’ Table

I sent a message to the writer of the Red Eye article about law school being a scam (see hyperlink in previous post). In it, I provided him my blog entry on the BC law student who asked for his tuition back (see hyperlink way below) and referred to my idea that we’re being scammed to consume more than what is good for us.

Stephen, the Red Eye writer, wrote back and suggested I read his new book “Publish this Book: The Unbelievable Story of How I Published This Book.” His idea for the book is ingenious: he wrote a book about getting his book published and openly admits to its insanity (trust me, it works flawlessly). He details the entire ordeal of being a young writer and getting published. It’s outrageously entertaining,  poignant and wonderfully written. I told him that it should surpass Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (Ann Lamott) as the recommended guidebook for aspiring writers.

Basically, the lessons I learned were: 1. Don’t give up, and 2. Go with the idea. It may very well work.

So I will. Stephen wrote, and I quote, “maybe we can get together and talk about shit.” So we shall, and I’ll talk about struggling, writing and the Baby Boomers and hopefully he’ll give me advice on writing and getting published. I’m not afraid to heed advice from someone younger than me. Neither should the Baby Boomers be.

The Latest

I have been away. Over the past month, I was busy re-writing my manuscript and I spent December working a couple of different jobs. I want to get the book in presentable order; I’m writing query letters to agents now. I’m waiting for feedback on the latest draft, and I have to put together a book proposal.

Yesterday, there was a Chicago Red Eye blog editorial that hits one of my earlier posts right on the head: Is Law School Just a Scam? The knowledge one learns at law school may not be a scam, but law schools who recruit students aren’t completely honest and up front. Many graduates (and not necessarily bad students) get stuck with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt and either end up overworked and underpaid, or just unemployed. But the Scam goes much deeper. We’re encouraged to do many things that make us worse off.

Anyway, I’m  sending the writer, Stephen Markley, an email to let inform him of my ideas.

What I’ll be reading next: Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

If you’re bored and want to understand how we got from Eisenhower’s warning 50 years ago of a Military Industrial Complex to two simultaneous foreign wars costing $1.121 trillion, here’s a long George Orwell Essay from 1946: “Politics and the English Language” (link). It’s an analysis of the type of crap I used to write as a lobbyist.

The Ogres of Overconsumption

I’ve re-worked a few paragraphs included in the manuscript. Here they are. They come at the beginning of the section entitled “Beyond the Baby Boomers.”

____

“The Baby Boomers, as a whole, are unaware or do not care that they instigated and fanned the flames of our rampant materialism. They live in such a way that they have caused their offspring to be unhealthy, unbalanced and worse off than they are. We find ourselves suffering from a slew of social ills because the Baby Boomers don’t understand that the materialism that they lived with as young and middle-age adults cannot be sustained by us presently unless we are unhealthy.

The facts are straightforward. The rate of overweight and obese adults in the US adults is 68% and childhood obesity has tripled since the 1960’s.[1][2] We spend on average 2.8 hours a day sitting in front of a television[3]. We face an economic system that is ballooned on $13.56 trillion dollars of debt, with 46 states facing budget deficits.[4] Young soldiers die in two foreign wars, one almost a decade old with no tangible enemy, the other began through falsehood and government propaganda with no real end in sight, all costing a total of $1.121 trillion.[5]

We contend with tens of billion dollars of subsidies handed to corporations, the most expensive health care system of all advanced countries, and a natural environment being rapidly destroyed. We suffer as a result of the Boomers encouraging us to overconsume.”

---

[1] http://www.win.niddk.nih.gov/statistics/

[2] Centers for Disease Control; “Prevalence of Obesity among Children and Adolescents: United States, Trends 1963–1965 Through 2077-2008;” http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_child_07_08/obesity_child_07_08.htm

[3] Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Time Use Survey, June 22, 2010, http://www.bls.gov/tus/

[4] http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=711

[5] The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11

Amy Belasco, September 2, 2010

Public Policy determined by Corporate Profit

I’ll be reading the book Winner Take All Politics by Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson, two political scientists, to gather some strong evidence for my arguments.

In it they report:

The number of corporations with public affairs offices in Washington grew from 100 in 1968 to over 500 in 1978. In 1971, only 175 firms had registered lobbyists in Washington, but by 1982, 2,500 did. The number of corporate [political action committees] increased from under 300 in 1976 to over 1,200 by the middle of 1980. […] The Chamber [of Commerce] doubled in membership between 1974 and 1980. Its budget tripled. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) doubled its membership between 1970 and 1979.*

* Slate Magazine: The Unites States of Inequality

 

Why I Meditate, Part II

I doubt I’m going to finish reading the book I started, Buddhism and Science. Many of the essays are too dry for me, and like most people, I just don’t have the time to read everything I want.

But I’d like to share an excerpt from the introduction, written by H.H. The XIV Dalai Lama

“Mental transformation is achieved by using the mind itself, for there is nothing else we can use to bring about such transformation. Most mental states that bring us unhappiness are out of accord with reality. The antidote for such ignorance is to develop a way of viewing reality as it is. Recognizing that the mental states that produce suffering are based on unreality, one must then apply a remedy for such ignorance. In short, false views are dispelled by correct views.”

I’m working to transform my mind to that of a writer; one with important ideas to share. The courage, discipline, acuity and perseverance that I know I need to finish my book and make it good are traits that I’ve never been able to fully engage, until now.

