Thursday, July 29, 2010

Basics

Basics


I attended Planning School at the U. of MA in Amherst in Fall 1975, after studying Environmental Studies on the undergraduate level. It was a mostly misguided program of studies, as are all planning curricula in the United States. Older students "turned me on" to Robert Goodman's "After the Planners" and Benton MacKaye's "The New Exploration", I met William Morris Davis' grandson (a protégé of MacKaye) who reinforced my strong impression that they were teaching bullshit. I dropped out and started studying with the Society of Friends and that gave me the basic direction (having read and agreed with the Communist Manifesto when I was 16 years old) that I have pursued since.

After working construction, real estate appraisal, in a lumber yard, I returned to get the world's famous indoctrination of Radical Economics at UMass in 1980. I got it. The W.E.B. DuBois Library may very well be the best Library in the world, especially if pursuing Radical approaches to Economics. Networking in the old fashioned ways, we were laying out plans for a new society, a better society with the energy of the innocent, the mostly naive, the definitely inexperienced. Then Reagan got elected. Approximately at the turning point that Richard Wolff alludes to...

Wage slaving the whole time, doing a lot of blue-collar drudge and hard labor, I got tired of being poor and eventually pulled up roots and went to Arkansas (the U. of A. in Fayetteville) and enrolled in Business School. Worked my way through. "Professional" work ensued, a hard labor, a drudge of another sort, Systems Analysis and Programming work, Utilization and Cost Report Development and Analysis, and Managed Care Contracting for various Health Care Finance firms. With respect to health care reform, I studied the "industry" and they do call it that and got many experiences of how not to do it, but sufficient insight into how it could be done. But I digress.

While changing trains in Boston's famous Green Line Haymarket Station (not as infamous as Chicago's), I met a couple of "brothers" who were reading Kiplinger's Business Letter. "What are you reading that shit for?"

"Yeah, you're right, it is shit. We studied Radical Economics at UMass, now we can't do anything with it".

"No promises, but I'm working on it".

Wolff and the other Radical Economists at UMass are lost in the comfort of their Ivory Towers. The answer lies in building a conceptual bridge between the Planning Department and the Business School via the Radical Economics Department.

The answer lies in the radical reorganization of the economy, bypassing the chains of the Capitalist Plutocracy, bypassing the sham Democracy of "the Administration" and "the Congress" , bypassing the Bank of England's successor, the Federal Reserve System, and taking direct control of the Treasuries and allocating funds directly to workers (in the form of a small guaranteed income) and to Community Betterment Organizations related to community, inter-community, regional, inter-regional, and world around solidarity and cooperation in an ecological economic redevelopment paradigm based on human needs and founded on the mission/principles of inclusion, humanity, equity, economic democracy, altruism, well-being and sufficiency, fecundity, and the solidarity of effort to bring the basic costs of production and trade back to earth, where they severely left with the institution of Reaganomics/Supply Side Economics.

Now, maybe I'm wasting my time, but I feel committed to the youth and children of the planet. I have been blessed (in a rather bizarre ways and means) with the opportunity to work on my life's mission full time for the past fifteen years.

Those of you who have not seen my detailed, but very concise, proposals, please feel free to contact me with an e-mail address so that I can send you about 15 pages of attachments.

I've had some dealings with Rick Wolff. He is a very intelligent Academician. His Silicon Valley example of workers democracy is ridiculously bourgeois and does not deal with huge issues such as how resources are allocated to and within communities and within and among economic sectors.

There are answers to the very serious problems that we as a species face. We are running out of time for "getting it together" and committing to and working towards the fundamental paradigm shift necessary in all communities on the planet.

Take heed.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

Sunday, July 25, 2010

A Carbon Tax?

A Carbon Tax?


It is a myth, and one that destroys the credibility of many "environmentalists", that there is any other significant source of "power", other than nuclear, besides the carbon fossil fuels that we have been using for less than three hundred years and are now on the downside of peak production. We have also come face to face with the blatant disregard of Capitalist Oil Companies, whose only interest is to maximize profits in the short run, with the BP/TransOceanic Gulf Oil Blowout.

A "carbon tax" is the wrong idea. People use carbon products for heating their homes and workplaces, cooking their food, and generating most of their electricity.

