One Tribe

Resource Depletion   "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -Albert Bartlett     As everyone knows, economies around the world all function on growth. Without growth, economies will collapse. Percentage growth is exponential growth. Exponential growth has two unique characteristics. One, at any given percentage there is a doubling period and two, the magnitude of the growth speeds up over time. For example, a quantity (x)  growing at 10% per year will be double (or 2x) in a little over 7 years. After another 7 odd years, that new amount will double again (or 2*2x). In addition, the amount of the quantity will get larger and larger in a shorter and shorter period of time ( by that I mean it took a little over 14 years to get 4x but it will only take 7 years to get another 4x).     Worldwide, GDP has grown at an average of about 3% a year since the beginning of the industrial revolution. In order ...

We Need to Behave Better   Mark Twain     Living in a western country, in a large city, it is easy to look around and be amazed. You look and think,  we humans are pretty clever. Look at all we've accomplished; all the inventions; all the technology. We are so smart for a bunch of hairless apes...we're so advanced. It seems we've evolved so much in our time here on spaceship Earth but I'm not so sure. Things progressed reasonably well until the onset of agriculture. Then, in many ways, human ingenuity took off while in other ways, humanity took a nosedive. At the same time as we improved intellectually, we continued doing very stupid things. I am sure that if an advanced alien species were to come for a visit, they would be impressed by some of our achievements but otherwise would consider us to be dumb as posts. They would probably gauge us to be in our teens, intellectually, as a species...at best.     When I read blog posts or editorial opinion pieces, I...

A Way Forward          Everyone is concerned with what the future has in store. Many ask, "what do we do?". The bigger question is, "what are you willing to do?". You will hear all kinds of suggestions. Almost all involve maintaining the status quo to some extent. Most suggestions are rubbish. This is more along the lines of what needs to happen... 1. Open all borders or eliminate them altogether. We are one species bound to a single spaceship. No one is more deserving or more special than another. We all must be able to move freely; to where we feel the opportunity for survival is best. 2. Severe limits on human reproduction for the foreseeable future. Population must be reduced as quickly as possible from current levels to those in line with ecological sustainability . We can do this in a sensible, orderly fashion or nature will do it. If left to nature, it will be chaotic, and violent. 3. There must be a redistribution of resources. The richer must give...

Stocks, Bonds, Assets and Debt   I never learned about investing when I was younger. My parents were young and they weren't taught anything, either. If they even thought about it, they probably figured their children would learn something in school. Not so. Even today investing is not part of public school curriculum. So for the Millennials and newer generations I will provide a crash course and a few thoughts for the future. Money - is immutable, has scarcity, is tangible, can be used as a store of value, i.e. gold, silver, land. Currency - created by governments, banks, etc. Not a store of value and only backed by your faith in the body that created it. Most people today become wealthy by receiving an inheritance, investing in land or investing in businesses. There are many ways to "make money" in real estate but the barrier to entry can be quite high. It is worth learning about so google it but I won't discuss real estate ventures here. Investing in businesses is...

What Gets You Excited   The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why . -Mark Twain     Many (most?) people like to believe that we humans are here for a reason. That there has to be some grand design for humanity. That unlike every other species past and present we are here to accomplish something and continue on forever. Not so. Instead, we are fortunate. We are just another of the many wonderful gifts of nature. We are here solely by chance. Humanity's purpose is the same as all other living things...to survive and propagate. That's it. As individuals, however, we need a purpose.     Nature provided us with intelligence and opposable thumbs. Along with that, the drive to accomplish something. Each of us needs a purpose. To really thrive, and for good mental health, we need more than just something to do. That's the big reason why we have progressed so much as a species. Most of us are very good at coming up w...

A Healthy Diet Michael Pollan discovered, for good health, we need to eat food, mostly plants and not too much.   The 'mostly plants' part is debatable but eating wholesome, natural foods, prepared simply, is spot on. Much of what is eaten today is highly processed and not usually in a good way. The western way of eating has led to obesity, bad skin and teeth, and chronic disease. The food industry has done a great job of getting most of us hooked on poor quality foods. Liberal use of sugar (in all its forms), salt and unhealthy fats (i.e. seed oils) has been a boon to this industry as well as the disease and diet industries. Sadly, too many folks don't understand that those who run these industries don't care about people or good health. They don't care if you get sick (in fact it is desirable) and they don't care if you die. Simple as that. You are responsible for you, period. So with all the misinformation out there (even many dietitians get things wrong), wh...

Right or Wrong This is a non-exhaustive list of things we humans do, or have done, wrong. Just an observation. What do you think? Anything to add? Cupidity and apathy guiding too many decisions. The way we grow our food. Poor soil stewardship. Poor food choices and preparation. Too much meat. Very poor food distribution and too much food waste. Not ensuring quality, nutritious food available for all. Poor and improper footwear. Women generally don't need and should probably not wear bras. Most of us don't poo properly. Not willing to share. Building countries around automobiles instead of mass forms of transportation. Much too willing to introduce pollution and toxins into our environment and our bodies. Established and promoted disease-care the world over rather than healthcare. Fostered a world of drug dependency and addiction (largely due to the legal drug trade and inequality). In the name of progress, allowed ourselves to become completely dependent on fossil fuels. No at...

The Economy and Covid Every time I hear talk of a recovery in the media I shake my head and sigh. V-shaped, U-shaped, check mark shape? Recovery for who? From what? Recovery from the decades long currency devaluations? Recovery from the massive buildup of debt everywhere? Recovery from longstanding and ever increasing inequality? Recovery from resource depletion wherever one looks? Oh yeah, they mean back to December 2019. Like that matters. Many will call me a pessimist or a doomer or apply some other ad hominem label but the reality is there will be no recovery. If we are lucky...maybe...but it will take a long time and things will look very different. There have been many good times and bad times, ups and downs, dark ages and roaring decades. During rough patches the uplifting refrain was, "this too, shall pass". It was true. Can it be true this time? How can it be? In times past, the Earth's resources were plentiful. Until recently, there were far fewer humans. Arable...

Information The following links are a few of the many websites offering up facts and opinions that might help you get a clearer big picture... The Great Awakening Peak Prosperity Weston Price Survival We the Economy - Films Gail Tverberg Exponential Growth PNAS Skeptical Science Do the Math Humanley Consciousness of Sheep Viroliegy