When I sit every morning, eyes closed, back straight, legs crossed, I observe the thoughts that hold me back from writing what I need to write. I let those go.  Thoughts that are not ideas for the book transform into thoughts that are ideas for the book. The false view that I can’t write well is being dispelled by the correct view that I can write well, and that you are taking something from what you’re reading.  The mind of a non-writer is being transformed into the mind of a writer.

Turn the Power Button to Off

If you find yourself distracted while scavenging through the web today, please try to concentrate on this: turn your computer off, go sit under a tree in a park and read a book or walk along a trail and sing a song. Screw this blog.

I’ve finished reading The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. Describing what happens to us when we stare at a computer searching the internet, Nicholas Carr writes, (p 120):

“as the time we spend exchanging bite-sized text messages crowds out the time we spend composing sentences and paragraphs, as the time we spend hopping across links crowds out the time we devote to quiet reflection and contemplation, the circuits that support these old intellectual functions and pursuit weaken and begin to break apart. The brain recycles the desired neurons and synapses for other more pressing work. We gain new skills and perspective, but lose old ones.”

Our minds are being changed because of the frenetic pace that the internet and digital age facilitates. We chase one crum of information (or entertainment or correspondence) to the next. Of being constantly plugged in, Carr writes, “We’re hurried off toward another bit of related information, and then another, and another.” Carr describes at length the science behind the transformation of our brain’s synapses and how they are affected by the media through which we interact, think and learn.

When I let go of the inundation of “information” available on the net, cable TV, cell phone, radio, etc., I always feel more at ease and balanced. Otherwise, with data and information constantly flowing and always available, all of it interlinked, “mentally, we’re in perpetual locomotion.”

I give myself time away from technology and the net, however short that time, and my mind and even my body are less anxious and tense. My life is calmer. I feel better.  Depth and calmness takes over my life. Am I uninformed? I don’t think so. On the contrary –I can more readily discern what is important and what is not, and then real, useful information becomes apparent.

I know I’m healthier and happier when whatever power button I’m dealing with at the moment is turned to off.

The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr

PS – I’m sorry I may have sucked you in with an update of my blog. As I wrote when I started, (if there is such a thing), this is a necessary evil.

About this Blog, Part II

I have two friends whose opinions and knowledge I respect immensely. They’ve helped me vastly with the ideas of my book. They are eloquent, creative, astute, well read, and very different. When I told them that I was finally going to start a blog (out of necessity), they both responded that I need to add videos and photos because that’s what draws eyeballs.

I’m not so sure. I want you to visit and revisit my blog, but I don’t want stray from what I believe in. I want you to read what I have to write. That’s the point. If I can’t hold your attention and you get bored and click away because people “don’t actually read on-line,” well then, that’s my problem.

So I’ve decided that there will be no photos or embedded videos or anything other than text on this blog.

Thanks for reading!

The Soul of a Company

The holiday shopping season is most certainly underway. Since June, I’ve been a “seasonal sales associate” for Patagonia, the outdoor clothing store, where I work a little less than 20 hours a week. The income is meager, but it’s better than nothing. This past Saturday, the store got hammered with shoppers; all day, I ran around hurriedly, assisting customers with answers and finding sizes.

I’ve always admired the company and its founder, Yvon Chouinard, for his efforts as a pioneering climber, surfer, adventurer and environmentalist. I’ll never be like him, but I am glad to be a part of his company, which was called the coolest company on the planet by Fortune magazine in 2007. Unfortunately, I don’t have the resources to enjoy nature and the outdoors as much as I would like to, nor am I really in the right place for it. In due time.

The irony is not lost on me that I work for the best outdoor retail company in the industry yet the only time I get into nature is when I submerge myself under the surface of Lake Michigan and hide from the Sears Tower that looms above.

Here is Patagonia’s Mission statement: “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”

The company is trying to do what it can to nullify its carbon footprint while still making money, which it then (by it’s mission) gives back the environmental cause. Patagonia provides an on-line tool call the Footprint Chronicles where you can follow the life of a product along its path. The company is moving toward making the entire product line from recycled material.

For three years, I worked as a “policy advocate” (a.k.a. lobbyist) for over thirty-five US-based multinational companies. About forty percent of my time was devoted to scurrying around for Chevron, because they showered my organization with a deluge of cash and had an agenda for every issue in every country in Asia.

When I worked to convince foreign governments to adopt various policy agenda that benefited Chevron, I justified it by telling myself that Chevron supported “portfolio diversification.” That is, Chevron (and other oil companies) supported the development of renewable and carbon-free energy sources.

Here is Chevron’s statement on values (there was no mission on their website): “Our company’s foundation is built on our values, which distinguish us and guide our actions. We conduct our business in a socially responsible and ethical manner. We respect the law, support universal human rights, protect the environment and benefit the communities where we work.”

Let’s make no mistake. Chevron and the other “energy” companies are petroleum companies. They will defend their access to oil, and the market for it, until the last drop is sucked out of the ground and burned and we take our last suffocating breath of hot exhaust. They may “support” green technology, but they constantly remind us that there is, and will be, a demand for petroleum.

Well, make it so that there isn’t. Convince us that we don’t need oil. Stop global warming. Yvon Chouinard once wrote in the Patagonia catalogue next to photo of himself, “Don’t buy this jacket.” I would love to see an advertisement from my old Chevron friends that says, “Don’t drive your car so you don’t need to buy gasoline.”

When companies – as organizations of employers, employees and customers – are actively doing everything they can to undo a culture of overconsumption and its consequences, then we’ll all be in better shape.

Coolest Company on the Planet