The major squanderer of fossil fuels is the personal automobile. USAers use over 15 MILLION BARRELS A DAY for personal transportation. We need to commit to rebuilding our neighborhoods and reallocating goods and services so that people can get what they need, including employment, within walking distance of their homes.

Setting a demand side management goal of reducing personal automobile usage by 80% in the next 20 to 40 years would go a long way towards assuring that more essential uses of carbon fuels will be a part of a viable future. It would also send a strong message to the rest of the world regarding the commitment of the USA to strongly curb their gluttonous behavior. Such a commitment could significantly assuage current geo-political tensions and hostilities.

A large tax on gasoline, maybe phased in over a period of ten years, is what is in order. Revenues from such taxes could help pay for the community redevelopment and reallocation of goods and services that needs to be a paramount goal of the USA. It would also significantly, discourage driving, while the people were educated to the reality that the automobile is a freak of the human race, and that the quality of community and domestic life would be substantially enhanced by encouraging a more sedentary lifestyle.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Letter to Dan La Botz – Socialist Candidate for Senate in Ohio

Letter to Dan La Botz – Socialist Candidate for Senate in Ohio
07/24/2010


Dan,

Good idea to try to build solidarity among neighborhoods. Being a Veteran of Eugene politics, I know that is easier said than done. It is an insidious control that the Business People exhibit over the governments. In Eugene, they have an organization, Downtown Eugene, Inc. (DEI is the Latin word for God?), I call them what they are Downtown Economic Imperialists and their tentacles spread along the arteries to the malls and strip malls of this unsustainable, inequitable, hedonistic sprawled mess. They make a mockery out of City Council and work directly with City Management to further their Capitalist "growth" agenda. They (landlords are well represented) dominate the Neighborhood Associations. Workers and potential workers are apathetic, partially because they are viewed and treated and act like consumers of alcohol, tobacco, and festivities, and partially because anyone who is legitimately concerned with the welfare of their Neighborhood residents learns quickly that they are a tiny, virtually non-existent, minority to be ignored.

It is a large, sometimes seemingly insurmountable education and organizing task. If we could get the neighborhood residents to understand that there is a vision beyond the Capitalist trickle-down and we could appeal to all peoples' concern for the progeny, then perhaps with great solidarity we could change the ways and means by which resources are allocated to and within communities (and within and among economic sectors). That is our calling. If we can be true to that and work diligently then it is not impossible for us to succeed. Two large assumptions are in play here. One, that people still have legitimate hopes for the youth and children, and secondly that people want to work and they want to work hard, given the potential to realize a living wage, equity, and a quality of life including bona fide prospects for their offspring.

It's a tall order.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Posted on Facebook 07/22/10

Posted on Facebook 07/22/10


By now, it should be clear to EveryOne, we need to supplant "the Administration" and Congress and work with all our Friends in the International Community to do the same. It will take a lot of organization and we are not ready to take the reins of the World Treasuries, yet.

The idea is a World Congress for Community Economic Development where we can work towards neighborhood/community, inter-community, and inter-regional solidarity and cooperation with local ecological economic redevelopment plans based on need and bypassing the International Finance "Community" as represented in the US by the Federal Reserve and participating Financial domineers and exploiters.

We bitch a lot on Facebook, and elsewhere, yet I have yet to see much in the way of bold leadership in defining an alternative, educating about it, and setting up an alternative National and World around Council of Elders to provide the dearth of Leadership that the cooperative communitarian/socialist/peace movement needs.

I'm hearing much too much silence. There is no need for you all to feel helpless and hopeless regarding an irrelevant and obsolete elite and the power that they yield over you. There is no room for complicity and tinkering with their system.

Please, I'm serious!!!

Cindy, Dan, Billy, Carl, EveryOne, let's stop wasting our precious time. The future is too important for the youth and the children and whatever hopes we have for our progeny!


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The Salary of the Head of the Nurses Union

I agree with Whitman about the inflated salaries of the Union Leadership,
but I am not aligned with the Ownership Class that she speaks primarily
for, though not always to...

How can a Union Leader be sensitive to the plight of workers when
reimbursed so highly? Such highly compensated "workers" are more likely to
identify with the living conditions and opinions and views of the moneyed
elite.

