Middle Class Rage

Very interesting article from FT on middle class rage at elitism , 1%, yada yada yada. Ever see the movie Elysium? That’s what they are afraid of.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/135385ca-c399-11e5-808f-8231cd71622e.html#axzz3ySxhQYI5

h/t @modestproposal on Twitter for posting

Here’s a summary from Karl Marx on failure of Capitalism:

1. Inevitability of monopolies, which eliminate competition and gouge consumers and works.

2. Lack of centralized planning, which results in overproduction of some good and underproduction of others, encouraging economic crises such as inflation, slumps, depressions.

3. Demands for labor-saving machinery, which force unemployment and a more hostile proletariat.

4. Employers will tend to maximize profits by reducing labor expenses, thus creating a situation where workers will not have enough income to buy the goods produced, creating the contradiction of causing profits to fall.

5. Control of the state by the wealthy, the effect of which is passage of laws favoring themselves.

Redistribution or war or Elysium. Welcome your thoughts!

Tidying Up

I read a lot in 2015, but this one was an odd selection for me. The target audience is obviously women in small, city apartments . But my wife read it first and said it helped so I gave it a shot. Basic premise is the following:

1. Discard what you don’t LOVE.
2. Fold properly.
3. Most importantly, have an EXACT location for everything you own.

Simple enough, until you go through your things and say “I might need this sometime in the future.” “I wore this in High School, I can’t get rid of it!” Sure enough the book goes through many of the inevitable (and surprisingly rigid) excuses you will come up with to keep things.

I think knowing EXACTLY where to put everything – like a pair of socks, instead of throwing them on the floor next to the bed or jamming a random t-shirt into any available drawer – had a big effect on me. Before, I liked things “put away” which means I’d gather everything on the ground and jam it behind the closet door or take everything off the desk and put it in any drawer. It would be out of sight but I would know, behind this door lies a huge mess! More importantly, after about a month, I am continuing with the process, putting everything away where it’s supposed to go. An effort I had failed in the past.

I found the process a bit difficult but extremely worthwhile task. I can’t explain EXACTLY what changed but something did, perhaps a greater sense of order and calm? Whatever it did, it worked on me and I consider myself a fairly pessimistic individual. Try it and see what happens!

End Result. #Zen