Choices Choices
It was just a teeny-weeny lie… I told my boss I had to leave work early to let the maintenance guy in to fix our water heater. Of course the water heater wasn’t really broken, and even if it was, all that meant was a cold shower in the morning. Something that might have come in useful after my secret tryst with Marco.
My heart had been pounding all morning, ever since I got his email, asking me to come over to his house. His wife was away for a few days, though he phrased it differently than that. I believe he said “I’m a bachelor till Friday.” Funny how the language we use makes our own morality. Just like lies about mundane things like water heaters make even an adulterous liaison seem like just another part of a blase life. Albeit the most exciting part.
I could barely eat lunch in anticipation. I hadn’t seen him over a year and had given up anything more ever happening with him. He was kind of an asshole, and an emotionally unavailable one at that. Though being a married woman myself, I wasn’t totally turned off by that. Basically I just wanted him, but couldn’t really explain why. He emailed me directions to his house and with a “good luck with the water heater!” from my boss, I skipped off for an afternoon delight.
I pulled up to his house in the country, which looked disconcertingly like my own house in the country. I could easily imagine trading this house, this man, for my own. But what would be the point of that. The bright afternoon sun made my naturally timid personality come out and I felt like an oaf. Where do women learn to be seductresses? I was clearly not cut out for this. We started kissing and undressing despite the awkwardness and just as I started relaxing, I heard a car pull up. He looked unnaturally calm and I acted alarmingly panicked. Luckily, I had a secret power that Marcus or his wife didn’t know about. I could make myself invisible.
I quickly put my clothes back on, grabbed my purse and ran around a corner in order to transform. Marcus was following behind me talking, clearly trying to rehearse a lie. What he didn’t realize was that the water heater lie was as much as I was capable of. I couldn’t lie in the face of someone who would quickly deduce the truth. Even if my intentions in her husband’s house were innocent, I would still look and sound as guilty as I actually was. So, I pulled a small vial from my purse and ingested a silver capsule given to me by my great uncle Shem. He knew what was up. He’d given them to me for christmas last year after an honest, yet drunken, heart to heart about my marriage. He’d been using these things for years.
I watched Marcus gasp as I slowly dissolved in front of him. I stood stock still as I watched his wife open the door, a look of anger and betrayal already written on her face. I couldn’t help but feel that this wasn’t the first time that look had crossed her face. Marcus was fantastic at many things, and lying was definitely one of them. “Hey Babe!” he bellowed as he strode over and gave her a giant bear hug. I fumed with jealousy and briefly considered reappearing, which was always an option. But I hated to see anyone’s heart break, even if it was my adversary in love.
As they walked upstairs to talk about why she was home and what he was doing and why there was a strange car in the driveway, I quietly exited, got in my car and drove away. How did he explain the car? I have no idea, nor do I care. I’m sure it was an adept lie that made her almost doubt the fact that he had cheated again. Enough to make her wonder if she was just going crazy or if she had married a lousy, philandering shithead.
Meanwhile, I was driving home, gradually coming back into the visual plane. I passed nobody for the 20 minutes until I got to the highway, so as far as I know, there were no reports of a fire engine red mini driving itself. I sniffed myself for telltale smells and tried to stop my heart from beating fast before I walked in the door. I arrived home at the time I normally would from work so I hoped to avoid having to tell another lie. If my husband found me out, it would take more than a silver pill to make it all better.
Equality and Dignity: Housing, Education, and Healthcare
EQUALITY AND DIGNITY
A Political Platform
For Equality and Dignity through Logic and Reason.
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Overview
ELECTIONS
Our electoral system does not work: with electoral colleges, and blue-states/red-states, the minority is underrepresented and the majority is powerless. Taxpayers’ money pays unjustifiably for parties’ internal nominations, the vote on election day is not secret, and, once elected, even corrupt politicians cannot be recalled.
