Can you give me directions to the Metaverse?

Can you tell me how to get.

How to get to the Metaverse?  The Metaverse.

    In 2003 a company Linden Lab had been successful after diligently working for several years to role out a new virtual world called Second Life.   One year before we could slaughter goblins and do dungeon raids in the worlds of Azeroth (WOW), we could create a new identity and explore an almost complete world that we could alter.  Flying was supposed to be the big thing and it was.  You could build, buy, sell, craft things, art, properties.  An astounding eight years before our children were building roller coasters in Mine Craft we could build our own properties and sell them for real cash.  We could meet people around the world.  We could create a secondary space here as our purview into the possible.  It was an ideal thought, except it kinda sucked.  I tried it for a week.  I kept thinking this is alike an AOL chat room with a game element.  I've never met anyone that was a long timer but I hear they're coming back.  Wouldn't be surprised if there's an acquisition in the future.

    

    

    One glaringly obvious problem is the health factor.  We already know sitting in a couch can make you week and plump.  We know that our lives are generally becoming more sedentary with the advent of computers and automated industry.  In those dawn days of the 21st century we envisioned it would start with screens and move to a VR headset.  Here's some important terms.  

• Virtual Reality (VR): A whole created artificial environment that you experience with a headset
• Augmented Reality (AR): An enhancement of the real world viewed through a phone and maybe someday with smart eyewear.  Think Pokemon Go.  Or if you're older than 40, terminator's red screen.
• Integrated Reality (IR): This is not a term, I just made it up.  This could be when we finally get to having game elements in our sight during real world times.  Could be as simple as a virtual assistant or a fake girlfriend.  This is often conceptualized as an end game for AR.  
• Real Life (RL) : That's just you in your normal life.  The real world.

    Since we are not spending massive amounts of time in VR now, we just have to get up off our fat behinds and go for a walk.  What if some company could pull off the stunt that created a space that many had to work in, live in, and maybe go to concerts and places they could never really afford to go.  It might start out an hour or three a day.  Then maybe climb up from there.  There's two schools of thought on how this might go.  Ready Player One tried to solve this issue by installing a multi directional treadmill beneath the players.  The basic package was a floor platform, a headset, and hand gloves.  Different glove models, player skills, response times, ect.  There was an enhanced package that had a body suit that made the whole thing feel real.  It was a nice warm vision contrasted to the lower poor areas that people in the movie had to live in.  Think smallish inner city apartments.  When the fake world is way better than the real world, where you gonna go for a reasonable price?  The more dystopian vision seen in the unincorporated man by Donny & Eytan Kollin is what collapsed the later 21st century world, a fully immersive VR experience.  They jack into your brain.  Society created a new unifying factor, the new social contract where everyone was owned and owned others like a corporation.  

    So far the dream has been elusive.  I thought Google Glass might take off but kind of fizzled after a huge buzz.  There's a local VR place in town.  It's getting there.  I saw my son playing a game making hamburgers.  Why can't he do that at home?  Do they have a cleaning game?  For me personally I'll never get over the idea that someone is watching me wig out while I have a headset on.  

    Which brings us to today.  Facebook the largest social media platform is now taking a dive and changing it's name to Meta.  What is the Metaverse according to Facebook?  It starts as something we are familiar with virtual spaces of our own custom design and VR meeting rooms.  

'Zoom in a Room.'  

It then goes on to combining the real world interactions with vr interactions.  You can project from there to here (via a smart device) and from here to there.  It's the very first baby steps of projecting or injecting two different realities.  One that really exists and one that is artificial.  

    Will this succeed where others have failed?  Based on the size and pocketbook that Facebook has it has the best shot to succeed.  Not only development budget and resources but also through acquisition they can grow this seedling.  Can they sell it to the general public?  That remains to be seen.  Can it be as indispensable as our smartphone?  

