The Uncivil Division of a Nation

From the previous musing, "If Life were a Basketball Game", I forgot to mention the trash talking that has also become part of basketball. Alarmingly, it is now also in the midst of our political and social landscape. The polite discussion of ideas, the civil arguments that were the defining measures of how well we have advanced as a civilization, how well we separated our humanity from barbarism, are getting lost in the din of rhetorical nonsense that fill the air waves, television and print media.

We go to Seguey again, our extraterrestrial visitor. It had been filing reports about our planet back to its home base, far, far away. It has an explanation for its 500 year existence and its journey to this tiny blue planet. If we open up the door to our imagination just a little wider, we get an unlikely view from the outside looking in. And, we may not like what we see. But, must we just ignore it?

Out of deep space, from an incredible distance that is only measurable in light years, landing on earth was the quintessential shot in the dark. Well, it is only apt to find out what it has to say. Seguey explains further the views it held in, "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall".

Here is Seguey:

Report 3, Seguey, Sector 3rd Planet from a Medium-Size Stellar Mass

500 years are what I am able to retrieve from memory. I interpolated everything else. Now I know I was one of millions catapulted in pods a few thousand years ago at tremendous speed, scattering to all points of the intergalactic unknown. I marvel at the technology that made that possible. Though I find it perplexing that earthling's idea of space travel is so primitive. Pure biological entities, the whole human body in particular, are confirmed to not survive prolonged space travel. 

My conjecture: I and my other clones were sent out in microscopic capsules. Each one a bundle of coded information - more sophisticated than human DNA, with super adaptive ability, yet technically simple. Simple, because we were designed to adapt to every possible life form. Time was the main ingredient. I started by inhabiting the most basic life form on earth - a microorganism. This is not an exceptional feat. Viruses and bacteria predate all other living things. The difference I had from the virus is that I was able to jump from species to species, learning and accumulating knowledge as I went along. My contribution to the species is that traces of my adaptive abilities and intelligence remained in the life forms I inhabited, passed on from generation to generation. That explains the intelligence that higher species, like dolphins, whales, dogs and primates now have. That, by the way, also begs the age-old question of why are dogs smarter than cats?

I don't know how long ago it was when I first arrive here and I have no way to tell the origin of animal intelligence. Was it I or from others, if there were others that landed on this planet, that developed intelligence in species? There is no way for me to even guess. My earthling, human adaptation begun only 500 years ago. I surmise I arrived here perhaps many thousands of years earlier as a coded micro-entity. And it so happens that by the time I had established a capacity for memory, human language was well developed.

If humans know of my existence they will be torn by how to classify me. Am I a legitimate citizen now or am I always considered an alien? In case you wonder, I look and live like a human. No one can tell the difference. I am more diverse though. I can talk science, dig into philosophy and historical novels and appreciate all musical genre, but it is never lost on me that I am from another world.

In my report on mirrors and walls I lamented on the decline of civilizations many times over in earthling's history. I do have to clarify what I meant when civilizations collapsed from within. 

How did nations go from one of cohesion and single purpose to achieve success only to crumble in a handful of generations. I looked into one of their oldest religious books and I have to ask why the Israelites turned against Moses and their God after The Exodus? In just a generation and a half the whole population had forgotten how they were freed from Egypt and survived the 40-year trek across the desert and into the wilderness. Instead they lost their way and became morally weak. 6,000 years later, my adoptive land is in a similar crisis today.

In a short period of time this country saw and fought resolutely in two world wars within the span of just one generation - exactly 25 years, in fact, between 1914 and 1939. The big issue today and debates over the wall would have been unthinkable three generations ago in the 50's. After the war the whole country was very much one nation, united in purpose, quickly becoming an economic power, and awash with prospects of prosperity. It understood the plight of displaced populations from all of Europe, the Middle East and Asia. But the country was of one mind. They had compassion but they knew from the wars that territorial sovereignty must be upheld. The only way for people from other countries to come and reside here legally was to come in through the legal process because the invasions of Europe and Asia were the most extreme methods of illegal entry.

As late as a decade ago both political parties echoed the same positions on illegal immigration. What happened? What changed? In that short period of time the political divisions that usually only infect and were limited to politicians and their avid supporters, have now leached deep into the population, spreading unfettered animosity. The country is divided. 

