Father and Son

There are five things that every father should teach his son(s):

Number one: Success is not a goal one obtains but an attitude that one displays. One may hope for change, but change is not possible unless one is willing to change one’s own attitude. For example, people may cause us grief, but we cannot change the heart of people. People do what they want; independent of what we want; therefore, we change our attitude towards people and the grief is nullified. If someone dislikes me and gives me a hard time, I change my attitude of wanting to correct that person’s behavior towards me and relate to the person differently. Someone once said that in order to destroy your enemy, you make them your friend. If you choose not to make this particular person your friend, then learn to ignore him or avoid him. The point is that you are the one responsible for changing, not the person bothering you. Let a fool remain a fool.

Number two: Relationships worth keeping are worth keeping. If you choose to invest time and effort in a relationship, making it more special than just a friendship then do not ever throw away that relationship. Guard it. Nurture it. Value it. It is an investment as well as an asset. It will be like having money in the bank. We are social creatures and need human contact. A firm relationship with an esteemed person will bless you throughout your life. Guarding over that relationship will teach you the true value of integrity, fidelity, humility, prudence, wisdom and every other virtue that you will need to make a name for yourself in this world. Relationships are valuable throughout one’s life.

Number three: Know your limits objectively. As a child grows, he will receive praise and adoration by those who love him and can see no wrong in him. This is a fault among doting parents. If a son does not learn to evaluate himself objectively, the world will crush him. No one in this world will love your son like you do. And, some may seek to do him harm. A son needs to learn failure as well as success. Yes, a son may learn many valuable lessons from falling flat on his face. He will learn to respect authority by being humiliated and corrected, but the lesson learned may keep him from taking the wrong path of rebellion and disrespect. He will learn his limitations, which is necessary to live a healthy and balanced life.

Number four: Learn that money is only a tool, not an end in itself. What a fruitless life to live for the almighty dollar. Money is not happiness. Love for money alone is nothing more than an addiction that kills the human soul. Do not get me wrong on this point. Money is important. It is wise to make a good living and invest wisely for a retirement. But a love or pursuit for money alone does nothing to advance one’s purpose in life. We are creatures with purpose that is expressed not in possessions alone but in the giving away of ourselves to others. One is rich who pours his life into others for the common good.

Number five: There is a God in heaven who requires accountability from every person; therefore, live your life in humility before Him. The Bible says many good things. One thing it says is that wisdom is found in the man who hears and applies his father’s instructions. One thing I want from my son is for him to exercise wisdom from having learned these five things that every father should teach his son. And he did. I am extremely proud of my one and only son. He has proven himself wise to the worlds ways. This is true success.

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World population in billions

Population: Our global population is increasing at a rapid rate, we are at 6.7 billion people and are adding another billion every 12 years or so. Although our global population should top out at around 10 billion people by 2050, the consequences to our world and standard of living will be disastrous. What we need to understand is the issue of consumption that goes along with such large global populations. These billions will need to eat, use water, need clothes, need to work, educate themselves and will want other goods or services. This planet has finite resources and as such cannot supply everyone the standard they want or even need. The end result could be wars based on resource allocation, food and energy shortages. If those billions do not increase their standard of living beyond subsistence levels the result could be a population crash due to hunger, disease, war or all three.

Capitalism: Capitalism in itself has proven an excellent means of motivating people to produce products and services, faster, better and with less raw materials while providing us with a higher quality lifestyle. Capitalism, like no other form of economy provides the most products and services to the most people, by the most efficient means. However, capitalism and free market economics fails to account for finite resources. Free market economics requires capitalistic growth and this growth is assumed by most economic professors as indefinite. They assume that economic needs to and has to grow every year. Unfortunately, the free market model does not account for finite resources. You cannot have countries grow at 3 percent or 7 percent indefinitely. Economic growth requires consumption and will always be limited by what resources are available, which are finite and non-renewable. With our expanding global population we will not be able to grow our economies fast enough to lift all of them out of poverty. If we do lift all of them out of poverty the end result will be a world without resources. Put simply, you cannot survive in a world where ten billion people have cars and three bedroom houses.

Environmental Resources: We are running out of environmental resources, from fuel, to water, to food, trees, coal, gas and more. Our cites would not exist without resources shipped in from all over the world. Wealthy countries use impoverished countries for their raw materials with little accountability, while their own resources have vanished decades ago. Many developed Western European countries and most of America have been stripped of their old growth forests more than a hundred years ago. Most of America’s oil fields have run dry. We may be hitting peak oil and from there it will only get more expensive. Water rights are being bought up by mega-companies for future hedging on what the value of the resource will be and many cash crops only stay alive because we use chemicals to keep them growing. The land we use for our cows and pigs becomes uninhabitable over time while our need for corn and wheat has stripped our topsoil to the point where it has become just dust with fertilizer sprayed on it.

Global Energy Consumption

Energy: Like it or not, we are having an energy crunch. The total global power used in 2010 was 550 exajoules. We are consuming ten times as much energy as we did 100 years ago to create the goods and service we need. Most of our energy comes from the burning of non-renewable resources such as coal and oil. Most disturbing is that the majority of our energy needs during the last 60 years have come from the burning of oil. Accounting for only a few exajoules in the 1950’s to over 200 exajoules today, oil has become the primary means of powering the lifestyle we have come to expect. What would happen if we ran out of oil? Where would we get a fuel that provides such massive amounts of raw energy yet but is still easy to get and burn? Could our society function in a low energy environment?

Infrastructure: As our population has grown, so too has our consumption and the need to get goods and services to us. In the same respects we have required a greater amount of infrastructure to house this growing population and to provide the energy needed to power those buildings. We have built a world of concrete and steel buildings with roads to take everything we need to them, but it’s crumbling. We have expanded our global infrastructure to the point where we cannot afford its upkeep. The more we build, the more we need to maintain and now we cannot afford it. What happens when the roads and bridges we have built to take us to work and supply us with food fall apart and no one can fix them because it is prohibitively expensive? It can cost upwards of a million dollars a mile to build and maintain a road, how can we logically do this to ourselves?