The system simply does not work, and the country has gone down the tube: we need a system of nominated representatives who can be recalled at any time by the same body that nominates them.
ECONOMY
Regarding economic conditions, the new gods, namely “The Economy”, “The Banks”, and “The Market”, rule irrationally the irrational soul of a lost people. Letting imaginary “market forces” and “the Dow” rule our lives only opens the door to speculative forces and to monopolies: we need a real plan for resources, trade, production, and distribution, in order to know what we have, so that we can know where we are going.
FREE HEALTHCARE
We actually can afford free healthcare for all, free education for all, public safety, and free adequate housing for all: we just need the willingness to do so.
PRIORITIES
We can start giving a decent house to each citizen and family. Each individual would receive a housing value of $10,000 per year, which would amount to a value of $3 Trillion. A family of four, for instance, would receive $40,000. The housing industry, and related trades, would employ some 11.5 Million people, at a salary of $130,000 per person, at a total cost for the Treasury of $1.5 Trillion. Each housing employee would generate an output value of $260,000 (corresponding to a productivity equal to the salary times two). Everyone would have the dignity of an adequate home, which would lead to better health, better education, better public safety, and overall a better society
LOGIC
In order to achieve our goals, we need to move away from subjective irrationality, from illusions, from delusion, and from self-delusion: through logic, we need to reach objective reason.
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Only what is socially relevant and socially needed, according to social logic and social necessity, is socially valid and socially acceptable.
Assumptions:
Total Population 300 Million people.
Workforce: ages 25 to 75 are 150 Million people.
Ages 0 to 25 are 100 Million people.
Ages over 75 are 50 Million people.
Ages 75 to 85 are 35 Million people.
Ages over 85 are 15 Million people.
Guaranteed salary to workforce is $130,000 per person per year.
Measured value of production output is $260,000 per person per year.
Political representation is guaranteed via nomination of representatives to caucuses and committees.
Caucuses and committees are established at all levels of society, e.g., neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, hospitals, courts, etc.
Any representative can be recalled at any time by the same body that nominated that same representative.
Local representatives in turn nominate delegates to regional caucuses and committees, and further to national representations.
Central caucuses and committees of representatives will regulate the centralized basic social industries (healthcare, education, housing, and public safety), and monitor all other industries, production, distribution, and planning.
For purposes of equality, all committees and caucuses will be composed of an equal number of men and women.
A system of a national identification document is implemented, providing each citizen with an ID linked to a national central register of identities (linked to taxation records, to property records, to court records, to public service records, to school records, to medical records, and to housing records).
Each person is assigned a public ombudsman (or ombudsperson) as advocate for all rights and social guarantees.
Particular social care is placed on protecting children from incest, molestation, bestiality, bed-sharing, and other abuses by monitoring their wellbeing via a children’s ombudsman (or ombudsperson), that will control parental activities.
Every citizen is guaranteed the right to work at full pay between ages 25 and 75.
Every citizen is guaranteed a salary of $130,000 between ages 25 and 75.
All socially illogical old privileges are abolished, as being in contravention of social equality.
All forms of exploitation are abolished, as being in contravention of social dignity.
The measured value of the production output of each worker cannot exceed $260,000, corresponding to twice the input salary.
Every citizen will serve a mandatory total of 5 years (not necessarily consecutively) in public service in the Public Forces between ages 25 and 75.
Every citizen is guaranteed full salary also during the public service years.
Every citizen is guaranteed free healthcare, preventive care, medicines, medical devices, dental care, hearing care (including hearing devices), vision care (including eyeglasses), etc., at an estimated average value of $10,000 per person per year.
Every citizen is guaranteed free childcare and preschool between ages 0 and 5, at an estimated value of $30,000 per year.
Every citizen is guaranteed free education (including textbooks), including college and graduate level, between ages 5 and 25, at an estimated value of $30,000 per year.
All parents are fully responsible for the subsistence and actions of their own children until the child reaches age 25.
