Tom Prouty
Presents...
Some will find this article quite confronting - others see wisdom, a different perspective and a fresh point of view. I found this piece by an anonymous writer to be at the very least, a stimulating starting point to some essential discussions as to how we might move forward from the systems and structures we currently find ourselves living in. I invite conversation and communications, to commence a dialogue on what views people are drawn to. Feel free to add your comments below...
Maximizing Minimums
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Introduction
This project had its beginnings after I had been listening to my favorite radio talk show host many years ago. The host is educated as an attorney and has run for congress in the past. I find him to be both brilliant and entertaining. On this particular day, a caller had called in and expressed their concerns for our country, asking, “What do you recommend we do?” To my surprise and disappointment, the brilliant host stammered “Well, I guess what you can do is to get involved on a local level in your communities.” That was the extent of the hosts advise. Again, I was flabbergasted.
This host, now nationally syndicated, had been given a bully pulpit from which he could influence and lead our nation and, for that matter, the world. In his time of opportunity, he had no platform to offer. On that day, I had an epiphany and I made a commitment to myself. In these times of national peril or at any other time, when the affairs of man are beyond the grid of logic, I would never fail to know what it is I believe in. This writing is the result of that commitment.
Maximizing Minimums
"If we don't get our act together and come in commonality with the organisms that sustain us today, not only will we destroy those organisms, but we will destroy ourselves.
We need to have a paradigm shift in our consciousness. What will it take to achieve that? If I die trying, but I’m inadequate to the task to make a course change in the evolution of life on this planet, the fact is that I tried. How many people are not trying? If you knew that every breath you took could save hundreds of lives into the future had you walked down this path of knowledge, wouldn’t you run down that path of knowledge as fast as you could?
I believe nature is a force of good. Good is not only a concept, it is a spirit, and so, hopefully, the spirit of goodness will survive."
Paul Stamets, Mycologist, a video titled “Moving Art” at www.fantasticfungi.net by Louie Schwartzberg.
It must first be understood that no economic system is perfect. It is also understood that converting from one system to another is extremely difficult. More importantly, however, is the hard reality that at times in history, change has come, ready, easy or not. Brought on by a myriad of forces, the realities of the day have overwhelmed the status quo, bringing along change previously unseen. Be it generated by man (Stalinism in the 1950’s), environmental (the dust bowl of the 1930’s) or sociological (the bubonic plague of the 1300’s to the 1700’s), all have made their dramatic effect. Some have lingered.
Today, America stands at a crossroads. At this writing, we are five months from an election as polarized as any in history. On the right, we have a candidate who has been the beneficiary of capitalism in the extreme. Opposite him is a choice between two avowed socialists. Seldom before has the national political stage been set in such a state of disarray.
That said, an even larger question looms; is either free reigning capitalism OR socialism the answer for the country today? On the stage of world history, socialism has yet to demonstrate a single success. On the other hand, free market capitalism is in the process of offering up its most striking failure to date – that of the United States of America. The abuses of the American banking industry, the mystery of the Federal Reserve System, the failure of corporate America and our educational system suggest that it may be time to consider alternatives. More importantly, a paradigm change in the character of American society may well prove to be the next tsunami in sociological evolution. How much longer can this nation resist the demands that are before encroaching upon us? The call for a Godless society, the addiction to entitlements, the growing need and dependence for the false reality provided by hallucinogenic drugs, the failure of our society to teach young people a work ethic, the failure of our educational system to prepare students with careers offering at least a livable wage, etc., etc. As the disparity between the “haves and the have nots” has grown to extreme proportions, how much longer can the traditional economic policies of the past put out the flames of the call for “change”?
Maximizing Minimums is a free market system with restraints on excess. The system utilizes the best aspects of a free market system while limiting most negatives. The fundamental principal is that the world's resources and wealth can no longer be dominated by a few, particularly in a global economy conscious of environmental and social limitations. International social responsibility is suggesting that all individuals have equal access to resources and opportunity and that accumulation of wealth by individuals be limited to levels suitable to sustain life and a reasonable level of comfort but not to the point of extreme excess.
Maximizing Minimums is not socialism, a system in which the benefits of individual ability are not encouraged. It is also not free reigning capitalism, with all of its inherent excess.
The fundamentals of the system are as follows: