Search preferences
Skip to main search results

Search filters

Product Type

  • All Product Types 
  • Books (73)
  • Magazines & Periodicals (No further results match this refinement)
  • Comics (No further results match this refinement)
  • Sheet Music (No further results match this refinement)
  • Art, Prints & Posters (No further results match this refinement)
  • Photographs (No further results match this refinement)
  • Maps (No further results match this refinement)
  • Manuscripts & Paper Collectibles (No further results match this refinement)

Condition Learn more

  • New (No further results match this refinement)
  • As New, Fine or Near Fine (73)
  • Very Good or Good (No further results match this refinement)
  • Fair or Poor (No further results match this refinement)
  • As Described (No further results match this refinement)

Binding

Collectible Attributes

Language (1)

Price

Custom price range (US$)

Free Shipping

  • Free Shipping to U.S.A. (No further results match this refinement)

Seller Location

Seller Rating

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, Ca, 2022

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition

    US$ 45.50

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    Hardcover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. Economic Statistics Are The Greatest Source Of Distorted Information About The World Around Us. The Physical Economic Unit Is The Family And Their Household. The Overwhelming Majority Of The World's Population Does Not Work For Large Corporations Or Enterprises, And Lives On Land Not Yet Owned By Large Corporations And Enterprises, And Does Not Want To Sell Their Land Or Tenancy Agreement. However, Economic Statistics Measure Almost Solely The Income, Assets, And Market Prices Of Large Corporations And Enterprises, And Their Trade And Investments- Which Are Not Connected To The Majority Of The World's Population. The Stock And Bonds And Debt Of Corporations And Enterprises Are Owned By A Minority Of People, But Almost All Of These People Have Other Assets And Their Shareholdings Could Decrease By 50-100% Without Significantly Reducing Their Quality Of Life ( Something Which Is Not True Of Their Workers). This Small Minority Are Not People Who Truly Benefit Society- They Are Not People Who Practice Trades Or Operate Their Own Businesses; They Are The Scum That Sits Atop The So-Called Wealth Statistics, But Are Actually Irrelevant To The Daily World Economy Of Most People, Holding Title And Conducting Management, But Only For Their Own Self-Interest. It Is Not That Economic Statistics Don't Measure Anything- It Is That They Don't Measure Anything Meaningful To The Majority Of People. They Are An Invention Of The Most Literate Classes, A Tiny Majority, For The Benefit Of Themselves And Their Heirs, By Providing Justifications Of The Activities Of The Actual Elites. Essential To This Dominance Is The Devaluation Of Land Held By Rural Ethnic Clans, Small Farmers, And The Poor. The Artificially High Valuation Of Assets Held By The Rich, Made Possible By The Focus On Present "Market" Value Rather Than The Full Value Of Present Use, And Future Utility And Productivity With A Longer Time Span, Say, 100 Years. A 100 Year Valuation Of Oil Stocks Makes Them Practically Valueless; Productive And Eminently-Liveable Land Becomes Extremely Valuable. The Concentration On Inflated Present Values Is Of Most Benefit Not Just To The Corporations And Large Institutions And Their Managers, But It Is Critical To The Governments, Which Rely Entirely Upon Taxes. Any True "Value" Of Anything Must Also Include Such Negative Valuations As The Amortized Future Costs Of Maintenance, Amortized Decrease In Value Due To Wear And Decay And Obsolescence, And, In Particular, The Costs Of Unintentional Damage Too Others, Accumulations Of Waste And Trash, Pollution, And Other Adverse Effects On Society And The Environment. These Potential Costs Include Mitigation, Amelioration, Replacement, Etc. Which Almost Always Far Exceeds The Market Value Of Commercially Developed Property- That Is- Most Human Commercial Development Has An Immense Negative Value Which Is Never Computed Out Of Convenience To The Persons Who Develop, Manufacture, And Invest, And Their Recipients Of Taxes In Local, State And National Governments. Local Development By Individuals, Done With Their Own Financial Resources And Not Borrowed, Rarely Has Significant Future Negative Costs.

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, Ca, 2022

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition

    US$ 45.50

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    Hardcover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. Everything The Russian Government Says Is A Lie, Including All Of Their Statements About Their Identity, Their Purposes, Their Goals, And Their Concerns. The Russian Economy Has Become Essentially Fossil Fuels And The Military Establishment, With A Veneer Of Minimal Human Services And Luxury Consumption. Russia Manufactures Almost Nothing That Any Normal Non-Russian Person Would Want If They Had A Choice, Just Military Grade Equipment For Sociopathic Regimes Worldwide. The Russian Military Is A Fixed Expense- Any Losses Of Personnel And Equipment Fuel The Opportunities For Greater Growth Of Military Suppliers And Provide Opportunities For Advancement Within The Military; The Military Establishment Is The Only Fully Integrated Organization In Russia, And It Is The Only Priority In A State Whose Only Purpose Is To Expand. The Russian Managers See Their Limited Opportunities As The World Moves Slowly Away From Fossil Fuels And, Slowly, Away From Plastics. The Russian Elites For 1200 Years Have Never Attempted To Develop An Independent Intellectual Class; Those People Have Always Been The Primary Enemy Of The State. Absent An Independent Intellectual Class, There Is No One To Provide Unbiased Comparative Analysis, Identify Excellence, Purchase Excellence, And Help The Development Of Excellent Products. There Is No Hope That A Large Entrepreneurial Class Will Develop And Remain In Russia; They Tend To Emigrate As Soon As Possible. That Requires The State To Focus On The Other Manpower-Intense Forms Of Work And Output, Agriculture And The Military. The War In Ukraine Can Be Seen As Having Nothing To Do With Geopolitics, But Rather To The Need Of The Russian State To Increase Their Agricultural Exports, The Only Economic Thing They Know How To Do (Other Than Export Natural Resources) With Any Degree Of Competence, And Which Still Allows For Absolute Complete Control By A Small Number Of Government-Approved Managers. The Russian Government Has No Fear That Anyone Will Invade And Conquer Them, Because They Know That In This Post-Monarchial Age No One Wants To Conquer Russia- What Could Be Done With It? The Russians Have Created A State With No Real Assets, Such As An Educated Working Class, An Independent Entrepreneurial Class, Consumer Goods Industrialization, Cutting Edge Health Care, Etc.; It Would Just Be A Constant Immense Expense And Manpower Drain To Any Conquering State Or Coalition. Russia Will Endure- As It Has For 1200 Years- As A Monomaniacal Military State Run Entirely Top-Down By A Small Class Of Interwoven Autocrats, Whose Descendants Inbreed, Who Have Earned The Loyalty Of The Masses (Who Still Look Back And Think It Is Better Than Being Serfs). The State Continues The 1200 Year Long Appeal To The Need To "Protect" Russia By Constantly Expanding Into Neighboring States, Using Their Second Greatest Asset: A Huge Military Establishment Which Can Draw On An Apparently Never-Ending Class Of Volunteers And Conscripts Willing To Die For Russia (In The Absence Of Other Desirable Alternatives). They Forget That Thee Is No Longer Anyone Who Wants To Conquer Russia; It Would Be A Liability No None Can Afford.

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, Ca, 2022

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition

    US$ 45.50

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    Hardcover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. Austro-Hungary Has Been Led For About 1000 Years Byleaders- Kings And Emperors, Now Presidents, All Serving Merely By Somehow Avoiding Being Deposed. There Is No Austro-Hungarian King Or President With A Valid Claim To Both A Philosophically Sophisticated View Of How To Manage The Primacy Of Government-Services-For-The-General-Welfare, Nor One Which Has Opposed Imperialistic Violence. In Other Words, There Are No Austro-Hungarian Rulers Who Put General Welfare Above Issues And Policies Which Enable Them To Be In Power Over Long Periods Of Time, And Those Issues And Policies Always Affected Firstly The Economic Interests Of Wealthy Nobles, Individuals And Businesses, And To A Small Degree The General Living Costs For The Population, Much As In The Rest Of The World. Essential To Those Economic Interests For 1200 Years Has Been Their Ability To Out-Compete Their Neighbors Poland-Lithuania-Belarus-Ukraine (The Slav/Slave States), And Their Success At Minimizing Or Destroying As Much Of Those Neighbors' Political Power As Possible. The Russian State Is Their Natural Accomplice In These Endeavors, As Between Them They Can Squeeze The Slav States Shamelessly ( And, At Several Instances In History, Had A Role In Division Of That Territory Between Them More Or Less Amicably). This Political Situation Was Not Changed By Wwii, The Austrian And Hungarian States Never Renouncing Their Priority Interest In Furthering Their Own Larger Economic Interests At Any Cost, Nor Did They Ever Assume Any Responsibility For The Costs Of For Taking An Active, Rather Than Passive Role In Opposing Russian Expansionism. These Political Attitudes Are The Defining Interests Of The Austrian And Hungarian States, As It Is With Germany: Get Richer, And Cooperate With Russia When Doing So Furthers Their Interests. Would Austria And Hungary Stand By And Observe The Killing Of 10,000, Or 100,000, 0R 1,000,000, Or 10,000,000 Ukrainians (Which Higher Number Hopefully Will Not Occur For Other Reasons), To Prevent A 4% Reduction In Their Gdp? Of Course, There Is No Number Of Non-Austrian/Hungarian Deaths, No Humanitarian Red-Line, That Would Change This Policy. However, Would Austria And Hungary Be Happy To Furnish A Part Of The Commercial Work Rebuilding A Destroyed Ukraine, Currently Requiring $600,000,000,000 To Rebuild, But Eventually Requiring Trillions? Of Course! It Is The Commercial Opportunity Of The Century, So Far, At Which Industry Salivates Quietly. It Is The Central Core Of Austrian And Hungarian Political Policy To Continue To Furnish Trillions To The Russian Economy Even Though Russia Is Not The Sole Possible Supplier Of The Energy They Require. This Funding Has Been Foreseen For Decades And Is Tenaciously Preserved As The Essential Backbone Of The Austrian And Hungarian Political Structure, As Economics Have Supplanted Any Other Reason In Politics, No Matter What The Surface Communications Assert. .

