Rigor and Mortis

A family should continue having children, their farm should continue getting larger by clearing and acquiring more land, the herds should be larger each year, and irrigation water consumption will increase accordingly, of course.  More tractors, more barns, more ....  At what point does that no longer work?

Jeremy Grantham tells us, "One of my new heroes is an economist called Kenneth Boulding who, at 22, got a paper into Keynes's journal. At the age of about 50 he realised that economics was not taking its job seriously, that it was not interested in utility, in real serious improvement in the world, but that it was increasingly interested in new, elegant mathematical theories designed to get career advancement over usefulness.

He said the only people who believe you can have compound growth in a finite world are either mad men or economists."               Thanks and a hat tip to Jeremy Grantham, Chief Investment Strategist, GMO 

He also said: "Mathematics has brought rigor to economics. Unfortunately, it also brought mortis."

The Black Swan.  The impossibly improbable event that just cannot, cannot happen, really. Look at the math! Like when Greenspan said it would be impossible for the derivatives marketplace to lose so much as a dollar because it was balanced and buffered and perfect in every way. Just a few years later, of course, Greenspan turned out to be wrong to the tune of a several trillion (TRILLION) dollars.  

Economists, one would hope, would see recent events as an opportunity to adjust and align their math models, their expectations, and certainly their decision making.  One could hope in one hand and poo in the other, too.

On a side note, we're still waiting for the economists of the world and their financial industry BFFs to announce their great discovery.  "We know what went wrong," they should say, "and we know how to keep it from happening again!"  It's that pregnant pause when everyone expects someone to say something, but the awkward silence goes on and on.  Not a peep; perhaps because they were racing ahead of the regulators and ahead of the law in a gray area of questionable ethics.  They knew what they were doing was perhaps legal but unquestionably unethical and potentially destructive; a loophole they could exploit with impunity.  

Next; economists vs. ecologists; that will be a fun match-up.  You show me your latest economic theory, and I'll show you the missing piece.

Every national government, agreeing with every large scale economic model in play, presumes continuing compound growth, don't they.   What does that suggest?

Macro applied to micro-system; a family should continue having children, the farm should continue getting larger by clearing and acquiring more land, the herds should be larger each year, and irrigation water consumption should increase accordingly.  More tractors, more barns, more ....  At what point does that no longer work?

Meanwhile, buyers like China are grabbing huge swaths of farmland in Africa, Ukraine (the EU breadbasket), Brazil, Moldova, etc. Known deals of about two million square kilometers have been part of the last decade's world-wide land grab; two-thirds of that has been in Africa.  That's the equivalent area of Spain, France, Britain, Italy and Germany put together.  China, with 20% of the world's population and only 9% of arable land, plans to farm and export back home to feed their own people. At what point does that no longer work?

Triple C's & Gunplay

A cursory look through the published material for Rick Ross
reveals a degree of social aberration and overturned values 
that is difficult to grasp as having a real-life origin.  While the
profanity is less than eloquent, the notable elements are
his detailed braggings about an unrestrained life.  From drugs
and criminals to prostitutes and unrestrained violence and 
beyond.  Too, there's a recurring theme of status from money.
Not recommended for your reading, of course.

So what is this stuff doing in our entertainment industry?
Why would it be popular rather than ignored by our youth?
Is it influencing their behavior?

Beyond the obviously off-center nature of the content,
what led to such a lifestyle for those involved?  There is
a traceable change, particularly among the poor over the
last several decades, that supports an abandonment of
traditional values, respect for law and authority, and
family traditions.  Beginning in the 80's, the context
of personal development changed to "I'm going to
get mine!"  Those Millennials, as they are called, are
characterized as the 'Generation Me' crowd, marked by
a sense of entitlement and narcissism.  Is that perhaps part
of what we're seeing?

Avoiding the standard 'kids these days' response, how
might we practically and beneficially interact with that
segment of our youth's culture?  It has to be forward-
focused or it won't be heard.  So?

I recall conversations with my dad when I was young where we talked
about the music and lyrics and what they meant.  Is that the approach
that would serve; some open interchange?  Or should we ignore it as many do.

(NC-17 content)

As has been the question in each generation, does the culture produce the music, or does the music produce the culture?

Lyric excerpts here are the tame segments from popular recordings.

While not excusing the musicians or sponsors, there are some interesting cultural issues that lead to and encourage this kind of lifestyle expression.  

From Macklemore, who took home four Grammys (Lyrics, excerpt)

White hoes in the backseat snorting coke
She doing line after line like she’s writing rhymes
I had it hella my love, tryna blow her mind

From Rick Ross with Gunplay - Bogota Rich (lyrics, excerpt)

I got vicious in my veins
I got hate all in my heart
I got revenge all in my brain
Now you just heard a killa start
Snatch a bitch and pull her brain
Smack her (...) and roll away
I just give that bitch a look
ain't gotta tell that hoe behave
When she actin' like a dog
I'ma treat her like a stray

From Rick Ross - I swear to God (lyrics, excerpt)

Rose-gold Jesus, rose-gold watch
All-black Ghost, all-black Glock
Three new flows, that's off top
All white squares, the city on lock
I swear to God, I need a hundred m's
'Til the day I die, I plan to represent
Hold your heads high, we had a nice run
Let the bankers know we have just begun
I broke the mold; my total assets
Will get you (...) left in the past tense
I broke the mold in every aspect
I'll get you (...) left in the past tense

That's probably enough to illustrate the point.
As a side note on the culture vs art question, this year's Grammy Awards show was apparently quite controversial. 'Satanic' according to many.

Just a little way into the show, Christian Gospel singer Natalie Grant, an award nominee, left the Grammys quietly. She later posted on Facebook: "We left the Grammy's early. I've many thoughts about the show tonight, most of which are probably better left inside my head. But I'll say this: I've never been more honored to sing about Jesus and for Jesus. And I've never been more sure of the path I've chosen."