This country and others like it - similarly patterned after the principle they call democracy - are failing to adhere to one truism that they all used to accept, as if the concept is so foreign to them now.  That concept that I used to hear a lot is, "United we stand, divided we fall". It is quite simple, even a very elementary philosophical tenet, but it seems that every mature civilization tries very hard to fight that principle. The country is divided.

And there lies the basis for my observation. Every one of the empires that came and went eventually succumbed to internal maladies of infighting and a massive divergence from the principles that made them great and powerful. Each of the historical records only pointed to one thing. The slow decline begun when the empire was divided from within.

I will not cast judgment on how empires grew to amass so much power and wealth. This I know. Since this planet is a closed system, earthling theoreticians came up with a game theory called, "Zero Sum Game".

It is actually an economic theory as well. The gain or loss of one or some of the participants are exactly equal to the gain or loss of the rest of the participants. Since resources are limited and confined to this one planet, when empires grew large, it is bound to produce an imbalance of wealth distribution - the proverbial "haves and have-nots". My example earlier of heat transfer that moves from hot to cold is what propels migration.

The problem is that national territories had long since been established that defined physical, cultural and political boundaries. This, by the way, is the result of conflicts over hundreds and hundreds of years, which is how walls begun. Territorial boundaries were deemed necessary to preserve and conserve wealth. The problem is that people will always behave along the preservation and survival of individuals and families. Politics is what gets people to align in certain ways.

Politics, which is a major determinant in how nations behave, is unfortunately also a zero sum game. If all the political power can be summed up to 100%, the party that has 51% or more drives the agenda. This country is a 2-party system so zero sum game is obvious. In other countries, the parliamentary systems are a lot more complicated. In totalitarian states, absolute power is wielded absolutely by a handful of people so the zero sum game is a dire and grave situation for the general population.

The plight of population from depressed, violent, or failed governments is a symptom from multiple maladies. The failures of the countries of origin caused by corrupt regimes are inevitably part of the zero sum equation. The wealth amassed by the oligarchy and the accompanying power they wield are equivalent to the loss and suffering by the general population. But then those conditions have a way to cause ripple effects to the surrounding environments, like the disturbance of a pebble dropped into one corner of the pond causing waves and wavelets to spread out along the entire body of water.

That is my short analysis of what is happening. The walls are like water dikes. Until the pressure is eased off that causes the water to flow from its source, the condition will build up to a condition with unpredictable consequences. I do not have the algorithm that can predict what happens next. But this I know. If the population from within the walls is weakened by disunity and uncivil political discourse, combined with unrelenting waves of illegal and out of control migration from the other side, the result is simply a historical refrain repeated over and over for millennia. 

This is it for now, until my next report.


Seguey is learning quickly. But, are we?





  

If Life were a Basketball Game

Sports analogy is often used to explain a lot of things connected to almost every human endeavor or as a vehicle to inspire and encourage. This could be different. 

What if life were a basketball game? Well, it will have four quarters in which to play it all out. There will be a basketball court.  There will be referees and spectators. There will be a cheering section but there will also be critics and hecklers. There will be the players, of course.

Now, let's just simply make the game, the entire game, all about one life. Mine, yours and everyone else with an individual life playing the game of basketball.

First, what we find is that for everybody, there will be exactly four quarters of 12 minutes each. Time is the same for everyone. 60 seconds per minute. In theory, that is. Later we find out as we've suspected all along that life is farthest away from being theoretical. But there will be time outs, free throws, fouls, even ejections, etc. Those are parts of life and, like in basketball, there is no predicting when those will occur.

But, immediately we see the following. Some will get to play at different basketball courts. It could be open air, covered, though not all are air-conditioned. Some will get to play in packed dusty earth, others on pavements, the lucky ones on parquet floors inside temperature- controlled gymnasiums. Spectators will vary, from the unruly to those who cheer with loud vigor even when we don't play that well.

That is life.  Real life. We don't get to pick the basketball courts to play in because that is determined by what neighborhood or environment we were born into. Spectators, early on, are those from that same neighborhood. We will be cheered by those closest to us. We learn the game from how it is played early on. We do not begin our lives choosing what basketball courts we play in. That is the luck of the draw. At once we ask, "But do we get a chance to draw our own luck?" Aha! And there we begin to examine what this basketball game called life is about.