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, Ca, 2022

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition

    US$ 45.50

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    Hardcover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. The Resumption Of Extremely Militant Russian Expansionism Has Caught The Business Community Looking Like Deer Caught In The Headlights. Every Discussion Of The West's Creation And Support Of The Russian Economic Engine, It's Fossil Fuel Industry, Begins With The Argument That The First Concern Of Every Business Is To Make A Profit. That Argument Might Hold Substance If We Were Dealing With Businesses Run By Robots On Another Planet, Where Indeed The Legal Fiction That Businesses Are Persons Might Hold Some Realistic Truth. However, Even A Business Run By Robots On Another Planet Will Have Some Distant Effects Upon Actual Humans Living On Earth. If The Extraterrestrial Robots Find It Was A Good Business Practice To Kill Human Babies, Even The Most Dedicated Business Ceo Would Find That A Moral Objection Was Appropriate- Or At Least His Or Her Mother Would Find A Moral Objection (Presumably An Infantile Self-Centered One). In Other Words, A Human Cannot Rationally Find That An Entity It Has Created Is Somehow Exempt From The Primacy Of Moral Considerations. A Business Does Not Intrinsically Need To Make A Profit, It Does Not Intrinsically Need To Have Shareholders, It Does Not Need To Rely On Borrowing Community Savings, Acquired Through Bank Loans, To Further Its Own Private Interests. Those Secondary Characteristics Of Modern Business, And Essential To All Large Corporate Businesses, Are A Creation Of Those People Who Have Found Their Own Competitive Niche Not By Invention, Dependability, Integrity, Or Any Other Characteristic Valued By All Societies, But By Squeezing The Corporate Monster To Make It Do Anything At All In Some Commercial Niche To Escape Pain And Maximize Its Pleasure. Hence, The West Created The Russian Fossil Fuel Behemoth To Satisfy The Greed Of A Relatively Small Number Of Managers And Investors. Could They Be Identified And Hunted Down As Rabid Wolves? Well, Yes, But The World Loves A Rule- Based Society In Which They Are Always As Fully Protected As Human Ingenuity Will Permit. Bring On The Babies, The Monster Is Always Hungry.

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, Ca, 2022

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition

    US$ 45.50

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    Hardcover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. Historically, Russia, With Its Highly Centralized, Top-Down Rule Of A Monarchy, A Tiny Autocracy, Some Miserably Powerless Estate Officials And Freeman, A Small Middle Class, And Overwhelmingly Large Masses Of Slave-Like Serfs, Escaped The Informal Rules Of Chivalry Which Set The Cultural Basis Of The Rules-Based Order That We Call Modern Civilization. It Is The Only Great Military Power To Do So; North Africa And The Near And Middle East Had A Religious-Based Social Order, China Had A Law-Based Social Order And Strong Societal Behavioral Norms Although It Was An Otherwise Absolute Monarchy, Smaller Countries Had A Family-Based Political System Which Included Family-Based Norms Of Behavior. The Russian Case Is Unique. One Cannot Deal With Russia As One Does With Other Humans. They Have Evolved From A Feudal Monarchy To A Purely Militaristic State Whose Most Notable Invention In The Past 1000 Years Has Been The Russian Orc, The Thoughtless Soldier Of Unparalleled Willingness To Fight And Die. The Tiny Minority Of Independent And Culturally Innovative Russians? They Fill The Rolls Of The Prematurely Deceased And Exiles. There Is No Cultural Concept Of Personal Honor, Beyond National Honor, Outside That Tiny, Mostly Dead, Minority. As Almlost The Only Employment In Russia Is Service To The State Or Its Contractors; There Is No Complete Concept Of Personal Honor Beyond Loyalty To That State.

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, Ca, 2022

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition

    US$ 45.50

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    Hardcover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. There Is No Historicl German Leader With A Valid Claim To Both 1. A Philosophically Sophisticated View Of How To Manage The Primacy Of Government-Services-For-The-General-Welfare And 2. Skill In Providing Those Services Without Frequent International Aggression. In Other Words, There Are No German Government Leaders Who Put General Welfare Above Issues And Policies Which Enable Them To Be Elected Over Long Periods Of Time. Those Issues And Policies Always Affect Firstly The Economic Interests Of Wealthy Individuals And Businesses, And The General Minimal Living Costs For The Population (Not Unlike Other Countries). Essential To Those Economic Interests For 1200 Years Has Been Their Ability To Out-Compete Their Neighbors Poland-Lithuania-Belarus-Ukraine (The Slav/"Slave" States), And Their Success At Minimizing And Where Possible Destroying As Much Of Those Neighbors' Political Power As Possible. The Russian State For 1000 Years Has Been Their Natural Circumstancial Accomplice In These Endeavors, As Between Them They Can Squeeze The Slav States Shamelessly ( And, At Several Instances In History, Divided That Territory Between Them More Or Less Amicably). This Political Situation Was Not Changed By Wwii; The German State Itself Never Renounced Its Priority Interest In Furthering Its Economic Interests At Any Cost, Nor, Post-Wwii, Has It Ever Assumed Responsibility For Taking An Active, Rather Than Passive Role In Opposing Russian Expansionism. These Political Attitudes Are The Defining Interests Of The German State For 1000 Years: Get Richer, And Cooperate With Russia When Doing So Furthers German Economic Interests. Would Germany Stand By And Observe The Killing Of 10,000, Or 100,000, 0R 1,000,000, Or 10,000,000 Ukrainians (Which Higher Number Hopefully Will Not Occur For Other Reasons), To Prevent A 4% Reduction In Its Gdp? Of Course, There Is No Number Of Non-German Deaths, No Humanitarian Red-Line, That Would Change This Policy. Would Germany Be Happy To Furnish A Large Part Of The Commercial Work Rebuilding A Destroyed Ukraine, Currently Requiring $600,000,000,000 To Rebuild, But Eventually Requiring Trillions? Of Course! It Is The Commercial Opportunity Of The Century, So Far, At Which German Industry Salivates Quietly. It Was The Central Core Of German Political Policy To Enable This Opportunity By Furnishing Trillions To The Russian Economy Even Though Russia Is Not The Sole Possible Source Of The Energy They Require. This Funding Has Been Seen For Decades And Is Tenaciously Preserved As The Essential Backbone Of The German Political Structure. There Is No Cultural Image Of Scholz, Nor Will There Ever Be; He Could As Well Be An Avatar; But The World Will Not Forget The Wealth And Power Of German Industry, The Only True Determinant Of Germany's Long-Range Policies, And The Sole Centerpiece Of German Pride. They Can Hardly Trumpet Their Moral Leadership.

  • US$ 45.50

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    Hardcover. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. An Historical Study Should Be Written Of How Frustrated Males Without Skills Knowledge Or Constructive Abilities Learned That They Did Not Need To Be Physically Dominant (Like Schoolyard Bullies), Or Intellectually Dominant (Like Literary Bullies), They Only Need To Offer To Share The Spoils With A Selected Group Of People With Similar Influence Over Their Own Groups. Real Bullies Offer To Share Nothing, And End Up With Little Or Nothing; Wolf-Bullies Work In Packs, Have No Skill Except Killing And Taking, And Are Always Successful Because Almost Everyone Has No Distinctly Better Character. This Works Equally Well In Politics, And In Using Other People's Money, Anything Where Power Can Be Taken And Monopolized By The Leaders Who Share Amongst Themselves. Unfortunately, As This Works Exceptionally Well, They Are Very Attractive To The Opposite Sex, And Reproduce Fairly Dependably, Raising Ever More Of Their Kind. Since They Themselves Are Never Called Out As Just The Bullies They Are - A Bully Never Calls Out Another Bully, Eventually They Make Friends- They Monopolize Ever More Power.

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, Ca, 2023

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.00

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Only Justification For Government Activity Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. The Evolution Of Machine Processing Raises Unprecedented Legal And Moral Concerns About Advanced Computer Processing Of Large Data Sets. This Concern Is Largely About The Effects Of The Use Of Machine Processing To 1. Automate Labor, And 2. To Modify Cultural, Political, Governmental, And Social Behavior; Of Lesser Immediate Concern Is 3. The Effect Upon The Energy Supply, And The Concomitant Social, Economic And Environmental Costs To Provide Energy For Machine Processing. These Problems Reveal The Inability Of Humankind To Acquire A Common Understanding Of What Is Intelligence And Interpretation, What Are Facts, Knowledge, And Scientific Evidence, Or What The Differences Are Between Personal Morals And Professional Ethics And Governmental Administration And Political Goals And Religious Beliefs And Practices. Human Society Relies Upon Shared Meanings, And These Meanings Are Assertively Defined By Family, Friends, Society, Media, And By Educational, Business, Religious, And Other Institutions Even Though They Are Usually Not Subject To Reasonable Debate And Are Often Logically Unsupported And Indefensible. Human Kind Doesn't Understand That Machine Intelligence - Assembly Of Relevant Facts And Then Drawing Tentative Conclusions From Those Facts- Is A Better Model Of Intelligence Than Human "Thinking" Which Expresses Itself As A More Or Less Random Cobbling Of Words Into Sentences And Longer Statements; Human Expression Is Like Cooking, Taking The Ingredients At Hand To Make A Word Salad Seem More Or Less Like A Digestible Meal. A Machine Can Take Observations Of The Real (And Imaginary) Worlds, And Look For Associations Which Fit Any Of A Variety Of Truth And Usefulness And Brevity Tests, Without Believing In Any One. Humans Are Usually Not That Intelligent. A Machine Can Access And Process A Vast Supply Of Historical And Contemporary Records And Information Of All Kinds; A Human Can Rely Only Upon Limited Personal Memory And Very Limited Sequential Access To Real-World Data, Historical And Contemporary. Will Humans Make An "Intelligent" Use Of Machine Processing By Queries And Commands Of Transient Personal, Economic And Political Interest, Considering The Tremendous Energy Usage And Limited Availability Of The Great Machines? No, Every Such Usage Is Only Then Transformed Into A Summary Human Statement Which Is Again Just Word Salad. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, Ca, 2023