    Let's stop asking the pedestrian questions of markets and PowerPoint presentations and project what this platform can or will likely become.  It's not easy, telling the future.  When I saw Facebook for the first time I thought this is the MySpace that I really wanted.  There was a golden age where it was all about connecting with your family and sharing photos and well wishes and reconnected with disconnected family or those in other countries.  Then we came back down to Earth with the petty fights, the cancel culture, disseminating an unconstrained amount of propaganda and conspiracy theory, affecting elections and honing algos to elicit the most base emotions humans are capable of.   

    One thing people should understand that these platforms are not free.  You are paying for them with your data. It's your data that's valuable and that will surely translate into the Meta Verse.  In the HBO show Westworld there was a huge theme park created with robots that looked like people and followed scripts of story lines from the old west.  Paying visitors could stay in this fake work embedded in the real world.  After the first season you learn that the real value is the data.  They have cerebral monitors to take in brain data from the users.  The users were helping the creators create more realistic artificial personalities.  

    

    This new universe could be the new AI training ground.  Interacting with real people in an intelligent way.  Will you be paid for training the AI's that might rule your life someday.  Surely not, you might not even be aware of them.  It's also a time machine.  With a digital world you can go forward and go backwards.  You can't change any of the decisions of the human controlled avatars but you can make guesses as to how they would act and then replay the tape and see if it's true.  Once you have someone's predicted responses to stimuli down pat you really can go forwards and backwards and then use that to understand, predict, and manipulate the real world.  Or maybe it's not about the real world any more.  What if the Metaverse becomes bigger than the Realverse  Which reality is leading which reality?  If this all makes your head hurt, mine too.

    What we are seeing possible here is the fixed wire telephone or the wright brothers aircraft.  What it will become is left up to your wildest imagination.  Or darkest nightmares.  Sweet Dreams!

We're from the government and we're here to help

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help. "  President Ronald Regan 8/12/1986

    We're entering a very dark time in our country where nothing is truth and everything can be truth, where rumors are lies and lies are rumors.  The virus is real, to deny it is to deny reality.  It's deadly among elderly people and could randomly kill a middle aged person or give them enduring symptoms.  We have developed a vaccine, with several new (briefly tested) technologies in an unprecedented short amount of time and an equally unprecedented immediate amount manufacturing capability.  To deny there's some risk there is to deny logic.  

    The government is at a crossroads where it's attempting to and in some cases has crossed a new barrier where it can close down your business, eliminate your job, and force you to go to it for compensation.  Tell you what equipment to wear in everyday life, direct your personal and social life limits.  Now, the question of our day,

    Can the government force you, harass you, malign you to accept medicine whether you want it or not?  

 The government like any thing else will do what it's it's own best interest first and foremost.  Fortunately for us mostly what the government wants to do is keep us well feed, employed, avoid mass death and mass panic.  But they also want a compliant populace so they can have constant surveillance on us, mass censorship including coordinated from the federal government, cyber access to all of our records and this was before the pandemic even hit!   Now, they are Big Brother and we are Little Brother. They want you to believe that in the interest of the rest of society they can punish you for not receiving medicine to a disease that will most likely not kill you.  But hey it might.  

Plus boosters in the fall and every year after that.  It'll never end.  And you still have to wear a mask and socially distance. Ha Ha!  

    In February 19, 1942 the American government began forcibly removing 120,000 Japanese Americans and immigrants in case they were enemies of the state.  For those who believe racial harmony will be formed by tearing down statues, changing the name of food products and sports teams, teaching kids the entire system is rigged against one group and the other group ought to be ashamed, they know surprisingly little about actual history.  Could it ever happen again?  Could anti-vaxxers be rounded up and sent to a camp.  Whats the limit of their power?  It's up to us to define.  Maybe someday you'll need chip to monitor your health at all times.  You know, for your own good.  And then eventually your thoughts.  

Whatever we put up with is what'll happen.  The government has been wrong or lied about the following issues in order.

