only a born-again caveman

… values everything in money.

Yes, really … one has to be at that level to value much of anything in life in money. Money is after all just numbers on computers these days, of no value whatsoever unless there is something of real value to exchange those numbers for.

In a world that literally cannot function without exchanging excessive amounts of goods back and forth, money can be seen as a practical exchange unit. However, as value settings and exchange rates fluctuate with the deliberate and/or erratic actions and minds of millions of born-again cavemen all around the world, the less of ones values one has to declare in monetary units at any given time, the less one has to worry about in life.

individualistic values

As individuals we can measure and value anything in our surroundings anyway we like. Makes sense to use monetary units for some of our practical daily exchanges, but using money as “place-holder” for everything we surround ourselves with does not make any sense whatsoever.

“Degree of usefulness” is a better way to value goods, and “degree of happiness” should ideally cover the rest. Monetary units are mainly just disturbing factors in an otherwise happy life – all but born-again cavemen know that.

As more and more people look for happiness anywhere but in the world of economics, more and more laws and regulations are introduced to prevent us from doing so. Not to mention more and more stupid ads across all media aimed at making us want to have more money to buy more of what we have absolutely no need for.
Fun to watch some of those ads, but otherwise no fun at all to see our individual freedom being stolen from us.

playing around with values

One should of course use ones knowledge about how the world of economics works to ones advantage, but then preferably without getting trapped in that caveman world.

Getting it right is often a balancing act, as same thing can of course be measured up and valued in totally different ways depending on what factors we apply. Where I come from we learned that much in primary school, and life itself is an excellent teacher for those of us who insist on learning more.

My response to apparent popularity and/or necessity for certain goods and services, is to decide their values for myself with little to no regard for what arbitrary values they are given by others. Most goods and services end up with zero to negative values for me if I were to acquire them, but I may of course still (pretend to) play along with others when declaring values, if and when that clearly is to my advantage.

I do for instance value gold as non-corrosive plating on electronic contact-points, and for other technical uses, very highly. I also personally think hardly any material in the world looks as ugly and cheap as gold, especially when used for jewelry and decoration.
Thus, apart from for technical uses where gold clearly is superior to other materials in some ways, gold is better kept out of sight, to be used only as back-up and for trading simply because most people believe in a pretty stable value of gold regardless of economic fluctuations. What I personally think about such a belief doesn't really matter … it works.

Am I cheating? Of course I am, but not in excess compared to the average business people, and a lot less than the born-again cavemen who literally live by lying and cheating to achieve economic gains.

Playing around with values as we see fit, can be seen as a necessity – haven't really changed much since the real cavemen walked the earth. We all do it whether we acknowledge it or not. Some are just more conscious about what's going on than others.

The good thing is that one doesn't have to become dishonest even if one knows very well how the game works – quite the opposite in fact. It is all about making personal choices…

augmented reality

I was neither born nor re-born in a cave, although I wouldn't mind living in one with my own interior design and good view to unspoiled nature. Would really, really, be a dream come through for me personally.
Pragmatic as I am I cannot see that happen though, so making the most out of life as it is will have to do.

Elevating myself as far as possible above the world masterminded by the born-again cavemen with their many variations of “nothing but economics” mantras, looks like a suitable task in life. Gives me something of value to strive for.

sincerely georg; sign

Hageland 11.nov.2016
last rev: 12.nov.2016

economic failures

The world of economics fails again and again, as by design. As all economic failures in the last hundred years or so could have been avoided by applying a tiny bit more thought to the various exchange processes, one has no choice but to conclude that all failures really have been by design.

There's a tremendous amount of money to make on economic failures, as those who cause them, as a rule, do not have to pay for the failures – that is left to the public. Knowing that, those in position are free to gamble all they like, and they do.

the repeating cycle…

More and more money gets created with no backing in real values—literally like printing money out of thin air—“to stimulate markets”.

Pumping air-money into markets has never worked before, and it will never work in the future. However, “desperate times calls for desperate measures”, and the new-born cavemen in central positions are in fact growing more and more desperate as they run out of options to keep their various scams going.

The economic gambling turns more and more absurd by the day, as more and more players enter the game to get their share. Big and small players simply refuse to learn from past mistakes, no matter the signs. Thus, they are destined to fall into the same old traps.
Those few, really big, players who “sit out the game” on the sidelines, as they know how it will play out, will eventually cash in handsomely in real values robbed from those of us who were not even participating in the game. Their most loyal and useful helpers will of course also get a handout – that's part of the unwritten game-rules.
Yes, it is all by design…

food issues

When the color-shade of an apple or the curve of a banana are used as criterias, then nobody can pretend the “selection” has anything to do with food value. It is all about “best business criterias”—lowest cost in / highest price out—combined with killing off of competition.

Political and bureaucratic lameness across the board, cements these deadly practices.

Food safety rules and practices are fine, in principle. Would be nice if they actually meant something positive in reality too, but I guess that's too much to ask for since there's no money in that.

In the developed world about half of all food that gets produced yearly goes to waste, some because it doesn't fit stupid standards set by people who couldn't care less about food values, and some because it doesn't make economic sense to bring produces to market. Food-stores and consumers are responsible for a good part of the waste too.

One can only guess when the other half gets replaced with “genetically modified plastic”, mainly because it suits certain economic interests to get rid of all real food. Get rid of all nutrition, wash the grub in toxic chemicals, add some food-coloring and artificial flavours to the mix and declare it “safe to consume”. Consumers will be none the wiser, and won't have any alternatives anyway. A perfect plan…

health issues

We can at least be sure that the healt industry cares about us, or rather our money.

Although it may be wrong to paint every single individual in the industry with the same brush, good health clearly isn't what the money-machine known as the health industry wants us to have since there's no money for them in that.

Somewhere along the way they seem to have forgotten the old rule that goes something like: “if you can do no good, do no harm”. Would be nice if they resurrected the Hippocratic Oath, at least on that point.

light reading…

Have fun now…