economicmultipliers_11

Economic Multipliers (11)

Do you know what these are?

These determine whether we CREATE wealth in systems.

Time and energy are economic multipliers (if they ARE and CAN BE used well).

When the earthquake in Haiti occurred, I didn’t send money: I sent out this text via the Internet (to some individuals and organizations that I thought have better ‘connections’ and greater ‘reach‘ than I):

(Start of text) I'm sure the rescuers in Haiti know that if they can get clean water to the people trapped, they increase their chances of surviving dramatically – hoses, distilled water (ironically with some salt added back in), and even some sugars or those nutrition drinks in some diluted form.

AND, naval ships all have distillation systems for water ... although it's preferable to have solar or wind or wave driven systems providing the power, this obviously is an emergency ... hopefully all the large 'unused' (i.e. sitting in storage right now) distillation units globally are on the way to Haiti along with the people who know how to use them (along with solar arrays to power them if possible) ...

AND since this is a humanitarian crisis ... someone should be literally setting up greenhouses to grow food that will be ready to eat in approximately 1-3 months (you realize ALL these things have longterm benefit anyway) ...

AND someone should also be paying attention to the human and animal waste streams because properly treated waste is called fertilizer and you need a way to first get the waste ‘collected’ and then get it properly treated.

It would be great if this crisis could actually move Haiti beyond the extreme poverty that currently exists since it is one of the poorest countries in the world.

If the relief money is only spent on 'band-aids,' the world will still end up with a huge 'wound.' Sometimes people have the ability to move mountains ... PLEASE MOVE SOME. (End of text)

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If Haiti was going to get a sudden ‘influx’ of money, I thought it should be spent well – in ways where when relief agencies started leaving and relief money started drying up, they ended up wealthier as individuals and as a nation than they were before (that would mean that the money that was spent CREATED economic multipliers).

The above text (if it inspires worthy action) is the nature of wealth creation. This is one way the Internet can be used to solve social problems.

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The Internet is also being used to create social problems and at a much faster rate than ever before.

Social Problem No. 2 that I’m going to discuss is:

‘inappropriate’ photos

‘Inappropriate photos’ are an immediate and rapidly evolving problem for the youth of this nation. As a result, the youth of this nation need to start a dialogue with law enforcement agencies, the judicial system and social service agencies regarding the world they want to live in 10 years from now and what it‘s going to take to create it.

I’ll suggest some solutions but I really think the young people of this nation need to define their own solutions. After all, we‘re talking about YOUR future.

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When I was young, photography was an expensive hobby and it was not possible to digitally transmit photos. When individuals with ‘deviant’ minds wanted to inappropriately take photos of people and distribute them, they had to have equipment, a fair amount of money and be very sly (equipment was a lot bigger). In comparison to today, their range of distribution was quite limited.

We live in a different world.

The one nice thing about being older and having studied economics and evolving social problems is that I have thought about the ‘nature’ of activities.

For instance:

• • I am a person who has never owned a bikini, dresses fairly conservatively and would never have been considered a party animal.

  • I can count on one hand the number of times I overindulged in alcohol in my youth, rarely ever drink and over the years have accumulated library cards from numerous cities (I‘ve worked and lived several places). I frequent libraries … not bars (I know ... boring!).

  • I don’t have what I would consider to be the ideal woman‘s body – I‘m not complaining though – for my age, it‘s holding up pretty well.

  • I have never given anyone permission to take nude photos of me.

  • I would never want anyone to take nude photos of me.

Therefore, if anyone ever did take a nude photo of me, I would believe several things:

• • They purposely got up in the morning with the INTENT to harm me personally, professionally and financially.

  • They purposely INTENDED to embarrass and humiliate me (I’d think this even more so because I don’t think I have the ideal woman‘s body).

  • They owe me more money than the highest paid woman who ever did a Playboy spread (because I did not consent to it – she did).

If anyone ever took a nude photo of you without your permission, you should think these things too: If you don't, from a societal perspective, we won't be able to get to a point where this problem can be prevented.

Now, since most people who engage in ‘deviant’ behaviors don’t have the financial depth that Playboy has to pay damages if they inappropriately take nude photos of you, I believe we need some EXTRA creative sentencing for DETERRENCE. (Keep in mind that the GOAL is to PREVENT you from having any problems in the future).

For instance, the length of punishment should match the damage. If someone takes unauthorized nude photos of you and posts them on the Internet, we could assume that they intended ’permanent, lifelong’ damage.

Hence, along with monetary damages, it might make sense to have that person, for the rest of their life, get up two days a week and walk around the courthouse in their underwear (making them do it nude seems a bit extreme, even if that’s what they thought was OK to do to you). (I myself say two days a week because we need them to be working so they can pay you monetary damages).

People who transmit photos are in a different category because they like to hide behind their ’mantra’: I didn’t ’create’ the problem. They just always think it’s a great idea to compound problems.

These people seem to like ’delivering’ things. If they use the Internet for ’delivery,’ I think they should get a sentence that reflects the length of their life but would be ’less harsh.’ For instance, if they were 50 and their average lifespan was 76, maybe we could halve the difference (for each occurrence – two times would bring them up to a lifetime) and give them a sentence of 13 years where they had to deliver groceries to elderly and handicapped people or deliver people to doctors appointments, etc. for two days a week. If their ‘delivery’ of any photos included money, then their punishment could also include monetary damages.

If you look at these ‘sentences’ and think they seem ‘harsh,’ remember the ‘sentence’ that THEY want to GIVE to YOU.

I’m never sure what you do about the people who just don’t want to get involved. I hope that law enforcement agencies have ‘repository email boxes’ where people can forward email they believe they shouldn’t have received which they believe could be damaging to some other individual. (When you protect another person ... even if you don't know them ... in the longterm, you're protecting yourself).

This system alone would deter many ‘deviant’ minds. Because most of these individuals are so busy ‘plotting’ to take and look at ‘skanky’ pictures of people, I wouldn’t expect the greater percentage of them to know a lot about erasing their digital trails. In this one instance, technology is a great way to start ‘tracking them down.'

Just say to yourself, as a young person (man or woman) who might get married some day: Do you want someone attending your wedding to have a naked picture of you on their cell phone?

When you have an opportunity for a job promotion or are about to land a big client, do you want your employer or a prospective client to receive an email with a nude photo of you the day before that opportunity arrives?

The person in the community who would want to take a nude photo of you without your permission wants EXACTLY THAT for YOU.

The people who would distribute the photo want EXACTLY THAT for YOU.

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So I say (again):

This is a call to the youth of this nation:

The law enforcement agencies NEED your help.

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I start here: Any social problem that is created when you are young, you will have to pay for in time, energy and dollars when you are older. Do you want to pay for a lot of PREVENTABLE social problems?

I go here: Technology and the Internet have made it a LOT easier to create a LOT of social problems.

I end here: If the youth of this nation (who tend to be the highest percentage of technology users) do not start thinking about creative ways that they can help law enforcement agencies prevent social problems, the nation as a whole (and the future you could envision – in a lot more ways than one) is in a LOT of trouble.