We are allowed to warm up before the game. How well is how warmly we are loved by those who cared for us in our infancy. Again, warm ups are fine but they do not guarantee a victory later on. It is just a luck of the draw.  There are plenty of opportunities to draw our own luck or to mess it up. The pre-game period of the basketball of life is about how we are reared when we can't do very much yet. It is the early education we get. It is learning and learning from mistakes, getting bruised, getting early childhood maladies of measles and mumps, scraped knees, sprains and even fractures. The spectators will not see much of the warm up time, except by those who care and cheer for us. The first quarter is early. It is not likely to determine the entire game.  Hardly. But, scores are made and earned.

The first quarter is getting through kindergarten, first grades through much of elementary. We scored with good habits, hence good grades, key fundamentals, but we get free throws as well because we grow up in a family that can freely provide for us. For much of the world, there are no free throws at all. Each child must fend and defend in a cruel environment of poverty-ravaged or war-torn countries. Instead they get foul penalties of malnutrition, poor health care and unsafe neighborhoods. But, we all know that most children do get to make it through the first quarter. Forgettable first quarters for most and only slightly significant for some, but could be crucial for others. That is the quarter too when much of the crowd are finding their seats, talking and taking care of their drinks and popcorn and peanuts.  They are hardly paying attention to you. Your parents and family could be your only biggest fans.

The second quarter begins to heat up. It is high school and early college for some and work for others who can't go beyond the 10th grade or elected not to. This is when passions are lit, heart throbs come and go, and competition begin to be live and real. Again, others get free throws. Some will get the shots they like, some get easy lay ups and others fight for it. A couple of team mates may clear a passing lane for you and you do the same in return. Sadly some will get nothing but fouls or get their shots blocked. In other words, some do well with their grades, others struggle with discipline, relationships, and worse, get with the wrong friends or get caught up in drugs and crime. The second quarter shapes how the game progresses before the first half is over. In a few cases, some may never get to play in the second half at all. They committed way too many fouls. Worse, is that others got injured. But anyone can get injured in any of the quarters. Some get thrown out of the game.

Half time is an early assessment period. A breather to take stock of what went wrong in the first half. It is time to make adjustments, make corrections where needed and reinforce the things that worked. This could be re-assessing a major, a switch in career choice, review career path and make changes. It will also mean a fresh look at relationships, financial plans and major decisions to settle down, change priorities, etc. Half time is all about thinking things through before the third quarter begins.

The third quarter is critical. Actions are going to be hectic because one should not wait for the 4th quarter to make changes or shape how the game will end. This is where critical 3-point shots should be made, every free throw productive, fatigue held in check and defenses tight. This is where families could begin, rearing your own children, sending them to schools, and it is important to make sure there is adequate savings to make it last beyond a career. It is in fact in the third quarter that crucial decisions are made. Unlike in regular basketball we cannot expect the basketball of life to be won with a squeaker of a last jump shot, a lay up or a free throw inside of five seconds to the final buzzer. In real life, you will have all but indulged your mid-life crisis, men and women both have become comfortable with their peers, had gotten over wrinkles and grey hair, pot bellies and sagging chins. But it is time to get serious with regular exercise, check ups and preparations for the fourth quarter. But the fourth quarter will be different from the actual game of basketball.

The fourth quarter should be the crowning moment, far exceeding whatever we've accomplished during the last three combined. Whatever we've attained by rank or positions are now likely immaterial, except perhaps for what material things we've accumulated. We begun as civilians. We are all back to being civilians again. This last quarter is the beginning of equalization as far as rank and file, bosses, generals and top executives are concerned. Equalization, the final episode of the entire game is, of course, the exit we all have to do and are expected to make, without exception. Not to the shower rooms and final pep talk from the coach before going back to the court, but a final exit from the gymnasium of life. We were all equals then as we entered the gymnasium of life and we will all be equals at the exit.

But wait! Not so fast because there is much to do in the fourth quarter of our lives. Actually, this is all what we've lived for. It is where we look at the tally sheet of the sums of every decision we made. We have become the composite of all the choices we picked. Laid out in the scoreboard of life are all the stats. How many shots we made, defensive moves we did, how well did we do the free throws, how many fouls we committed, how many assists were credited to us are all in there. Those are in essence what we did to make other people's lives better, the pass we did to change somebody's life, the lane we created so someone or a family is able to cope with the harshness of their conditions, the assists we gave to those who struggled, and so on and on. Those are the stats of the basketball game of life that count.