Healthcare expenditures as GDP

Healthcare: In America we spend almost 20 percent of our GDP on healthcare, in France, Germany and Greece it’s over 10 percent. In Italy, Ireland and the UK they spend 9 percent of their GDP on Healthcare. With most developing countries, healthcare costs are only going to increase as their population continues to age. Where are we to get the resources necessary to maintain the health of 80 million aging Baby Boomers? What happens when healthcare in America consumes 30 percent of our GDP? Science has progressed to the point where it is possible to replace hips, hearts and possibly grow whatever we need to stay healthy, but at some point people get sick, get old and pass away. Most healthcare costs are spend during a person’s final few years of life, what are we going to do when 10 billion people in the world get old? Will only the rich and well-connected live long and healthy lives in the future? I hope this will not be the case for our society.

Engineering: We are reaching the limits of what engineering can or should do for us. First, what it should not do for us. Since the time humans existed the rate of change or innovation per generation has been relatively slow. In fact even until the 20th century most people could live their whole lives without seeing much change in their surroundings, how they worked, transported themselves, fed their family, housed themselves or obtained news from around the world. Now, every season marks a multitude of changes several magnitudes higher than one person would see in a lifetime a hundred years ago. Much of this change brings about new gadgets good for only a few months consumption to then be tossed away for even newer products. These gadgets are made of plastic, which is made by petrochemicals while their electronics are made from rare earth minerals such as lithium, neodymium, yttrium, lanthanum and more. Not only with oil be in short supply, but also the rare earth elements the electronics are with. How much earth are we going to dig up to find some of these minerals? What happens when we run out of them? How much change can people take? What happens when a person’s way of life changes twenty times in fifty years? Second how long will it take before we hit Moore’s Law? We might hit it at 2020 and then perhaps we could move toward quantum computing, but at some point we will reach the point of placing atoms together at the molecular level.

Politics: Who do we let run all of this? Besides corporations, politicians have the authority to run our society. We either elect them, they elect themselves or they seize power. In all of these cases they wind up representing their nation or state. However, running a nation is not simple and it is not cheap. With increasing populations, the increasing need for infrastructure, food, water, healthcare, police protection, provide electricity, some type of safety net, build an army, protect its land, regulate the economy and control resource allocation it has become quite difficult. As time has gone on more people have competed for less resources, causing the conflict between the haves and have not’s to become more contentious. This increased contention has shown itself in the representatives who make the decisions on who gets what for us. Since their authority ultimately rests on the authority granted them by the people, their resource allocation fights in turn have increased. Why is this? The less resources to fight over, the more people fight over them and the more those who represent them fight over it, less they lose the fight and then lose the right to represent the people who elected them. The end result is that fighting for scarce resources consumes more time, while actually efficiently allocating those resources gets less, being pushed to the margin. What then happens when nothing gets done? Society becomes paralyzed fighting over scraps while everything falls apart around it. Now add increased complexity and failure accelerates. Our current system of politics was not designed to effectively deal with today’s societies complex, urgent needs.

These are just a few of the complex societal issues the world faces today. Science and technology perhaps can solve one or two issues at a time, maybe several hundred, but when thousands of highly complex, tightly intertwined issues come into play with each other, where one effects another, we reach our limit to solve them. Can we solve all of them? Perhaps we can, but we would need to change. If we slow down, stop our rapid consumption of products, stop fighting for finite resources, accept a median standard of living so that others can raise their standard of living, share among each other, partner with each other and accept the fact that we can’t solve or have everything it is possible. If we swallow some of our pride, accept that we are not gods, that the human mind cannot do everything and that we cannot have everything we may be able to solve societal problems critical to our children and grandchildren’s way of life. We need to remember that if we take too much we are not only taking from others, but from our grandchildren as well.

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Angry at child

We look at the news and we see war. We ride down the road and we see an accident. We hear about a hurricane and worry if it will hit our region. We see children in other countries running for cover as machine guns fire over their heads. We think they must cry themselves to sleep. In all these cases, we think they are suffering with the trauma of life. In addition, even though we know this type of trauma is ugly and cruel there is an even darker side of trauma, how it ingrains itself in our children and us. Trauma can occur through an accident, a natural disaster, or violence in a community. Nevertheless, trauma and its surfacing later in life PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can be brought about by abuse. Trauma is defined as a physical threat, psychological threat or assault to a person or child’s physical integrity, sense of self, safety or survival or to the physical safety of another person significant to the person. Maybe you have suffered from trauma, or are undergoing PTSD now. Maybe you know a person or child who might be going through abuse or may be suffering from PTSD. If you or someone you know thinks they need help, this article explains what trauma is and what can be done. There is hope. Have faith, recovery is just around the corner.

Trauma can be brought about by abuse be it sexual, physical or emotional. Trauma can be caused by domestic violence, natural disasters or war, by witnessing violence, personal attack, abandonment and severe bulling. Emotional and physiological trauma is more likely to occur in a person or child if the trauma happened unexpectedly, you or the person were unprepared for it, you or the person felt powerless to prevent it, the person inflicting the trauma or abuse did it intentionally, it happened when the person was or is a child and it happened repeatedly. Interestingly, trauma can occur from prolonged stress as well. You know if you or another person may have had a traumatic experience if after the even you or the other person felt overwhelmed, alone and helpless. Trauma can also occur during a significant breakup of a relationship, a very humiliating event or after a car accident. You are also more likely to be traumatized if the event has happened before. Your resistance to trauma falls as you the event repeats itself. Children who have undergone trauma may develop the mentality that the world is a frightening place. That it is not safe for them and that it is far too dangerous to participate in it. They may withdraw and this often carries over into adulthood. What makes the trauma even more dangerous at any age are the prolonged effects that carry over even after the trauma has long since stopped. This is what is called PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Although we may not have, at the time, the ability to stop the trauma from occurring, we can stop the PTSD from ruining our lives. Everyone has the right to be free from PTSD and there are solutions that work.

Posttraumatic stress is traumatic stress that continues or persists after a traumatic even has ended but continues to affect the person or child’s capacity to function. In children, post-traumatic stress can cause the child to have difficulty sleeping, eating, focusing or even breathing. The child suffering from PTSD may startle easily, be over aroused, under aroused or dissociate. There are have two basic types of psychic trauma: one-episode or single-blow psychic trauma and repeated trauma, which arises from repeated traumatic events, such as sexual or physical abuse. Each type of trauma has its own characteristics. A child who suffers from PTSD or post-traumatic stress may avoid physical contact with others. The child may avoid eye contact and even develop rigidity in the way they play. Adults may show symptoms such as anger, irritability or they may have mood swings noticeable to others. Adults who suffer from trauma my feel guilt, shame or self-blame. They may suffer from confusion, have difficulty concentrating, suffer from anxiety, fear and feel numb. When questioned the person who suffers from trauma or posttraumatic stress may deny that those events happened or that they have PTSD. They may have nightmares, be on edge, have aches, pains or suffer from fatigue. These symptoms reoccur when new events trigger the emotions of the past trauma. The memory of a traumatic event may be repressed, but it will not be forgotten. The child or adult may later reexperience the trauma through their senses. Often this is in the form of a flashback.

