Immigration and Tolerance

“Change often measures our tolerance for folk different from ourselves. Can we accept their languages, their customs, their garments, and their foods into our own lives? If we can, then we form bonds, bonds that make wars less likely. If we cannot, if we believe that we must do things as we have always done them, then we must either fight to remain as we are, or die.”-“That’s cheery.”-“It’s true.”― Robin Hobb, Golden Fool This is a quote...

Read More

MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE

What the Attacks in Paris show once again is how we tend to go into ‘maximum overdrive’ mode when we are suddenly, unexpectedly faced with a significant problem. There’s this sudden ‘rush’ of ‘we have to do SOMETHING’ – so if Facebook gives the option of overlaying your profile pic with the French flag, so many will just do it. Not because of understanding the entire dynamic of what happened in seeing: these were the reasons for the attack and...

Read More

Can we Live Simply Ever After?

When you tear down everything that makes life a burden, when you strip away everything that complicates life and sucks the joy out of it – there’s not ‘much’ left. Much from the perspective of: you can go without many things. Many things in our world currently make our life ‘fuller’ but not necessarily more ‘fulfilled’ – BIG difference. Have a look at what we have made ‘life’ to be – human life is super-complicated – it is true, we’ve made a terrific...

Read More

Corruption – Broken at the Core – Pt2

This post is a continuation to Corruption - Broken at the Core I ended off the previous post with: “So if we want to understand how ‘those guys’ can be corrupt and how to change it – all we really need to do is ask ourselves: why am I corrupt? What makes me choose self-interest over what is best for everyone? What do you think? What do you see?” You will probably be able to relate to a sort of ‘instinct’ within you to protect ‘me’ from ‘everyone...

Read More

Corruption - Broken at the Core

In hearing the word ‘corruption’ we almost automatically think of politicians, business owner, corporations and MONEY – more specifically: putting money where it’s not supposed to go and using power in ways it’s not supposed to be used. We think of all those people ‘out there’ doing it and how angry it makes us, because with THEM being corrupt, it leaves less for the rest of us ‘poor victims’. ‘If only there would be no corruption’ – ‘everything...

Read More

Solitary Confinement – The Horrors of our ‘Correctional’ System

Even though international governing bodies have condemned the use of solitary confinement since the 1990s, it is still a common practice in many prisons all over the United States. Currently, an estimated total of 80,000 to 100,000 men, women and children are isolated in closed cells for 22-24 hours a day – for periods stretching from days, weeks, months and even years. Reasons to place a prisoner in solitary confinement are not restricted to serious...

Read More

Tomorrowland – Would you get a Pin?

Just saw the Disney movie ‘Tomorrowland’. The following passage is quite interesting and worth looking at: “Let’s imagine… if you’d glimpse the future, you are frightened by what you saw, what would you do with that information? You’d go to who? Politicians? Captains of industry? And how would you convince them? With data? With Facts? Good luck. The only facts they won’t challenge are the ones that keep the wheels greased and the dollars rolling...

Read More

When Life No Longer Needs to be Paid For

At the moment life is not free – we have to pay for it. Buying groceries, paying rent or paying off the loan you needed to take out to buy your house, paying for medical support, paying for water and electricity – all of the life-supporting essentials cost money. So, in essence, you pay to continue living every day another day. Now – what would happen when everyone received at least a Living Income – and if working – would receive at least double?...

Read More

How is War Still a Thing?

If you look at human history and all the progress we’ve made, the technology, the infrastructure, the institutions, the various ways of communicating over enormous distances – instantaneously -  traveling into space, creating music, art – it’s pretty impressive. And yet – with all of this apparent evolution and progress, it’s hard to be optimistic about humanity’s history and legacy, because: there’s still this one huge nasty atrocity we keep...

Read More

Parenting and a Living Income Guaranteed

How does the lack of parental economic support affect our societies? How would Parenting change in a society where our basic needs are guaranteed as a Human Right? What effects will securing the livelihood of mothers and fathers bring to our society at large? What needs to change in society and economics to make parenting a successful and satisfying part of our lives and those of our children? Join us in our discussion with Equal Life Foundation’s very own Leila Zamora Moreno & Gian Robberts, sharing their perspectives and experiences...

Read More

Politics? Fun?? Have you Lost your Mind?!

One of the reasons it is so hard to push for substantial change is that – the way to do that is through politics – and trying to get people engaged and passionate about politics is not an easy feat. Just ask yourself – apart from the sentence I just wrote – when last did you hear the words ‘politics’ and ‘passionate’ in the same sentence together? It seems the two are each others' opposites. I imagine the following is actually how some people have...

