Discussing Disparity

 This week, I watched a YouTube video where a couple of folks talked to some degree about economic disparity.  You had a pro-economic disparity and anti-economic disparity representative....with a neutral person or two.

So the basis of this argument revolves around this....X-number of people live healthy, well-to-do lives, and Y-number of people live diseased (sickly), meager, destitute lives.  As you can imagine....it's not fair.

I paused over this argument (occurring about ten minutes into the discussion), and the rest of the chatter didn't really matter to me (I muted it).  

The basic problem with this discussion is that you would want to invent a want to take (tax or steal) the wealthy folks accumulation of cash, and just redistribute....in anticipation that ten to twenty years later.....everyone would be even.  Being over sixty and having met a ten-thousand-odd people on both sides of this problem....I can tell you that for each 'loser'....there's probably seven winners or marginal-winners.  And for each 'loser'....the majority of them (if just given the cash)....would be unable to develop the skill-set to be on the other side of life.

I worked with a guy who'd been given around $100k from Grandma's will, and spent around eighteen months developing the skill to handle money on his own.  Four years later....through a good sense of investing....the $100k was worth almost $750k.  

I worked with another guy who'd been given $25k by a will situation, and the whole amount disappeared in a matter of four months.

I worked with various individuals with drinking issues, and it didn't matter what the Air Force to stabilize their lives and halt the drinking.....the problem continued.  In one case, I figured the Air Force spent nearly $50k on treatment situations over a four-year period.....finally grasping that the guy could not ever get ahead.

The problem with the economic disparity crowd.....they really want to 'save' everyone and make the world an enormously happy place.  These are people who've never been to the Oakhaven area of Memphis on a dark night.  These are naïve people who don't realize the level of problems and how money doesn't cure your ills.  And these are people who feel that the crowd who got ahead in life....ought to be responsible for the 'losers' (when they really don't feel that sense of owing someone).  

Observations

 1.  What happened to Jussie Smollett?  It's like he totally disappeared.

2.  What happened to Hunter Biden?

3.  Juneteenth ending up as a holiday?  Well, there's hype it may happen.  The Latino crowd?  They are openly discussing 5 May (Cinco de Mayo).  Would we give up two of the present holidays? 

Personally, I think we ought to have 365 holidays on the calendar.....to honor a lot of things (even Halloween and Ironman's birthday ought to be a national holiday).

Border Story/Fantasy

 In roughly two weeks, Donald Trump is scheduled to visit the US border (Texas).

Pressure now building for VP Harris?  I would say that her planning team is now sitting there at least four hours a day, and discussing how they could get ahead of Trump, or how to downplay Trump's visit.

The fantasy scene I could see playing out?  There out of the brush...walks six Hispanic kids....having crossed the border, and here is the Texas Governor and Trump.

Trump reaches into his bag and pulls out six ice cold waters and offers them up to the kids.  Headline for the next day?  Trump saves kids! Yes, it would be that crazy.  

The Thing About Nature

 “If people think nature is their friend, then they sure don’t need an enemy.” 

– Kurt Vonnegut

I sat and admired the quote this morning.  There are various things that occur in nature, and they end up as front-page news now.  From disease, to hurricanes, to drought.  

A New Phobia

 Terminus-Phobia?  

Well....yeah.  It basically translate over to being an irrational fear of borders.  

Our Vice-President (Harris) has Terminus-Phobia.  I don't think before 2021 that she had this phobia of borders....this started up in the past hundred days with this new job that President Biden gave her....in facilitating a solution for the border.

Somewhere in this business....she got this irrational fear of the border.  

Normally, mental health specialists would have sat down and figured out a treatment program for a person in this case....but I doubt if they've had enough time to resolve this.

What I would suggest....just take a person with Terminus-Phobia, and toss them into a bread-truck....taking them to the border.  Hand them a six-pack of beer as they exit the truck and see the sign proclaiming the border.  Then give them an hour or two to accept the border situation....getting rid of this irrational fear.  

The One-Quarter Chatter

 One of the odd 'add-on's' that you get with Netflix and the various streaming video platforms now....is 'speed-handling'.  This means if you want to run the video at a slightly faster speed, or much slower speed....you can.

So in the past year, folks have began to notice various 'experts' appearing who view a 3-minute clip at one-quarter speed, and then providing 12-minute presentation where they talk about all the secret things in this 3-minute clip.

As you begin to review these....you come to realize that production teams are putting in tremendous amounts of time to hide things in the clip.....making you the viewer get more intense over the story, or the video.  

Adding to the production time and story?  

Well, you could now have a two-hour Marvel movie where sixty hidden things are in the background....that you'd normally never notice.

It means you have to sit there after watching the two hours.....putting in another four extra hours....grasping these hidden story pieces.  On top of that, you need a $1,200 special giant-screen TV to see the clips at one-quarter speed. 

I recently watched Netflix's Army of the Dead, and there is some moment about halfway through the movie (on zombies') where I suddenly realize that there is a time-loop suggested in the story, and a couple of moments where you realize it's intentional for you to believe that.  The potential that three different additional movies might be made over the one single Army of the Dead?  I'd go and suggest that.

What's the Chief Problem of Society Today?

 Self-righteousness and lack of tolerance.  

It's a skill-set that people had upon coming out of school prior to the 1990s.  

You learned to be marginally tolerant of people and just nod your head.  As stupid or crazy as the person might have been.....you had to work with them or socialize with them in various ways.  

You learned to avoid the holier-than-thou behavior, and quietly hide your moral superiority.  

You learned to be hypocritical of people....but just not say that to their face.

You learned that no one was perfect.  

Where did these skill-sets go?  Unknown.  They literally disappeared overnight, and I would suggest the bulk of the nation are wandering around in a daze....unable to confront reality.