Woman upset

If you think you are suffering from past trauma, have had past trauma and are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder there is help. If you know someone, whom you think has suffered from abuse and has posttraumatic stress there is help. If you know of a child who is suffering from trauma there is help. If it is a child, get help right away. Call your local department of social services or child protective custody. If you or someone you know had trauma occur when young then there still is help. First, though, help needs to be sought. You cannot do this alone. Seek out a therapist, a trauma specialist or a pastor skilled in family therapy. Seek help if you are having trouble functioning in your every-day life, if you are unable to have close relationships, experiencing nightmares or flashbacks, feel disconnected or are suffering from strong feelings of fear, anxiety or depression. Some of the therapies used in facilitating the healing of a person suffering from PTSD and past trauma are cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT, cognitive processing therapy or CPT and CPT with prolonged exposure or CR-PE.

While it is can be difficult to think about a past trauma clarification, acknowledgment and validation of trauma response is helpful in normalizing the experience and in slowing down the person’s fight or flight response. Of course, that person may feel that the emotions they feel regarding their trauma are unusual they are not. They often follow a pattern that is common enough to be classified. There are four broad patterns of expression of feelings that people tend to employ in response to a crisis or trauma. Some people have their feelings flow in slowly in trickles. Others hit an emotion, experience it intensely, then find it so terrifying they emotionally run from it. Many people go up and down emotionally while remembering a traumatic event. Finally, for some people who re-experience their trauma their emotions come back in tidal waves that are vast, comprehensive and overwhelming. If you’re suffering from past trauma you need to take action on your feelings, on your past experiences, even the smallest action could make the difference for you. There is help for those suffering from post-traumatic stress or PTSD.

There is help for those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. There is help out there for you. Cognitive behavior therapies, cognitive processing therapy and prolonged exposure, under the guidance of a professional can help a person suffering from PTSD have a better life. You can live free from pain and suffering. You don’t have to live with the shame of the past or fearing the future. In order for you to heal from the past, you must face what you went through. You must process the trauma related memories. You must emotionally process the trauma memory through exposure and by changing the meaning of those past events. There are ways to chance how you feel about the past, the present and the future. Mood monitoring can be conducted where the person identifies their emotional highs and lows, discovering why they are occurring and changing the thought process behind those emotions. Thought recording involves being aware of automatic thought processes and cognitive distortions. Still, another way to reduce PTSD symptoms is through active relaxation, solving problems proactively and not reactively and working on a relapse prevention plan, then using it when needed. Cognitive restructuring whereby you link your affect, your behavior and your cognition then changing conclusions to better-fit reality can also help break the PTSD cycle. Writing about past trauma events and reading it back to a therapist with all of the events past emotions expressed can yield insight on a person’s self-blame. Expressing how you felt or feel about a trauma is one of the most effective ways toxic thoughts about yourself can be revealed and analyzed to see if they are realistic. In most cases, they are not. You were not to blame and this can only be challenged if you reveal it. The world is not as dangerous as you think it is but this can only be challenged if you reveal it. You can change how you feel or view an event from the past if the meaning of the event and its implications on your life changes. Finally, therapy can help you or someone you know who is suffering from PTSD discharge the constant need to fight or flight. You can finally rest. Give yourself time, time to feel what you need to feel and challenge what you feel. Ask questions about what you feel. Don’t generalize, you are loved, you can trust and you can have hope.

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Time managment

In any endeavor, one of the hardest things to do is to focus and be productive, ultimately doing what needs to be done, whether it be at work or at home. It is genuinely hard to get things done, especially with time constrictions. But it’s not impossible. The key is time management.

Time management is the art of using your wisely and efficiently. Although some people are naturally good at divvying up their hours and being productive when need be, for most people this is a skill that needs to be practiced. Because everybody’s goals and tasks are different, it’s impossible to make a schedule or a template for time management that would fit everybody’s life, but here are a few tips that anyone can follow to get more done every day.

1. Make a list of everything you have to do that day. Seeing what you have to do in writing helps you visualize and plan your day better. Also, seeing everything that you have to do will help you not flounder in between projects while trying to think of what to do next.

2. Prioritize. Decide what’s important and knock that out first. Or figure out what would take the longest and do that in the morning when you have the most energy and before your mind starts to wander.

3. Take breaks. You may think that taking breaks is a waste of time, but they are good for your brain. Giving yourself time away from your desk and especially your computer gives both your brain and your eyes a break. Try to do something active on your breaks like a few light stretches instead of moving from one chair to another one. Getting the blood flowing will make you feel less lethargic. Ten minutes every hour is the recommended dosage, but if you can’t spend that much time away from your desk, do what you can.

Team player

4. Don’t multi-task if it doesn’t work for you. You might be tempted to do five things at once thinking that this is more efficient than just doing one thing, but the truth is that none of those five tasks you are trying to accomplish will get the appropriate attention that they deserve. They will be done sloppily or even need to be redone. Sure, some people can be equally productive while multi-tasking, but the rest of need to focus on one thing at a time and do it right.

5. Reward yourself for a job well done. Proper time management is a practicable skill, so reward yourself when you have good and productive day with little or no procrastination. Focusing is a habit we need to force ourselves to practice if we don’t already. So pat yourself on the back and have a treat if you do a good job.

Proper time management is good for all aspects of your life. You will get more done in anything you try to accomplish. This can further your career and improve your home life, so practice these five simple steps and get things done.

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Cain and Abel

This is the great rhetorical question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” It is rhetorical because Cain knew the answer, it was rhetorical because it a rebuff of his responsibilities to care for others. The question was an answer to God himself. It stated, “I am not to blame. He is of his own accord.” He threw his responsibility away. Mathew Henry writes, “Am I my brother’s keeper? Surely he is old enough to take care of himself, nor did I ever take any charge of him.” Some think he reflects on God and his providence, as if he had said, “Art not thou his keeper? If he be missing, on thee be the blame, and not on me, who never undertook to keep him.” Note, a charitable concern for our brethren, as their keepers, is a great duty, which is strictly required of us, but is generally neglected by us. Those who are unconcerned in the affairs of their brethren, and take no care, when they have opportunity, to prevent their hurt in their bodies, goods, or good name, especially in their souls, do, in effect, speak Cain’s language. To this effect the when you know that your positive assistance toward someone’s situation would prevent harm then you are not only violating your own responsibilities under God’s law but also civic ethical law. You are in effect violating Kantian Deontological ethics.

