Unified Theorem

Many philosophers better than I have walked this earth.  I don't have any illusions that I can add substantively to the greats before me, but I have been able to travel more than they have, so perhaps others may discover a few diamonds in the sand of my thoughts.

Unified Theorem

Part 1

All issues originate first from personal relationships, which permeate outwards to form societal structures and norms. Consequently, how men and women interact together form the quality of life we create. We are somewhat restricted by gender roles and sexual norms, but all personal relationships seek a natural release and maximizing endorphins, which requires compatibility and then sustained effort to maintain such emotions as they experience an inevitable decline.

Opposites attract in terms of the willingness to confront others against harm (i.e., styles of protecting each other and complementing regular gaps or inefficiencies), but goals and quality of life preferences must be aligned in the same bandwidth to lessen substantive conflicts. From these everyday interactions, which build or reduce goodwill among individuals (and thus increase or decrease the likelihood of empathy), we can create economic rules to maximize chances and opportunities to think long-term and seek happiness.

The key is not to let economic rules dictate societal structures, but to bend economics to society's will. To do that, to perform such dismal alchemy, one must first understand economics and what not to do, for the most correct path often lies in not taking the wrong one. 

On Trade Agreements, or Lack Thereof

How to commit cultural and financial suicide in 5 easy steps:

1) fail to prioritize relationships in SE Asia, which has the fastest growing economies in the world and a large consumer population;

2) have a consumer-driven economy that relies on foreign purchasers because your own population is only 5% of the world's and then fail to offer SE Asia favorable economic terms in exchange for greater access to its markets;

3) have a foreign policy that deliberately antagonizes over 1 billion potential consumers of a specific religion, which has over 100 million adherents in another fast-growing economy critical to your country's economic and political strategies;

4) rely on (mostly unaudited) military expenditures to project influence worldwide and to create vocational opportunities rather than relying on soft power and making such vocational opportunities available to all your K-14 attendees; and

5) underfund state and federal safety net programs, forcing reliance on borrowed monies from the very countries to which you have ceded economic expansion in SE Asia and other fast-growing economic areas.

If you're a young 'un, remember that you can get access to Hollywood movies and American products almost everywhere in the world but in a safer or more vibrant environment. Learn another language. Turn off your TV. Watch foreign films. Learn about supply chains, maritime issues, neuroscience, IP property right enforcement, water/food security, and outsourcing. The money is in Asia and the Middle East, and, except for Canada, Australia, and Germany, the future is outside the "West" for now. (Published Dec 2016.)