PRay TeLL, Dr. Hash

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A freeway costs a billion dollars but if enough people use it, the cost per mile is low & folks are willing to pool their resources via taxes to build it, and as long as the freeway is “free,” the societal calculations make sense. Beaches have already been determined to be community assets and force public access: The Rich can't rope them off for...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">At some point, The American Dream included owning your own home. It used to be that your house factored into your self-image. Part of this was probably due to America's abundant space, inexpensive building materials & lax regulation, which made modern, fully-equipped houses relatively inexpensive. However, after the 2008 crash, largely as a result...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">There's lots of talk about the Middle Class and everyone seems to think they're in it. Other than the mega-rich, even the wealthy consider themselves Middle Class, and The Poor feel like they are essentially Middle Class or close, like owning a cell phone, a car, having a place to live & eating Fast Food. The reality is that the Middle Class is ac...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Oil is miraculous. In the beginning is was literally free, unlimited energy. It could be easily pumped out of the ground for nothing & used in motors without refining. It's liquid at room temperature, can be handled by untrained people, easy to transport, and only a handful can move a two-ton vehicle two miles. And this doesn't even mention all th...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Today's protests are reminiscent of the turbulent 1960s heyday, but any comparison lacks the context of the time. People still had to fear the police in 1960, the protesters didn't feel a sense of entitlement or even safety, nor were they empowered, which was usually why folks in the past demonstrated in the first place. Back then, the movement leader...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The arguments used to promote public financing of political campaigns is that money drowns out competing voices, and the Marxist idea that all candidates should start on a equal playing field. Some cities, like Seattle, have added a tax to Real Property to finance local candidates. But why are property owners specifically responsible for democracy? An...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Productivity is the secret of societal bliss, resulting in a vibrant society focused on progress and scientific knowledge. When people have a motive to work, normally they can produce at least enough to survive, and because of specialization & mechanical leverage, the productivity of a single individual far exceeds their basic needs. In fact, memb...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Is there still as much emphasis on self-reliance as there was in the past or was that simply the mythology of my youth? Perhaps the idea of “helicopter parents” is a media creation but probably they're actually helpful in promoting their child's future. I also wonder if there's a correlation between self-reliance & ideology? Self-reliance is certa...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Our discovery of original political & philosophical concepts now numbers in the 100s, let's review the most recent ones:</p> <p style="text-indent: -0.27in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.3in; page-break-before: auto;">1. Casual relationships are easy to maintain because they don't cost much, but sincere relationships are...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">"Obesity" is a medical term that means a person is more than just fat, and the term “morbidly obese” basically equates to death. The vast majority of Americans are fat, and almost 40% are obese. Unlike in the past, there's no public shame to being obese, and judging by the number of obese people, over 60% of the population in some places, tr...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Age in America takes on an importance way beyond anything else because if you are the right age, young or old, you get free money. More importantly, if you have sex with someone that has not hit an arbitrary age set by the State, you could go to prison for years & be marked as a sex offender for life. The Old exploit their voting power by impressi...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Mysticism creeps into politics from both sides: the religious conservatives have a list of tenets that God delivered & the collectivists, who are often atheists, have their own divine revelations, a belief that human beings and possibly animals are born with Rights, though it's not so clear where they came from? In a traditional liberal democracy,...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The problem with unwritten rules, called values & morals, is that they can easily be exploited, either through leverage or because of lack of formal enforcement. Apologies are part of the courtesy ritual: rather than duel due to a slight of honor, both sides simply apologized: no cost in blood or treasure yet effective, but courtesy is in decline...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Courtesy is when people try to reciprocate their own comfort by making other people comfortable. It's one of the “values” that people are always harping about, yet they rarely defend, and many abuse it. We can only be in the company of strangers through unwritten & unenforced courtesy, otherwise we would travel with swords, and in fact, one of the...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The concept of spontaneous order, self-organization out of chaos, is the underpinning theory of liberty & Free Markets. It was first postulated in 300 BC by Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, and modernized in the 20th Century by Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek. When you look into the sky and see an elegantly organized flock of birds, all in intrica...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">“The American Dream” has at least two meanings & probably more depending on who you talk to. Most of us think the meaning we were raised with is the only one, and we are surprised when we use the phrase in debate but the other side seems confused. My meaning, the traditional liberty meaning, is that The American Dream is to aspire to have as much...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">At the start of the previous century, Teddy Roosevelt used to rail about "hyphenated Americans" ruining our national integrity, and indeed the idea of a "melting pot" came from that time: no matter where you came from, you integrated into society, and we were all Americans. In fact, the most successful countries income equality-wis...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Relationships are life's greatest source of control: at every contact we try to determine who is in charge. Positive relationships that you want to continue show an acceptance of this hierarchy, and the most successful relationships have an easy exchange of control. A good relationship is comfortable and provides something positive to both parties. Un...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Who knew there could be so many unique & original ideas you had never heard before? Let's review:</p> <p style="text-indent: -0.3in; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.29in; page-break-before: auto;">1. Anyone who says they can predict the future is lying to get control over you.</p> <p style="text-indent: -0.3i...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">No concept has been quite so distorted, exploited & co-opted as charity, wrapped up as it is in religion, morals, paternalism, indoctrination, shunning, guilt & sympathy. Modern charitable organizations are mostly irredeemable, cynically used to cover for those whose intent is to extract wealth & self-esteem from others for themselves, and...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Market purists aren't sure what to make of China: on-the-one-hand, it's a Communist nation, but-on-the-other, they are cutthroat, no-holds-barred Capitalists using Market Theory to drag their multi-billion human nation from the Dark Ages into the forefront of modernity. Socialists are also in a quandary: on-the-one-hand, it's a Communist nation which...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The U.S. put a man on the moon from nothing in 1961 to "before the end of the decade" in 1969, less than 10 years, but it's been estimated it would take 10-15 years to put a man on the moon today because of safety, or whatever, I'm not quite sure? You'd think all the specialization & fixation on perfection would payoff somehow in space b...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">My generation of Americans was absolutely traumatized by the word “nuclear.” As a grade-schooler in Nevada, we practiced “duck-and-cover” several times a year which was supposed to protect us from earthquakes and atomic bombs. Even though our teachers reassured us the possibility of either was remote, impressionable young children cannot make such sop...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Always be suspicious when apocalyptic predictions come out of no where that require the whole world to get involved or some unconscionable calamity will occur. Climate Change is the current bug-a-boo, but other common themes are epidemics, the population explosion, asteroids, genetically modified insects, or any number of nightmare scenarios that requ...

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The argument against driverless cars is similar to protectionism arguments: what about the jobs? And the foes are also similar too: unions, environmentalists who don't like cars in the first place, and socialists who want all people treated the same which is code for mass transit. Foes also include conservatives & other Luddites who are afraid of...