How is this possible? Kantian Deontological ethics requires you to act in a way that it is from duty, that its ends justify its means and that you cannot act in a way that makes a situation ethically worse, even if it is inaction. One example of this is the trolley incident. This is the permissible harm argument, wherein we believe it would be impermissible to kill one person to harvest his organs in order to save the lives of five others. Yet, we think it is morally permissible to divert a runaway trolley that would otherwise kill five innocent and immobile people onto a sidetrack where one innocent and immobile person will be killed. Permissible harm explains the moral difference between these and other cases. Regardless of whether it is Godly biblical law or Kantian civil ethical law, if your lack of concern or action in the end causes harm you are at fault. If your action would have prevented more harm to occur in another person’s situation and because you did not act, more harm occurred then you are acting in an unmoral and unethical way. Yes, you are your brother’s keeper.

King David playing the Harp

The fruit of Cain’s false worship was to avoid the presence of God and to lose himself in the world and its pursuits. We are losing ourselves in ourselves and what drives our satisfaction but this process is pulling us away from our moral obligations to others in our society. We cannot be narcissistic and serve others. We cannot have a functional workplace and only be out for ourselves there. We cannot raise a family when we are out for ourselves all the time. We only have so much time in the day and we can devote most of it to ourselves or some of it to others. You cannot be in two places at once, serving yourself in whatever activity or thought you choose and still attend to others. One will lose and one will win. Deuteronomy 22:4 shows how we are obligated to help out our brother’s, our friends and others. – Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again. We are to help others, prevent their harm and prevent harm by not turning a blind eye toward harm. We are not to turn away from those who could use our help. We need to be our brother’s keeper for in so doing we do as God has done for us. This is as it is written in Psalm 121:5 – The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. Do not let our lack of compassion cause others to fall further into trouble. Romans 14:13 states – Let us not therefore judge one another anymore: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.

F.B Meyer writes, God’s first question to the soul is, “Adam, where art thou?” The next, “Where is thy brother?” We are our brother’s keepers. All related to us, within our reach, or needing our help have a claim. We must not take advantage of them. Their well-being and our own are inseparable. God keeps an inventory of His saints, and will avenge them. Strong’s Definition of keeper is a hedge around and guard, protect and attend too, be aware, mark and look narrowly, observe, preserve, regard. When we act as our brother’s keeper, we protect them through observation and action when we observe their harm. In fact when we show love to others, when we help our brother’s, our family, our friends, neighbors, our co-workers, then as 1st John 3:14 states – We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. However, if we continually turn our backs on those who need hope, love, a kind word, a dollar, a loaf of bread or a myriad of other helpful acts then we lack compassion and are godless. This is stated in 1st John 3:17 – But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? The answer to this question is found within it. A person who turns away from another’s need does not have the love of God in him. He is therefore, Godless and as such is not of the Lord. Finally, Thayer’s definition of conscience is the soul as distinguishing between what is morally good and bad, prompting to do the former and shun the latter (related to) becoming aware and seeing completely. Therefore, when you continually act only for yourself, you lack a conscience, when you do not see others pain but only seek your pleasure then you are amoral.

Paul of Tarse

Cain was interested in only himself. He carried only for how his sacrifices were viewed in relation to his brothers. He gave poorly to God and kept the best for himself. He was narcissistic and self absorbed and in so he grew envious of his brother. He was not his brother’s keeper and in so doing his lack of compassion drove him from the grace of God. His own selfishness proved his internal wickedness. You know who you are and who others are by their acts. As 1st John 3:12 states – Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. 1st John 4:20 – If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 1st John 4:21 – And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

When you fail to help others by walking away, you facilitate their harm. We need to begin to help others again. We as a society need to be kind and ask others how they feel, if they need help and how their day was. We need to hug our children more, tell our wives we love them more, tell our brothers we care about them and if they need anything. We need as towns to come together in celebration, to know our neighbors, stop by once in a while and ask them how they are doing. We need as a country to come together, keep our jobs at home, pay a fair wage for a fair days work and work hard for each other. We need to engage in civics and vote. We need to talk to each other and not think our way is the only way things should be. 1st Corinthians 8:12 states – And sinning in this way against your brothers, and wounding their conscience, being weak, you sin against Christ. 2nd Corinthians 4:2 – But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the Word of God, but by the revelation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. Therefore, when we are not our brother’s keeper we sin against our brother’s, we sin against Christ and are acting in error. However, when we are our brothers keeper we as Acts 23:1 states – And looking earnestly on the sanhedrin, Paul said, Men, brothers, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. We become blameless and act as God acts toward us, Acts 24:16 – And in this I exercise myself, always to have a blameless conscience toward God and men. When we are our brother’s keeper, we help them, our families, our children, community, our society and ourselves. When you do not, you are not only doing harm in Gods eyes but if you do not believe in God then you are doing wrong in terms Kantian Deontological civic ethics. Therefore, let’s help each other even if they don’t ask. Let us not use the excuse of not getting involved or they can handle it themselves as a reason not to help your brother. It is not really an excuse; in reality, you’re hurting them.

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Tax rate by Corporate profits

The easiest solution to this relentless tug-of-war is for governments to agree that they are all going to charge the same. This might work within an economic cluster like the European Union but there are always going to be tax havens like the Caymans and the British Virgin Islands which companies can use to shelter the bulk of their profits from tax. A huge global giant like Vodafone can quite easily arrange its affairs so that it makes less taxable profit in high tax countries and channels most of its profits to low tax areas.

One cannot help but conclude that Western governments are caught between a rock and hard place. They need to cosy up to big business in order to keep jobs and whatever corporate taxes they manage to get hold of. On the other hand, voters do not like to see large corporations failing to pay an acceptable level of tax on the profits to which they have contributed.

Corporate tax rates by country

One solution to this on-going conundrum is to introduce a sales or turnover tax on revenues derived in each domestic market. Let’s take a classic example like Sir Phillip Green’s Arcadia group which owns retail chains like Topshop and BHS. At present, most of the corporate profits earned by this group in the UK appear to be largely sheltered from tax by virtue of the fact that Sir Phillip and his wife live in Monaco. If the government introduced a sales tax of, say, 2%, then it would receive £2 million on every £100 million of goods sold in the group’s shops regardless of any corporation tax liability.

