— Bob-a-job-alog-a-roonie

This isn’t a Vine, or a Tweet or a TikTok Dance…

Obviously family is big, be it good or bad. We would barely be human without family.

We see Jacinda Ardern suckling her baby in parliament, and Donald Trump…

2020 has made everything more. I typically see my NZ family annually. It is  a nice round number… If I chose I could see them every month, or 3 months or 6 months. It is hard to determine such things but every year ticks a lot of boxes.

This year is different for two big reasons:

1. The lockdown has accentuated things. When you can’t have something, you want it more
2. My parents are moving. Hundreds of miles. The last time they did this I was a quite un-functional young adult, and they didn’t tell me (I was far, far away).

Now, for the first adult time, I could “help out”.

Not really. A generation ago we would have steadfastly been DIY. Car and trailer, fifty trips, beer crates full of spare taps. Cats. Well-worn furniture.

This time, we are all older, wiser, and actually have some money. “People” will do the work. If I were there, it would be for moral support only, while two decades ago it would have been hard slog. Good slog.

But I can’t be there, for the biggest transition my parents have had in decades. Not even for moral support. Meanwhile my kids who I have hung out with every second weekend for years… that has become very difficult to achieve.

There’s always a bright side, and the missing of family in 2020 will hopefully mean heightened love, everywhere, going forward.

This is a fascinating article
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/05/how-britain-can-help-you-get-away-with-stealing-millions-a-five-step-guide

Basically:

• $20 is all you need to register a company in the UK
• You can supply fake details, nobody checks
• Money launderers worldwide use these
• And fraudsters

A LLC company in England looks more legit than one based in, say, Nairobi. Yet it is so simple, I could register one from my home in a few minutes.

Entering fake details is of course illegal. The only person ever charged with this, unfortunately, was someone who registered a company in the name of the MP who made such changes in the law. And the poor bloke was hit with a huge fine for trying to be a good samaritan whistle-blower.

The UK government argues that checking compliance would cost too much (even though almost every other country manages to so).

This is symptomatic of what is wrong with the UK.

Trump tweet (chicken will never be beef) is the end of the world*, but what psychology led to it. from wanting to impress his Dad back to the stone age

Done in reverse, like Inception, boring otherwise

At the end a caveman does B instead of A, and it gives him advantage.

We see numerous generations of this, with many being survival of the fittest, and many being odd luck.

Strongest man gets most fertile woman vs everyone in the village dies in an avalanche except the village idiot

Every generation gets a genetic skill that demonstrably gives them an advantage in fittest or luck.

Inherits strength so survives fight.
Scared of ice so misses the avalanche

Everyone stops eating the cheap to produce protein, in favour of the expensive one. Rich countries take over poor ones, destroy everything to make way for cows (like Amazon destruction now). Climate change worsens dramatically. And because rich countries are totally reliant on tech, a solar storm sends them back to the stone age, back to the original scenario. And one wrong choice leads to our extinction.

——-

Time meets halfway

Time flows both ways (only 2 ways)

So what happens when this way, and that way, cross paths

The trend on our trajectory is from individuals to a beautiful hive mind.
Theirs is from hive mind to individual
Both are seen as spiritual growth.
When they pass, they barely acknowledge each other, but it is understood that mid-way is heaven.

What if midway is heaven, and only those who recognise it get to go?

And the rest have more to do

This could be one person, one consciousness, two parallel realities, one moving forward, the other backward, and pass at halfway. Maybe at halfway everyone gets a blip. And it could be enlightening.

spark / the end of the world

20 years ago I was a tram conductor, and my days/nights consisted of Russian literature, vodka in my water bottle, and helping people with their journey.

One day, like an epiphany, I looked slowly and carefully at everyone on the tram, and I knew their sadness.  And I knew that everyone has sadness.

Parallel with that I developed a fear that someone would get run over when leaving the tram – there were many close calls. Ever since then a good portion of my subconsciousness has willed car accidents not to happen…

Much more recently, maybe 5 years ago, I understood something new. There is nobody in this world I don’t like. Some people just take more time than others. There have been people I disliked immensely that I ended up liking.

Loving is a more proper word. Now the timeline between not getting, and getting someone, is diminishing. I fully expect that before long I will have a loving understanding of people, their good and bad, their happy and sad, when I first meet them. That’s the trajectory.

Marvellous. Lovely. Except I don’t know what to do with it. Become that guy on Oprah that hugged everyone? Start a cult?

I’m guessing the answer is to see humans just like animals and landscapes. To afford them that level of beauty and worthiness.

I wish I was an artist.

A short turn, fun, first person shooter. Thought of in 2004. Yep, Fortnite.

Knowing when businesses are busiest. Thought of in 2006. Implemented by Google since.

Once upon a time, in my tram conductor days, I looked at everybody onboard and could feel the inner pain of each of them, and perhaps even know what that pain was – like a mentalist of suffering. I’ve kept it switched off ever since.

But what I do do now is go to places where people are happy, like bars with live bands. And take in the happiness. If I am low it helps immensely.

I have no insights into people’s happiness yet. Maybe one day.

Drinking Japanese whisky at 7am. Mini mid-life crisis. Owning the situation

I listen to everything, and belong to myself only. I subscribe to many magazines that could get me on a watchlist, as well as “sane” publications that wouldn’t. Like Reason. Recently an article said this to counter the argument that robots will take our jobs:

In 1910, one out of 20 of the American workforce was on the railways. In the late 1940s, 350,000 manual telephone operators worked for AT&T alone. In the 1950s, elevator operators by the hundreds of thousands lost their jobs to passengers pushing buttons. Typists have vanished from offices. But if blacksmiths unemployed by cars or TV repairmen unemployed by printed circuits never got another job, unemployment would not be 5 percent, or 10 percent in a bad year. It would be 50 percent and climbing.

It is an easy argument to make – people always find new jobs, and technology enriches our life as it destroys old jobs.

The author is correct. Bravo!

But here’s what all these expert commentators are missing. It’s not about whether we will have employment, we’ll always find ways of paying each other to do things we don’t want to, or cannot do.  It is about the value of human employees.

As robots, AI and so on take our jobs, large businesses will increase their profits and have less use for human staff. For corporations, the average hourly dollar worth of a human is declining. Profits will rise and the rich will get richer.

If your job has been taken, you will probably find new employment. But you will be less likely to be hired by a corporation (with big profits) and more likely to be a part of a local ecosystem where everyone employs each other. I mow your lawn, cut my hair, he delivers parcels, I order pizza.

I know “trickle down” is a joke, but it has a degree of reality – corporations pay staff from their profits, and staff spend that money. As corporations trend towards less staff, less of their profits will trickle down. More will be retained by the owners and executives.

The long-term trend is for a a working class who are getting more things and lifestyle than ever before, but will be relatively poorer financially. Our jobs will be more service oriented and less about creating products or providing food.

We already have flat wage growth throughout the prosperous countries.

Next up – reduced incomes. It is coming. I’ll wager 2020 is the year we accept that the 90% will be valued less than before.