• Stopping flights from Wuhan China in February 2020 was racist.  
• The masks are ineffective -Dr. Fauci
• The masks are now effective and necessary -Dr.Fauci a weeks later
• 2 weeks to stop the spread.  
• Schools are temporarily shut down
• The lab leak theory is a conspiracy theory, it definitely came from nature
• Your job is non essential if the government deems it.
• Your business or company is non essential if the government says so
• Social Justice riots don't spread the virus, but lock-down protests do.  
• phased reopening
• Maybe we can do something like bleach
• Neanderthal thinking
• How about two mask.  Eh? Eh?
• Maybe it was a lab leak after all. 
• Safe and Effective (no comment on the 6300 dead after the vax CDC VAERS 7/30/2021
• No vax, no job!  Or we'll make life difficult for you -CNN
• 60 law makers get on a plane, fully vaxed, 6 of them get sick.  Is that how 90% effective works? 
• It depends on your definition of the phrase, "Gain of Function."  Very Clinton esk. 
• Nurse tells her dying patient begging for the vax, "It's too late"  

The future is up to us, as always.  If you want the vaccine get it. Don't let anybody convince you otherwise.  If you don't want it but get convinced by a family member fine.  But don't let the government threaten you, intimidate you, bully you into doing something you don't want to do with your own body.  Plenty of legal things hurt individuals and those around them.  Smoking, Drinking, Gambling, Recreational Drugs, Sleeping around, Guns.  The government will be as tyrannical as you let them.  They must always be kept in check.  

"Resist the devil and he will flee from you."James 4:7

The New Curriculum

  

   Instead of thinking about school shootings, I decided to take a minute to think about school. Everyone wants to reform school which is why it's constantly getting reformed yet doesn't get any better.  How to be competitive in the modern and post modern world.  The children have been trained to be information gatherers and transformed into quantified statistics.
   It's all about the core curriculum.  Add a curriculum of study and make it more cumbersome to get through secondary education.  What to take away?  Let's take away technology class and replace it with the core subject of computer programming.  It can be successfully argued that everyone needs English & Literature.  Not everyone uses higher level math and science but everyone benefits from some study into the fundamentals of life and the universe.  In addition to all the engineers out there most people engage in some form of programming even if it's just setting up your 4K surround sound smart TV or kids XBox.  If you don't know too much about programming, it's modeled on the way we think.  We do A,B,C,D, then we make a decision and continue doing E and so on or we jump to X,Y,Z.
   My proposal would eliminate the sausage type classes that are usually thrown into the hodgepodge of what we call Technology Class and make a dedicated 3 year minimum computer programming course study.  This would include a background of the history of computers, of the internet, of modern technology in general.  It could include a robotics class, database, web programming, applets and a never ending stream of variation but should have at least 3 half-year courses in a language like C++,Java, or C#.  If you have time to study french for three years, you should have drive to learn a critical tool in the coming economic age.
   School politics, I know thankfully nothing about but if I had to guess there would be many bent feelings about moving non math specific business classes out of math and put them into the Computer Science department.  Why not just call it engineering, we are all about STEM right?  Again, too broad.  High schoolers can't do chemical engineering till they've taken chemistry, mechanical engineering until they've done physics,  and electrical engineering until they've mastered calculus.  You can study electronics and it would still fit in with computer programming.
  We're going to need a culture of programming to make the best programmers in the world and if you've heard anything about A.I., the cloud, and cyber warfare it's going to be the primary weapon in the economic and hopefully not military wars of the future.  Better to be prepared then left behind.

"Intelligence is in short supply, and wisdom is out of stock."  -Diamond_I

A time for change on sexual assault.

Another lost teachable moment

              Every few years there’s certain events that spark large, legitimate outrage.  I as a hopeful idealist always hope that society will change in response to these events but sadly it usually devolves into sensationalism and then dissipates.