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.00

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Only Justification For Government Activity Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. Political Theory Generally Assumes Some Sort Of Social Contract, Such That The Governed Agree To Be Governed And, In Return, Receive Some Benefits, Such As Security. All Of Human History Shows That This Is A Ridiculous And Self-Serving Fiction, Put Forward By Those Advantaged By The Ruler(S), Not Just Because The Rulers Make No Pretense To Any Specifically Measurable Actions To Which They Will Be Bound, And The Ruled Are Not Given An Opportunity To See The Contract Much Less Agree To It. A Loose Verbal Claim Holds No Legal Contract- It's Like A Property Seller Stating That In Future He Will "Sell It At A Good Price"- Worthless. The Proponents Of Government Authority In A Democracy State That The Citizens Have Agreed To Whatever Their Representatives Have Done Or May Do In The Future. Thus The Representatives Are Not Specifically Enjoined From Not Taking Action- And Government Officials Are Almost Never- Or Never- Sanctioned For Not Taking Action. Hence, Inaction Is The Characteristic Of The State, Above It's Characteristics Of Providing Various Forms Of Protection To The Citizens. As Unprecedented Causes Of Adverse Situations For The Citizens Are Presented In Changing World Conditions- In No Way Is The World Static Or Becoming Safer- Their Are Issues Of Pollution, Planning And Permitting, Non-Consensual Human Migration, Non-Consensual Data Migration, Epidemics And Pandemics, Etc., Weather Events, Earthquakes, Etc. Which No Government Official In This World Is Expert But Which All Insist On Retaining Their Ability To Make All Governmental Decisions Including The Decision Whether To Do Anything At All. Government Officials Can Talk Well, And Agreeably, But In Terms Of Handling Evolving Problems They Are More Similar To Orangutans Than Research Scientists Or Other True Experts. This Is Not Even Considering The Need To Make Political Decisions Of Strong Ethical And Moral Content Regarding Government Measures For Regulation, Punishment, Taxation, Etc. The Willingness Of Politicians To Retain Control Over That Which They Are Ignorant Of, Makes Their Claims To Moral And Ethical Authority To Deal With Those Issues Not Just Questionable But Absurd. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, Ca, 2023

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.00

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Only Justification For Government Activity Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. Theories By Political Scientists And Economists Miss The Forest For The Trees. Small Causes And Effects Occur, But The Question Always Remains In Practice- Which Is Cause, Which Effect, And Which Merely Due To Overall Historical Developments? The Big Issue Is The Dynamics Of Major Societal Characteristics, And What Effects Will Any Future Change In Government Policy Have Upon Household Economics For The Approximately 7 Billion People On Earth (Not Just Large Business Enterprises). When Such Analyses Are Made, Small Variables Are Selected Because They Will Occasion No Great Uproar From The People Who Directly Or Indirectly Employ, Support, Approve, Or Have Relationships With Those Economists And Political Scientists, Just As In Science No One Will Attempt To Identify All Sources Of Pollution In Air And Water In Every Inhabited Location, Even In A Small Area: There Are Too Many Possible Small Interests At Stake Which Will Take A Great Offense And Make Life Miserable For The Analyst. In History, The Same Principle Applies. Studies Of The Rise And Fall Of Empires Neglect Any Real Comparison With The Actual Dynamics Of Present Society. Much Attention Is Paid To Supposed Government Benefits For The Poor Having Unintended Consequences. However, It Is Welfare For The Rich That Enervates All Of Society By Making Competition Too Difficult For Small Businesses, And Diverting New Societal Wealth And State Tax Receipts To Private Gains, With No Possibility Of Prospects When Larger Investors Control Goods And Prices. For Example, Before Bread And Circuses Became Rampant, The Wealth Rome Seized And Taxed For Two Hundred Years Was Stolen By Unimaginable Corruption Amongst The Wealthiest Romans, Especially The Senator-Generals With Political Appointments Who Took The Spoils Of War But Kept These Spoils For Themselves. The Wikipedia Article On Crassus Can, With A Little Thought On It, Illuminate These Ideas. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, Ca, 2023

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.00

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Only Justification For Government Activity Is To Provide For The Common Welfare.1. The Belief That Statistics Of Institutional Sales And Profits Measure Anything Worth Measuring In Terms Of Government Policy- Because The Statistics Primarily Measure That Which Is A Source Of Income For Institutions And Passive Investors And The Managers Of Their Wealth, And These Are Piddling, Purely Personal And Selfish Concerns, Of Little Relevance For A Government Working Impartially For The General Welfare. However, The Media In General Never Point This Out. 2. The Belief That Government Expenditures Need Bear No Relationship To Accountability: Domestically, The Mass Of Tax Payers Can Be Made To Recompense And Even "Make Whole" Individuals And Institutions For The Consequences Of Their Stupid Decisions. If One Becomes Ill Because Of Smoking, All Taxpayers Should Pay For Their Health Care; If Property Floods Because One Chooses To Build Or Buy Without Consideration Of Even Remotely Possible Flood Danger, And Without Private Insurance, All Tax Payers Should Make Them Whole; If An Institution Goes Bankrupt Or Nearly So Because The Greedy Managers And Investors Took All The Income As Their Extravagant Pay And Profits, Then Taxpayers Should Take It Over And Forgive The Debts, With No Consequences For Managers And Investors And No Call-Back Of The Profits And Wages; Etc. 3. Investors And Managers Are Somehow Considered Stakeholders In Government Decisions Affecting The Health And Welfare And Freedoms Of The General Public, When They Only Have A Selfish Interest Opposed To Free Consideration Of The Consequences Of Public Policy; They Have Every Right To Complain Publicly, But Not To Have Special Access To Lawmakers, Administrative Officials, Or The Legal System To Influence Government Policy In Their Narrow Interests. 4. Lack Of Training For Lawmakers In How To Write Laws That Are Consistent, Complete, Effective, Efficient, And Enforceable, In Every Respect. No Training Like This In Law Schools, Which Only Focus On How Find Out How A Particular Case May Evade Application Of Laws. 5. Lack Of Training For Law Administrators On Historical Background And Non-Political Context Of The Applicable Issues In Their Areas Of Operation; They Just Follow Political Winds, No Concern For Realities, No Attempt To Furnish Firm Recommendations To Higher Management Or Lawmakers, No Whistle-Blowing About Political Pressures. In Many States Barbers Are Subject To Stringent Requirements! 6. Lack Of Consequences For Poor Management Of Enterprises, Institutions, Or Government Resources; Investors Can Obtain "Fiduciaries" In Some Respects For Financial Managers, But Taxpayers And Owners And Investors In Private Enterprises Have No Recourse Against Poor Management. 7. Lack Of Accountability For Unlimited Family Size- Governments And Ngo's Continue To Regard Poverty Of Families With Many Children As A Tragedy And An Emergency, When It Is A Consequence Of Those Parents' Own Decisions, And Continues Situations Ongoing For Centuries And With No Change In Sight. 8. International Recognition Of The Lawfulness Of Governments Which Are Not In Control Of Much Of Their Own Territory; Sudan, Somalia, Mali, And Much Of Central North Africa, Also Syria Have National Governments Which Are Unable Or Unwilling To Negotiate For Rule Of Law Throughout Their Territory; They Are Parties To A Conflict But Not Governments In The Areas They Don't Control., And Are City-States Rather Than Independent Countries. 9. Lack Of Laws Making Polluters Responsible For The Pollution They Cause In Their Operations Or From Their Products. 10. Lack Of Responsibility Of Manufacturers For The Transient Usefulness Of Their Products, Such That Modern Industrial Activity Is Almost Entirely, In The Big Picture, An Efficient System For Turning Natural Resources Into Trash With No Method Or Plan For Preventing Its Ill Effects On Human Space And The Environment. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, Ca, 2023

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.00

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Only Justification For Government Activity Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. Human Consciousness In Modern Times Is Increasingly Aware Of Environmental Pollution (And Ugliness), Private And Business Compliance With Government Regulations And Laws, Abuse Of Governmental Authority, Systematic Disparities In Income And Wealth, And The Lack Of Concern For Consequences By Financial And Business Organizations And By Governments Themselves. Academic Research And Investigative Reporting Have Made It Impossible To Ignore The Harmful Effects Of Unlimited, Self-Serving Activities Of Businesses And Governments. However, This Awareness Has Not Been Matched By Any Sensitivity To The Basic Issue, Which Is Not That People Will Act In Their Self-Interest To The Greatest Degree Possible, But That People Are Willing To Put Up With Almost Anything Rather Than Criticize The Activities Of Anyone Past, Present And In Future, And To Modify Their Own Behavior To Limit, As Much As Possible, The Activities Of Those Most Destructive Of Essential Environmental And Social Conditions. People Prefer To Whine Rather Than Take Stock Of What They Can Do Themselves (Young Children Will Avoid Dealing In Any Way With Those They Consider To Be Evil, But Adults Will Not, And Will Force Children To Make Compromises Until That Becomes A Way Of Life). Regarding Pollution, It Is Possible To Determine Who Directs, Administratively And As Board Members, The Most Destructive Polluters, And The Most Active Investors In Polluters, And The Most Critical Vendors Who Enable Polluters. They Can Be Identified Publicly, Their Associations Publicized, And The Exact Nature Of Their Activities Presented In Excruciating Detail. People Who Feel Strongly About The Evil Of Particular Behavior Can Then Take Extreme Steps To Avoid Dealing With Those People Or Their Families, And To Modify The Behavior Of Organizations They Must Belong To (Like Pension Funds And Governments) So That Those Organizations No Longer Enable Those "Evil-Doers" In Any Way. It Is A Moral Choice. Wehen We Pass A Bum In The Street, We Must Remember That We Are The Ones Who Enable The Polluters, The Abusive Authorities, The Generators Of Uncontrollable Waste, Etc., Not The Bums We Despise. We Don't Like China And India Continuing To Increase Their Consumption Of Coal, And Generation Of Un-Recyclable Plastic By The Latter, But Is Their Any Consequence For China Or India? No, We Want Our I-Phones And Junk, So We Will Tolerate Any Means By Which Those Industries Are Energized.We Are Spared The More Difficult Choices To Be Made If China And India Burned Muslims Or Christians For Fuel, Fortunately, Because We Don't Actually Know What Choices We And Our Fellow Citizens Would Then Make. Our Intellect Is So Limited That We Think Being Against Anything Important And Powerful Is Being "Against The System". Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, Ca, 2023

