Marches can’t fix our broken system. We need a new mechanism to take back our government.
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
Pain is a signal that something is wrong with your body.
Stupid people mask the pain.
Smart people remove the cause of the pain.
Social Unrest Is A Societal Pain Signal
Constant, repeated riots, violence, civil unrest, demonstrations, massive poverty, pervasive disease, drug addiction, etc. are societal pain signals. They’re telling us that something is fundamentally wrong with the way our country is being operated.
Dumb people try to mask the societal pain by deploying troops, riot squads, curfews, roundups, arrests, etc. …
As soon as some man is willing to marry her, the woman is supposed to mark herself as that man’s property by taking his name
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
Men’s Historical Domination Of Women
Yes, this “give up your name when I marry you” rule is one of the lesser demeaning cultural traditions that men have imposed on women, but that doesn’t make it a good idea.
A Little Male/Female History
The Dowry
For most of history, and still in some cultures, the woman’s family had to pay the man to take her off their hands, that is, the woman’s family had to pay the man’s family a “dowry” in order for him to agree to marry her.
And if she turned out not…
For some, the more they have, the more they are likely to want
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
Greed Takes Many Forms
Overeating
A while ago I was having a medical problem and I took a look at my life style. I realized that my discomfort was caused by greed.
Greed is pursuing more of something than you need, more than you can use, more of something that, once you get it, will not improve your life in any meaningful way, and that might even make your life worse.
Greed is wanting more simply for the sake of having more.
In my case, instead of eating two slices of pizza, which were all…
The value of capitalism lies in motivating people to produce high-quality, low-priced products. Without that, it’s worthless
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
The Difference Between WHAT People Get & WHY They Get It
People who buy lottery tickets think that the purpose of operating a lottery is to give people an opportunity to get rich.
They are wrong.
The purpose of operating a lottery is NOT to actually give lottery players a chance to get rich. It is to make the lottery operator rich.
— — — —
Conservatives think that the purpose of having a capitalist economy is give everyone the opportunity to make huge amounts of money.
They are wrong.
The…
Some of the reasons why I’m not a liberal
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
In my column “Governments Need To Be Guided By Pragmatism, Not Idealism” I said that the conservatives’ fundamental rule of government is: “Everyone Should Be Free To Look Out For Number One” and the liberals’ fundamental principle of government is: “Everyone Should Help Others.”
My objection to the conservatives’ policy of having no governmental regulations restricting any corporation from doing anything it wants to get more money, short of violence and robbery, may be great for Number 1, it is likely to be terrible for Numbers 2 through 100, 1,000, or…
As societies become more complex, they have more choke points which can be exploited to take away people’s freedom & money
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
[NOTE: Throughout this column I’m going to talk about a group that includes: wealthy individuals, government bodies, unions, employers, corporations, institutions, cartels, and monopolies. Instead of writing “wealthy individuals, government bodies, etc.” over and over throughout this column, I’m going to collectively call them “Power Holders.”]
More People With More Technology Create More Threats To Your Freedom & Wealth
You have to recognize a fundamental fact of life:
- Individual humans are like atoms of nuclear fuel. Keep them separated and you don’t need much government, but as you compact more and…
You reform the police by holding them accountable to a state licensing board just like contractors, dentists & other professionals
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
Competing Service Providers
From time to time we all buy services from professionals.
If we don’t like the way the dentist or plumber or accountant treats us, we fire them and look for someone better. If enough people do that, the bad plumbers or dentists either change their ways or go out of business or lose their licenses.
Elected Monopoly Service Providers
But there are services that are monopolies, e.g. public schools, courts and the like. Even there we have some recourse to bad performance. We can vote out the members…
The government needs to do those things that, in the long term, are most directly and indirectly beneficial for the most people.
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
Conservatives’ Fundamental Life Rule
The fundamental moral philosophy espoused by conservatives for governing their own lives and for running a country is:
“Everyone Should Be Free To Look Out For Number One.”
A government run by this philosophy stands back and allows every individual and business to do anything and everything, short of violence and theft, that they think will make them more money.
Every person and company is allowed, actually encouraged, to be a predator and every citizen is told that it’s up to them, without any help or protection…
Is an atheist, a homosexual, a transsexual or a carnivore automatically an immoral person who is barred from going to heaven?
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
Who am I? For what it’s worth, I am a white, over-forty, heterosexual male who was raised on the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Fundamentalist Beliefs
This column is about fundamentalist beliefs, whether they’re ideas about God, morality, political or economic systems, diets or anything else.
Fundamentalist beliefs are based on claimed universal truths, but those so-called truths are not derived from observable facts or logical reasoning. At their base, they are nothing more than the fiercely-held opinions of the people who promote them.
They all come down to the pronouncements: “Doing…
Facebook’s mortal sin is using its recommendation engine to multiply & amplify the false, angry, toxic content published on its platform
By David Grace (Amazon Page — David Grace Website)
Facebook’s Toxic Conduct
Facebook’s crucial, fundamental crime is not its failure to curate/police the content published on its platform. That’s it secondary misdeed.
Facebook’s principle, toxic sin is using its recommendation engine to continuously multiply and redistribute hate and lies to thousands or millions of other users whom it thinks might want to see them.
What’s Causing Massive Anger & Belief In False Conspiracy Theories?
I’ve published two columns about the fundamental causes of the hostile divisions in this country
DavidGrace
Graduate of Stanford University & U.C. Berkeley Law School. Author of 17 novels and over 200 Medium columns on Economics, Politics, Law, Humor & Satire.