              It wasn’t always like this.  During the civil rights era, events like Bloody Sunday or Rosa Parks arrest would first initiate large scale outrage which would then be followed by coordinated protest leading to a specific set of reforms.  After Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to sit in the back of the bus the entire community Montgomery organized a protest that lead to eventually eliminating such discriminatory regulations.  Women in the early twentieth century flocked to the movement of women’s suffrage to gain the right to vote among others. 

              About five years ago there was a number of high profile cases of a white police officer killing a black person in a situation where the life of the police officer might not have been in danger.  It could have turned into a movement to form a better relationship between police and the communities they protect or it could have been a move to have body camera’s on every officer.  Instead it devolved into massive protests followed by looting  and rioting.  In one town there was a fire and the hoses that firetrucks brought were stabbed by angry protesters.  Does this help anything?  It finally ended when police officers were being murdered in their cop cars and any possible sympathy went out the window.  The failure of improvement I would place on the media which sensationalized each and every case and choose sides based on politics.  Each case was different, some where I could see why the police officer had no choice and many others where the officer or armed civilian had many other choices. 

              Last year two major high profile cases of sexual harassment and assault came to light.  The first was the well connected movie producer Harvey Weinstein.  The second which was even more horrific by orders of magnitude was the monster Olympics doctor Larry Nassar.  How can our society learn from this and change?  In both these circumstances it was ‘known’ that they were probably an abuser.  People turned a blind eye.  They were so successful and powerful, every single benefit of the doubt multiplied by 100 was applied.  It wasn’t until Weinstein got caught on tape that his world began to unravel.  You would think this would lead to the simple change that when a number of credible recent reports are brought about by a set of accusers with nothing to gain they would be taken seriously and an investigation would ensue.

              Every year there is a women’s march that descends on Washington DC.  There’s no less cohesive themed event.  Some women want reproductive rights which they have, others want equal pay, others hate President Trump and some are just angry.  In 2017 actress Ashley Judd headlined one such speech at the women’s march saying the most disgusting vile things because she was angry at President Trump.  It came out later that Harvey Weinstein actually sexually harassed her.  I think she should have ranted and raved at the man who actually hurt her instead of a man that said unpleasant things about unspecified women.  This year’s notable was another actress, whom I admire Natalie Portman.  Her diatribe was on how men liked her in inappropriate ways because of the way she looks.  It was such a burden being beautiful and sought after.  I would like to know if she would like to try to walk a day in the life of a person who was overweight, unattractive, unimportant and poor.  Which cross is heavier to bear? 

              The MeToo movement has already devolved into sensationalism.  Every week there’s a new scrumptious allegation from twenty years ago about some actor who molested, assaulted, or harassed someone.  Instantly the actor is shunned, cut out of magazine covers and disinvited from awards shows.  This helps no one, in fact it does a disservice.  It might be that many of these allegations are true but the trial by public opinion is the exact opposite of what our justice system stands for. 

              The last time I can remember any movement changing society was in the early 2000’s when online bullying became a thing.  After a number of children committed suicide the education communities collectively took action to address the issue of bullying.  They didn’t try to stop bullies from existing because that’s impossible.  Instead they focused on the subject of bullying and emphasizing respect and cooperation.  Victim’s are empowered to stand up for themselves or reach out.  From my perspective in my children’s schools I believe the issue is addressed more seriously than what it was when I was a student.  As long as it’s taken seriously and not, “boys will be boys”, attitude. 

              Analogous to the serious issue of bullying and assault if we think we can change men to stop liking women it’s not going to be of any consequence.  Men will always desire and chase after women so long as men are needed to continue the human race.  What we can and should change is the idea that anyone is too powerful, to rich, to well connected, or too important to be exposed.  This is at the heart of the three worst examples of sexual assault and rape that has happened in our society. 

              The third example is from the recent past.  A number of years ago accusations of rape in the Catholic Church reared its ugly head. For the first time, priests were fired and in some cases prosecuted.  However, the bishops that had covered up these crimes were not summarily removed.  Cardinals who knew of activities were also not removed.  Three successive Popes’ have failed to fully address this issue which is why the Catholic church is in decline.  The Catholic church removed the tumors but failed to do the proper chemo therapy.  These men are seen as too important to the organization or to put it more crudely, they generate too much money to be removed without a certain unpleasantness.  It’s easier to pay off victim’s, remove the immediate offenders and continue business as usual.  This is the core of the problem!