Every citizen over age 85 is guaranteed free eldercare, valued of $30,000 per person per year, in addition to the universal healthcare estimated at an average value of $10,000 per person per year.
Every citizen is guaranteed adequate and free housing, at an estimated value of $10,000 per person per year. Households with multiple members will receive multiple housing values on the basis of the number of persons living in the same household (e. g., a family of four would receive an estimated value of housing of $40,000 per year).
Every citizen is guaranteed free public safety and justice, as provided by the public forces, at an estimated average value of $13,000 per person per year.
Pension begins at age 75.
Pensioners (ages over 75) will receive a tax-free variable stipend, the size of which depends on the available surplus of the Treasury.
Students (ages between 5 and 25) will receive a tax-free variable stipend, the size of which depends on the available surplus of the Treasury.
A flat tax of 40 percent on all income of all persons (except for Treasury surplus stipends available for student and pensioners) is implemented, to be paid to Treasury: all other taxes (state tax, property tax, sales tax, payroll tax, etc.) are abolished. Currently, a 25% federal income tax, a 7.5% payroll tax, and a 7.5% sales tax add up to a tax rate of some 40%, on top of which state taxes and property taxes need to be added for a proper comparison.
All healthcare services, including hospitals, clinics, HMOs, laboratories, pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, research institutes, health insurance providers, etc., are centralized and regulated.
All educational services, including schools, colleges, universities, textbook publishing companies, etc., are centralized and regulated.
All housing services, including development, construction, maintenance, furniture industries, appliance industries, utilities, etc., are centralized and regulated.
All public safety services, including police, courts, defense, military installations, diplomatic corps, security, surveillance, intelligence, fire protection, etc., are centralized and regulated.
All insurance services are centralized and regulated, balancing equally premium and risk at no profit and no loss.
The death penalty is abolished.
Imprisonment is abolished and substituted by a system of personal individualized corrective assistance provided by the Public Forces.
Violent and dangerous sports are prohibited.
Ownership of firearms and weapons is prohibited.
Fireworks and firecrackers are hazardous, wasteful, socially illogical, and therefore prohibited.
Sport hunting and sport fishing are prohibited.
Animal sports are prohibited.
Utilization of animals in all kinds of research, tests, wasteful use, and ridicule is prohibited.
In order to eliminate animal-transmitted diseases and allergies, reduce fecal pollution, curb child bestiality, and limit noise from, e.g., barking dogs, all ownership of pets and other domestic animals is restricted and controlled by health authorities.
Motorcycle noise and motorcycle gangs are banned, in light of their socially negative intimidating effect.
Excessively expensive and frivolous leisure activities and equipment are banned as being social illogical.
Public gambling, like lottery, casino, bingo, poker, etc., is socially irrational and, as such, banned. Private gambling as addiction will be dealt with within the frame of the universal healthcare system.
Obesity is to be treated as a medical condition, and will be dealt with within the frame of the universal healthcare system.
Elective surgery is subjected to the control of health authorities.
Non-essential cosmetic surgery, tattoos, piercing, and non-essential cosmetic dentistry is regulated within the frame of the universal healthcare system.
Transplant of organs from living individuals is prohibited.
False advertising and sales practices, which mislead consumers, are prohibited.
Only thoroughly informative advertisement, of a non-emotional character, will be allowed.
All schemes of copyrights, patents, royalties, and trademarks are abolished.
All schemes of debt, pawn, money lending, usury, and interest payment are prohibited.
The system of companies and corporations, limiting personal liabilities and responsibilities, is abolished.
The schemes of market trading in stock, shares, options, bonds, public offerings, etc., of fictitious businesses and corporations are abolished.
The schemes of mutual funds, hedge funds, swaps, derivatives, etc., often defined as “the economy”, are abolished.