Graciously said; good for her.

At least one Grammy winner decided not to attend Sunday night’s show. She received two Grammy awards in absentia. Gospel singer Mandisa explained on Facebook why she decided to stay home rather than accept the awards in person. That's not the world she wants, her explanation goes, and that's not the kind of person she wants to be.

Yeah, me either kid. Choose your battle, fight and win.

Beach is better!

No surprise here; in studies of children and attitude, children at the beach are consistently happier about their lives than children in school.  Similarly, adults express significant improvement in mood and energy over their normal workday environment.

Beyond the general mental health issues, foot and toe health appear to benefit from the beach environment as well.

The results suggest spending more time at the beach should be reviewed and perhaps incorporated into a national health initiative. 

Scientific surveys of primary and secondary school children do suggest a reduction in attention to academic productivity when in contact with warm sand. Priorities appeared to be skewed as evidenced by a lack of focus on homework, class attendance, and question asking.  Teachers also report being less actively involved in the children's daytime activities. Perhaps additional study in an appropriate tropical setting is warranted.

Bizarre solution! Degrowth

When there's not enough for everyone, what do we do?

Here's an absolutely fascinating subject area that's relatively new, at least by name, in academic circles. It points to a deliberate plan of action to preclude the inevitable collapse in various locales due to having exceeded carrying capacity.

Current national policy and business models require continued growth, do they not? Is there another approach?

Degrowth is a political, economic, and social movement based on ecological economics and anti-consumerist and anti-capitalist ideas. It is also considered an essential economic strategy responding to the limits-to-growth dilemma (see The Path to Degrowth in Overdeveloped Countries and Post growth).

Degrowth thinkers and activists advocate for the downscaling of production and consumption—the contraction of economies—arguing that overconsumption lies at the root of long term environmental issues and social inequalities.

Key to the concept of degrowth is that reducing consumption does not require individual martyring and a decrease in well-being.^[2] Rather, 'degrowthists' aim to maximize happiness and well-being through non-consumptive means—sharing work, consuming less, while devoting more time to art, music, family, culture and community.^[3]

Reality has shown us the problem in dozens of major venues. Many cities now are stressed for water in the U.S. and for oil, natural gas, and electrical power. Regions are stressed for agricultural resources, particularly irrigation water. Consumption strains the international marketplace.

We're flying fresh flowers half-way around the world for some high-school prom corsage, for pity's sake.

^{Thoughts?  This is something about which our kids will wonder why it took us so long to understand; true?}

La fácil y difícil

The easy and difficult.  

A young woman lost 100 pounds,  ...  she'd lived into her thirties with weight (and health) issues, then was stunned by the difference in how people treated her after she became slender. Having been ignored all her life, suddenly people noticed her, treated her nicely, smiled, held the door open for her. She was really something!

"Except—wait—I had been something before, too! ... Why didn't anyone notice? Why didn't they care? More importantly, why did they care now? 

We live in a society that celebrates and rewards the most ridiculous and arbitrary traits, thinness being way up there on the list."

Size 0 is not normal, is it.  But the fashion industry struggles to portray normal as other than unhealthily thin.

It's easy to see the wrong thinking sometimes. It's difficult to rise above it.

"I want to lose weight," she told us; a pretty young lady. When asked how much she weighed now, "A hundred and eleven pounds."  We laughed about the irrational thinking behind her wish.  She said, "I know it's not reasonable, but it's hard to rise above it and live differently."

Our appearance, like so many other issues, gets taken to extremes. There are deadly results from portraying that which is unhealthy as an admirable goal for our youth.  Unethical is the least severe description offered of the industries involved.

Our weight, our physique, our hair, our shoes and accessories, our manicure, the car we drive, the house we live in ... these are not meaningful life priorities; they occupy too much of our heart and mind and time, men and women both.

Being swept along by such things robs us all. How might we challenge our social norms in a helpful manner?

We can make decisions now that will perhaps help us dig our way out of the nonsense, at least.

• Decisions like health instead of appearance being most important
• Financial choices like budget and saving
• Teaching our children the difference between need and desire
• Choices about a goal for our own personal lives
• Choices about integrity and honesty
• Choices against selfishness and needing to win
• Choices to learn from those who think differently than we do  

We perhaps learn little from those who think like us anyway.  (One of my favorite memories from school, watching a couple of ninth-graders giving each other advice about love.)

Because they're lazy

They have siesta because they're lazy.  That’s what I was told about folks across the border when I was a kid growing up in the south. 

Living in Spain years later, I discovered they had siesta too, and with good reason.  The little town where we lived shut down around noon because it was hot and few businesses had air conditioning.  The shops and stores were like ovens and nobody would go in during the heat of the day.  So they closed and reopened around 5:00 PM after it had cooled down a bit.  They stayed open to 8 or 9; a long day with a break in the middle.  Restaurants wouldn't serve until evening; same reason.  They stayed open quite late. 

Siesta is the short descriptor for their environmental adaptation.  It was wasn't a tradition so much as a well thought out adjustment to circumstances.  We had our evenings at home after work; they had their equivalent midday because that’s the way it worked best.  And they aren't lazy.

Such attributing motive to another is usually inaccurate.  If you catch yourself saying because (as in 'they did this because they're ...'), you're likely off the mark.

Presuming to understand the motivation of another person or another culture in simplistic terms provides for a wealth of inaccurate thinking and off-target response.

Most cultures have a lot to offer to the outsider.  Most are meaningfully rich in new perspective and different thinking. Did you know that in at least one African community, folks are inclined to name their children after people who have helped them make progress as a family.  Pretty cool.