              Exactly similar was the situation with Harvey Weinstein.  Everyone says they knew, they knew!  The producers knew, the movie stars knew, the politicians knew!  Yet they smiled and clinked champagne glasses with him.  It wasn’t until one brave actress recorded his disgusting towel routine that the truth was finally believed.

              Disgraced, jailed Olympic doctor Nassar assaulted over a hundred girls.  One girl told her father about assault that happened six years prior and he didn’t believe her, his own daughter!   People knew but they willingly turned a blind eye.  The Olympics was too important, our national pride to valuable in some people’s eyes.  “What does it profit a man to win the world but lose his soul in the process?” -Jesus  He’s in jail, the entire USA gymnastics board has resigned along with the Michigan State president.  While this is a proper response to the outrageous scandal does it really change our society at large.

              What we should do is shy away from minor allegations of sexual assault.  Yes, every allegation should be privately investigated and dealt with but not as a sensational manor.  We should make it well known in every single sphere that NO ONE is too powerful, too important, too rich, too well connected to not be exposed for the most serious crimes of rape, especially of children. 

              A hashtag never helped anyone.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in Me to sin, it would be better for him to

 have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”  Matthew 18:6

How to succeed on an interivew.

My company and many others like it are hiring.  In times past or for certain fields the realization that that there are five candidates for every job was an unfortunate reality.  In the present economy there is a parity for job and job seekers.  However for jobs in the technology and medical sector it's more like three jobs for every two candidates. 

My company is expanding and it is primarily based in America.  We are a medium sized country.  We are in need or many different type of engineers so we are interviewing.  The main drive of this article is how to succeed at the interview.  To get an interview you have to have the right experience, write a good resume and impress with a short cover letter as well as apply for the right job. All of the above is beyond the scope of this article and I entreat the reader to look online for a plethora of advice.  Here is the steps for success on the interview process. 

#1) Prepare yourself:  Most people assume this has to do with physical preparation.  Unless you are interviewing to be a model nobody cares how you dress.  That new suit jacket will not get you the job.  On the last two interview’s I didn’t even wear a jacket.  I wore a button-down shirt and an ordinary tie.  Be presentable and that’s it. It’s far more important to be intellectually prepared.  Every position has a written description.  Read it, then read the company bio.  Understand what they are looking for, do some research.  Then go back to your textbooks and do some studying. There are two types of interviews, personality and technical. Sometimes these two are separate but many times they are combined.  Another way to look at it is many companies will do a phone interview and then call you in. On the phone interview, they will review your experience and on the in person one they will grill you.  For the personality or phone interview you need to be able to explain your past experience in a nice, natural, but not too rehearsed 30 second explanation.  Get it?   Always be able to explain what you did in each job/role you put on your resume in a natural sounding 30second-1minute sound byte.  If you get past this stage you’ll be grilled technically and sometimes it’s brutal.  Just do the best you can but study for at least 2 hours on the basics of any job.  Wouldn’t you study for a test in school?

#2) Be Yourself: “To thy own self be true.”  Don’t really be yourself, just be the natural, smart, fun hearted, loving part of yourself.  Answer the questions openly and honestly, do the best you can.  I’ve had had interviews where I eventually got the interviewer to chuckle at some halfhearted joke.  It humanizes you which is not enough to get you the job but might help on edge cases to make you special/memorable.  My God Mother’s husband Eddie Hara once told me, “You can’t really lose what you don’t have.”  It’s an important concept.  You don’t have to be nervous on an interview because you don’t have the job so you don’t have anything to lose.  You are just trying to do better.  In spiritual terms remember that God is in control and you are simply petitioning to do something more. I always pray only to present myself the best I can so I know the job goes to the best candidate and if it’s not me, that’s fine. 