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.00

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Only Justification For Government Activity Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. One Area In Which Chatgpt May Provide A Great Public Service Is By Replacing Ordinary Commercial Journalism. Such Looky-Thar Journalism Is Merely The Art Of Presenting Relating Names And Words Sufficient To Describe Some Recognizable Characteristics Of The Event, With Pictures (Since The Mid-Nineteenth Century) Being Helpful, But No Discussion Of The More Significant Dynamics From Which Any Wider Meaning Could Be Divined. Chatgpt Will Have No Such Self-Convinced Belief That The Audience Is Incredibly Stupid, Having Received Countless Intelligent Questions Which Are Then Evaluated And Considered In Its Responses. Ordinary Non-Investigative, Non-Philosophical, And Non-Scholarly Journalists Focus More On Their Interpersonal Attractiveness Which Is Their Main Stock In Trade And Justification For Employment, But Even In This Area, Without Intense Improvement, They Will Be Eclipsed By Chatgpt's Increasing Sociability. Fortunately, No One Will Notice, Because Apart From The International News Services Few People Actually Listen To And Think About Modern News Stories- It's All Background, Like Elevator Music. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, Ca, 2023

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.00

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Only Justification For Government Activity Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. The Guardian, April 4, 2023, Quotes An Expert On Ai: "Valérie Pisano, The Chief Executive Of Mila - The Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute - Said The Slapdash Approach To Safety In Ai Systems Would Not Be Tolerated In Any Other Field. "The Technology Is Put Out There, And As The System Interacts With Humankind, Its Developers Wait To See What Happens And Make Adjustments Based On That. We Would Never, As A Collective, Accept This Kind Of Mindset In Any Other Industrial Field. There'S Something About Tech And Social Media Where We'Re Like: 'Yeah, Sure, We'Ll Figure It Out Later,'" She Said.""However, Once Again The Expert In One Specialized Field Have Almost No Deep Historical View Of Human Business, Science And Technology. In Fact, The Industrial Revolution, Internal Combustion Revolution, Electrical Revolution, Atomic Revolution, Plastic Revolution And Electronic Revolution Have Only Taken Place Because Of A General Total Lack Of Serious Concern About (And Almost Complete Toleration Of) The Adverse Consequences Of The Manufacturing And Consumption Inherent In These Revolutions In Terms Of Economic Effects, Waste, Pollution, Diversion Of Resources, And Destruction Of Human Freedom, And There Is No Reason To Expect That The Big-Picture Sociopaths (Well-Meaning And Otherwise) Who Control Governments And The Largest Businesses And Investment Managers Throughout The World Will Act Any Differently This Time. For One Thing, There Is Almost No One In Charge Of Any Country'S Administrative, Legislative Or Judicial System With The Well-Rounded Knowledge Of Sufficient History, Technology, Science, Human Physiology, Human Psychology, And Human Economic Sociology To Make Comprehensive Intelligent Decisions Whatsoever Except In Tiny Increments To Lessen The Criticisms Against Then, And There Are So Few Of Such Intelligent, Thoughtful, Well-Meaning People That Any Concerted Action Is Minimal And Difficult At Best. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, Ca, 2023

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.00

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Only Justification For Government Activity Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. An Anarchist Is Someone Who Is Opposed To Government. There Are Indeed A Tiny Tiny Minority In Any Population To Actually Believe No Government Is Best; But There Is More Or Less Half Of Any Population Which Finds It In There Interest To Limit The Activities Of Government, And The Term "Anarchist" Is Best Used To Describe Their Asocial Activities. These People, United In The General Conservative Parties In Modern Democracies And Everywhere Else, Oppose Any Expansion Of Government Oversight Which Might Limit Their Own Economic Opportunities, Or Which Might Limit Their Ability To Do Whatever They Want Regardless Of The Consequences On Others. These Are The Aristocrats And Conservative Brits. Who Brexited Rather Than Reach Agreements With Their Neighbors, And Despite The Simple Fact That The British Economic Prospects Have Never Been Worse (Relative To The Rest Of The World) And Will Continue To Degenerate As A Result Of This Selfish Me-First-Ism Which Profits Only The Rich And Their Media Enablers. This Includes The American Republicans And Their Conservative Equivalents Worldwide, But Also Includes The Super-Capitalist Russians, Chinese, And Other Leftist Political Dictatorships, The Fundamentalist Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, And Buddhist Elites, Indeed All Elites, Who As A Class, In General, Oppose Any Increase In Government Oversight Of Health, Pollution, Food Safety, The Environment, Education, And Everything Else Which Intelligent People, Even In The Most Primitive Societies Today, Regard Overwhelmingly As Of Critical Importance To The Common Welfare. This Is Not Just Because Conservatives Seek Their Economic Advantage; It Is Because The Vast Majority Of Conservatives Would Actually Starve To Death In A Well-Regulated Society, Because They Cannot ;Provide Any Added Value To The Health, Conservation, Clean Water, Clean Air, Clean Streets, Advanced Eduction, Or Anything Else Valued By Other People- They Are Non Competitive Because They Have Chosen To Concentrate Only On Their Income And Wealth And As A Result Are Stupid, Ignorant Of Modern Technology And Research Techniques, Unable To Concentrate On Long-Term Developmental Plans, Unable To Pay Attention To And Remember Details, Psychologically Unfit For Work With Others, And Unable To Relate To Others On An Equal Basis For Constructive Purposes Beyond Their Self-Interest. It Will Be Incumbent Upon The Non-Conservative Population To Realize They Are A Lost Species And Just Pension Them Off To Meander Amidst Restricted Habitation Zones Where They Will No Longer Cause Harm To The Rest Of Us. The Economic Cost Of This, However Great, Is Still Vastly Less Than The Harms They Would Otherwise Cause In The Future. They Are Not Incapable Of Causing Irrevocable Harms; Conservatives Don't Prevent Wars, They Just Seek To Stop Them When The Economic Advantages Are Exhausted. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2021

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Only Justification For Government Activity Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. Government Is Historically Used By A Small Group Of People To Manage The Activities Of Others To Ensure That The Former Gets The Cut They Want Of The Income And Wealth Of The Latter, Much Like The Leaders Of Packs Of Wolves Or Monkeys. With The General Development Of Human Intelligence And Health, More And More Of The General Population Hopes For Significant Benefits To Themselves As A Result Of This Activity, Or At Least Only Bearable Harm. The Degeneration Of Each Bloated Aristocracy To More Open Systems Of Government Has Increased The Prevalence Of The Expectation That Government Is For Everyone's Benefit. However, The Aristocratic Element Has, Over Thousands Of Years, Become Ancestral Genetically To Much If Not Most Of The Population (People Have About 1000 Ancestors From 300 Years Ago, 1,000,000 From 600 Years Ago, 1 Billion From 900 Years Ago, 1 Trillion From 1200 Years Ago, A Trillion Trillion From 2400 Years Ago, Etc., And Despite A Pervasivel Worldwide Pattern Of Local And Class-Oriented In-Breeding Which Makes This Physically Possible, That Is, Multiple Ancestral Lines To The Same Ancestors, Almost Everyone Is Descended From Younger Disinherited Children Of The Richest Ancient Powerful Families.) There Is Thus A Widespread Mostly Subconscious Frustrated Desire To Participate In The Profits Of Managing Government - Management, Rather Than Absolute Power, Being The Most Attainable Goal. This Is Encouraged By Parental And Marital Concern; Not Many Mothers Would Rather Her Child Become A Doctor Who Personally Saves 10,000 Lives, For A Small Income, Rather Than Become The Much Richer Manager Of A Large Hospital Department. The Problem Is That Managers Do Not Feel The Freedom To Identify What Services Best Serve The General Population, Even If They Want To; If They Make The Better Long-Range Suggestion Or Plans, Or Take Such Actions, Their Job Is Ar Risk And Will Almost Certainly Be Lost As Soon As One Thing They Say Or Do Is Disliked By Their Superior. For Government And Institutions To Operate For The Benefit Of The People, However, Managers Need To Spend More Time Thinking About What Services Should Be Provided To Best Meet The Needs Of The Population At Large, Rather Than Attempting Just To Manage The Activities Already Established. For Example, The Population Needs Food And Other Common Items For Daily Use, And The Production And Distribution Systems And The Consumption Patterns Adjust More Or Less Accordingly. However, The Population Also Needs Means To Purchase These, In A Free Economy; Essentially, They Need Jobs. For The Population As A Whole, The Ability To Get A Better Job More Quickly Is An Unmatchable Resource. This Is One Area Where Governments Fail, Because Anything To Help The Population Have Better Access To Solid Jobs Means That The Managers And Their Families Have Less Economic Superiority. Neither Democratic, Aristocratic, Communist, Autocratic Or Any Other Kind Of Government Is Willing To Use Commonly Available Modern Technology To Set Up A Free Website Where All Employers Can Post All Openings In A Format Easily Searchable By Job Type, Salary, Location, Benefits, Etc., For Which Database Formats Have Been Available For Decades, And Which Would Have Tiny Operating Costs Compared To The Benefits To Individuals And To The Governments Which Will Eventualnthat Is Only Because No Political Party, Democratic, Aristocratic, Communist, Etc. Is Willing To Give Up The Power And Satisfaction Of Having Others In An Unfortunate Position Of Temporary Or Permanent Unemployment (For Which They Can Then "Generously" Offer Government Benefits In Exchange For Blind Loyalty). Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2020