But there is still much to do. The fourth quarter is where we get to do the things we love to do. And the things we do should not necessarily be the grandeur of travel, the luxury of fine dining, or opportunities to show off our portfolio of stocks and bonds. Those are minor statistics that are easily dimmed by volunteer work to serve others who need the most crucial assists we can ever make. The glossy photos of foreign travel we did or of resorts we've been to, will pale in comparison to  those who only have simple hobbies or local recreations to give them pleasure.

The fourth quarter is what the following generations behind ours can look up to so that the examples of how we played the game may linger long enough for them to pattern their shots at life.

The first three quarters of our lives may shape what comes next but we ought to make the most of the fourth quarter. 

Remember that just getting to the fourth quarter is a privilege others may never get to play.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

When the expression used to evoke a fairy tale incantation of a once egotistical queen to reassure her of  her continued preeminent good looks, it is now a metaphor for society in general and a literal allusion to a border barrier that is the subject of heated debates. It is not just here in the U.S. but in many places around the world where the literal wall is at the same time a reflection of how humanity is dealing with one eternal strife - territorial boundaries, coupled with cultural, ideological and even religious differences. So, we go again to the extraterrestrial alien from whom it had its views briefly discussed in the previous musing. ET has a name now. Let's have 'It' explain the name selection and its views on Mirror, Mirror on the Wall. I continue to call it 'It' because it remains an enigmatic entity whose gender I could not determine.

Here's ET:

"I am slowly understanding my role. It is the context of time that I struggle relating to, because I am not sure of its relevance to my mission. Time as I observe here may not at all be relevant to the time of those receiving my reports. I am aware my dispatches from this planet may take centuries to circle back to me to and from the intended recipients and it is possible that those to whom I address my reports may no longer exist. But that's for another discussion. Meanwhile, I file this latest observation.

Before I go on, I think it is important that I select a name for archiving purposes. I am realizing now that perhaps there are others like me filing reports from various parts of the universe. There could be a few or there could be millions of others like me that were sent in all directions to observe and report. So, I call myself, "Seguey". It is appropriate, I think, because now I know that my existence here is one segue after another. And it is also a metaphor for how lifeforms here had developed. Of course, literally speaking, the development of their civilization is actually a series of one segue after another. (I added "y" to the original word segue - a literary practice which earthlings call "poetic license" and also to differentiate it from Segway - a two wheeled vehicle that is interesting but again still a simple technology compared to ours).

Today I discuss the mirror and the wall. Both have literal meanings and metaphorical connotations. Be aware that earthlings still do use a physical mirror to discern what they look like physically. They use a flat glass (made from silicon) with a silver-coated backing that reflects light back at the viewer - quite rudimentary but effective. Of course, they soon will get to a point in their technology where they will attain ours. Today, they use their smart phones on "selfie" mode to look at themselves - a slight departure from using an actual compact mirror. I observed one female do it to touch up her make up and fuss with her hair using her smart phone. While on selfie mode, of course. I will go back to the mirror in a bit.

I am reporting about the wall. I've been here now for almost five hundred years, at least that I am aware of. The time I spent as a simple organism is beyond my recollection. From my direct observation these past five centuries and from my reading of their history, earthlings were not very good at building walls. Let me rephrase that. They've built excellent walls with extraordinary skills throughout their history. The walls were built to last beyond the builders' lifetime and for generations to follow but the walls always failed. Over time. The Great Wall of China is a great example, pun intended. Whether walls were built to keep people in or out, prevention was always at best temporary, intentions were at worst damaging for generations that followed. The Great Wall was practically breached within a generation from the moment the last brick was laid. The Berlin Wall stood for 10,316 days, just barely 3 years over an average period of one earthling generation.

That did not stop earthlings from building walls anyway, to keep other earthlings away or to keep others from leaving. For organisms confined in a spherical space the size of a grain of sand, in relative terms that is, wandering the vast expanse of a limitless universe, they have spent an inordinate amount of time and resources to keep other earthlings out or in. Aside from national boundaries, those with the wherewithal to do so live in gated communities or mansions surrounded by walls. It is strange, in fact, that some of the loudest protesters against building walls (loudest because they have the megaphone of stardom or political clout) actually do live in places surrounded by walls.

