Browsing the archives for the economy category

Oil and water – a recipe for disaster, or evolution?

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economy, environment, evolution, health

Getting upset about things of the world don’t too often get deep under my skin, but the latest disaster that threatens to take away even more of our pristine areas just feels like a kick in the gut. I actually had to avoid reading as much as I usually do on the event, since visions of helpless animals covered in oil and honest-working families suffering potential economic tragedies just flooded my mind with negative thoughts. Instead of wallowing in the misery, I thought how this event could cause all of us to pause and think about where we are in our evolution.

We are now at the stage of our humanity where we can create really amazing technologies while reducing our imprint on this planet with outdated technologies that cannot be sustainable with the amount of people that live in the world. The mass bulk of people of the world would  want to have the American / Western civilization lifestyle. To avoid a the creation of a black hole here on earth, we can make a few changes.

I’m talking:

  • Cars with piston engines that can be powered with compressed air
  • Solar-powered technology
  • Wind power
  • Tide power (no, not the detergent)
  • Educating about pollution and litter control
  • Green chemistry for pharmaceutical production
  • … just for starters …

Yes, battery hybrid cars are a step in the right direction, but how long until we see a disaster from the battery production and disposal when all cars on the road are running on Duracells? If we are to think that we can envision wonderful vacations with pure sandy beaches, warm ocean waters to swim in, landscapes of modern cities without pollution, while at the same time having more fossil fuel cars, more plastic, and more Fritos chip bags, then we are trying to realize a pipe dream.

It all starts with a change of the mind… with imagination. John Lennon got the tune right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okd3hLlvvLw

Imagine, imagine, imagine. Each physical item began by manifesting an image, a thought.

Okay, I’ll start. Imagine a place where people are given a base salary to keep the planet free of litter and making purchasing decisions that improved the habitat. Imagine that companies started building products and trying to reach a zero habitat impact throughout the whole production of products and services. Imagine that people stop idolizing raunchy (and sometimes funny) TV shows that are setting examples for how our children are behaving (and even some grown-ups). Imagine that poverty and wars only exist in history books.

If you’re telling me that you don’t believe that any of this can happen, I would say that you need to start imagining. We are Homo Sapiens. We won the race and are now the most dominant species. Game over. Now, let’s try a new game. The rules are pretty simple. We see the destruction of the habitat as the great enemy without a face, and we start combating this enemy with green arms. Those are the same kinds of arms that hug people and pick up messes. The market is obliged to follow and furnish us with the tools and products to fulfill our desires, as soon as we make our voice clear. Center your mind on good thoughts, then let your voice speak them.

Oh, I just saw you on a white sandy beach at a reservoir with a refreshing drink of your choice in a cup that you can eat. You look great! Enjoy your day.

-Keitan

The Meaning of Black Friday

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economy

There are many perspectives and opinions of Black Friday. Most don’t paint a pretty picture of the event, but after being a loyal Blackfridayan, I’ve come to see the silver lining in the event, discounted half off until midnight tonight.

Black Friday is an American Olympic event. It occurs the day after the national celebration of thankfulness, many times ending up in gastronomic gluttony. It kicks the mind in the butt reminding it that the national celebrations of giving are just around the corner. I can’t think of a better day to jump-start the economy of 2009. Let’s get the party started, right?

The most significant hour was at 4:00 am, when my alarm went off and the first thing I thought was how Sears had already opened. The two items I hoped for were phenomenal deals of 70% off or more at Sears, and I wondered if I should even bother crawling out of bed, knowing I was dealing with the reality of limited quantities. But my son, now six, made me promise that I would wake him up. He knew it was a big day for papa, and he wouldn’t dare miss it. He knew there was loot to get. He arose when I entered his room. I’ve never seen him so focused to go somewhere as much as he was on this pre-dawn day. We went from awake to out-the-door in twenty some-odd minutes. A family record.