#3) Leave the past in the past:  A common question is why are you looking for a new job or why did you leave this or that job.  We all go through difficult situations.  Sometimes we quit, or get laid off or even get fired.  Try to always put the best face on things.  If you’re still working for a company and looking for a new job say something like you’re not growing in your current role and you want to do or experience more.  Sounds very good and its always party true?  Leave negativity behind, DON’T EVER COMPLAIN ABOUT A FORMER EMPLOYER.  That is so critically important.  If you’re already complaining about an employer on the interview what are you going to do to me when you’re working here.  I don’t need the drama, sorry.  Just remember the best revenge is living well. 

#4) Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth:  I guess the perfect job is winning the lottery and doing whatever you want.  Aside from that every job has positives and negatives. What’s important you?  Compensation(salary) Co Workers, Location, Manager, Work Requirements, Position, Office, Benefits, ect.  It’s different for everybody, you never get everything you want.   If you’re out of work is it at least two or three things you like and if you’re moving, is there at least two better benefits?  It’s up to you. 

#5) Take an advantage: In my department, we tend to ask concept questions and then give a technical test.  If you’re ever, ever given a test to take home you need to hit it out of the park.  Think about what a gift it is to get a take home test, you can take as much time as you want (usually 2-3 days), and look online and in the case of a program compile the code and run it.  Why not look amazing? Invest in a job interview and they probably will invest in you. 

If it’s not meant to be it won’t but why tempt fate? 

            

Addressing Fake Problems - Income Inequality

Addressing Fake Problems – Income Inequality

It’s inherently unfair that anyone should earn more than anyone else.  The average wage in America is $40 per hour.  Why doesn’t everyone just earn $40 an hour.  For those earning minimum wage this would be fantastic.  For those living in areas where the cost of living is low it would be a godsend. For those living in Old Westbury they wouldn’t know how to pay $15,000 in property taxes.  Those who had $4000 rents in Manhattan wouldn’t be able to afford their living space.  What would be the motivation for medical students to kill themselves for ten years?  People would just do the minimum they had to do.  This is obviously not the kind of economic model that most people would recognize as prosperous.  I had a co worker Alexander (Sasha) who came from Russia during the 1980’s.  He said that apartments were allotted by family size.  The apartments were free, they just didn’t have any.

Any economic model that creates a peasants dillema is inherently an unfair system.

                That’s not what people hear when they hear the nefarious term Income Inequality or the equally euphemistic terms, ‘Social Justice.’  They think the system is unacceptably unfair and something must change.  Any economic model that creates a peasants dilemma is inherently an unfair system.  During the feudal times in Europe peasants worked the farms owned by the ‘Lords.’  They paid taxes in food and had barely enough left over to eat.  They could never acquire any wealth, property or improve their situation.  During the industrial revolution the owners of the factories had all the power and the workers were paid very little and had to endure miserable working conditions.  This didn’t change until unions were formed.  A hundred years ago unions were critical to changing the economic model of concentrated economic power to one of a balance of power.  Unions in their purest form are inherently a good thing though I believe they have become corrupted in modern day society.  A union provides a balance of power between management/owners and workers via mutually assured destruction.  If the workers are not treated fairly and given the appropriate benefits they collectively strike and everyone loses. The company can’t produce and therefore can’t make profit and the workers don’t get paid. If the unions get benefits that are in excess of what the company can afford the company goes out of business and everybody loses.  We’ll save what really happens today for another article.