So I have always wondered about walls and territorial boundaries because even natural barriers, like oceans and barren deserts and mountain ranges have not kept earthlings from overcoming them. I am, of course, reporting the way I do because I do not have any emotional investments in any of these.  Come to think of it, emotions are still something I need to understand. I am reporting purely from observing what seems like a strange behavior for living organisms dedicated to survival and propagation and whose lives are often co-dependent with others, yet they would inhibit others from entering or leaving their territories. But I am not an earthling and I have no great understanding of socioeconomic rules that are in play.  Least of what I have yet to understand are the political systems that seem to override common sense which, by the way, is a term that is one of earthling's most tragic misnomers.

I have not yet gone all the way back to how this all begun. What I know is that organisms below the category of earthlings are all naturally territorial. There are ample amounts of earthling research that prove that and my own observations conclude that territorial boundaries are part of the definition of species, i.e., habitats and environments not only determine the nature of the species, they are defined by where they live.

Best I can describe this is by the laws of physics on heat transfer. Temperature differences are what drives the movement of energy and, in some cases, the way matter moves. Energy that is manifested by the presence of heat flows from hot to cold. Earthlings move from habitats that are no longer habitable or difficult to live in to places that are more conducive to a better existence. I observe that earthlings, territories notwithstanding, always want to move from a bad habitat to a better one. The reverse - that of earthlings moving from well habituated environments to gravely habitable ones - was never observed then and certainly impossible to infer now. I can't express this any other way or with better eloquence.  Perhaps, someone will someday.

Now, the mirror - whether it is the still waters in a pond, a shiny flat metal surface in the old days or a real mirror late in the earthling's development - became the first tool for self awareness and connection to others. Once they became aware of who they were and with whom they can relate, or more accurately with whom they are related, earthlings' behavior is revealed in a manner we may not completely understand. They see their reflection but often have difficulty reflecting the woes and affliction of others. The fascination with solo selfies are horrible indicators of self-absorption. I am not here to offer conclusions or solutions to the current situation or judgments regarding the wall. All I know is that walls - physical walls - in the past  did not work as intended for a sustained amount of time.

What I do further know is that often in the past, walls did not play a part in the defense or collapse of civilizations; many of which have come and gone within the last 5,000 years or so.  The period is a mere blink of an eye but it was always from within that earthling's civilizations were destroyed. The Great Wall of China still stands today. The first dynasty, the Qin dynasty, that begun building it collapsed as did a handful of other dynasties that followed. Today's wall is the remnant of the Ming dynasty, the last one to improve on it. Hordes of conquerors came and went despite the wall. The Ming dynasty is gone except in the history books but the Wall is still there. The wall itself is a mirror to earthling's frailty.

I will continue to monitor and report this latest of many episodes in earth's history about wall buildings".

So, Seguey has its thoughts expressed. Still, it has much to learn. It was right about comparing the flow of people to the movement of energy. In its own extraterrestrial way, it stumbled upon a couple of nuggets of truth. First, walls did not have the sustained deterrence that their builders or proponents had hoped for. Second, those that built walls were destroyed from within.  The collapse of society within any wall is what caused the walls to be breached. 

Moral decline, social decay from all kinds of reasons, broken homes and the decline in family values and the lowering of social and educational standards were the hardest blows ever to land at the gut of any country. From within. The fall of any empire was almost always self-inflected. What appears in history books can be deceiving. All empires from the Greek to the Roman to the Mayan to the Spanish and British empires are filled with stories of decline. The emergence of successive empires and their ultimate tales of defeat, if looked at more closely, always begun with people gathering up strength and energy sustained from within and then they all failed when their societies failed, also from within. Only then did another succeeding empires came to invade. The cycle always presented that picture. 

The Arithmetic of Income Inequality

The subject of income inequality will either quickly ignite a conversation into one explosive debate or dampen a heretofore pleasant discussion into an awkward moment that only changing the subject can mollify.  It is at once a political catalyst and a social mode killer. 

Equality or its opposite - inequality - connotes value, so there must be a way to look at this from the basic concept of arithmetic. What better way to view it from the eyes of someone or something other than from those among us already infected with biases and preconception on the subject. A young child or perhaps an extra-terrestrial alien may see it differently - one with a rudimentary understanding or from one so completely out of this world. 

The child or ET must first deal with arithmetic symbols. Let's keep in mind these symbols can be no different from hieroglyphics when they first encounter them. ET, the intergalactic traveler, is required from among its tasks to submit a report to its home planet. The laws of physics are the same where it came from but their mathematics are different, or at least configured differently - we surmise. The socioeconomic system of ET's home planet must be totally different as well because if they had advanced to a point where they can afford inter-galactic travel from many light years away, there's must be operating at a level only dreamers of a perfect world can conceive. ET, his mission aside, is stricken by the same curiosity a child may have. Its report can feasibly be free of any adulteration from biases and preconceived notions; after all, his knowledge would be as fresh and youthful as those of the child. ET thus began to write its report at the child level but in the form of thought-analysis that the inhabitants of its planetary system can put in context even if their intelligence is several rungs above the average earthling.

