~ TDMBTLETTTECGABTNEIALBDAMTD-I-TBAUBOTEAAW-AUHBWHFITFOEG ~ The Dishonest Macroeconomic Bookkeeping That Leads Economists To Think That Externalized Costs Go Away Because They’re Not Entered Into Anyone’s Ledger Books Doesn’t Actually Make Them Disappear – Instead – They Become An Unrecognized Burden On The Economy As A Whole – An Unfelt Headwind Blowing With Hurricane Force In The Face Of Economic Growth

~ TMODAAGMOFOFW-ST-TR-AEIC ~ The Manufacture Of Derivatives And A Great Many Other Forms Of Fictive Wealth – Subtract Those – The Result – An Economy In Contraction

~ TIRITPJ-TEOMNAETMCEOAI-A-TODIIALSAATCTLATFW-AMOT-ATTSS ~ The Intractable Rise In The Permanently Jobless – The Epidemic Of Malign Neglect Affecting Even The Most Crucial Elements Of America’s Infrastructure – And – The Ongoing Decline In Income And Living Standards Among All Those Classes That Lack Access To Fictive Wealth – Among Many Other Things – All Tell The Same Story

~ IFFSTATPWJDOI-ATWUTCFCTTCO-AIWATNOPWATTEID ~ It’s Far From Surprising That All The People Whose Jobs Depend On Intermediation – All The Way Up The Corporate Food Chain To The Corner Offices – Are Increasingly Worried About The Number Of People Who Are Trying To Engage In Disintermediation

~ T-‘F’-M-I-OC-NOTK-IC-IE-TWWTAAPFTGLFSOW-TFTEOOOTMHBHAWILP-IIHSBABLIOBF-IJOOTMDTMLI ~ The – “Free” – Market – Is – Of Course – Nothing Of The Kind – It’s Compulsory – It’s Expensive – Those Who Want To Abstain Are Perfectly Free To Go Looking For Some Other Way – The Fact That Every Option Outside Of The Market Has Been Hedge Around With Impenetrable Legal Prohibitions – If It Hasn’t Simply Been Annihilated By Legal Fiat Or Brute Force – Is Just One Of Those Minor Details That Make Life Interesting

~ ACSAOAIZ-TEUWAHBOUI-SBAIFFOPA ~ A Complex Society At Or After Its Zenith – Typically Ends Up With A Huge Burden Of Unproductive Intermediaries – Supported By An Increasingly Fragile Foundation Of Productive Activity

~ TF-IIAF-TTVMOHS-ICC-HGBJFWMOAKBRIOCI ~ The Fact – It Is A Fact – That The Vast Majority Of Human Societies – Including Complex Civilizations – Have Gotten By Just Fine Without Money Of Any Kind Barely Registers In Our Collective Imagination

~ TGE-IWMOACGTEPTOMOTSCITETTGWBR-IIC ~ The Gift Economy – In Which Members Of A Community Give Their Excess Production To Other Members Of The Same Community In The Expectation That The Gift Will Be Reciprocated – Is Immensely Common

~ IIVETDIAME-AWAKFPE-TICSCFFWSTCTP ~ Intermediation Is Very Easy To Do In A Money Economy – As We All Know From Personal Experience – The Intermediaries Can Simply Charge Fees For Whatever Service They Claim To Provide

~ WMG-IF-TOOTUROPE ~ Where Money Goes – Intermediation Follows – That’s One Of The Unmentionable Realities Of Political Economy

~ TLOPAETTLOEACNBBNB ~ The Laws Of Physics And Ecology Trump The Laws Of Economics And Can Neither Be Bribed Nor Bought

~ ITGASAA-ABSFOGCWCTF-AITPWHTGASNTMTTWG-TSIT ~ If The Goods And Services Aren’t Available – A Basement Safe Full Of Gold Coins Won’t Change That Fact – And If The People Who Have The Goods And Services Need Them More Than They Want Gold – The Same Is True