We have to understand that the fundamental inflation brought about by
supply side economics has had a paralyzing effect on commerce by DRIVING
the prices of Real Estate, Capital, and forcing Organized and unorganized
Labor into the untenable position of demanding, but most often not receiving,
wages that allow workers to keep up.

We need to grab the economic bull by the horns by forming an all-inclusive
Equity Union from which we can deal with the fundamental Accounting
Principle that United Assets minus United Liabilities equals United Equity
and take the necessary steps to bring the costs of living back to earth and
work for a parity in wages, while working together to produce good jobs and
equity opportunities for all in an ecological economic redevelopment plan
that understands and adjusts for real world resource constraints.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin
Eugene, OR, USA

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

One Big Union

One Big Union


Although I try not to be delusional about this, the answer (at least potentially) lies in efforts underway to form "One Big Union" which the AFL-CIO and ITUC are at least giving lip service to...

Should we be able to accomplish such organization, and gain control of the National Treasuries world around, bypassing Capitalist Plutocracy Organizations such as the Federal Reserve System and allocating Treasury funds directly to individuals and Community Betterment Organizations (CBOs), we could possibly succeed.

Such may require National/International/World Presidential Commissions which would supplant "the Administration(s)" and Congress/Parliaments, etc. and would focus on building a grass roots economic democracy, a World Congress on Community Economic Development.

We could accept and implement a resource allocation paradigm that would fundamentally change the ways and means that resources are allocated to and within communities and among and within economic sectors.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

Monday, July 19, 2010

In Response to Praise for the USA Democratic Party

In Response to Praise for the USA Democratic Party


The Democrats, while their most "Leftist" positions are better than the Republicans have barely kept our heads above water, if at that, and we can only go under so many times.

The Democrats, while their most "Leftist" positions are better than the Republicans are still very Centrist when it comes to the Capitalist Plutocracy and its Military Industrial Complex partnership.

"Good government, not Big Government", was Kid Orator's slogan. So far he has shown absolutely horrible leadership with respect to good government and succeeded at giving us a hodge-podge of some good, mostly bad Big Government.

Regarding the most recent "Financial Reform" Legislation:

Tinkering and trying to oversee the overseers is totally unacceptable.

Don't worry about the Republicans, they are always against things for
the wrong reasons.

Nothing short of fundamental ecological economic reform from a
Capitalist entropy to a Cooperative Communitarian/Socialist life
sustaining One will suffice.

A Consumer Financial Protection Board is as absurd as an SEC, absurd
as OSHA, absurd as Truth in Labeling, absurd as the IRS, etc. Well
intentioned, perhaps, but ridiculous and self-serving in its pay-rolled
futility.

What we need to do is supplant "the Administration" and "the Congress"
with a Presidential Commission of Elders, who take control of the
Treasury, abolish the Federal Reserve, create an Equity Union (working
with the treasuries of all nations) and directly allocate funds to
people and communities (Community Betterment Organizations (CBOs))
while we work to organize a World Congress of Community Economic
Development, an organization of solidarity and cooperation, with all
members focusing on local/neighborhood/community improvement and
equity, inter-community/regional cooperation and solidarity, and inter-
regional cooperation and solidarity.

It can be done.

With respect to such, recognition needs to precede realization.

It will be done.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

In Response to Report that Clinton is Promising Billions in “Aid” to Pakistan

In Response to Report that Clinton is Promising Billions in “Aid” to Pakistan


This is outrageous but par for the course.

Where does the money come from that goes to Pakistan, Egypt, Israel and other countries? Do they not have their own Treasuries? Can they not manage their own regional affairs and business?

The answer is that American led Corporate Conglomerate Developers will get the money and none will be dedicated to the absolute necessity to rebuild North American environments in light of the reality that the end of the fossil fuel age is rapidly approaching and that if we want a future for the youth and children of the world, we need a completely different paradigm of economic development than we have had in the last century.

The 20th century, approximate to the fossil fuel age, must be put into perspective and industry (as in industrious not industrial) must be planned and implemented accordingly.

I'm not against helping Pakistanis and Afghanis or anybuddy in a consultative capacity, quite to the contrary I would welcome and invite their cooperation and solidarity. But the organized crime of the US Government and the International Capitalist Ruling Classes must be identified for what they are: a self-serving genocidal, ecocidal, suicidal elite.