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. Appropriate Measures To Mitigate The Spread Of The Coronavirus Severely Affect All Business Activity Worldwide. Governments Are Desperately Seeking To Minimize The Effect Upon Their Revenues And On Their Populations As Well. Economic Stimulus Seeks To Provide Funds When Business And Government And Institutional Revenues Are Severely Diminished By The Degradation Of Economic Activity When "Non-Essential" Activities Are Severely Curtailed. Before Applying Economic Stimulus, Consideration Needs To Be Given Between Activities Deemed To Be "Essential" - That Is, In The Public Interest- Versus Activities Which May Be Deemed "Non-Essential". Government Are Largely Run By People Who Were, And In The Case Of Dictatorships, Are, Active In Non-Essential Businesses. In The United States We Have A President (In 2019-2020) Whose Entire Life Activity Has Been Non-Essential; There Is Not A Single Thing He Has Done Or Produced Which May Be Deemed Essential In Any Sense Of "Common Welfare". The Possibility Arises That The Economic Interests He Serves Will Seize This Opportunity To Prevent Any Harm To Their Sectors. These Sectors Are All Non-Essential: 1. Businesses That Are Unable To Make A Profit Large Enough To Attract Investors If They Comply With Law And Regulation, Ensure Their Products Are Healthy And Safe, And Avoid Or Remediate Any Possible Pollution Arising From Their Materials, Processing, Or Products Or The Resulting Disposal After Use. This Includes All Consumer Manufacturers Who Cut The Corners Required To Compete, And Succeed Purely On Price And Advertising Might. When Laws Are Tightened, Procedures Tighten, But Competition Continues. 2. Businesses Which Are Intrinsically Non-Essential: Luxury Goods, Restaurants, Bars, Coffee Shops, Casinos, Tobacco, Alcohol, Recreational Drugs, Entertainment, Commercial Sports, Tourism, Air Transport, Gaming, Sex Industries, Etc. There Is No Sense In Which These Businesses Are Essential To The Common Welfare, No Possibility That They Will Produce Products Which Any Person In General Might Purchase, No Sense In Which Their Product Increase The General Health Or Welfare Of Any Nation. Their Use Is Personal, Discretionary, And Largely Indefensible As Investments For The Good Of Any Person, Family, Neighborhood, Or Group, Except That Their Sale Furnishes Employment To People Who Do Not Have Skills That Are Essential. However Stimulus Is Applied, The Resources Upon Which It Draws Are Not Inexhaustible, And Any Uses Of This Stimulus Are In Competition With Alternative Use. Should Public Money, For Which The Public Bears The Costs And Also The Losses Of The Opportunities Provided By Alternative Uses, Now And In The Future, Be Diverted In Almost Unimaginable Sums To Support The Poor Investment Foresight Of A Fraction Of The Population Which Provides No Essential Services, And If So, Why? If A Business Has Devoted Funds To Non-Essential Services, That Is Their Problem, Not A Public Problem. If Government Solves Their Economic Problems In Any Way, It Is Stealing From The Rest Of The Population. The Only People Who Don't Support This Idea Are The Ones Providing Non-Essential Services, And Those Dependent Upon Them, Including The Media. Unfortunately, They Provide Most Of The Funding For Lobbying, And Advertising: They Control Politicians Through Granting Or Withholding Donations, And They Control The Media (The Public Non-Academic Media Largely Exist To Support Non-Essential Services As May Be Seen From Any View Of Their Advertising). With An Elected Leader Who Represents Only The Non-Essential Sector, We Will Lose Any Public Valuation Of "Essential" Vs "Non-Essential", And It Will Become Socially Incorrect And Politically Incorrect To Make This Distinction In The Future. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2020

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. Much Of Economic And Political Policy Advocacy Is Concerned With The Desirability Of Particular Rules Framed And Enforced By The Governments Of The World, And The Allocation Of Funds By Those Governments. While The Essence Of Much Political Wrangling Is The Nature Of Those Rules And Funding, The General Acceptability Of Rules Themselves Continues To Be Questioned By Advocates For Less Government Intervention In General- Apart From The Rational And Hopefully Somewhat Scientific Discussion Of The Expected Benefits And Unpleasant Consequences Of Any Particular Rule- As If A Generalization Can In Itself Trump A Specificity. Every Rule In Law Has Both Beneficial And Adverse Consequences For Some. Those Who Believe The Lack Of Rules In General Is The Best Course Of Action, Are Either Over-Indulging Their Own Logic, Or Sociopathicly Childish, As They Are Unwilling To Weigh All The Possible Consequences In Terms Of General Human Welfare (Whatever That Is, There Being No Exact Definition, Much Less An Exact Measure). On The Political Scene, The First Course Of Action Would Be To Call Out Those Who Are Against Rules In General, Or In Any Area Of Human Conduct, As The Sociopaths They Are. The Second Course Is To Call Out Those Who Believe In Simple Generalities, As The Inverted Intellects They Are, As The Totality Of The Exact Consequences, Good Or Bad, Of Any Action Are Not Only Multitudinous, But Highly Debatable In Every Detail, At Present And In The Future, And Thus The Cause And Effect Of Any Present Action, Are Unknowable. The First Necessity Of Government For The Common Welfare Is The Discussion Of The Possible Consequences Of Particular Acts, And Discussion Of The Desirability Of Those Consequences, And The Weighing Of All Those Predicted- But Not Certain- Consequences In Terms Of What May Be Considered "The Common Welfare". Those Who Ignore The Specific Effects On Common Welfare Cannot Be Part Of The Political Discussion; They Are Outside Society, No Matter How Wealthy, Powerful, Well Connected Or Even Likable They May Be. Such Persons Have Found A Competitive Advantage In Not Discussing And Weighing Particular Consequences For Others; They Are Not Part Of Legitimate Political Dialogs. The Problem For Political Economics Is That All Politicians Seek This Undiscoursive Political Advantage, And They Are All Undependable Guides For How Government Should Be Legislated, Administered, Or Enforced. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2020

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. The Purpose Of A Socially And Legally Legitimate Business Is To Make A Profit For The Owners While Complying With Law And Regulation. Almost All Businesses Start When An Individual Identifies An Unoccupied Niche In The Economic Fabric, A Place Where A Product Or Service May Be Provided In Which There Is Little Direct Competition, Or The Market Is So Large That It Is Possible To Compete With Minimal Change, Such As Slightly Lower Pricing. The Discovery Of Niches Is The Essence Of Business Innovation And Economic Growth. External Financing Is Often Not Available Early In The Development Of A Business; The First Stages Are Financed By One's Self, One's Family, And One's Friends And Acquaintances. The Business Grows From An Idea Into A Viable Or Possibly Viable Enterprise Only Under The Direction Of The Founder Or Founders. Outside Institutions Play Little Or No Role In This Early, Critical Development, Except As In Their Normal Courses Of Business With The Public At Large. Of The Great Public Financial Institutions It Would Be Hard To Name One Instance In Which They Furnished, By Decision, The Means For That Initial Small Company To Grow; The Idea That Economic Institutions Fuel The Engine Of Real Growth Is Ridiculous, Except Through Small Loans In The Normal Course Of Their Business. It Is The Founders Who Grow The Business, And, If Successful, Make It Possible. When It Becomes Of Economic Or Social Interest, A Board Must Be Formed To Ensure All Interests Are Brought To Bear. The Initial Board, However, Is Formed Only To Meet The Short To Medium Term Expectations Of New Outside Investors, And The Cost To Investors Of Further Investiment Then Usually Accelerates. This Acceleration At Some Point Becomes Irrational; Those Who Come In At Some Later Point Are Speculators Who Always Lose All Or Part Of Their Investment; And The Board Must Ignore The Simple Fact That Almost All Large Successful Organizations Are Eventually (Over 5 To 100 Years) Worth Far Less Than The Price At Which Most Investments Were Made [And In Many Cases, Perhaps Most, Over 75-100 Years, The Company Goes Bankrupt Or Is Sold For Only A Tiny Fraction Of It's Highest Price As An Investment.) This Is The Basic Fact Of Economics: Almost All Passive Investments In Commercial Companies Become Nearly Worthless At Some Point, Measured Against The Average Price At Which Shares In The Company Were Sold In Their Highest Year, As Can Be Seen By Taking Prices 25-50 Years Ago Or More, Versus Their Worth Today In Real Terms And Compared To Reinvestment Solely In Stable Government Bonds. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2020

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. The Essence Of Institutions Is That They Are Authorized And Recognized By The Government For Continuing Activities For Both Institutional Purposes And For The Common Welfare. Institutions Are Generally Administered By A Board. Government Institutions Are The Most Important Exception, For No Particular Reason Other Than The Ancestral Roots Of All Institutions In The Primary And Absolute Authority And Will Of A Ruler. This Is Unjustifiable In Any Sense For The Common Welfare, For Obvious Reasons. It Seem That The Only Alternative Which Provides For The Common Welfare Is To Have Every Private Board Composed With At Least One Member From The Founder's Circle, At Least One From Stockholders (If Any), At Least On From The Government (To Ensure The Government Is Aware Of All Actions Of The Institution That Might Conflict With Existing Law And Regulation), At Least One From The Employees, And At Least One From The General Public Who Is Unaffiliated With This Or Any Other Institution. All Board Meetings Should Be Matters Of Public Record, In Their Entirety. All Board Members Should Be Legally Accountable And Responsible For Board Actions (They Can Always Resign If The Administrative Actions Of The Board Are Unacceptable To Them). For Government Institutions, Every Department And Agency Should Have An Executive Head, But A Board That Would Debate And Publicly Promulgate An Administrative Options Paper On Every Decision When Action Is First Proposed, Before Action Is Taken, For Consideration By The Ceo. The Ceo Would Be Legally Responsible For His Or Her Decisions Or Inaction. This Would Be A Start Towards Responsible Administration, Especially Economic Administration, In Modern Society. Good Ideas Often Overcome Bad Ideas, At Least Within A Century; The Absence Of Ideas Doesn't. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2019