                Working so long as an engineer has one negative side effect. When I hear that there’s a problem I require demonstrable proof that the ‘problem’ has definable negative side effects.  I then require a plan of action to correct it and a way to quantify the success.  Therein lies the problem with fake problems.  Income inequality measures that much of the wealth is concentrated in a small group of people.  Perhaps 80% of the wealth of the country is held by 1% of the people.  On the face of it, that sound horribly unfair.  They ‘re just counting dollars, physical dollars, representation of dollars, stock market dollars, and virtual dollars. Is 80% of the food, clothes, machines, houses, land held by 1% of the people, no.  If your neighbor has more money than you, how does that really harm you?  If they have a million dollars it doesn’t affect your job, purchasing power or family.  If a very rich man or group of people have a billion dollars that doesn’t change my life.  If they have a hundred billion it doesn’t matter.  But it’s not fair!  It’s not fair that I have to work so hard and those people have so much.  That’s what it really comes down to doesn’t it?  They have and I don’t.  Then I stomp my foot and come up with fake solutions.  This is just one of the many solutions offered.

Living Wage: Let’s give everyone a salary they can live on regardless of the work they do.  In NY it used to be $10.  If we could just pay people $10 then they could live and take care of themselves.  Well guess what, the minimum wage is almost $10 and most people get at least that much. The cost of living went up and they still didn’t have enough money.  In a few short years it will be $15.  Then $20, ect.  Money has no intrinsic value.  There are some adults, seniors, and single parents that are trying to live off of minimum wage but the vast number of people are high school and college people, immigrants, and people working for extra money.  The higher the cost of labor the more companies will look to use automation or make due with less.  My high school nephew works in a movie theater. During the summer and winter break he’d like to work as much as possible but they can only allow him to work 29 hours or else they must provide him all kinds of extra benefits they can’t afford and he doesn’t need.

Make the rich pay their fair share!   They do.  The top 10% of wage earners pay 80% of the taxes.  There’s an anecdote of ten guys who go to the bar every week. Their bill always come to $100.  They decide to split it based on income.  So the guy with the highest salary pays $50.  The second pays $20, the third $15, the fourth $8, the fifth $3, the sixth and seventh each pay $2. The last three guys pay nothing.  This arrangement works quite well for a while.  One day the bartender cuts the bill in half.  Now it’s only $50.  The guy who was paying $50 says this is great now we can each pay half of what we used to pay.  Well the five poorest are quite unhappy because they are only receiving a benefit of $1 or nothing and the richest guys is getting a $25 break.  They decide to do it more fairly.  They say $50 should be divided evenly between ten people. So the highest wage earner should pay $45, the next $15, the next $10, the next $3, the rest of the guys are actually earning money off the deal.  Well the next week the top three wage earners don’t show up.  The super rich can always relocate but the semi rich can’t. 

So there are no problems then are there?  

Yes there are economic problems and here are the real problems that you’re not focusing on

• The top international companies are not paying corporate tax.  This is not only unfair it hurts American businesses.  I heard one CEO say that if his company was not paying corporate tax they are still paying salaries which pays for local and federal taxes.  If you are a medium size business you are doing probably 100% of your business and hiring in this country and are paying 35% corporate tax.  How can you compete with the monolithic companies who are not paying that tax on top of paying for taxes embedded in salaries.  We need to end corporate tax loopholes.
• Golden Parachutes:  If a certain person built a business out of his garage into a multi billion dollar business employing tens of thousands of people who am I to begrudge all his wealth.  He created something where there was nothing.  On the other hand if a CEO comes into a company and the company performs poorly requiring the layoff of many people and they walk away with their overly generous severance package that is inherently unfair and it shouldn’t be tolerated. 
• Corporate Tax Rate:  As a software engineer my top tax rate is 26%. Obviously I don’t pay that on all my earnings but each and every dollar I earn from here gets hit with 26% federal and 7% state.  If someone earns the majority  of their money from stock options then they used to only pay 15%.  I think it’s close to 20% now. 
• Stagnant growth in local areas. Sometimes these are referred to the inner cities but there are so many residential area where crime, drugs, and poverty are so rampant.  It’s a never ending cycle of poverty and violence and this is a very disastrous situation for many Americans.  Increasing taxes on the wealthy will not help.  I don’t have all the answers but it starts with decimating the gangs, providing educational opportunities to young people and working with civic leaders to have a peaceful atmosphere.  In other words, actual hard work! 