The beauty of such a system is that, like VAT, it is impossible to for large companies to avoid. If sales fall in a recession, then their tax bill would fall proportionately. The only real argument against such a turnover tax is that, unlike corporation tax, it would still be payable if a company was making a loss.

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Codependence Venn diagram

A healthy family requires healthy relationships between family members. Parents need to be whole or emotionally complete with good coping skills, good communication skills, have a strong moral sense of right and wrong, have the ability to express love and other emotions in positive ways and the ability to teach all of these things to their children. The children raised in such homes should then grow up internalizing these skills and values perpetuating the ability to have functional, healthy, fulfilling relationships with others when they become adults. But, what happens when dysfunctional parents raise children who then become adults engaged in their own relationships with others? These new adults may perpetuate the caustic, dysfunctional relationships they learned to model from their parents or guardians years earlier. Many negative consequences can occur when adults learn the wrong ways to cope with life’s stressors and how to engage with other people. What concerns me is the numbers of people today who seem unable to cope with life’s ups and downs without external aids, many of these destructive to the person in the long term. There seems to be a whole generation of people who grew up in dysfunctional families who learned from their relatives to deal with life and others in negative ways. They have grown up to become dependent on drugs, alcohol, gambling, others approval or the need to be needed by others. There seems to be many ways people negatively cope with the world around them, but the one that I wish to cover in this article is the need of people to be codependent on others. When people grow up learning to be the victim of others and others grow up to learn to be needed by those victims to feel whole then we can have codependent relationships if and when they find each other and bond. When it does occur, unfortunately the relationship becomes self-destructive, the behaviors become self-destructive and unfortunately negatively reinforcing. They then can pass on these negative ways of dealing with life to their children and the cycle perpetuates itself again. I bring this up because as families we cannot keep doing this to ourselves and our children. We cannot raise another generation of children to be as dysfunctional in how they live life as the last one has. We owe it to ourselves and our children to change how we are raising our families and break the cycle of dysfunction that is gripping our society. The first thing we can do is learn what codependency is, what an enabler is and what a dysfunctional family looks like.

Codependency is a learned behavior that can be passed down from one generation to another. We observe it in our parents or loved ones and then perpetuate those actions. Codependency is also known as relationship addiction. The person is seeking symptom management from the outside instead of within himself or herself. Codependents have low self-esteem and so look for anything outside of themselves to make them feel better. Most often, this is through the partnering with others who are dependent on them for support. The people they bond with typically are alcoholics, other types of substance abuse users, or those who are chronically or mentally ill. These codependent people often form dysfunctional families. People who are codependent have poor interpersonal boundaries whereby their needs and their partners needs become hard to separate. Codependent people have blurry or weak boundaries. Codependency can also be defined as a type of psychological condition or in which a person is controlled by another who is affected by some type of personality disorder such as narcissism, borderline personality or who self medicates as with drug addiction. Those that are dependent seek out or need of the control of another.

Because codependency is usually rooted in a person’s childhood, again learned from their parents, guardians or through abuse, treatment often involves exploration into early childhood issues and their relationship to current destructive behavior patterns. Treatment for codependency also includes education, experiential groups, and individual and group therapy. It is through these treatments which codependents identify their self-defeating behavior patterns and learn to detach from them. Treatment also focuses on helping patients getting in touch with feelings that have been buried during childhood and on reconstructing family dynamics. The goal is to allow them to experience their full range of feelings again. Codependency can also occur between mother and child or father and child. Codependency between parent and child is especially difficult. With mothers it goes against the grain of their nurturing parental role, often they feel the children should come first no matter how destructive the relationship is with their child, for mothers learning not to help their children because it is not helpful can be extremely painful to the parent. Nevertheless, we have to remember that in codependent relationships if you are the enabler or the helper, you are not the one making ruining your life and expecting everyone else to clean it up. Unfortunately, you are the one cleaning up the mess and making it easier for that person to wreck their life even more. The more you help the dependent person the more they will destroy their life and in the process, you and that person will destroy yours. In the end you must decide what part you play in your role as the victim. We can control ourselves, but we cannot solve other people’s problems for them. When someone’s issues becomes everything to us, defines who we are and our existence, then we should pause to think and begin the long slow process of learning to let go with love, because letting go will save you and perhaps them as well.

Interpersonal codependency diagram

So what is a dysfunctional family? How can you spot one or determine if yours if dysfunctional? A dysfunctional family is one in which members suffer from fear, anger, pain, or shame that is ignored or denied. Dysfunctional families do not acknowledge that problems exist. They don’t talk about them or confront them. As a result, family members learn to repress emotions and disregard their own needs. The care-taking becomes compulsive and self-defeating. Codependents often take on a martyr’s role and become benefactors to an individual in need. The problem is that these repeated rescue attempts allow the needy individual to continue on a downward sloping destructive course and to become even more dependent on the unhealthy care-taking of the benefactor. As this reliance increases, the codependent develops a sense of reward and satisfaction from being needed. When the care-taking becomes compulsive, the codependent feels helpless, but is unable to break away from the cycle of behavior that causes it.

An enabler in a dysfunctional codependent relationship is the one who does the care-taking in that relationship. In part, what makes the care-taking destructive is it is one sided. There is only one person providing the caring to only one other person. The roles can switch and often do but both do not care or take care of each other at the same time. These roles’, being the caretaker or the rescuer, the victim and the persecutor are often shared by the second person in the relationship and is part of the Karpman drama cycle. An enabler is someone in a relationship whose actions make it easier for the dependent person in the relationship, be it an addict or a person who is mentally ill, to continue their self-destructive behaviors. An enabler is a person that facilitates the continuation of another person’s self-deprecating actions; be it substance abuse, bipolar cycling, hoarding, gambling, compulsive behavior. The enabler in a relationship facilitates the persistence of the dependents self-destructive actions by providing excuses or by making it possible for the dependent person to avoid the consequences of such negative behavior. Any given time you contribute or allow another person to continue his or her unhealthy or addictive behavior you are enabling that person. If you are in a relationship whereby you see your partner struggle with mental, emotional or financial instability and you tell yourself the person will change in time or get better in time, while still supporting this person, you are becoming an enabler to that person’s instability. Only they can help themselves get better, heal, recover and become self supportive. We cannot do this for them. It will not work. If you find yourself obsessing over what that person might do or not do tomorrow or next week then you might be an enabler to them. You might be making it easier for them to be destructive to you and themselves.