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. The Basic Historical Premise Of Economics Is That Taxable "Value" Is Directly Related To The Sale Transaction Amount. This Is Ridiculous: By Any Rational Measure, The Economic Cost Of War To The Government And To Society Is Not The Cost Of The Soldiers And Equipment With Which The War Is Conducted. Likewise, The Economic Cost Of Trash And Pollution Is Not The Sale Value Of The Trash And Pollution, It Is The Cost Of Recycling Trash And Pollution To Another Location Or Medium. The Costs Of Government Are Only Distantly Related To The Gnp. This Is Not A Minor Issue; It Is The Central Issue Of Modern Economics, Because Almost Everything Now Produced Will - Within Minutes Or Days Or A Few Years Or Decades- Be Entirely Junked, That Is, Thrown Out Or Vented To The Nearest Receptacle Or Space Or Atmosphere, Where It Becomes The Continuing Problem- And Ultimately Expense- Of The Rest Of The Population. Thus, Everyone Who Produces Anything Or Consumes Anything Causes Costs And Environmental Degradation To The Rest Of The Population, And To Their Governments, And These Costs May Greatly Exceed The "Sale" Value Of The Items Themselves. Historically, This Has Not Been A Problem To Producers Or Consumers, As There Has Historically Been No "Right" Of The Populace To Clean Air, Clean Water, Or A Clean Environment, And Land Was Always Available To Be Conquered From Less Well Armed Neighbors. For Some Time, However, Feudalism Has Become Obsolete, There Is An Ever-Diminishing Basis For Rights Of The Conqueror Or Owner, At Least In Law, And Government Has Begun To Evolve From The Rights Of A Ruling And Commercial And Financial And Proprietary Class, To A Social Organization In Which The Sole Justification And Purpose Of Government Is The Common Welfare Of Its Populace, Which No Individual Self-Interest Can Publicly Override. In This Evolved Society, Where Any Action Can Be Seen And Identified, It Has Become Possible To See How Production Has Unfortunately Become Essentially The Ever-Increasing Production Of, Ultimately, Almost Nothing But Trash And Pollution: Almost Nothing Today Is Produced Of More Than Transient Value, And, Worse, Almost All Of This Has No Ready Means Of Disposal Without Such Disposal Itself Causing More Pollution And Trash. When This Is Made Clear, Such Production Should Become Unacceptable To The Population At Large, Because It Is Not In Their Welfare, However Much Each Individual Wants To Purchase The Items They, As Individuals, Want. Society At Large Can No Longer Bear These Irresponsible Costs. Governments Must Tax At Rates To Deter Methods And Products Which Generate Trash Or Pollution, And To Charge Producers And Consumers For The Costs Of Complete Remediation Of All Pollution And The Conversion Of All Trash Into New Useful Materials. These Taxes Would Apply To Producers And Be Passed On To Consumers, Who Should Grow Up And Accept Responsibility. Producers Who Best Improve Their Materials, Methods, And Means Of Recycling Would Benefit The Most; Those Which Fail To Compete At This Would Quickly Become Economically Unviable As Their Costs (After Taxes) To Consumers Exceed Costs Of More Technologically Advanced Enterprises. The Government Should Be Responsible For Allocating The Total Costs Of Trash And Pollution To Producers, Who Can Allocate It Between Their Investors And Consumers. This Is A Harm Caused By Particular Producers And Consumers Through Their Willful Actions, But It Should No Be A Cost Born By Members Of Society Who Do Not Cause The Problem. These Taxes Should Be Subject To Review Under Existing Laws And Regulations, Evolving Over Time As They Do In All Other Areas Of Law And Regulation; And, To Ensure Compliance, Could Be Enforced By Penalties For Misrepresentation Far Exceeding The Costs Of Manufacture And Sale. Various Laws Would Need To Be Introduced That Would Make Such Provisions Enforceable. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2019

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. Economics Traditionally Treats Inflation As A Necessary Condition For Economic Growth, Particularly When Population Is Increasing. However, As The Economy Is Managed In Its Entirety By The Power Elite, It Is Reasonable To Question The Entire Framework In Which They Describe The Issue, In Particular To See When Mild Inflation- The Favorite Policy Of The Elites- Is Not In The Common Interest. Inflation Has Countless Effects, But The Most Important One For The Economy Is That It Makes It Ever More Necessary For Governments To Justify The Rise Prices By Protecting Markets, Limiting Competition, Letting Private Interests Take Advantage Of Scarcity, Allow Private Advantage Through Influence On Government Policy, Etc.- Altogether, The Worst Aspects Of Competition. When Prices Are Low And Going Lower, It Is Not In The Interests Of The Investors Of Capital To Waste Their Speculative Investment Opportunities On Scheming Businesses That Can No Longer Take Advantage Of Exaggerated Competition To Increase Their Profitability. Good Businesses Still Survive, By Making Small Profits And Ensuring Future Profits By Continually Improving Their Products And Productivity And Accumulating More Owned Captal. For Example, In The Great Japanese Deflation, We Did Not See Honda, Toyota, Sony Etc. Collapse, Because They Focused On Making Better Products More Efficiently. In The American Inflation In The Past Few Decades, Auto And Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Did Not Do Well If They Attempted To Meet The Simultaneous Demands Of Investors And Labor Which Both Require Ever Higher Returns Regardless Of Fundamentals; The Great Tech Industry Leaders Rarely Paid Dividends, For Example. If Things Become Cheaper, Then People Can Afford To Buy More New Things ( We Can Usually Assume That Newer Things Are Better And Almost Everything "Old" Or Used" Is Destined For The Scrap Pile In The Near Future). If Investors In Real Property, Which Is Not Junkable, Lose Money Because Of Declining Prices, The General Population Can Rejoice, As Property Becomes More Available; This Is For The General Welfare, And An Investor Who Owns More Than He Or She Personally Uses, Prevents Someone Else From Using That Property At Lower Cost And Thus Often Prevents The Latter From Providing Goods Or Services At Lower Cost. Investors Do Not Realize That They Hold Money, Which Has Purchasing Power But No Particular Intrinsic Time Value Such That The Value Of Money They Eventually Receive Will Increase Over Time; Their Money Will Constantly Decrease In Value; Rather, It Is The Amount Of Change Effected By That Money Which Is Of Particular Value To Other People; One Investment May Make More In Months Than A Similar Investment Over Decades; Most Of The Individuals Who Make Great Returns (Compared To Personally Owned Investment Property) From The Duration Of Investment Of Money Are The People And Institutions That Manage Those Investments With Other People's Money. Likewise, Labor Does Not Realize That Labor Is Of Ever Decreasing Value; Labor Thinks Their Time Is Valuable, But Actually It Is Not The Time They Expend In Labor That Is Valuable But Rather The Value To Others Of The Change Those Hands Can Effect; One Person's Minute Of Labor Can Be "Worth" More Than Another Person's Entire Life Of Labor. Attempting To Hide These Realities Through Managed Inflation Is Not Just A Crime Against The Body Politic, But An Activity That Is Economically Nonsensical By Any Measure Except Those Of The Political And Plutocratic Elite Who Can Make More Profitable (In The Short Term) Use Of Borrowed Money Than The Actual Owners Of That Money In An Inflationary Environment. In A Deflationary Environment The Elites Have No Natural Competitive Advantage, But Workers Who Produce Goods Do- The Value Of Their Labor Increases Faster Than The Increase In Value F Goods. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2019

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. In The Valuation Of Companies For Purposes Of Taxation And Regulation, The Affected Parties Are The General Public, Who Own, Buy, Or Sell Companies Or Shares In Them; The Financial Institutions Who Use Borrowed Or Invested Money To Finance These Companies; And The Government, Which Needs To Value Companies For Purposes Of Regulation And Taxation. All Traditional Methods Of Valuation Are Misleading, Because Historical Evidence Shows That Almost All Companies Actually Have Almost No Enduring Value. The Explanation Appears To Be That Most Companies Have Valuations Elevated By Speculative Use Of Borrowed Or Invested Money To Buy A Going Concern Which The Original Owners Sell Off When It's Future Economic Potential Has Become Overpriced. A Company Has Several Distinct Elements Of "Real" Value: 1. The Value Of Its Assets, Were They To Be Sold Immediately To Willing Cash Buyers Using Their Own Money (Not Borrowed Money, Because Purchases With Borrowed Money Are Merely Speculative); 2. The Value Of Its Net Income Stream, Were That To Be Sold Immediately To A Willing Cash Buyer Using Their Own Money; And 3. The Sum Of The Company's Value And Costs To Some Portion Or All Of Society ( A Sum Of The Revenue Which That Society Or Portion Of Society Will Pay Annually To Ensure The Goods And Benefits Provided By That Company, And Balanced Against The Costs Of That Company To Society, Parts Of Society, And The Governments Involved, For Pollution, Trash Generation, Short And Long Term Health Hazards, Fraud, Waste, Abuse, Destructive Alterations To Natural Landscapes, And The Visual, Auditory, And Olfactory Ugliness Of Its Projects Or Products, Etc.) This Kind Of Valuation Is Not In The General Accounting Standards Used To Disclose Information To Investors, The General Public, Or The Government, Because The Standards Are Designed To Be Acceptable To Corporations So As To Lure In The Maximum Number Of Investors, Which Is Like Letting The Fox Design The Hen House, Or, More Accurately, Letting The Sociopaths Design The Justice System. Regarding Item 1., The Value Of Assets, This Is The Standard Used By Courts Except That Speculative Purchases Using Borrowed Money Must Be Unacceptable Because That Borrowed Money Could Have Better Uses To Society Than Subsidizing The Speculative Fantasies Of The Buyer, And Should Not Be Considered Real Value As Such Purchases Change Unpredictably And Arbitrarily Depending Upon All The Factors In The World. Companies Are Always Worth Much Less Than Their Theoretical Asset Value, That Is, What Their Assets Would Be Worth If Sold To Speculative Sociopaths. Regarding 2., The Value Of The Net Income Stream, This Is A Separate Component Of Value, And Is Similar To The Value Of A Single Person's Potential Net Income. If The Assets Can All Be Sold, But All Leased Back For A Dollar A Year, And The Net Income Retained, The Investment Value Of That Net Income Is This Component Of The Company's Value. Regarding 3., The Costs And Benefits To Society, This Is A Component Of Both Revenue And Assets Separately; The Assets May Have No Benefits To Society, Being A Poor Use Of Society's Resources, And May Or May Not Have Further Costs To Society For Clean-Up, Etc. Likewise The Revenue Stream May Have Costs To Society (Depressing Skills Of The Workforce By Keeping People In Dead-End Jobs, Etc.), And May Have Benefits (Providing Essential Services For Health, For Example). Full Recognition Of Values Of Assets And Income Allows For Better Use Of Society's Resources, Prevents Misuse And Uneconomic Use Of Assets By Investors And Investment Managers, And Allows For Proper Government Taxation And Regulation; Ess Than Full Recognition And Acknowledgment Is, Well, Fraud. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2019