The Emotion Train

A prominent Senator was giving a press conference about a controversial subject and he started to choke up and cry.  Others blamed him for ‘faking’ it.  Politicians, especially well known ones must have raw hide for skin otherwise they wouldn’t have made it this far.  As my co worker once said, ‘A politician is someone who lacks the gene for shame.’   I wondered whether he was genuine, dishonest and how could one tell. 

                There are two kinds of truly genuine emotion.  The first is direct cause and effect emotion.  You yell at a child and they cry or someone loses a loved one and they react with anger, shock, or sadness.  The second kind of emotion is one that’s based off of real events but is spontaneous in nature.  It might happen at a random or inopportune time.  It catches people off guard, especially those who experience it.  My grandfather went through a long physical and mental decline towards the end of his life. My mother was burdened with making many of the preparations for him.  Eventually he died, we went to two separate wakes including one with a priest.  Then we headed out to the burial.  He fought in WWII so he was buried at a national cemetery.  The two young marines marched in front of the casket, said a few words, did a salute and carefully folded a flag.  It wasn’t until we were leaving, my mother and I, that the funeral director came up with a comment about the flowers that didn’t arrive.  I was annoyed at his poor timing but was holding back saying anything out of not wanting to upset my mother.  She then said, ‘I miss him so much,’ and started crying.  It was a perfectly justifiable reaction but only at the end after everything was done. 

                There are a number of disingenuous emotions, I will attempt to go from somewhat understandable to completely outrageous.  When someone suspects another of faking a good cry they might say they put onions in their eyes but it’s more devious than that.  People work themselves up to a strong emotion.  A husband comes home late from work.  The wife’s first question is perfectly reasonable, “Why are you late?”  Before he can even answer or maybe he does answer and she doesn’t listen comes the following.  “You’re always late.”  “I’m always alone.”  “Then you’re tired and you don’t want to talk.”  “You sleep on the couch.”  “I have to eat dinner alone.”  “Last night…”  Then come the water works.  In defense, this scenario which plays out very often is probably subconscious.  She worked herself up like a train slow at first and then gaining momentum until she was at full steam.  It’s a real problem but the pattern is predictable and repeatable.  Or a man who is angry about something.  He catches another (smaller) guy looking in his direction.  “Are you looking at something?”  “You want to take a picture?”  “Are you checking out my girl?”  “You think she’s hot?”  “Huh?”  “What’s Up?”  Bam!  Fight.  It was totally unnecessary.  Even if these events happen at a subconscious level they can be avoided if the person was willing to be aware of it. 

                The next step down the road is a person who purposely works themselves up. People don’t fight with logic.  Logic is completely useless in a debate or argument.  They use emotion but the emotion has to have a logical start and climax, like a movie.  I find that women have more tools in their emotional toolbox. They can be charming, they can be angry, they can cry, they can pout (aka silent treatment) or they can be elusive.  Men can be charming and they can be angry.  Men that cry are usually like that Senator where no one believes them except in perhaps very limited circumstances. 

                Actors also bring on emotion but they use a technique known as channeling.  They don’t work themselves up in a situation with real consequence.  They think about a time in their life when they felt the emotion they want to employ while they act out another scene.  This is why actors who have some brains make excellent politicians. 

                Finally, there are those chosen few that can literally turn the emotion on in a blink.  It’s like they take the train but instead of a train it’s a rocket that just fires off or they channel in a flash.  They use it like a weapon. 

                So, how to tell if someone is faking it?  For one the emotion is convenient.  It’s at an opportune time.  Or it’s repeated, again and again.  It’s directed only at one person in one situation.  These are the calling cards of a faked emotion.  The more calling cards, the more accurate the prediction.  You can’t call someone out for it though, that might bring real anger.  The first thing you have to do is not do the dance.  They get angry, you get angry, then you walk away or make up.  Don’t play the game unless you want to.