Hats off to the staff at Sears. All were really pleasant and helpful, almost omnipresent in their distinct blue Sears shirts. Two Kenmore products and a mini-trampoline were on the list. Score, score, and slam dunk, with a bonus “last one on the shelf” digital picture frame for a friend to boot. Many registers open and ample crowd well distributed. When loaded up and ready, we were out in about five minutes.

At that point I could have gone home and felt satisfied, but my son’s eyes were on the lookout for the toys he saw in the Thanksgiving Day ad flyers. Off we went – Sears, Kohl’s, Walmart (ugh), Toys-R-US (ugh ugh), chai 2% stop, met up with a friend at Office Max, then Target for the winning six-year-old coveted items. The payment for such a successful plunder: Only one could be opened, others had to be wrapped and left forever until Christmas. Everyone’s happy… great! Off again – Jerry’s, breakfast at Shari’s, Best Buy, back to Office Max and home. Time elapsed: 6 ours 52 minutes.

A good time was had by all. I witnessed no tackles for last items, no bread-and-cheese-long lines to registers, and no acts of theft, except from a store with no markdowns on what I had my eye on… shame, shame. I did however see the exchange of smiling faces, money and merchandise. I saw stores full of eager people that would make any CEO blush. I heard people saying “excuse me” and “oh, my fault” in kind and sincere tones.  I paused and looked around at all the activity. I reminisced about the good old days when money and jobs were more plentiful; when it felt okay to have a massive credit card debt and not worry about 29% penalty rate ’cause your ass is late in paying your minimum balance. I breathed the moment in and sighed.

Today I took on some extra debt for the sake of America. As I did I looked for the country of origin on everything I bought to see who I was financing, hoping that we found a cut somewhere in the deal between there and here. But all in all I support the day after Thanksgiving, which could also be knows as Thanksgetting.

Oh, pardon me, I think it’s time to checkout.

The missing link from reformed health care

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economy, evolution, political

There’s been a lot of talk about what the right health care for this country should look like. But in all the things that I’ve read and heard, I’m not yet convinced that any of the options, present or proposed, would really make any difference for our population.

The need to encourage awareness of people’s own choices, and to understand the need for reform at the governmental level is grossly omitted from the picture. The decision making by the FDA to approve certain items that can be taken into the body needs a major overhaul. There is no health plan that won’t eventually bankrupt the wallets of hard-working people as long as the cheaper (more economical) grocery store choices can be major factors of obesity. And that only scratches the surface of other ills resulting from many rulings of the FDA, like: unknown genetically-modified food effects, aggressive marketing to children for food full of food coloring, toxic preservatives in vaccinations, etc. Over the long term these choices can get people into a culture of medications and the subsequent taking of other medications to counter side effects. This is living proof that we are, at our essence, an unhealthy nation.

Government’s role in the healthy guidance of proper diet is nowhere in the legislation of health care reform. Given the current state of national debt, we need to re-adopt the adage of “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This way we could spend less “ounces” of federal dollars trying to solve such a behemoth issue in this country.

Before we can start on the path to a new national balanced diet, we must first work on the individual balanced lifestyle. We need to move away from the daily extremes that carry us away and find more sustainable choices. Some can go the path of making better external choices to affect the inner workings of the mind, and others can bring consciousness to the mind to then start making better choices. Either way, the current road of unhealthy choices needs an off ramp to start seeing a country’s landscape full of people who understand that being American means we’re intelligent, flexible and can be role models for each other and the world at large.

To your health! Keitan

Getting the idea in front of the president

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economy, political

Today I discovered that the change.gov website of president-elect Barack Obama opened a new part. They are collecting ideas to compile a list of the best voted and though out ideas to present to the president-to-be when he enters office. I am hoping that this may be a great way to get the idea of Avacafe in front of him so he and his cabinet can see something that can transform our economy and create income for all of us.

Please read the post below called “Better ideas than stimulated bailouts” to get more information about the Avacafe system of how it can pay all of us for surveys from companies. You can also get even more information at http://www.avacafe.com/

Then go to the Change.gov’s “Citizen’s Briefing Book” at http://citizensbriefingbook.change.gov/ and search for: Information saves the economy

This brings you to my post. Vote it up and comment on it to help bring it to the forefront. Together we can make this happen!