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. Foreign Policy Is Purportedly Undertaken For This Common Welfare, Not To Support Any Particular Economic Interest Or Personal Relationship Or Prejudice Nor Out Of Loyalty To Previous Foreign Policy. To Clarify Such Impartiality And Concern For The General Welfare, Government Leaders Must Assert Clearly And Publicly Standards Which Identify What Conduct In General Meets Our Government's Minimal Standards For How Other Governments Will Act To Be Consistent With The Common Welfare Of Our Populace. A Very Long List Could Articulate All The Ways How A Government Thinks Other Governments Should Act; A Very Short List Could Articulate The Minimal Standards For Good Relations With Our Government. Violations Of A Clear Statement Of Minimal Standards Would Then Be Followed By Such Actions As 1. Continued Public And Official Polite Criticism Of The Other Government's Personnel And Policies, 2. Regulatory Mechanisms, And Withdrawals Of Foreign Cooperation And Assistance, To Avoid Participation In Those Actions Of The Other Government, And 3. Punitive, Retaliatory Non-Military Action. The Most Egregious Violations Of Those Standards Must Be Addressed First, By Policy And Regulation. If The Legislature Objects To Such Measures And Fails To Enact Necessary Laws, The Executive Should Then Either Change Its Policy Or Articulate Why It Is Both Unethical And Immoral To Fail To Change The Law, And Expressly Criticize Those Individual Legislators Who Refuse To Work To Make Changes In The Law That The Executive Requests. If No Criticisms Are Made Of Individuals And Governments, The Executive Thereby Caves In To What The Public Will Perceive As Secret Prejudices And Political Deal-Making Against The Common Welfare. Disagreement Between The Branches Of Government Will Naturally Be So Frequent As To Be Unremarkable, But The Debate Can Be Clear, Specific, Completely Reasoned, Vigorous, And With All Other Options Identified And Discussed As To Their Consequences. The Executive Does Not Have A Magical Ability Always To Make Good Decisions When These Have Ethical Or Moral Implications, To Which The Public Must Defer Without Knowing What Issues Have Arisen And Why Decisions To Act, Or Not To Act, Have Been Made. The Executive Does Have A Vast Amount Of Undisclosed, Sometimes Classified, Information, But That Information Is Not About How And What Ethical And Moral Decisions Should Be Made, Only About Factors Which Apply To The Situations Of These Politically Sensitive Moral And Ethical Issues. In Regard To Factors Affecting Business Interests, It Is Impossible To Prove That The Preferences Of Any One Business Or Any One Type Of Business Are More Instrumental To The Common Welfare Than Alternative Uses Of Resources And Entrepreneurial Expertise. The Government Is Not A Shill; It Preference Is Not A Function Of Providing For The Common Welfare. Regarding Non-Economic International Interests, It Is Clear To All Reasonable Persons That Th General Welfare Of All Persons Is In The Common Welfare Of The Persons Of Any One Country, Because In The Not Too Distant Future (Taking A Long View) The Descendants Or Relatives Of All Living Persons Will Intermarry, And Anything Adversely Affecting Anyone Adversely Affects Those Who Will Be One's Own Relatives And, Eventually And Inevitably, One's Own Descendants. It Is Not In The Common Welfare To Deprive The Populace Of Its Descendants Existence, Lives, Health, Wealth, Happiness, Or Ability To Be Free And Virtuous And Capable Of Becoming All That They Can Be. Only The Power Elite Appears To Believe Otherwise, Clinging To The Mistaken Belief That Their Descendants Will Intermarry Within Their Group And Within Other Elites Almost Exclusively; Wish Them Luck With That, But Don't Promote It. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2019

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. All People Are Concerned About At Least Some Kinds Of Pollution. However, Governments Throughout The World Have Few Independent And Effective Monitoring Mechanisms In Place To Reveal The Location Or Extent Of Most Kinds Of Pollution Except For The Most Basic Or Physically Unavoidable Possible Polluters Of The Commonest And Most Obvious Toxins And Trash Can Be Monitored, But This Happens In Only The Most Extreme Cases. No Government Or Private Entity Attempts To Monitor All Water And Air Everywhere. No One Really Knows What Are Exactly The Levels Of Each Of Thousands Of Toxic Substances In Their Own Drinking Water And Air, Only, At Best, The Results Of A Few Very General Tests, Such As Larger Particulate (Rather Than Chemical) Contaminants, Or, At Best, A Few Of The Most Well-Known Toxic Materials. Further, The Government Avoids Even Considering Such Obvious Pollutants As Rubber Worn Off Of Tires, Or The Level Of Toxic Ingredients In The Ever Increasing Number Of Large Apartment Buildings And Rest Homes Being Built Next To Or Within A Few Hundred Feet Of Major Freeways And Even Freeway Intersections In Major Cities, Where Pollution Maps Take Immense Spikes. It Is The Responsibility Of Government To Identify Pollutants Of All Kinds, No Matter How Common And "Unavoidable", And Legislate And Regulate For The Common Welfare. Federal, State, County And Local Governments Are Perfectly Capable Of Cooperating For Regular Sampling In Each Square Mile Of The Continental United States As A Good Start. Such Legislation And Regulation Would, In The Long Term, Have Immense Economic Benefit, As Healthy People Are Much Less Costly And Contribute Much More Tor Economic Growth And Even Taxation Than Sickly, Stupefied Ones, Even Though It Is In The Short-Term Interest Of A Relatively Few Investors And Politicians To Ignore These Factors. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2019

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. In Any Government, And Any Economic System, There Are People Who Can Make Decisions Affecting Unusually Large Numbers Of Other People At Present And In The Future And, Particularly, In The Far Distant Future. We May Identify These People As Elites Depending On How Much Power We Somewhat Arbitrarily Wish To Include As The Defining Characteristic Of A Member Of The "Elite". They May Be Wealthy, Or Not; Political, Or Not; Institutional, Or Not; Philanthropic, Or Not; Related To Other Members Of Past And Present Elites, Or Not; Influential Politically, Usually. No Definable Characteristic Identifies Members Of This Class. However, Certain Characteristics Of Elites Are Believed To Be Common Over Past Millennia. Elites At Early Stages Are The Small Class Of People Who, At The Head Of A Clan Or Clannish Group, Claim And Enforce Absolute Authority Over An Area Of Land And To A Greater Or Lesser Extent The Activities Of Those On It. As They Inevitably Claim More Land, In The Search For Security, And Later, Wealth, They Delegate Ownership Of Land To Their More Ardent Supporters And Closer Relatives, Who In Turn Delegate It To Their Own Supporters And Relatives And Treaty Members. Elites Intermarry Often, And Their Descendants Intermarry With The Descendants Of Other Elites For Many Centuries, Such That Elites Tend To Be Married To Other Elite Members While Non-Elites Do Not . States Are Created, And The Head Of State Has Absolute Authority Over Land And Position, And Assigns Or Removes These At Will. This Results In The Development Of A Large Rural Gentry, And Also The Development Of Independent Towns Centered On Economic Development. A Tripolarity Develops, With The Head Of State Gradually Making Agreements About Authority With The Rural Gentry And The Towns In Which Rights Arise By Treaty And Custom. The Rural Gentry Wants The Things The Towns Produce, And Are Driven To Increase Their Local Politico-Economic Authority To Be Able To Buy What Is Produced In The Towns. After Some Centuries, The Rural Gentry Begins To Intermarry With The Wealthier Town Leaders. The Heads Of State Eventually Have Diminished Ability To Intermarry With The Aristocracy As They Become Closely Related, But, Persisting, There Is Increasing Separation Genetically And Socially Between The Highest Levels And The Rest Of The Country, And Eventually They Reach A Position Where Undeniably They Are Loathed (Behind Their Backs). The Gentry After Hundreds Of Years Have Developed Vast Property Networks And A Small Fraction Of People (But A Large Number) Own All The Land. As The Feudal And Semi-Feudal System Develops, Land Domination Alone Has Diminishing Ability To Grow Income To Enable The Rural Gentry To Buy As Much Goods As They Wish. The Only Way To Satisfy The Search For Wealth And Power By Aristocracy And Gentry And Towns Is A Conscious Policy Of Wholesale Nationalist Imperialism, The Invasion And Exploitation Of Other Lands. This Requires A Vast Civil Service And A Large Military Service And Business Establishment, Well Funded And Somewhat Educated; This Also Requires The Development Of A Financial System With Which Imperialist Enterprises Can Be Funded. Ownership Of These Enterprises Become Themselves The Sources Of Vast Wealth; Imperialism Works Well As An Economic Engine For Decades, A Century Or Even Several Centuries. Financial Interests Develop To Borrow And Lend Money To The Vast Imperialist Business And Economic Machines. As The Management Of Other Peoples Money Becomes More Lucrative Than The Imperialist Enterprises Themselves, The Centers Of Power Move Towards The Political, Business, And Institutional Organizations That Manage Money, And To The People Who Direct Them. The Management Of Other People' Money, And Activity Supporting That, Becomes The Aim Of Persons Seeking Power. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2019