Only sole proprietorships, general partnerships, and cooperatives of individuals with personal responsibility will be allowed to conduct business, manufacturing, and trade.
Adequate professional and ethical standards are established for doctors, dentists, lawyers, accountants, journalists, engineers, architects, pilots, etc.
In order to reduce gang supremacy, all public use of uniforms, particular and symbolic clothing, distinguishing headdresses, and all display of symbols will be regulated and reserved for the public forces.
Public superstitious and irrational practices and rituals are prohibited.
Socially irrelevant and irrational manipulation and indoctrination of underage or disabled individuals are prohibited.
So called “home-schooling” systems, fabrications, and schemes are abolished: each child has the right to receive real education.
Exclusive clubs, secret societies, mysterious associations, racketeering, cartels, orders, hierarchies, castes, gangs, fraternities and sororities, tribal separatism, clans, etc., are all prohibited in light of the fact that similar organizations contravene social logic and equality.
Participation and membership in all clubs, groups, and associations is free and open to all citizens: all discriminatory practices are prohibited.
For purposes of equality, chest and breast exposure will be equally permitted or prohibited to men and women, without any gender discrimination.
Monopolies and cartels against social interests are prohibited.
Churches and other public buildings are to be utilized for representation meetings and political assemblies.
The metric system is enforced in all industries.
The time differences within the country are suspended, and the central time will be the only official national time for all states.
Alcohol and tobacco are considered controlled substances, and are regulated and distributed within the frame of the universal health care system.
Narcotics and other drugs are regulated as controlled substances, and are therefore regulated and distributed within the frame of the universal health care system.
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People who find themselves using controlled substances will be dealt with within the frame of the universal healthcare system.
All forms of Intelligent Quotient testing, attitude tests, and personality tests can only be administered and provided within the frame of the universal health care system if required for psychiatric or psychological testing.
In order to ensure parental maturity and social responsibility, procreation is restricted, by mutual social agreement, to individuals over age 30.
In order to curb the current trend of overpopulation and to protect the global environment, procreation or adoption is limited, by mutual social agreement, to an assignment of a maximum of one child per person.
All real estate and property are recorded in a title register or cadastral system.
All occupations of foreign territories are prohibited.
No wars will be tolerated.
Assassination and plans thereof, whether domestic or international, are obviously prohibited.
Each state or part of the nation has the right to secede if its representative caucuses or committees so decide.
The Treasury collects taxes and distributes national wealth to centralized and regulated industries.
A dual currency system is introduced, one for debt and repayment of debt (dollars, $), and one for salaries and production output (utils, U).
The regulated healthcare industry will serve 300 Million people (all ages) for an average service value of $10,000 per person per year, and will employ 11.5 Million people at a salary of $130,000 per person, with a production output value of $260,000 per person, at a total cost for the Treasury of $1.5 Trillion (current annual expenses for healthcare in the USA approximate $2.3 Trillion).
The regulated childcare and education industries will serve 100 Million people (childcare ages 0 to 5 and education ages 5 to 25) for an average service value of $30,000 per person per year, and will employ 11.5 Million people at a salary of $130,000 per person, with a production output value of $260,000 per person, at a total cost for the Treasury of $1.5 Trillion.
The regulated housing industry will serve 300 Million people (all ages) for an average service value of $10,000 per person per year, and will employ 11.5 Million people at a salary of $130,000 per person, with a production output value of $260,000 per person, at a total cost for the Treasury of $1.5 Trillion.
The regulated public safety industry will serve 300 Million people (all ages) for an estimated average service value of $13,000 per person per year, and will employ 15 Million people at a salary of $130,000 per person, with a production output value of $260,000 per person, at a total cost for the Treasury of $2 Trillion.
The regulated eldercare industry will serve 15 Million people (ages over 85) for an average service value of $30,000 per person per year, and will employ 1.7 Million people at a salary of $130,000 per person, with a production output value of $260,000 per person, at a total cost for the Treasury of $220 Billion.
