It's not the Big Three, It's Capitalism

Picture this not entirely absurd scenario; Washington bails out the big 3 auto makers giving them the money they need to stay open and keep producing cars. No one is really buying these cars, thus the reason they're in this hole in the first place (Market share of American auto manufacturers has been steadily decreasing for decades). The manufacturers keep pumping out cars because they have the money and doing this is how the workers get paid. The cars pile up on lots. Ultimately, time and energy is wasted, materials and resources used up, and nothing of any use has been produced.

This is the end result of all capitalism. Capitalism inevitably leads away from utility, as the system puts more emphasis on the dollar, which should only ever have been symbolic of its ability to transfer to real wealth, that is material goods, then on the actual material produced and the benefit it may have for society. Rather than producing what society really needs (an efficient, high-speed, non-polluting transportation system) it produces what attracts more symbolic little pieces of paper (or more often today, symbolic little electronic bits in an accounting system).

On the reality front, it isn't about making cars, it's about providing the ability for people to get from where they are to where they want to be in a timely manner. On the capitalist front, it's about how much money you can earn for share holders. These goals are increasingly divergent.

Look at how the recent economic downturn has affected recycling. Recycling is in major decline because it is no longer "cost effective". What does cost effectiveness matter if your world can not support you, and you die? Recycling isn't just done because it's cost effective, that's just why it gets done in a capitalist society. Recycling should be done because it minimizes waste and allows us to reuse materials that, while sometimes abundant, are none the less finite, and because in many cases the amount of energy used in recycling is less than in extracting raw ore and refining it.

In a capitalist society you can't do things for long if they don't make money. If it came down to saving our species and losing money or dieing off and making money, we'd die and leave enormous bank accounts behind.
From this perspective, what is the real importance of a dollar? What is the real importance of living?

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the current problems are apocalyptic in any way. They're not. Our economy will recover this time. People out of work will work again and the world will go on. This is neither the end of our society nor the end of capitalism, but capitalism is incompatible with sustainability. For all the talk recently about sustainable energy, none of the companies with the resources to act, or the government agencies with the authority understand what sustainable means, nor do they want to.
It would mean a few too many rich and important people would have to give up their power and the great difference in wealth between themselves and everyone else.

And for the record, sustainability does not require poverty or the end of technology. It depends on technology and can create a society in which all people have access to the resources and means of production to have material wealth equal to that of today's moderately rich.
This isn't a utopian dream. It is well within the realm of technological possibility, based solely on the technology available today. It is mathematics and engineering and that is all.

What Your Attention Span Did Today

Ok, so the government posting thing was a bust, mainly because I got extremely bored reading about what congress was doing. Some of it is important, no doubt, and more was amusing, but most was meaningless chaff about naming buildings and blah blah blah.
I did learn a lesson, however. Hide your nefarious deeds in immense amounts of legalese and bury them within the depths of excessively verbose prose on topics that would put a crack head into a coma and no one will be able to withstand the boredom to get to the real stuff.
Maybe I should discuss physics. There are real humans known to be interested in that stuff.

What Your Government Did Today #7

1) A whole bunch of stuff was scheduled for debate, meaning the committees want the whole Senate to consider it and they will get to it when the majority leadership decides to get to it. Such topics include national trail system, water quality, environmental effects on children, land exchange, historic site boundaries, A second bill to add the same two rivers (reported in issue #3) to the national wild and scenic rivers system, aging water infrastructure, wilderness designation, establish a commemorative trail connecting sites related in some way to women's rights (Go Hilary), initiate a theme study to find sites to commemorate the Cold War,

2) (HR-5893) A bill to reautherize the preservation of sound recordings and films by the Library of Congress passed the Senate and awaits the president's signature.

3) The Senate passed a resolution congratulating Latvia for it's 90th anniversary of its declaration of Independence.

4) House Budget Report of HR-6899:Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection act
The actual act also passed the House and awaits Senate approval.

5)Shigeru Yamada, Esther Karinge, Kumi Iizuka-Barcena and Corina de Chalup Turcinovic were granted permanent Resident status.

What Your Government Did Today #6

1) File of cost estimate of 20.6 Billion dollars to fund NASA for 2009

2) (S-3489) Hilary Clinton (D-NY) Introduced a bill requiring the EPA to conduct a study on black carbon emissions.

3) Senate introduced a resolution declaring September 27, 2008 Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Day.

4) (S-2135) Child Soldier accountability act (previously mentioned in issue #1) has passed the House.

5) Hilary Clinton (D-NY) Introduced a concurrent resolution expressing the sense of Congress on the need for a national AIDS strategy

6) (S-2332) A bill to promote transparency in the adoption of new rules by the FCC in regards to new media ownership and recommendations on how to create representation of women and minorities in ownership of broadcast media.

7) (HR-5167) A bill to terminate the authority of the President to waive certain provisions in the National Defense Authorization act, in regards to Iraq.
--Basically what this really means is that the President can no longer declare immunity for the Iraqi government for claims by possible victims of torture or terrorism if it is in the interest of national security (national security wouldn't be an excuse to offer immunity any longer), or if it promotes the reconstruction of Iraq or Iraq continues to be a partner with the U.S. in combating terrorism.