Read More

Voting Fun – What does it Feel Like to Have a Say?

One of the pillars within the Living Income Guaranteed proposal is the substantiating of Democracy through Direct Political Participation. Technology is available to hold regular votes that includes a large number of individuals. These votes can range from participatory budgeting where each citizen is asked to approve the yearly national budget, to making decisions on a daily basis on a local/municipality level. Now – before such increased direct...

Read More

Humanity Washed Ashore

“The full horror of the human tragedy unfolding on the shores of Europe was brought home on Wednesday as images of the lifeless body of a young boy – one of at least 12 Syrians who drowned attempting to reach the Greek island of Kos – encapsulated the extraordinary risks refugees are taking to reach the west. The picture, taken on Wednesday morning, depicted the dark-haired toddler, wearing a bright-red T-shirt and shorts, washed up on a beach,...

Read More

Welcoming New Life with Living Income Guaranteed

...

Read More

And Then You Crash - Meconomics

This blogpost is a continuation to:Reality in a Bubble – MeconomicsInflating Reality Much? – MeconomicsDo You Know the Stakes of the Bets you Place? – Meconomics Have you Ever been Swept Off your Feet?In this little series, we’ve been investigating the phenomenon of inflation, how we in our daily lives participate in ‘inflating our reality’ and so, how we are on a personal level participating in the same principles/dynamics that we see playing...

Read More

Have you Ever been Swept Off Your Feet? - Meconomics

This blogpost is a continuation to:Reality in a Bubble – MeconomicsInflating Reality Much? – MeconomicsDo You Know the Stakes of the Bets you Place? – Meconomics In the previous blog we started looking at the different stages we move through when we inflate things in our reality:1.    the start/onset, 2.    the process of inflation,3.    the popping of the bubble. We ended off our discussion of...

Read More

Do You Know the Stakes of the Bets you Place? - Meconomics

This blogpost is a continuation to:Reality in a Bubble – MeconomicsInflating Reality Much? – MeconomicsRead the previous posts for context. I ended off my previous post with the following: “When we start reacting inside ourselves (in the experiential reality/dimension) to what we hear/see in our physical reality, we change the way we perceive reality. If your partner forgot to buy toothpaste, then in physical reality, this means: your partner...

Read More

Inflating Reality Much? - Meconomics

This post is a continuation to:Reality in a Bubble – MeconomicsIn my previous post we discussed speculative bubbles in the economy, where we saw how prices of assets increase through a process of speculation over and above the ‘real prices’ (which would reflect their actual value). We say the prices are ‘inflated’ (just like how you inflate a balloon or bubble) – and we looked at some of the major damage that those speculative bubbles can create,...

Read More

Reality in a Bubble - Meconomics

Here’s a fun topic to explore – BUBBLES!!! What do you know about blowing bubbles? 1. It’s fun 2. You blow air unto a film of soapy liquid and it starts creating a bubble 3. The more air you blow into it, the bigger the bubble becomes 3. Blow in too much air – and the bubble pops. Bubbles exist in economics as well – they’re called ‘Speculative Bubbles’. Here’s a definition from Investopedia (don’t worry if you don’t understand everything): “A...

Read More

The Humpty-Dumpty Effect - Meconomics

This post is a continuation to:Meconomics: I need my Wants and Want my Needs to be SatisfiedMeconomics: Wants and Needs in your Daily Living Meconomics: Do you Spend your Money Objectively or Subjectively? Meconomics: Can you Buy Happiness?In the previous post we started looking at why and how it is that we can experience certain wants as a ‘need’ or a ‘must have’, where we looked at the role of expectations: “Realistic expectations of fulfilling...

Read More

Meconomics: Can you Buy Happiness?

This post is a continuation to: Meconomics: I need my Wants and Want my Needs to be Satisfied Meconomics: Wants and Needs in your Daily Living  Meconomics: Do you Spend your Money Objectively or Subjectively?   I ended off my previous post with the following: “So – we have looked at how wants can in a moment override a need – where we identified subjective experiences and time as important players – but we can look a bit further...

Read More

Meconomics: Do you Spend your Money Objectively or Subjectively?

This post is a continuation to: Meconomics: I need my Wants and Want my Needs to be Satisfied Meconomics: Wants and Needs in your Daily Living In my previous post I started looking at how wants and needs are confused in our daily living. Needs would be the things you cannot go without and so, common sensically, they would be your priority when deciding what to spend your money on. Wants are things you can go without, but you would prefer not...

Read More