The BS they will hand out is that Pakistan and the others will be "emerging markets". Emerging markets for whom? A tiny ownership class and a majority of wage slaves and welfare recipients?

No, this is all wrong. All very wrong, and we must unite to make it correct. Ha, ha, you thought I'd use the word "right".

At issue is what is left in the way of natural and human resources and the correct way to allocate and employ such.

Do you trust Hillary Clinton and the continuation of the status quo?

I don't.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

Agricultural Reform in Context

Agricultural Reform in Context


Yes, as in all economic sectors, we have to redefine the mission of the agricultural sector and restructure the resource allocation ways and means, design and implement alternative technologies, distribution channels, and build or renovate and allocate to neighborhood outlets as part of a comprehensive plan and implementation plan.

The fundamental fulcrum is the transition from a Capitalist Economic System to a Cooperative Communitarian One with the basic mission of ecological economic redevelopment for the meeting of all peoples' needs that is inclusive, humane, equitable, altruistic, well-being oriented, and youth oriented (i.e. sustainable) and peaceful.

It can be done, but it will take the largest realization of solidarity that the human species ever. In essence, it will take an intentional evolution of the species to Homa Ecologica Cooperativo.

In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Presidential Commission, Council of Elders

Folks,

It is time for us to consider forming a Provisional Revolutionary Council (An Alternative Presidential Council, A Council of Elders, which would soon replace "the Administration" and "the Congress" gain hold of the Treasury, abolish the Federal Reserve, and allocate money directly to the people/communities while working within our local communities to foster and facilitate a comprehensive ecological economic redevelopment plan and implementation plan while organizing inter-community cooperation and solidarity within a World Congress for Community Economic Development (WCCED).

I am looking for nominees, you may self-nominate, for such a Council.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Letter to Cindy Sheehan at the Gates of the Warshington DeCeaser Capital 07/13/2010

Letter to Cindy Sheehan at the Gates of the Warshington DeCeaser Capital 07/13/2010


Cindy,

Be somewhat cool, as cool as thee all can be. Reported that Obama is trying to push a War Appropriations Bill and DemonBureaucrats who are against it are going to go along with it because it also has Domestic Spending attachments that feed their particular constituents Capitalist Special Interests like HUD and Teachers, building and teaching what? is a matter of great concern...

It would be RELATIVELY easy to overthrow the Federal Government, more problematic to take all 50 States, the myriad of County and Municipal Governments.

However, the biggest challenge is to "overthrow" or more appropriately transition the economy. If you all, congregating in Warshington DeCeaser succeed at toppling the irrelevant and obsolete Administration and Congress, please be sure to secure the Treasury. It is the only essential part of the US Government and one that we want to maintain (until that super-Eutopian day that we can evolve to a World Currency, and then (about 9255 AD) a system of "Free Socialism").


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

Sunday, July 11, 2010

A Succinct Comprehensive Essay Regarding the Economic/Political System

A Succinct Comprehensive Essay Regarding the Economic/Political System



Dr. Kin was the greatest...

Rather than Liberal Reform of an obsolete political system, we need to focus on supplanting it. Obama is a child. He is a talented and smart kid, but very much like Bill Clinton, he is surrounded by the wrong elements and is very much a politician trying to target messages, with "help" from the Capitalist media in attempt to sound like he cares, to try to please the most people most of the time based on public opinion polls or perceptions of the Capitalist elites that pull the puppet strings.

Obama is a jelly fish like Clinton. There is a serious lack of ethics within these men. The focus on one man is wrong and I think more and more of the populace understand to some extent the sick games that the Capitalists "on both sides of the aisle" play.

The focus needs to be on the fact that the political system is obsolete and fundamentally corrupt. More importantly, the economic system is obsolete, defunct, and fundamentally correct.

We, as a nation, as a world need to regroup. We have to focus first on our local/regional economic politics, with the recognition that the hegemonic chains of an overarching Capitalist elite must be cast off...

We need to identify our local leaders, our regional leaders, our world leaders, yet work with the existing status quo to transition to a new economic/political paradigm based on cooperative communitarian/socialist principles of inclusion, humanity, equity, altruism, wellness and quality of life, sustainability and hopefully a resulting peace. It requires a strategy of ecological economic redevelopment that fundamentally understands that we have already passed the peak of fossil fuel resources and that there is impending disaster in not recognizing the historical perspective relative to the finitude of such and other resources fundamental to a viable future.