If the person you are in a relationship with simply cannot solve their own issues, they continually look to someone else to do it for them, have a tendency to make excuses or reasons as to why they are not doing what they should be doing then they are codependent and playing the victim. If you have a relationship with a person that is going on every day without any realistic plan on how to solve the problems they are dealing with then he or she may be codependent, dependent on you. You can tell you are in a codependent relationship and an enabler if you become frustrated and bitter when you find out that your help just will not solve another person’s problems. This person could be in a romantic relationship with you, a friend or one of your children. You are an enabler if you need to be in control and you feel you need to because it seems everything around you is out of control. Nevertheless, understand you cannot control someone else’s addiction, their life, or the decisions they make. Are you saying yes too often, when you mean no? You might be codependent. We need to take care of ourselves, love ourselves and be kind to ourselves. You need to treat yourself with respect. We can let go, detach and still love others, maybe from afar but it can be done. Detach from your family members issues, your friends issues and allow them to manage their own lives. Do not be enabler obsessed and worried sick, over what someone else will or will not do when you least expect it. You need to let them go, let them find their way and if necessary fall.

The drama triangle

Tough love can make an enabled person grow up and break free from playing the victim. Tough love can help a person cease their self-destructive behaviors, because they then get to feel the natural consequences of their actions. Sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom for both in a codependent relationship to realize they need to stop what they are doing to each other. People who enable others are also setting themselves up for social isolation. Why is this? Because people who enable others tend to be moody, bitter, accusatory, angry and perspective toward others. If you have lost many of your friends over time, you might be an enabler. Enablers often are the martyr, the rescuer and even the persecutor in a codependent relationship as well as the second person participating in the dysfunction. These roles can switch repeatedly, even many times in the same night or during the same argument. If you feel this is happening with your partner then you may be in a codependent relationship. You are participating in the Karpman drama triangle. You may eventually need to detach from them.

The Karpman drama triangle is a psychological and social model of human interaction that was first outlined by Stephen Karpman. The model has three positions or roles that people take in any given codependent situation. One role is of a victim, the second role is the one who persecutes the victim, and the third role is of the rescuer, who intervenes, seemingly out of a desire to help the situation or the underdog. The same person or another person in the relationship can take any of these three positions, but both people cannot take the same role at the same time. They can however switch roles as often as necessary. Of these, the rescuer is the least obvious role. In the terms of the drama triangle, the “rescuer” although seems to aid the victim, actually does this for egotistical reasons. On the surface, the rescuer seems to have the motive of resolving the problem, and appears to make great efforts to solve it, but in the end also has a hidden motive not to succeed, or to succeed in a way that they the victim benefits. The victim is not as helpless as he or she feels and the rescuer is not really helping. If the rescuer actually helped the victim, the victim may not need the help of the rescuer anymore and so the rescuer would not get his or her needs met. The situation plays out when a crisis arises and a person takes a role as victim or persecutor. Others then take the other roles in the Stephen Karpman drama triangle. Thereafter, during the crisis the players move around the triangle switching roles as the move to each point on the triangle. This allows each person to get their emotional needs met, although dysfunctionally, so that for example the victim turns on the rescuer, the rescuer switches to the situation endures is that each gets their unspoken (and frequently unconscious) psychological wishes/needs met in a manner they feel justified. All this is accomplished without anyone in the codependent triangle having to acknowledge the harm each one has done to each other as a whole. As such, each person in the codependent relationship, most often two people rotating between the three roles in the Karpman drama triangle, act upon their own selfish needs, rather than acting as healthy adults or in an altruistic helpful manner.

We need to stop the dysfunctional codependent crisis we are having in society today. We need to stop raising dependent and codependent children who then grow up to raise unhealthy children, unable to feel whole or complete without needing others. A healthy family requires healthy relationships between family members. Parents need to be whole or emotionally complete with good coping skills, good communication skills, have a strong moral sense of right and wrong, have the ability to express love and other emotions in positive ways and the ability to teach all of these things to their children. Part of this is the need to determine if we are in codependent relationships. We need to know if we are enablers’ to those who are playing the victim in our families. We need to admit it if we are and change. We need to know if we are rolling through the drama triangle, argument after grueling argument, fulfilling our needs but destroying our families and ourselves in the process. I have seen too many codependent relationships lately and it worries me. We need to have strong interpersonal boundaries. We need to know what real help is, what real needs are and what we can do to make our lives better. Our families deserve healthy parents, we deserve to have healthy, whole, functional relationships and we need to learn to learn how to solve our own issues. Our society will thank us for it, your relationships with thank you for it and society in general will be better off for it.

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CBO inhereted federal debt

American tax policy is at a standstill, government budgetary policy has ground to a halt, our ability to control our deficit is inept and our ability to compromise on a reduction in spending is defunct. Right now our government cannot manage our country, but what could the end result be? What could we learn if we step back and look at how another country managed their tax, budget and debt issues? I think we could learn that at least we need to simplify our tax code and reduce our deficit spending. If we don’t the end result could be a liability against our national sovereignty. Why? Because a borrower is slave to the lender. When countries get deep into debt they will turn to outside entities to maintain their bond ratings. When countries continually spend more than they receive back in tax revenue they begin to go bankrupt and they turn to such non-governmental entities as the IMF and World Bank. Unfortunately, when countries ask the International Monetary Fund and World Bank for bailout funds they get to call the shots. When a country asks the IMF and World Bank for money, they will not release funds unless a contract is developed outlining what the country must do in order to receive those funds. Those stipulations may not be aligned with the governmental policy of the host country. That is how a country can lose control of some of its own sovereignty. When a country spends too much and has to ask a non-governmental agency for help they surrender some of their ability to govern to that non-governmental agency. If our government spends all our children’s inheritance those children will not only be born in poverty but their sovereign rights may become abridged as well. Think this cannot happen? Well, one example of how it almost became a reality was during the Russian ruble crisis of the 1990’s.

The causes of Russia’s near collapse of their economy and tax base were an inefficient tax code, increased state debt, a surge in inflation and a shortage in production. These may not be the exact reasons we as Americans are getting into economic, debt and tax trouble but it does show how poor tax policy and state debt can cause the IMF to step in and once the IMF steps in a country must then operate by their rules.

One of Russia’s perennial issues was the lack of goods and services for the Russian people. This had its roots in the Soviet command style economic system, the quantity of goods and services Russians could purchase at the market was decided at the top. Typically the end result was that the government under estimated what Russians wanted and needed leading to shortages. These shortages discouraged consumer spending because there were very few products which could be purchased with their income so their rubles were simply saved. Russia’s troubles really began when their government acted to end state price controls on goods and services during the early 1990’s. Once Russia’s price controls ended, the same shortage of goods continued. However, without the government holding down goods and service prices, merchants could price their goods as high as people were willing to pay, the result being the price of those goods increased several fold.

Russian citizens thought were briefly able to purchase the higher priced goods until there hoards of rubles ran out. However, once their savings ran out they went hungry. Also during Russia’s inflationary period during Russia’s still continued subsidizing state run enterprises, which were very inefficient. These state run enterprises hemorrhaged revenue contributing to the state’s budget deficit. The Russian government seeing its national deficit increase began printing more money to cover it, which caused inflation to rise even faster. Finally, Russia’s tax code was full of loopholes and many businesses simply did not pay the taxes they did owe. The end result of Russia’s inflation, soaring budget deficit and poor tax code was a near collapse of their economic system and money that was almost worthless. Russia’s citizens were poor, hungry and unemployed. Their money was useless while their country forced to turn to the IMF found itself enacting the IMF’s economic policy recommendations instead of their own, losing some sovereignty in the process. A similar fate we could see in America if we need to reach out to non-governmental organizations to subsidies our debt, less we default on our national debt interest payments.

Projected federal tax revenue

During the mid-1990’s facing a major economic crisis Russia turned to the IMF for monetary help. The IMF wanted Russia to raise tax rates, close loopholes in its tax system and cut public spending. Russia was unable to do this because it could not cut its own government spending and push through its parliament much needed tax reforms. Although rebasing the value of its currency where one ruble equaled 1,000 old rubles slowed inflation for a while, the country’s public sector debt continued to grow. In addition, the country could not efficiently collect taxes, it could not pass a package of state tax reforms and corporate tax increases, nor could it pass an increase in personal taxes. This led to Russia’s central bank eventually defaulting on its IMF loans and debt with the IMF suspending further loan disbursements to the country. Russia was at a cross roads. It could only continue to receive IMF bailout funds if it did what the IMF wanted, but what the IMF wanted out of Russia was not what was going to get Russia out of its inflation and debt mess. Russia decided to turn away from the IMF, keep its national sovereignty and default on its debt. Russia defaulted on its national debt by taking what it owed in short term debt and converting it into the long term debt.

In the early 2000’s Russia then acting on its own accord cut tax rates for individuals and corporations, this resulted in large government tax revenue increases. Cutting taxes was the exact opposite of what the IMF had recommended! The reasons for Russia’s increase in government tax revenue seems to have occurred because Russia cut its government spending and while cutting tax rates. In addition it simplified its tax code replacing it with a flat tax. These changes made it easier for companies and individuals to pay their taxes rather than to avoid them. In addition having to pay lower taxes was another incentive to pay the states due. This along with much lower government spending began to bridge their budget deficit. This apparently homemade prescription for Russia’s debt, lack of tax revenue and inflation worked. IMF policy demands were wrong because IMF was not Russia and Russia was not the IMF. We need to realize that each country should be sustainable within itself, govern itself effectively, and serve its citizens efficiently and ethically. When it fails to do this, when it continually fails to do this, it must be imposed of externally.

Political changes in Russia allowed reforms to be passed and so the country and its people benefited. Governmental gridlock is toxic to a country, poor policy is toxic to a countries people. Our debt, tax and spending issues may be somewhat different than Russia’s but the end result could be the same. If we as American’s continue down this irresponsible road we may eventually find ourselves answering to agencies we have no control over. We see this occurring right now with Greece and Italy. Greece has become beholden to tax and economic policy outside of itself. It is becoming governed by the European Union, the IMF and the World Bank. American tax policy is at a standstill, government budgetary policy has ground to a halt and our ability to control our deficit is inept. We find ourselves unable to compromise on a reduction in spending is defunct. We are driving our children into slavery through our national debt, our state debt and our personal debt. Remember Russia during the early 1990’s and how people waited hours on bread lines in order to purchase bread? If we don’t reform our tax policy we may find the IMF and World Bank telling us how to do it and they will do what is best for them and not us. Let’s learn from Russia’s experience with the IMF and not make the same mistakes. We may not be so lucky.

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Love

I’ve been thinking a lot about gratitude. I am a firm believer in the concept of, “you get what you give” and have seen it play out in my life (and the lives of others) on a regular basis. In everything we do and say in our lives, we are emitting energetic vibrations and those frequencies that we emit come back to us in the same fashion. Therefore, being kind and loving will bring that back to you, as will being angry and frustrated. The more angry and frustrated you are, the more you experience things around you that are frustrating and make you angry. The more kind and loving you are, the more you get back experiences that include kindness and love. If you think about it, I’m sure you’ll recognize how this concept plays out in your life.

And, that is why this practice of gratitude is so important. The more you appreciate what you have in your life, the more you receive and experience things that you can appreciate. Why? Because typically you attract into your life that which you focus upon. It is amazing (but not surprising) that during the recent presidential election two different individuals had completely different reports about the presidential debates. One interpreted things President Obama said as very condescending and inaccurate whereas the other interpreted what he said as applicable and respectful. Both watched the debate and saw completely different things because they were focused on different things. One focused on what Obama was doing wrong and one focused on what he was doing right and that is exactly what they experienced.

Journal

That’s why expressing gratitude and appreciation is so important. Each day, despite how awful the day might have been, I find and write down (in my gratitude journal) at least five things for which I am grateful. Sometimes I am simply grateful that the day is over and for the unconditional love of my animals, but regardless, I list five. The more things I list, the more I find to be grateful for because that is what I am focusing my energy and attention upon.

I use this concept in my coaching practice with my clients. I find that many of my clients who are in high level leadership roles and high pressure positions deal with a lot of negativity and are often focused on what is wrong in their environment and the problems that need to be solved. While this is clearly a part of their job, it is also important for them to focus upon what is right and what there is to appreciate. When I suggest focusing upon what is right and ask them what they are grateful for in their position, I am sometimes met with a bit of resistance; however, when they take a step back and pause for a minute, it becomes quite easy for them to articulate what they appreciate about their leadership positions. Does this eliminate the problems they have to solve? No, but it does allow them to approach the problems from a more positive perspective which then makes the problems easier to solve. They also notice that when they focus upon what they are grateful for with their teams, they begin to elicit more of those behaviors from the team. Focusing upon the positives and appreciating those characteristics draws more of that behavior into their environment. Yes, THAT is exactly why I keep a gratitude journal. The more I focus on appreciation, the more I receive things to appreciate.

The same holds true for all of us. Even if you are in a job situation or on a career path where you want to make changes or are unhappy, try to find five things about your current situation for which you are grateful. Even if it’s that you are grateful that you know you want to find another job or a new career path; be thankful for that! Keep a gratitude journal for the next 60 days and each day write down five things to appreciate. I guarantee that by day 60, you will have many more things showing up in your life for you to keep appreciating!

This month’s development tip:

Start a gratitude journal specifically related to your career or leadership role. Every day write down at least 3 things you are grateful for related to your career or your role as a leader.

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Corn

Corn Syrup is found in most everything. It is high in calories, low in nutrition. It is found to be the main culprit in childhood obesity, in obesity in general and in nutrient poor diets. The corn itself is used not only in many food products, but also in ethanol and is also used in feed for livestock. It is a main staple in America and is a cash crop. As a cash crop it generates a great amount of money for agribusiness, especially as corn syrup, but not so much for the smaller farmer. Two of the largest agribusinesses in the world are Archer Daniels midland and Cargill. Agribusinesses like Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill generated an estimated 69 billion and 110 billion dollars respectively in 2009 in large part through the growing, packaging and selling of cash crop products. These products would include corn syrup and ethanol. Unfortunately corn syrup is a critical component in rising obesity rates. It costs us health care dollars to treat the obesity caused by high calorie, low nutrient products made with corn syrup and finally it costs us because we subsidize to the industry to grow the corn used to make the syrup and ethanol. Amazingly, we as the American consumer subsidizes ADM and Cargill for growing the corn they use to produce the corn syrup found in most our foods.

Why do we allow two companies such as ADM and Cargill whose revenue tops 69 billion and 110 billion dollars respectively tax breaks and subsidies from our own taxpayer wallets? The answer is that they are good at playing politics. Unfortunately, not many companies have mastered the iron triangle of Congress, interest group and bureaucracy like ADM. It has shown great expertise in turning government policy to its advantage and Archer Daniels Midland has been doing it for over 40 years. As early as 1973 Earl Butz, President Nixon’s Agriculture Secretary, removed the old traditional policies of farm price supports, which included limiting production of corn and other major commodities, to encouraging farmers to produce as much as they could. This was regardless of market or prevailing price. Afterwards the United States government began to pay the subsidies directly to farmers to make up the difference between the market price and what it considered an appropriate floor price. The end result was to sharply drive down the market price of corn. This then resulted in a cash windfall for very large agribusinesses who at that time owned a large amount of farms and were technically the owners of those farms. To some extent this is why corn and many corn type products, such as corn syrup, are found as major ingredients in our food products, because more corn at a cheaper price means more you need to sell. However, if you sell all that corn you will make a fortune. If you sell it as corn syrup you will make that much more. Much later on this kind of congressional subsidy was re-created for ADM when congress authorized tax credits for ethanol created from the corn that Archer Daniels Midland was already growing. In the 1990’s ADM gave 100,000 dollars to Bob Doles presidential campaign and also another 1.5 million dollars to the Republican National Committee to spend on that year’s elections.

Iron triangle

Although Bob Dole lost the election he still remained an important Senator and so helped push through a 54-cent per gallon ethanol tax credit of which ADM, producer of more than 60% of America’s corn-based ethanol became the main beneficiary. Like the original corn subsidy they were being subsidized to grow corn, produce products from it and then sell it, which also created a profit. In the end at least 43% of ADM’s profits come from products subsidized by us, the taxpayer. This amounts to corporate welfare. Although ADM makes lots of money on corn syrup most of their money now comes from ethanol which we then use in our cars. This ethanol is mixed with gasoline and the result is gasohol. This 54 cent-per-gallon tax break and also paid by us the taxpayer even before we fill up our automobile gas tanks. This single tax gift/loophole accounted for over $10 billion in subsidies to ADM since 1980. To make matters much worse for us, gasohol is so inefficient that creating ethanol and then mixing it with gas is close to if not in fact a net destroyer of energy. Gas mixed with ethanol has also been found to increase hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide output. Finally, the diversion of corn into gasohol raises corn prices between 22 cents and 40 cents per bushel.

Ethanol subsidies also cause market constriction for corn and thus promote world hunger. If 10 to 13 billion bushels of corn grown each year and much of it is diverted to the production of ethanol and not used as food, then the price of those food products that have corn in them will rise. This can cause global hunger and instability because poor countries that import corn to feed their public will purchase less. This occurred in 2008 when the price of corn price increased to $7.65 a bushel. What was the result worldwide? There were food and hunger riots in over 30 countries worldwide. The spike in the price of corn was caused in large part by the diversion of a third of America’s corn crop to ethanol production. The high price of corn that year as a result also effected other staples such as rice. Staples such as rice were affected by the high price of corn because those countries that depended on corn then banned the export of other grains because they needed to feed their people. The bans on grain exports then resulted in the shortage of other grains, thus propagating more hunger that year in those countries that depended on food imports like rice.

Of course smart policy professional will know that ethanol subsidies last year finally expired. But, in reality the EPA has recently signed off on the Renewable Fuel Standard established under Bush. The RFS rule provides incentives just as before for Agribusinesses to continue on growing very large tracts of corn for ethanol, which is then mixed with gas and sold to us at a higher price than gas alone to fuel our cars. Removing the tax credit, but keeping the Renewable Fuel Standard mandate that at least 37 percent of the 2011-12 corn crop be converted to ethanol and blended with the gasoline is actually triple what the pre-mandate level was, so in essence the Iron Triangle kept its power base. In other words it is the ethanol subsidy in another form. The combination of Agribusiness, Congress and bureaucracy is taking our tax payer money before and after product creation. Not only is Archer Daniels Midland profiting from tax breaks for growing corn but it is then profiting after selling the corn, corn syrup or ethanol. This type of political hand out as corporate welfare has created obesity through corn syrup , hunger through market price inflation, inefficient fuel through the creation of ethanol and is costing us taxpayer dollars. It is not true capitalism, not true business, is unethical and is poor policy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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