-Keitan

Better ideas than stimulated bailouts

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economy, political

What mystery lies behind the hands that take our money to try to improve a titanic ship that sails in an economic sea of icebergs? As the activity of commerce slows, this is the time of contemplation and thought of how to build a system that is sustainable and responsible. The earth takes a sigh of relief from the human exploitation with this downturn and we hope that our illustrious leaders take notice that what we voted for was a real change. The manufacture of cheap products that produce poisons to our habitat is no longer applicable. And though we can complain much about the things that they do wrong, such idle chatter brings forth little progress.

Amongst the people there has been discussion about a simple and amazingly powerful idea. As Barack Obama prepares to inherit the largest mess in decades we hope to make him see the change we voted for. It’s not easy to get grass roots solutions through all the people and special interests that surround him, but the Internet has shown a special strength among the common people. One email can spread like wildfire to dozens, hundreds, thousands and even millions. And together our voices can be heard through all the white noise. If we come together on some basic principles of real change for our country there is nothing they can do but listen. Here is the basic idea along with the delivery method:

How to save the economy:

  1. Pay people for their information through group interest surveys. People register and list their demographics and interests to join other similar people in survey groups to sell their information and get paid for their time. Companies pay targeted consumers to fill out surveys on how to develop new products and services. Consumers guarantee their interest and attention to accurate answers. Surveying pays consumers $0.34 per minute of survey ($20/hour).
  2. Consumers donate at least 10% of their survey income to the non-profit of their choice.
  3. The central government funds the initial development of the survey system and guarantees that the information of the public remains owned by the public. As the system grows, 5% of the survey income of consumers is dedicated to the further development of the system.
  4. Non-profit entities are completely transparent in the use of the collected survey income allocated to them. This gives accountability to the public to see where our donation money is going.
  5. Companies finally get the information they have been wanting for pennies on the dollar of what they are used to paying. They spend less on marketing, and more on developing products that their consumers have asked for.
  6. Result: The economy becomes a true representation of the needs and desires of the population. Non-profits entities spend time mostly on their mission as they receive needed funding from this system. Companies produce more exacting amounts of product to meet need, thus reducing waste and expensive storage. The Avacafe idea enhances relationships between consumers and companies at the local level as well as a nationally. The idea can easily scale to a worldwide level.
How to deliver this message:
  1. All readers come together and enlist their email address to join the Avacafe OneVoice Movement. The author of this site (Keitan) produces the sign-up form. No name is necessary to participate. Sign up with an email with a no-spam / no-sharing promise. Emails are only collected for the reason of notification of the idea outlined above to the White House.
  2. Keitan and his team prepare the Avacafe message for the White House and the public, showing the earning potential of survey income, benefit to non-profits and companies, and also prepares open communication to the public once the Obama Administration contacts Keitan and the Avacafe developers.
  3. Mass Emailing to the White House. This is the moment of promise and action. Once the idea is ready for presentation to the Administration, each person who signed up receives an email from Avacafe that the time has come to send an email to president@whitehouse.gov (or whatever the current address is at that time to the White House) to send a message there. The message that everyone must then send is:
    Email Subject: Yes We Can Save the Economy
    Email Message: The collective consumer body of this country urges President Obama’s Administration to visit Avacafe.com for a solution to the economic crisis.
  4. Then we wait for a response.
In Summary:
The idea prescribed above is free of political affiliation, and only serves to provide a fresh alternative to the Administration to get real solutions on the table. Everyone wins under the Avacafe idea and it doesn’t cost billions of dollars to construct. Companies benefit, organizations benefit and the entire public finally gets a chance to get paid for their information. Most importantly, the economy changes course and begins a new path of sustainable abundance.
For more information, please visit http://www.avacafe.com/ and don’t forget to tell your friends to sign up. If you can reach at least 100 people, this plan can really take shape. America is about innovation and leadership. Now is our chance to make that happen once again!
Sincerely, Keith Gonzalez (Keitan), founder of Avacafe.