The public service of all citizens in the Public Forces for 5 years between ages 25 and 75, totaling 15 Million people in service at any given time, will lead to a cost for the Treasury of some $2 Trillion ($130,000 for each enrolled citizen) obtaining a value of services of $3.9 Trillion ($260,000 of measured value of output generated by each enrolled individual).
The Treasury will have revenues of $7.8 Trillion (40% of $130,000 each for 150 Million persons), and will also receive a value of public service by the Public Forces of $3.9 Trillion ($260,000 value of output per year by 15 Million persons in mandatory enrollment in the Public Force at any given time).
The Treasury will have costs of $1.5 Trillion for healthcare, $1.5 Trillion for childcare and education, $1.5 Trillion for housing, $2 Trillion for public service, and $220 Billion for Eldercare, totaling thus some $6.7 Trillion.
The variable surplus of some $1.1 Trillion will be distributed equally in the form of non-taxable stipends to students (ages 5 to 25) and pensioners (ages over 75), totaling some 150 Million people, corresponding to approximately $7,000 per year to each student or pensioner.
Industries like food, clothing, information, entertainment, communication, transportation, infrastructure, energy, import, export, etc., are monitored in accordance with social logic and social need.
All socially non-productive activities are regulated.
All socially non-essential activities are regulated.
All cultural, research, and artistic activities are monitored in accordance with social relevancy.
All production, distribution, and trade will be planned on the basis of existing and future resources in order to meet social needs in accordance with social logic.
Fresh potable water is the most valuable resource on the planet: therefore the usage of water will be regulated, and any waste or socially non-essential use of water will be restricted or prohibited.
Some 50 Million people will be employed in regulated industries, financed by the Treasury, for a budget of some $6 Trillion. (The current national budget in the USA is about $4 Trillion.)
Some 100 Million people will be employed in monitored industries, for a gross domestic income of some $13 Trillion. (The current national gross domestic product in the USA is about $15 Trillion, with a current rate of exploitation of 5 to 6 and even 10 times the worker’s salary.)
International awareness of social necessities will be constantly promoted.
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The above text is a preliminary draft of the political program for
EQUALITY AND DIGNITY
(for Equality and Dignity through Logic and Reason)
EQUALITY AND DIGNITY
A Philosophical Platform
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The text here below, “A Philosophical Platform”, summarizes in the most concise way the conceptual reality of humanity. This is neither a school of thought, nor propaganda for a certain belief, nor a concoction of superstitions. It is pure philosophy, “philos sophos”, love of knowledge, passion for wisdom, and therefore not a path that your learn or follow, but a conceptual structure that you arrive at by thinking rationally and reasoning logically.
A PHILOSOPHICAL PLATFORM
1 The human mind processes concepts.
2 Valid concepts are those that represent reality.
3 Reality is composed by matter, by mental processes, and by social phenomena.
4 Matter is composed by all tangible objects, simple and complex.
5 Mental processes are all the activities of the human mind.
6 Social phenomena are all the manifestations of all social relations.
7 All reality can be experienced, directly or indirectly.
8 All concepts of reality acquired through direct experience are valid.
9 All concepts of reality acquired through indirect experience need to be validated by each individual.
10 Validation is the process of relating the concept back to the reality that it represents, namely matter, mental processes, or social phenomena.
11 The individual is at the same time matter, repository of mental processes, and component of social phenomena.
The above text describes all reality, subjective and objective, narrow and broad, particular and general, small and big, tree and forest, personal and professional, individual and social, superfluous and essential, inconsistent and consistent, the symbol and the content, the form and the substance, the part and the whole.
We welcome your observations and suggestions, for the general enhancement of logic and reason for equality and dignity.
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EQUALITY AND DIGNITY
Worldview
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THE UNIVERSE
We exist because our planet is at a certain distance from the Sun: so the distance of our Earth from the Sun happens to allow the kind of life that we see on our planet.
