Thursday, October 30, 2014

The Only Way ...


"It is possible to fail in many ways...while to succeed is possible only in one way." —Aristotle, smart Greek guy (384 BC - 322 BC)

I don't know if Aristotle is right, but I know the only way...
  1. ... to even begin to combat American obesity is to legislate that food manufacturers list the percentage of the top three product ingredients, with all sugars combined.
  2. ... for Americans to reduce the high price of their college system is to separate instruction from testing, so competition can get back to honest work.
  3. ... to reduce concussions among school-age soccer players is to eliminate heading the ball; leave it to pros.
  4. ... reduce concussions in hockey is to create the same player-held (!) stigma against hits directly to the head, or head to boards, that players have for kneeing.
  5. ... reduce concussions in football is to create the same stigma as in hockey and make the helmets much lighter so they are not protecting the concussing player's head and neck with their momentum.
  6. ... for Americans to reduce the high price of their healthcare is to enforce practices that cause the pricing to be visible.
  7. ... for Americans to reduce the high cost of their healthcare is to separate health insurance from employers' involvement, so that all market forces get properly realigned.
  8. ... to provide tax revenue to pay to maintain societal infrastructure in an Internet-enabled, remote-control world is to collect taxes based on the proportional use of the infrastructure... in other words, increased reliance on sales taxes.
  9. ... to stop the large-scale gaming of the stock market by manipulative timing advantages of high-speed traders is to tax profits from same-day buy and sell orders at 100%, in other words, eliminate day-trading and high-speed trading.
  10. ... to control insider trading of stocks is to eliminate the advantage of inside information, by limiting large sales (over $10,000?) to 20% per month before profits are taxed at 100%.
  11. ... to prevent identity fraud is to stop pretending it's identity fraud and start calling the vast majority of it credit card fraud so that we hold the right companies accountable.
  12. ... to provide the slightest immediate countermeasure against data hacking is to legislate that all electronic systems that store individuals' data—even social security numbers—must be reinforced by PIN numbers and email alerts on usage. Data will still be stolen but consumers can stop the bleeding when notified.
  13. ... to enable police work to catch up to street crime is to change from policing after-the-fact to policing by 'swarm' coverage, meaning blanketing surveillance of hotspots before crime occurs.
  14. ... to properly use the United States' second windfall of fossil fuels—the shale oil and gas freed by fracking and horizontal drilling—is to split the bounty evenly between three uses: ultra-long-term military reserves, fueling the construction of our long-term sustainable energy infrastructure, and short-term energy.
  15. ... to supply our near-term energy demands without choking ourselves to death is to build and manage nuclear reactors, ideally small modular reactors if feasible.
  16. ... to reduce gun killings caused by the mismatch of the Second Amendment to modern-day America is to accept the fact that the founding fathers couldn't possibly foresee 200 years into a future where technology lets an individual kill by the dozens in seconds, and let each state determine its own gun rights. Metropolitan states will start to get control, and gun lovers can move to states where guns are valued.
  17. ... to solve the relentless trajectory of financial inequality is to legislate not minimum wages, but 'maximum multiples' ... of total compensation for highest-paid employees: a multiple of 100 at 'for-profits' and 20 at non-profits. This would put no absolute limit on staggering wealth.
  18. ... to return to the quality level of US leadership originally crafted by its founders is to institute term limits on all levels of government.
  19. ... to create stability int the Middle East is to let them fight it out for themselves.
  20. ... to save the planet from mankind is to get our population back to 2 billion. If you think it's important now, imagine how important it will be in about 30 years when we figure out how to stop cancer, and its opposite, aging.
We live in the most exciting times imaginable. The rate of change is staggering. Mankind is being connected like never before. And our understanding and control of nature is tantalizingly close to completion. But each step forward seems to be joined by missteps and pitfalls, as if there's no progress at all... or worse, that we're doomed to trudge in the same ruts in perpetuity. This is a logical result of one fact: we live on a finite globe, wondrous and plentiful in many ways, fragile and unforgiving in others. It's well within our power to solve these problems.

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