Free Choice, Commitment, and Due Process

In a free democratic society, individuals have rights guaranteed by law along with their preferred religious practices governing how people live their lives. Much is made in America regarding race and relationships and it gets a great deal of attention. So much that fraternal agreements and understandings regulate initiation rituals to reinforce separation. During the creation of American society, recognition of some humans as property was allowed and through enlightenment and years of legal evolution the framework was amended to grant freedoms to all. Given this development, how could any ethnic group claim ownership or violation of property rights with an interracial relationship? Even further to the point within a given racial or ethnic group? Not even the heavily referred Bible recognizes adultery without a prior marriage commitment. Neither the constitution nor the Bible identifies these relations as violating the law. Any attempts to carry out punishment or restriction are themselves liable improper judgments. Trying to keep separate 300 million people is just not practical nor socially & economically desirable. Neither is the idea of genetically re-engineering an American Black race.

My experience has revealed that the admittance of liability or wrongdoing is very hard to achieve from some groups or people. Primarily, the accused or guilty party tries to mitigate the financial punishment for such actions without establishing a legal precedent. Regarding relationships, I look for compatible personalities, matching of values and goals, and partnership more than I do race or ethnicity. I do not regard matching within your own ethnicity nor pre-arranged relationships as a personal responsibility which contradicts the values I embrace as American. History is important but not determinant. There are many groups in society that make “racial solidarity” their cause and path toward success. However, separation solidarity is neither the American history lesson nor the direction of a progressing democratic society. Choices are made when people are comfortable understanding the agreement with some future predictability of the outcome. There are common interests within ethnic groups and they do not limit choices and freedoms. Community commitment and free choice are not mutually exclusive ideals.

The use of fraternal, religious organizations to create career liabilities and family hardships for anyone that does not conform to someone’s ethnic definition is a liability increasing social costs burdening the state. It limits earning potential (tax revenues to government), committed family development, and reinforces ethnic stereotypes. An even greater threat to the democracy is the delay of due process to protect the organized, fraternal violations of law in an attempt to replace with a subjugated group belonging. So, does the American democratic experiment continue to grow or do we fall victim to the separate, (prophetic) group commitments creating its own rules difficult to globally enforce and adjudicate within the legal system of equal justice?

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update: December 2013

Explanation and Critique of Quadrant Labels: Individual and Social

The labels used in the Assets and Values blog post were, as previously stated, personally derived through observation of political communications and societal descriptions via commentary and publications. The Social designation assumes a governing philosophy of shared responsibility for the community to ensure care for the human condition. Further extrapolation of this description with varying degrees of adaptability reflects a political view of government’s role in society through institutions and programs for protection of citizens; ensuring healthcare; security; limits to risk of loss against economic fluctuations in employment; and extreme inequality.

The Individual label description was based upon a promoted political ideology by the conservative groups that have historically influenced policy. Their position is that the individual has control and influence to determine his/her economic success. In a Democratic-capitalist society, this concept supports the psychological desire of its citizens to believe that their hard work and ability will determine the level of success and wealth. Important to effectively sustain this philosophy is the assurance of equal and fair opportunity; legal protection and treatment; access to necessary economic input factors; and individual freedoms outside of community and social organizational hierarchy. Talent and ideas should be allowed to prosper and flourish within the law beyond the confines of any potential hierarchal limits exclusive of tests of loyalty and morality. Without this criterion the Individual label identification is generally less applicable given the varying degrees of adaptability and application.

Political governance assuming the Individual philosophy would unintentionally lead to the devaluation of community institutions necessary for healthy development of a thriving society by claiming parents solely responsible for children / family welfare. This would exclude the contributive impact of the family church; children’s schools; social organizations such as Boys' and Girls' Club, Boys' and Girls' Scouts, summer camps, Little League, and all other participative organizations.

The only useful political purpose of the Individual philosophy would be to transfer economic burden to reduce budgets and impact the public where resources are needed the most. The destabilizing impact of such budget cutting politics are somewhat reflected in Greece, Portugal, Italy, and Spain. Deficits and debt levels are an issue along with some other unique problems specific to the European Union. Currently, three of the five (3 of 5) countries experiencing the worst of the economic downturn are in the Individual-Conservative quadrant and four of the five (4 of 5) identified represent the Conservative section of the graphic. The first place I would begin to investigate for a possible solution would be the wealth and earnings distribution (levels of inequality).

Reported importance of religion in daily life from a statistical sample of opinion from the populations!

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8-29-2013

String Theory?

String Theory – The theory of scientifically connected geological events.

Mississippi Tornado – April 2010

Iceland Volcanic Eruption – April 2010

Meteor across American sky – Wisconsin, April 2010

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8624064.stm

Mexicali Earthquake – April 2010

Chile Earthquake – February 2010

Japan Underwater Volcanic Eruption – February 2010

Haiti Earthquake – January 2010

American Samoa – September 2009

Austin Meteor – February 2009

Assets and Values

Governments and Corporations have as an objective to increase asset value to benefit stakeholders working to nurture and create future value and performance. The U.S. Constitution with Amendments set forth that the value to the country is its free citizens. The document identifies managing principles of citizens’ freedoms, rights, and protections. This recognition created the foundational understanding for the Separation of Church and State, Civil Rights, public education, Medicare/Medicaid, and now Healthcare. It also provided the way for infrastructure investment beneficial to all without regard to means. The importance of Separation of Church and State is evident in the current financial crisis as explained by the founders: Religious freedom to practice and prevention of corruption of the Church; and protection against discriminatory influences on the State. Current public furor would be directed at the Church if it was responsible for financial legislation and deregulation of controls that protect savings and retirement funds at the expense of executive bonuses.

This original structure has come to provide a base level of subsistence for American life and a high level of economic productivity, as measured by GDP, with comparatively broader levels of earnings distribution. However, what still exists are the varying levels of importance and priority placed upon input capital and resources (assets) that are deterministic of individual economic outcomes. The emphasis upon “tribes” and fraternal affiliations (social and religious) establishes informal groupthink criterion of morality and loyalty tests in order to access capitalistic factors of enterprise. In reality, native tribes were more integrated than presently credited. These exclusionary practices not only limit economic production for competitive protective purposes, but they are also destructive to social values increasing the burden on the state to provide benefits for the maintenance of a harmonious society (limiting crime, unemployment, and human exploitation). Moreover, the practices directly contradict the individual - conservative “boot-strap” ideology and substitute control through “social” organizations. As a youth in Alabama from Massachusetts, the systematic separation was apparent even after the days of George C. Wallace’s political grandstanding. Violations [interracial or non-traditional relationships] meant limited access with exceptions only to the extent of religious affiliation. The order was maintained by both Black and White racial groups further revealed in conversational dialogue of the Black American community regarding an unofficial “oppression grading” by skin tone to psychologically justify success through “family” (race) commitment [unconstitutional Southern moral code violating civil rights]. Moral liability (real or fabricated) has been historically used for leverage to maintain systemic order and control of capital at a high social cost (inequality) for progressive economic advancement of a UNITED humanity, society, and Country.

The individual – conservative identification is an observational label personally used to create an understanding of the Religion and Preferences for Social Insurance graphic presentation in my Social Spending and GDP blog post. To better understand and interpret the graphic data, I applied quadrants to the Least Squared Sum regression describing the relationship by country between Social Spending in % GDP and the average reported importance of God in a person’s life. The quadrants were identified by a personal definition of two distinguishing factors of varying adaptability: (1) governing philosophy related to rights and benefits of its citizens [Social or Individual]. Social meaning a shared responsibility of community to ensure care for the human condition; and, (2) the religious perspective of the society and its belief of impact on daily life [Conservative or Liberal]. The countries were further listed by quadrant and respective economic performance compared. It is important to note that the countries of comparison are primarily of Europe and European origin (includes U.S., Australia, & Canada) plus Japan.

Comparing the Per Capita GDP of the countries without the benefit of statistical testing to measure and control the factors of country size (geographic and population), natural resources, and location, the United States is a leader in economic production and greatly influences results. Luxembourg and Norway have greater per capita GDPs, but are too small in size and population to have much influence. It is only because of the United States that the Individual-conservative governing ideology leads in productivity. When the U.S. is excluded, not much difference is reflected in the productivity of the personally defined governing ideologies. But, the Social and Liberal economies are slightly better performing. I want to reiterate that this is not a scientific study with rigorous testing. It is based upon observation and personal ordering to provide some understanding of the information and graphic presented in the Religion and Preferences for Social Insurance paper referenced in my Social Spending and GDP blog post.

The performance of the United States is reflective of the corporate focus, size advantage, and effective employment of resources. However, comparing the GDP to Per Capita Earnings reveals another aspect of U.S. capital management. Traditional factors of production include land, labor, and capital goods. Updates have added ecosystems with land, human capital (education & skills), and financial capital (money, equity). The income data reflects the beneficial impact of ownership (equity) in the corporate structure and disguises (at least until the financial crisis and high unemployment rates) the downside of placing a priority on maximizing one or two factors of production (return on capital and return on equity). Corporations have been focused like laser beams to reduce cost, improve profitability, and grow earnings. Social impacts are not included in any of these objectives and become an issue for the state and federal governments. Reducing taxes further increases the problem by limiting the ability of government to assist its citizens. A quick summary of the systemic problem provides the following: Corporations focused performance improvement on stockholders at the expense of all other stakeholders (employees, suppliers, communities, & government). To improve return to stockholders, costs throughout the supply chain have to be reduced. Labor must be more productive or found cheaper in a less restrictive environment which means layoffs and relocation of assembly operations. Suppliers reduce cost at the expense of profitability lessening their ability to invest in innovation which would also benefit the OEM. In addition to these actions, tax policy is attacked to lower rates which have no other purpose than to lower money provided to government entities and retain earnings within the corporate treasury.

This blog post may provide an opportunity for critique and claims of anti-business sentiments. However, I am a true capitalist that considers the long-term implications and sustainability of such a narrowly focused economic philosophy in light of the high-technology era of competitiveness we are entering. An example of this evolution is evident in the history of the television. The focus on financial capital (return to stockholders) and technical measures employed indicated that the solid state technology was declining in profitability. After all cost reduction attempts, profitability was difficult to maintain. Present Value analysis increased management pressure by indicating the sale of the business to maximize return of capital. Semiconductors, microchip, and nanotechnologies were not foreseen or were factored as risky incorporations too far in the future. Thus, technology is transferred to Asia; improved with chip technology and product expansion into flat screens, computer monitors, automobile GPS, and etc…. The point is that the social costs of business decisions should be incorporated into strategic, financial decision-making at some level within the organization.

Ultimately, the question will come down to if there is a God advantage to economic performance and social spending? I have a perspective, but will reserve the right to hold my opinion and leave the proposition unanswered for now.
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GDP and Social Policy Graphic Analysis

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8-29-2013

Social Spending and GDP

Updated 4/10/2010: Reading through some of the research, I can see where some in society could use it to promote religion as a fix for the current economic state, particularly the psychological. There is, however, some contradictory evidence for an honest discussion.

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Perspective on a Tea Party!

I found this graphic in a paper “Religion and Preferences for Social Insurance” published in the Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 2006, 1:255-286, written by Kenneth Scheve and David Stasavage.

It was also reproduced in a presentation lecture by Roland Bénabou, 2007, Groupthink and Ideology. 

GDP and Social Policy

Reported importance of religion from a statistical sample of opinion from the populations!