Tuesday, February 28, 2012

--I've just completed the second item on the Social Uplift topic--The Emergence of the Welfare State in the US.  Alluding to its Meta-Elements, you can see that there's a long way to go before reaching fruition on this front.  Some critics express a fear that the US will lose its posture in world affairs should the project be successful.  I believe them mistaken.  Through this enterprise, the government in its various forms touches the individual--understanding his inner self and his humanness--heretofore beyond government's ken.  Now, it can truly work with the individual to reach his aspirations and help him meet his express wants, when, before, the individual had to "go it alone," or as the Republican Conservatives would say, the individual ought to be (euphematisically) "self-reliant."  In a day and age, when the realm of knowledge has litterally exploded beyond the comprehension of any lone individual, the exhortation to rely on oneself is preposterous, and if taken seriously, would exhort the individual citizen to succumb to the wiles of those "in the know," as does the novice player of poker pay up to the card shark.  He  can't stand a chance!

Thus, the need for rules and regulations to govern any transaction in which there's an unequal knowledge base among the transactors, e.g., the banker as mortgage lender and the home-seeker wanting a home loan.  So too, until recently, the investment banks could deal in derivatives without rules to abide by.  That's changed; despite the howl of the investment houses.  Apparently, the idea was to have knowledge of how to play the game above and beyond what other participants in the transaction have so as to always make the others into sucker players!

--There's at least one more topic to the Social-X series.  After "Social Uplift," I'm planning "Social Experience."  Because the Social-X series doesn't deal with current events as such, I'm going to expand the "Pithy" section of John's "What's Up?" to at least mention some important (to my way of thinking) present-day phenomena in an ever-changing world.

--P.S. I really like Omaha!  A place I've settled down in.