What Your Government Did Today #5

1) File of request for cost estimate for extending the E-Verify program (allows employers to do checks on potential employees through social security and department of homeland security) by 5 years (scheduled to end in November 2008)
--This is all congress will do for the next 3 days. I'll assume there's a weekend in here as I have no concept of time.

What Your Government Did Today #4

1) Charles Schumere (D-NY) introduced a bill to temporarily increase tax credit on new qualified hybrid school buses
--Should increase number of hybrid buses, Congress is on a role lately. If they keep this up I may start thinking they're effective.

2) Hillary Clinton (D-NY) introduced a bill requiring Congress to present a plan to establish an oil trust to the government of Iraq
--In other words, to prove we're not going to steal all their oil.

3) Bill mentioned in issue #1 extending State Department powers, passed the Senate

4) A bill to establish a commission to investigate circumstances around the relocation, internment etc. of Latin Americans of Japanese decent from 1941 to 1948 and to suggest appropriate remedies etc.
--So, 60 years later we're going to "appropriately remedy" having deported and arrested people of Japanese decent. How do you remedy having taken someones freedom away 60 years ago? You can bribe them, it doesn't exactly make up for it.

5) A bill to force the director of FEMA to account for the storage (at tax-payer cost) of a huge surplus of manufactured housing (trailers), originally introduced in November of 2007 is finally scheduled for initial debate.
--So we paid for an additional 10 months of storage while waiting for Congress to agree to have a committee meet about whether or not it should be written into a formal bill which they can then vote on whether or not to take before Congress for a vote. Super bureaucratic powers...DELAY!

What Your Government Did Today #3

1) Charles Schumer (D-NY) introduced a bill to maintain funding to ensure hospitals can continue operating nursing and allied health care worker education programs.
--I have no comments, we need more nurses, so anything that helps that along is good.

2) Charles Schumer (D-NY) introduced a bill to ensure an impartial forum for claims brought by U.S. Citizens against incorporated Railroads for possible involvement in transportation to Nazi concentration camps.
--Yes we're still working on this 63 years later. Amazing watching bureaucracy work.

3) Hilary Clinton (D - NY) introduced a bill "expressing the sense of Congress" about sexual assault and rape in the military. This is mostly to get the attention of the rest of Congress on the issue, which to summarize is that around 10,000 service women are sexually assaulted or raped each year, of which, less than 200 cases are ever referred to courts marshal (Around 2,000 are officially reported and action can be taken on them). So something like 9,800 sexual assaults occur each year that go unpunished.

4) A bill addressing transfer of Naval vessels to foreign agents is scheduled for debate

5) File of cost estimate of banning export of mercury.

6) Bill to allow veterans living in rural areas (presumably without reasonable access to a VA hospital) to receive medical care at VAs cost from another provider. Passed the House, awaiting consideration in the Senate.
--All our veterans should be taken care of, so this sounds like a good idea to me.

7) Bill to add two rivers in Vermont to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers system passed the House.

8)Bill to prevent Tobacco smuggling and enable the collection of tobacco taxes passed the House.
--Apparently taxes are becoming so high on this, people are finding it more cost effective to smuggle tobacco into the country than pay $7+ for a pack of cigarettes.

What Your Government Did Today #2

1) Provide for equitable compensation to the Spokane Tribe of Indians of the Spokane Reservation for the use of tribal land for the production of hydropower by the Grand Coulee Dam, and for other purposes. The government decided it would be nice enough to provide what it feels is "equitable" compensation to the Spokane Indians for using their land for producing hydropower. Notice no mention of asking them first. Because really, the land belongs to the government and their just squatting on it. That's why they were forced onto the reservation in the first place, couldn't respect the governments ownership of the land here.

2) Recognized the historical significance of the USS Constellation. You heard it here folks, our government decides what's historically significant. It won't be long before they're writing history. Turns out Orwell was only off by a few decades.

3) Express the sense that the emergency communications provided by the Red Cross are a vital resource. Yes this means they didn't do anything at all except to say "we feel emergency communication is important." Not even know, just feel.

What Your Government Did Today #1

This is a new series that will be published intermittently to inform you lowly people what your government is spending its time doing.

1) Extend certain powers of the state department by 1 year including International Broadcasting Bureau personal services contracting pilot program under which U.S. citizens or aliens are hired as personal services contractors, without regard to Civil Service and classification laws.

2) Designate the week of September 14-20 polycystic kidney disease awareness week. No you don't get the week off.

3) Designate the US courthouse located at 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York, as the "Theodore Roosevelt United States Courthouse". I'm sure Theo's proud to have gotten some of Congress's time.

4) Prohibited the use or recruitment of child soldiers. Wasn't this already illegal? The Senate and House passed different versions so they have to work out the differences before it can go to the president to be signed or vetoed. So if you want to recruit or use child soldiers, now's the time! Remember, US law is not ex post facto!

past week:
5) killing civilians:
US Government responsible for death of 1 woman, 4 security officers while on duty patrolling and Dr Abdul Salam al-Shimari, Head of Internal Disease Dept at Baquba General Hospital (Iraq)

UK Government responsible for death of a man in his own home.