~ TOAVHADIASWTROLHBD:TAVTWADRDF ~ Tokens Of Abstract Value Have Another Disadvantage In A Society Where The Rule Of Law Has Broken Down: They Attract Violence The Way A Dead Rat Draws Files

~ EHSLTTTICCAIP-WTHTB-ATBAAEAOHE ~ Every Human Society Likes To Think That Its Core Cultural And Intellectual Projects – Whatever Those Happen To Be – Are The Be-All And End-All Of Human Existence

~ TTBIPLTTONTAROOO-IAMCFRNTTBLOEO ~ Though True Believers In Progress Like To Think Of New Technologies As Replacements For Older Ones – Its Actually More Common For New Technologies To Be Layered Over Existing Ones

~ WSAOOICIOCPTACOS-TSNTT-ATH-ATWTWAAWCATTOTC ~ When A Society Assigns One Of Its Core Intellectual Or Cultural Projects To A Community Of Specialists – Those Specialists Need To Think – And Think Hard – About The Way Their Words And Actions Will Come Across To Those Outside That Community

~ TWATWTBOSRATDRRTPAWATP-BTTHLSP-TD-TBORADMUTSL-WTCANCMD ~ There Was A Time When The Benefits Of Scientific Research And Technological Development Routinely Reached The Poor As Well As The Privileged – But That Time Has Long Since Passed – These Days – The Benefits Of Research And Development Move Up The Social Ladder – While The Costs And Negative Consequences Move Down

~ TPOTSPBBIHBAOS-TD-IAFWSCICWSM-SSAIJADOM-FIRBPTPTNODSTGTUC-TTSCO-‘O’-DTDSTC ~ The Prostitution Of The Scientific Process By Business Interests Has Become An Open Scandal – These Days – In Any Field Where Science Comes Into Contact With Serious Money – Scientific Studies Are Increasingly Just Another Dimension Of Marketing – From Influential Researchers Being Paid To Put Their Names On Dubious Studies To Give Them Unearned Credibility – To The Systematic Concealment Of – “Outlying” – Data That Doesn’t Support The Claims

~ TTOT ~ The Twilight Of Technology

~ RTARSOPBITTPDE-ADTWD-IOOHATBC ~ Responding To A Rising Spiral Of Problems By Insisting That The Problems Don’t Exist – And Denouncing Those Who Demur – Is One Of History’s All-Time Bad Choices

~ ASCCBMTTI-DAMES-IBPUBASOFGWADRTSAM ~ A Strong Case Can Be Made That The Internet – Doesn’t Actually Make Economic Sense – It’s Being Propped Up By A Set Of Financial Gimmickry With A Distinct Resemblance To Smoke And Mirrors

~ TTPWWIDC ~ Talk To People Who Work In Data Centers

~ DCANCTR-TAMTOT-A-TOOPOTVIWCTI ~ Data Centers Are Not Cheap To Run – There Are Many Thousands Of Them – And – They’re Only One Part Of The Vast Infrastructure We Call The Internet

~ ALATPCOACCIAAAFTBI-TCT ~ As Long As The Political Class Of A Civilization Can Inspire Admiration And Affection From Those Below It – The Civilization Thrives

~ L-E-S-S – Less – Energy – Stuff – Stimulation

~ WLPTPAWDAFCBA-OEAOALS ~ We’re Long Past The Point At Which Decline And Fall Can Be Avoided – Or Even Ameliorated On Any Large Scale

~ IBSBTOSOETIBPTPFAFWH ~ It’s By Stepping Beyond That Overdeveloped Sense Of Entitlement That It Becomes Possible To Plan For A Future Worth Having

~ CF&ATR ~ Collapse First And Avoid The Rush

~ LGOTDOOOUEUTLFTPAAMIETSASOTUCNTHSMATRTOP ~ Letting Go Of The Delusion Of Our Own Uniqueness Enables Us To Learn From The Past And Also Makes It Easier To Set Aside Some Of The Unproductive Cultural Narratives That Hamstring So Many Attempt To Respond To Our Predicament