Part of the ET report went as follows:

"Let me begin by explaining how their mathematics work. It is very basic to say the least, though not totally strange, and it is at a level I describe as at the ground floor of our multi-level-hyper-mathematics. 

1) The = sign is sort of symbol for a two-way street:

A=B will mean that in a 2-way street  A and B can be on either side of the = sign and they will be the same and of equal value.

2) The minus sign - symbolizes a one way street. In A-B, something from A is taken away in the form or value of B and what remains is C, hence A-B = C; where the 2-way street says that C, to the right, is what remains when A is reduced by a certain value B. 

3) The plus sign +, where a vertical line crosses a horizontal line at a perfect vertical shows the merging of A and B at a junction, hence A+B=C, where again the = sign or 2-way street appears and this time C is the combined value of A and B, and vice versa.

4) Imagine the plus sign, +, skewed to look like a starburst, as in X. So A and B meets at an intersection and their combined value spreads out like so, as in an explosion X. A X B = C. The 2-way street  now shows C possessing a value much greater than just combining A and B. C is now A with a value  several times the amount in B, or vice versa, so that B is also increased at the rate of the value that is in A. If A is 3 and B is 2, then C is twice as A, or thrice as B.  

5) Now for the ÷ symbol that is also expressed as a right leaning slant /. Notice it is half the starburst symbol X. In A ÷ B =C, or A/B =C, A is split the number of times that is in the value of B so that C is so much less compared to A; that is, the 2-way street now says that C is the same as being a smaller part of A. In other words, C is just a slice of the whole pie A dictated by the value of B. A child understands that.



Here is a first pass on how a handful of economic systems I have observed work using their mathematics.


a. )The child I mentioned earlier went to play  one day with three other children. He had twenty marbles to play with but the other three did not have any so all four played with the marbles. When they were done playing the other three took fifteen of the marbles, five for each of them and five were left over for the child who brought the twenty originally. The child went home wondering what just happened but accepting that all four children now each have five marbles and perhaps that was a fair thing. What just happened is what the earthlings define as socialism. Ideally it means, if implemented properly, that every earthling has the same number of marbles.


b.)The other scenario is that the child collected all the twenty marbles when the play was over and went home. Later that day, one of the parents (of the other three) showed up at the child's home. The visiting parent announced that he represented the other set of parents and their children to demand that seventeen of the marbles be given up by the child who had the twenty. His demands must be met or else. He took the seventeen marbles, leaving the child with three and distributed nine to the other three children (each got three marbles) and the remaining eight were kept as reserve property, which is now under the control of a committee. What just transpired is called communism. Again, if implemented properly according to those who subscribe to that system, each has the same number of marbles while much is stored in reserve and regulated by those in charge of the welfare of the entire group.  


c.) In the third scenario the child came with twenty marbles. He explained a game that they will all play. The idea is for each of them to strive as best they could and gain points in the process. At the end of the game, the child who did well by having the most number of points get to keep ten marbles, five to the next who had the second highest points, then three and then two. This is what the earthlings call the free market system, which I need to investigate a bit further. I heard another description of it but I am still wondering how the first child got the twenty marbles in the first place. How the child came to have them is puzzling but I am told the other name for that scenario was capitalism.


I will have more to report but for the time being these are what seems like the prevailing scenarios using their arithmetic to define their socio-economic-political systems.


ET's messages go out as quickly as it generates them, aware that it will be a few years before the home planet gets them and another few more years before ET gets a reply. Meanwhile, he found out a little bit more so he sent a:


P.S. I now learned that the child gets an allowance from one of the parents. The child spent some of it to buy the marbles. Then I found out that the parent gets money for doing a job. The money earned is from some sort of point system, similar to the third  scenario I described earlier. That for now is how I understand how capitalism works. More to come later.


ET has much to learn and I will publish some of its future reports as soon as they are generated. ET will find out how earthlings manage to apply the various socioeconomic systems in their various spectral hues and shades. It does not even have any idea yet why and how taxes play a role in all of these.