Other stars, just like our Sun, have other planets, just like our Earth: there are one billion stars in our own galaxy (the Milky Way), stars just like our Sun, with planets similar to our Earth, and some of those planets have other forms of life. The various forms of life depend on the distances of certain planets from certain stars, which give different temperatures and different conditions for different types of life.
The universal space that contains our galaxy is uniform and infinite, and has always existed, and will always exist, eternal and endless in all directions. More than one billion of galaxies, with one billion stars in each of them, just like our Milky Way, travel through the dark vacuum of the universe. And so do dark matter, comets, asteroids, and meteorites, pushed and pulled by gravitational forces, electromagnetic fields, gamma rays, nuclear resultants, radioactive streams, and stellar winds.
From time to time stars, planets and galaxies collide, collapse, and re-emerge in a random long-term universal chaos that controls short-term patterns of cosmic trajectories and astronomic recurrences.
LIFE ON EARTH
On our planet, various electric and chemical forces, favored by heat and humidity, developed early forms of life in the form of bacteria, molds, and fungi, which over billions of years continuously transformed themselves into different manifestation of life.
We humans represent just one phase of these manifestations of life. The current bio-diversity of our planet displays other manifestations of the same type of organic life, determined by the climatic conditions resulting from our distance from the Sun. All organic matter flourishes and decays in a constant transformation from specie to specie.
SOCIAL SYSTEMS
Humanity is just one of the social expressions present on out planet. Other forms of life present similar expressions: forests, anthills, schools of fish, flocks of birds.
Complex multiplicity require social logic in order to coexist, and humans have developed over time such a capability. There is a constant need to implement social co-existence through social logic, by determining what is socially relevant, socially productive, and socially essential.
Without social logic, humanity plunges back into the darkness of ignorance and destruction. No human can exist alone on the planet. Humans are social animals.
SOCIAL LOGIC
Through social logic, humanity can determine what is good for the individual in light of what is good for society. If an action or event is not good for society, it would not be good for a particular individual either, unless that individual follows socially negative rules of oppression and exploitation, which contradict social logic.
Often socially illogical and socially irrelevant arguments, like superstition or religion, are used to prolong and protect the privileges of a certain individual or of a certain tribe or group of people.
Rules of social logic are also able to determine what is socially productive and socially essential: these are crucial considerations, necessary to be determined at the time of planning, of allocation of scarce resources, or at the time of distribution of limited goods.
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SUMMARY
We establish local caucuses and committees, and we nominate representatives for the higher political bodies of the basic centralized regulated industries, namely healthcare, education, housing, and public safety.
We get free childcare and preschool until age 5, we get free education until age 25, we all get free healthcare and free housing, we all agree as a nation not to have children before age 30 (and then only two children per couple), we retire at age 75, and we get free eldercare after age 85.
While working we all get $130,000 per year, and we all pay a flat 40% in income tax: no other taxes apply. And during the course of our work-life, we all commit ourselves to serve 5 years in public service, at full pay, administering and planning together the people’s resources.
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Your suggestions, questions, and comments are welcome.
Join EQUALITY AND DIGNITY!
For Equality and Dignity through Logic and Reason.
Join now!
Free participation.
This is a social movement.
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Guaranteed free healthcare to all.
Free childcare.
Free education to all up to age 25.
Free housing to all.
Free public safety to all.
Free eldercare over age 85.
Guaranteed employment over age 25.
Guaranteed salary between ages 25 and 75, also to homemakers (over age 25) and graduate students (over age 25).
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We only live once, here and now: let’s make the best of it.
Today is tomorrow’s yesterday, and tomorrow we will be judged on the basis of how we act today.
EQUALITY AND DIGNITY
equalityanddignity@yahoo.com
EQUALITY AND DIGNITY
CENTRAL BUREAU FOR STATISTICS AND INFORMATION
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