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Apr 23

Critiques of Democracy

by Chris Billows in Political Ponderings 0 comments tags: Corruption of Democracy, Human Condition, Political Opinion
Months ago, I was doing some Google searches on different philosophical tangents and one of them was “Critiques of Democracy” and I stumbled upon an intriguing website called Promethea. What caught my interest was its statement on its notes page that “all things should be examined according to their impact on life, and popularity by itself is not enough endorsement.” Wow! That struck home and made so much sense. Democracy is not about rationally evaluating what matters or counts most, but about simply giving power to people who are not necessarily capable of measuring or judging competently. Instead voters resort to treating democracy as popularity contests. The site is extensive and I personally find the reference to a mythical character of Prometheus to be very cool. It speaks about Individualism but appears to understand that there is no such thing as a self-made person for we are dependent on the sacrifices of others. Its anti-collectivist stance appears to be a bit too rigid – if individuals have freedom, then surely they have the freedom to join (and leave) a collective. Its something I will peruse over the next year and write a more extensive summary. Check it out… Promethea.org

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Apr 11

The Logic of Passion

by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments tags: Defining Life, New Types of Intelligence, Quotations
I stumbled across a highly recommended website that deals with emotional intelligence, but defines it instead as Emotional Competency. My own experience in working with people and with meditation is that emotions are essential components of our being. Those who advocate sterile logic and academic intelligence fall into the trap of ignoring emotions and thus disabling their understanding of what makes people human. I would say it is like Oscar Wilde’s quote that the cynic knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Replace the term ‘cost’ with ‘measurement’ and we can see why emotions are ignored since they impossible to measure. But because emotions are not measurable we should not ignore them. Doing so is at our own peril. Check it out… www.EmotionalCompetency.com

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Apr 09

Are Pension Plans a Type of Ponzi Scheme?

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Corporate Corruption, Foolishness, Human Condition
I was reading about Bernie Madoff’s investment scandal and it suddenly struck me that defined-benefit pension plans (public and private) operate on the same principal as Madoff’s Ponzi plan. Bernie Madoff defrauded his investors of $65 billion dollars with a massive ponzi scheme. Madoff was smart by never offering suspicious high returns to everyone, but did guarantee a steady and modest return regardless of the state of the stock market. This latter point should be suspicious to any intelligent investor. Yet that is exactly what our public and private defined benefit plans are doing. They guarantee a return or benefit rate. Yet how can they do this? Just like Madoff did, by using new money brought in from new investors (or pension contributors) to help meet the payout obligations. As long as new citizens grow up and are forced to contribute to the pension plans, the plan remains viable. But, perhaps we would all be better served by a defined-contribution plan, where the return is based on how well one’s money is managed, instead of compelling citizens to make pension contributions to maintain unsustainable payouts.

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Mar 26

Book Review: Nature via Nurture by Matt Ridley

by Chris Billows in Spirit Speculations 0 comments tags: Comprehensive Analysis, Defining Life, Foolishness, Human Condition, Human History
Being intrigued by the title, I picked up this book to learn finally once and for all which side was right – Are humans a product of biology of genes or social environment? Spoiler Alert: Its both. As a society we have witnessed a longstanding feud between two camps – one set of people believes that genes and nature determines our destiny while their opponents insist that socialization and nurture is our sole determinant. Like the title suggests and as Ridley states almost immediately, it is both nature and nurture that affects human development. The two sides may have valid contributions to understanding human development, but neither side gets it completely right because of sectarian/institutional thinking. The problem is that we are all victim of a media that thrives on reporting the controversial and extremist positions of the Naturists and Nurturist camps. That debate has been an ivory tower battle that has spilled over into Pop-psychology books that teach parents how to parent, how to find a partner, etc. This book proves the level of inanity that academics can resort to. Ridley demonstrate how neither side got it right and how humans are both genes and social mores wrapped together […]

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Mar 17

Credit Crisis Challenges Convictions

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Change of Mind, Corporate Corruption, Free Enterprise
I have re-watched the Credit Crisis video a few times and each time its message really hits home. Not only was the crisis created by collective greed, but also a sophisticated scheme to generate money without actually contributing much useful. It was all about getting rewarded without doing any heavy work. Sure sounds like socialism. It is a socialist ideal to have people have all their needs met with minimal effort on their own part. Only within socialism are people allowed to make poor choices and still get away with it, because after-all the larger community will take care of you. Yet what we are witnessing is not socialism in its pure form. What we are seeing is a kind of socialism known as State Capitalism. This is where governments in the US, UK, and other places prop up their banks and financial institutions. This ends up saving and rewarding many of the same people who created the credit crisis. Yet, just like in the video, the state stood aside and allowed this to happen and even contributed to it by keeping interest rates too low. The state has to step in because it helped create the crisis in an […]

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Feb 28

Lets Talk About Mediocrity (Ahem, I Mean Mutual) Funds

by Chris Billows in Business Beller 0 comments tags: Smart Money Management
My first investment was in mutual funds which is what most people invest in because the mutual fund industry is very effective at promoting its products. There is a certain sense of security knowing that everyone else is also buying mutual funds. Unfortunately for the most part we have been sold a product that does what it says but does not deliver what you need. Yes, mutual funds do invest in the stock market. Yes, mutual funds do diversify the risk over hundreds of stocks but no, most mutual funds do not give you the returns you need. Diversify and Die? Mutual Funds will give you built in diversification. Some of them invest in entire stock market indexes, others invest into a combination of stocks and bonds, and some invest into other company mutual funds (which are called Fund of Funds, yikes!). Diversification of your investment money is important. You should never put all of your money into one company. Because you have no control over how that company does or how other investors react to the company’s news, it is best to hedge your dollars by spreading the risk around. Yet it is possible to over-diversify. Because mutual funds […]
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