From where I sit, the biggest danger that we as the people of the world face is the complacency of the cruise control consumer culture and a terrible arrogance that seems to have no conscience about the consequences of continuing such genocidal, ecocidal, suicidal behavior.

It is time for all potential leaders to step forward and step forward boldly.
I am very tired and frustrated by the lack of response to my outreach. It is something that I have been able to envision, yet thus far been unable to touch, to make real.

Work with me.

Time is of the essence.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Relative to Levins, Gerard, Acuff Discussion of AFL-CIO Mission and Strategies

Relative to Levins, Gerard, Acuff Discussion of AFL-CIO Mission and Strategies


Promising discussion.

A couple of problems with traditional Union approaches, even when strongly influenced by Socialist thought.

1.) Syndicalism - Collective Bargaining within an Economic Sector benefits only the workers in that economic sector and can be destructive of a larger Socialist Mission (e.g. IBEW gains in a Military Aircraft Engine Group operations, UAW gains in a post-fossil fuel environment and economy).

2.) The US vs. THEM mentality. Many, if not Most, if not All Unionized "shops" have a working/adversarial relationship with "Management" (Financial Workers, Directors, Decision Makers, Engineers, System Analysts and Programmers, Portfolio Managers, etc.) who are most often not Union members and therefore functioning somewhat at odds with the solidarity of Union brotherhood.

What is needed is the concept of One Big Union where Capitalists and their "exempt" workers would join and cooperate in a comprehensive socio/economic Mission. Socialists need to allocate resources. The fundamental questions relate to how resources are allocated to and within communities and among and within economic sectors. We need to understand and practice the fundamental accounting principle: United Assets minus United Liabilities = United Equity.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity,

Mike Morin

Monday, July 5, 2010

Regarding Health Care Reform – July 5, 2010

Regarding Health Care Reform – July 5, 2010


Thanks for "chiming" in, Diane.

Health care should not be viewed as outside the realm of environmental/public health.

Health care reform should not be viewed as outside the realm of comprehensive ecological economic reform.

But, addressing the particular issue, allow me to offer the following for your consideration, communications, and eduaction.

Having worked for about 15 years in the "Managed Care" and Cost Containment Branches of Health Insurers and other Finance Providers, I have had many valuable lessons on how not to do it.

I agree with PNHP and others about the inefficiencies and redundancies of the past and remaining current health finance firms. A single payer is a good suggestion, but the ways and means by which money is garnered into the system (also the allocation policy and methods, which I will address in a moment) is problematic.

Current understanding presupposes a system of taxation, which is quite unpopular with many and even odious to some if not many if not most. For a payment system this is the major issue. There are also infrastructure problems related to existing finance systems. In other words, people have money allocated to physical capital, and there is a large amount of human resources who have dedicated much of their precious time to building the status quo. Everyone gets up and does something similar or very similar to what they did the day before. Radical change is problematic but not insurmountable.

My transition idea or plan, if you will, is a double payer system with Medicare and Medicaid on the "Public Side" and a Union of "Private" Financiers on the "Quasi-Public" Side. Reform would be expected on both sides, and maybe eventually evolving to a single payer?

Where I differ greatly from PNHP and other advocates of Single Payer, is there total abdication of their responsibility related to the huge role that the irresponsible system of health care providers and the medical industrial complex has caused in the dissolution and breakdown of an affordable workable system of health care. The answer here is again Union. Unions of Institutional and Professional providers.

Working with the above defined workers and phasing down and eventually out Capitalists, we would work to establish HMO in every region/locality and budget resources based on a medical policy set by Physicians and others who are well acquainted and versed in the abuses of the Provider Communities and are excellent, knowledgeable, experienced at their trade. Shannon Brownlee and Nortin Hadler are two eminent such Physicians who come to mind and have written excellent books. Physicians with such qualities should be the Primary Decision Makers, especially on the professional side, but also with respect to the use and allocation of Institutional Resources.

But to reiterate, working toward such an ideal needs to be done within the purview of environmental/public health policies, programs which are part of a comprehensive ecological economic reform plan.


In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity