Tag: human culture

Fair Housing

SUSTAINABLE PROPERTY TAX

Jumping up property tax just gets passed on to renters and doesn’t make a dent in conglomerate owner profits.  The article recommended below proposes limiting property tax directly to inflation to achieve “Affordable Housing”.  But this would have to be paired with a partner legislation that would limit rent increases to inflation as well.  In other words, the value of a property stays constant.  It does not increase if a new shopping center is built next door.  As most tenants will tell you, the quality of life if you have to live there drops dramatically.  First there is the years of daily construction noise.  Then you have more strangers invading into your neighborhood.  There is no peace and quiet.  Crime usually increases.  And for this the renter has to pay more.

So the proposal is that no matter what price the buyer pays, property tax would stay constant with inflation, and my proposal is that so would rent.

So when people find a place they can afford to live, they can keep living there.

RECOMMENDED READING:

Technology and Social Religion

IT’S MORE THAN ‘JUST A GAME’

I confess, I play Facebook games.  When a game annoys people and they complain on the community chat boards, someone always responds, “It’s just a game.  If you don’t like it, quit.”  But its far more than just a game.  The fact that the complaint is posted on a community chat board indicates that computer games are often an interactive experience that requires having “friends” or “neighbors” – complete strangers you will probably never meet in real life but you will interact with on a daily basis.  You will probably spend years with these people, spending far more time with them than with your biological family and far too often, more time with them than your spouse or partner, unless said spouse or partner is part of the same online community.  With Facebook games, you join a team, and they become a surrogate family.

With the creation of MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games, like World of War Craft for example, that sense of community expanded to the thousands.  People have become profession YouTube gamers, making money by letting other people watch them play these games, which seems very weird to me.  I can understand how playing video games is fun, but watching someone else play a game holds no personal appeal.  And yet people do this for a living, so obviously quite a lot of people do enjoy watching someone else play a game.  And there is a very strong sense of community that is built by doing this.

This sense of community used to be created in person. There was no “online” 50 years ago.  Today’s teenager cant even conceive of not having friends from all over the globe, or of not having instant, 24 hour access to social contact.

RECOMMENDED READING:

How gaming keeps people connected, according to a professional YouTube gamer

Privacy/Spyware

HELLO I’M 5579A

“Sliders” episode “Please Press One”(S5E6) has the team sliding into a world where everyone is microchipped and reduced down to a number.  Pretty standard for science fiction. Every time you wave your hand, walk through a door, buy a newspaper – the chip records it all.  “In Time” (2011) starring Justin Timberlake got a little edgier where the currency was time rather than cash, but the technology was still embedded in each person’s arm.

The key scenario is that no action or transaction takes place without the system knowing it.  We all know GPS tracks your cell phone whether its turned on or off.  Every single transaction you make with your debit or credit card is recorded.  We’ve been living with Big Brother for years now.  But now…but now its in you.  Now you wont be able to leave it home.

This is a man in Wisconsin whose company just had the employees microchipped.  The company threw a party while it had it done.

company throws microchip party

A Three Market Square employee demonstrates how her embedded microchip allows her to buy a drink. MUST CREDIT: Photo for The Washington Post by Tim Gruber

Its here in the United States now.  The news report uses the language that Three Market Square is the first to “offer” this program.  But imbedding chips into human beings should have been one of the big things we fought as human beings to keep utterly illegal.  Its not “convenient.”  Its pervasive.  You wont be able to buy or sell without it soon.  You wont be able to open your apartment or start your car.  It may not be the biblical mark of the Beast, but functionally, there’s not a damn bit of difference.

Low Tech Solutions

HOMES AND HAVENS

We can change the world.  If we make one person’s life better, we have made the world a better place.  Its the star fish principle.  The media doesn’t spotlight simple, practical solutions because the media wants hype and drama.  This is a drama-free solution, but what an amazing difference it would make to someone struggling to find meaning and value in their life.

Homes and Havens

Having a safe and restful sanctuary is critical to good mental and physical health.  Its a simple idea – go in and decorate a living space  for a person recovering from trauma so they feel like they have a home.  Homes and Haves describe the work they do as: “We partner with local ministries that are helping women overcome abuse, addiction, homelessness, sex trafficking, and incarceration by helping furnish and decorate their new living spaces after graduating local programs. We design each space to be therapeutic and healing.”  

A volunteer’s story of her experience  said she was expecting the usual dismal, bland furnishings that people usually give away for free.  Something so worn out it couldn’t be sold on e-bay.  Something with no value left so its given to charity.  But instead she found Homes and Haven were providing lightly used furnishings, and using quality, cheerful paint to fix them up. 

She found Homes and Haven operate on a principle all of us know: “The message: this furniture was to show women that they were worth something really nice.  Surroundings could boost their self-esteem. As a volunteer, I did not merely take something substandard and make it satisfactory. No, I actually helped to create something beautiful which these women so heartily deserve.”

I would love to see this happening in every community.

Read original story here.
Foundations for Ethics

THE ESSENCE OF REASONING

Bioethics involves a great deal of reasoned debate, and unfortunately, a great deal of unreasonable debate as well. When people disagree they usually think there are a number of reasons for disagreeing. But it basically comes down to only 4 different components. People disagree due to FACTS, BELIEFS, LOYALTIES, and REASONING.

FACTS are empirically verifiable. Yet one person may have information the other doesn’t.  While facts should be the end of the argument, they  increasingly play a lesser role as society is becoming less analytical and more emotional.

BELIEFS are convictions that are not empirically verifiable. Many times people think their beliefs are factual, but the convictions have come from a variety of unproven sources that have gained credibility through repetition and emotional response. However, sometimes beliefs may be true because not all truth is empirical.

LOYALTIES come in a wide variety of flavors, and may be political, religious, ethnic, or cultural. Loyalties to one’s friends and family have a strong influence on what opinions people have and how deeply they feel about particular issues.   

REASONING: If we engage at the level of reasoning, and you are not getting anywhere, check and make sure you both have the same facts. Then check what is the person’s beliefs and loyalties that are influencing him or her in the situation.

Communicating is more than just throwing facts around. It starts with being genuine about your beliefs and loyalties. But it is critically important that these two do not contradict the facts.  Understanding this will help you clarify your position.  And hopefully it will make you more sensitive to the lived experience of others. The most important aspect to debates in bioethics is that we are working towards an understanding of the truth.  So we need to be genuine, but we also need to be truthful.