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Fifth Of A Series Of Papers Discussing Issues Relevant To Governmental Funding And Expenditures. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. Government Raises Revenue In Order To Pay For The Monetary Expense Of Activities, Human Resources, Materials And Infrastructure Which It Maintains For The Common Welfare Of Persons And Property. The Costs Of Government For A Rich Person's Property Is Much Higher Than For A Poor Person's Property; And The Expenses Of Government Are Much Higher For A Rich Person Than For A Poor Person. The Charges-For-Service By A Government Are Much Lower Than The Actual Costs Of Government, And Government Therefore Taxes People And Property Unequally. However, The Government Can Tax Property, Including All Kinds Of Assets, At A Small Fraction Of Their Present Market Value, To Fund The Proportionate Costs Of Providing Services And Safety To Personal And Institutional Property Which Is Not Held Jointly By Its Citizens. For Example, If The Total Privately Held Assets Within The Control Of The United States, Including All Material In The United States, All Investments And Loans And Accounts Subject To Any Kind Of Regulation By The United States, And All Assets Held By Persons Resident In Or Citizens Of The United States, Are Very Conservatively Assessed At $250 Trillion, Then A Uniform Tax Of Even 1% Of Assessed Vale Raises $2.5 Trillion Yearly. Similarly, A Personal Tax Based Solely On Gross Income Before Preferential Deductions Raises Significant Funds, And A Small Corporate And Institutional Gross Income Tax Raises Further Significant Funds. (Particular Regulation And Law Enforcement Problems Of All Money Loaned And Invested Require An Additional Tax On Such Transactions And Also Upon The Yearly Amount Loaned And Invested.). Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2019

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. The Commonest Evaluation Of A Distant Economic Problem Experienced By Distant Others Is "S--T Happens". The Government Cannot Take This Theory For Policy, As It Is Required To Act In All Matters To Promote The Common Welfare. Thus, Governments Must Design Legal Processes To Identify And Evaluate And Assign Responsibility For Serious Economic Crimes, Determine Relative Culpabilities, And Assess 1. Fines (As Deterrents And To Reimburse The Costs Of Administering Such Laws), 2. Further Punitive Measures ( As Punishment For Misbehavior, And Also To Deter Similar Misbehavior In The Future), And 3. Restitution. Likewise, Government Compensation To Victims Of Natural Disasters Is Intended To Relieve Unforeseeable And Unintended Accidental Harm To The Victims From Natural Events Or Great Crimes. However, It Is Not In The Common Welfare For Government Itself To Provide Compensation To Citizens For Their Own Bad Decisions Regarding Natural Events- Which Are All Foreseeable Even When Unlikely. Government Funded Disaster And Flood And Similar Insurance Should Not Be Available In Amounts Greater Than The Average Current Price Of Housing, Automobiles, And Crops In The State Or Province Or Country In Which The Loss Occurs; Any Further Loss Of Such Insurable Items, And Also All Personal Property, Should Remain Entirely The Responsibility Of The Owner Or Other Responsible Party. The Public, To Whose Common Welfare The Government Is Committed, Cannot Be Responsible For Subsidizing The Risky Preferences And Personal Property Of A Small Section Of That Public. No Federally Subsidized Flood Insurance Should Be Available Where Flooding (Coastal Or Inland) Is Known To Be Inevitable, And Several Hundred Year Or Five Hundred Year Floods Within A Few Years Or Decades Is A Good Indication That Estimatingl Authorities Are Incompetent Or Corrupt. Similarly, Government-Subsidized Earthquake Insurance Or Fire Insurance In High-Risk Areas Should Not A Responsibility For The Great Mass Of People Who Do Not Live In Those Areas. Those Whose Risks Are Thus Not Insurable By The Government, Have To Pay The Cost Of Private Insurance, And Such Insurance Is Always Available If The Premium Is High Enough. Persons Who Will Not Pay The Fees For The Risks They Choose Have The Option Of Not Taking Those Risks And Living Elsewhere, Just Like Everyone Else; They're Not "Special". S--T Happens, But It Is Often Clearly And Easily Avoidable. Unemployment Insurance And Health Insurance, Although Personal Benefits, Are Temporary Remedies For So Many Unpredictable Circumstances For So Many People That It Is In The Common Interest. Further, There Is A Common Belief That It Is Better To Care For People Requiring Medical And Custodial Care, Than Not To Do So, And An Unemployment Benefit Provides A Minimum Safety Net For Those Who Are Willing To Work Somewhere In The Same State Or Province. It Is Still Not Within Any Concept Of The Common Welfare To Subsidize Where And However People Want To Live: People Who Can't Or Won't Move To Take A Firm Job Offer Are Self-Indulgent At The Cost Of Everyone Else, Which Is Not In The Common Welfare. By Implication, "Economic Refugees" Are Acting Within A Pattern Of The Common Welfare, Although Subsidizing Them Is Not. People Whose Property Is At Risk, Have Property That Is Much Less Valuable As A Result; No One Should Be Responsible For Making Them Whole Except The Agency Which Diminishes That Value. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2019

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. Governments, To Provide For The Common Welfare, Set An Economic Value Upon Human Life, To Determine Amounts That Must Be Paid As Reparation And Compensation And Punishment And Warning When A Person Is Deprived Of Life Due To An Avoidable Actions By Another. Legal Systems Which Require Intent To Be An Element Are Setting An Immoral Standard; The Deprivation Might Not Be Intentional When The Consequences Of Avoidable Actions Are Foreseeable And Could Be Prevented. Promotion Of Addictive Products; Manufacture Of Military-Grade Weapons, Dangerous Chemicals, Etc.; And Activities Which Result In Production Of Hazardous Waste, Are All Seldom Undertaken With The Intention Of Killing Civilians, But All Often Do So If Not Completely Controlled And, Eventually, Safely Disposed Of. Thus, Manufacturers Of Military Weapons Used Against Civilians Should Be Liable If They Cannot Show That They Were Sold To A Competent, Responsible, Accountable And Legal Military Authority Which Can Instead Be The Target Of Successful Claims. The Manufacturers Of Dangerous Chemicals And Drugs Should Be Sued If They Did Not Insure That Their Products Were Disposed Of To Authorized Competent Distributors Against Whom Successful Claims May Instead Be Directed. The Distributors Or Buyers Or Users Of Such Materials Are Liable For Claims Resulting From Improper Secondary Distribution Or Use. As The Monetary Value Of Human Life Is Decidable For Suits Against The Government In Terms Of Average Lifetime Earnings, Minus Average Personal Consumption Costs, Over The Average Life Of An Individual In That Particular State, Province, Or Country, Whichever Is Higher, So Should Suits Against Private Individuals And Entities Be Fully Pursuable Under Law. No Private Entity Involved In Activities Leading To Unintentional Death Should Be Irresponsible Or Unaccountable; The Needs For Employment Or Profit For The Few Should Not Be Considered More Important Than The Common Welfare, And Life Itelf Is The Greatest Example Of Human Welfare. Signed by Author(s).

  • Clauser, Stephen Michael

    Language: English

    Published by Athena Press, Pasadena, 2019

    Seller: Arroyo Seco Books, Pasadena, Member IOBA, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.

    Association Member: IOBA

    Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars 4-star rating, Learn more about seller ratings

    Contact seller

    First Edition Signed

    US$ 41.45

    US$ 8.00 shipping
    Ships within U.S.A.

    Quantity: 1 available

    Add to basket

    No Binding. Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. The Assumption Of These Papers Is That The Justification For Government Is To Provide For The Common Welfare. The Elites In An Advanced, Post-Imperialist Society Control The Economic And Political Structures Of That Economy Largely And Covertly For The Benefit Of Themselves. While Control Of Their Own Fortunes Is Their Own Business, Government Has A Responsibility To Ensure That These Do Not Cause Avoidable Harm To Others, And That They Respect Human, Social And Proprietary Rights. It Is Of Particular Concern When Very Large Amounts Of Borrowed Money Are Lent Or Invested By The Elites, It Becomes Impossible To Find Public Information About Where The Money Goes, As Most Business And Financial Accounts Are Secret. This Makes Government Regulation, And Civil Or Criminal Actions, Extremely Difficult. Secrecy Prevents Media, Government And Private Investigators, Lawyers, Researchers, Rights Activists, Ecological Activists, Health Activists, Clean Water And Air Activists, Etc. From Obtaining The Information They Need To Clearly Identify Problems, Assign Responsibility, And Use The Legal System To Prevent Or Remediate Adverse Effects. The Protection And Secrecy Of Financial Information Is The Essential Bulwark Of The Modern Elites, Just As The Protection Of Internal Government Information Was Essential To The Operation Of The Imperialist State. When The Information Is Available Publicly In General Form, It Is Rarely Indexed And Attributed In Sufficient Detail To Identify Who Exactly Made The Decisions To Move Money To Uses Where This Movement Of Borrowed And Invested Money Results In Activities Contrary To The Public Welfare And Deserving Of Government Interference Or Private Concern. Further, After Money Moves Several Times Through A Corporate Structure Or Between Entities, It Is Impossible To Assign Legal Criminal Or Civil Responsibility In Almost All Cases And Almost Anything Contrary To The Common Welfare May Be Conducted More Or Less Safely. Privacy For Secret Use Of The Money Of Others Is Not A Right, Nor Is Secrecy In The Provision Of Loans Or Investments Because The Lender Or Investor Is No Longer Accountable And Cannot Guarantee That It Is In The Common Welfare To Do So. Government Must Insists On The Disclosure Of All Money Transfers In The Public Record. In Practice, Limiting Such Disclosures To Loans Or Investments Totaling (For Example) Over Us $5,000,000 In A Given Year To Or From A Single Person Or Entity Will Provide The Information Necessary For Government And Public Oversight. Signed by Author(s).