Beds Are Burning

It's that time of year again, Samhain, Halloween, All Saint's Eve, whatever you call it. Looks like I won't be too much able to do any major celebrating here in country, but that's okay- you all go and have a good time for me! Things are settling into routine here, though I've finally managed to shake off some illness I can only describe as malaise- my schedule allows me to sleep for perhaps 12 hours before I need to report in, which I actually did a couple days ago. Perhaps it was a virus, getting passed around like a peace pipe in our tent- this is certainly not unknown, we had some nasty bug make the rounds in basic training, too. But I'm now back to normal, going to the gym just about every day- I'm not gaining or losing weight, which is good, because neither is my intention, just to build up strength. Actually, there's not a lot else going on around here, to be honest. Some people play computer games, some others work out, with the same intention of killing time between duty shifts. This seems to be a pretty good way to handle the everyday life of being deployed. It somehow got out that I read Tarot cards, so I spent a good chunk of the day doing readings, not that I mind. I would have liked an environment a little more conducive to concentration, but hey, what can you do? Make do is the name of the art out here, much like the rest of life. Which, it seems, marches on without me.
At some point, I should probably make some comment on the whole Occupy Wall Street movement- is it because people can't find jobs? I'm really still of two minds on this- one has the Horatio Alger mentality of you can work your tail off, and eventually enjoy the rewards of hard work- the other half is not so sure. I don't like the concentration of wealth in the country- assuming that wealth is unearned. But yet another facet of this question is, does wealth exist in a vacuum? Well, wealth and money are two completely different things, as experience teaches me. But money is defined by its ends- money in and of itself is potential, not actuality. Say I have several thousand dollars- while it's sitting in the bank, it's not doing me any good, save earning interest. When I put that money to work, say in a business, it then has the potential to generate more money. Now here it gets interesting. How does it generate money? By people purchasing whatever goods or services it is my business deals in. Now, it's all well and good to, let's say, produce furniture. I can then sell this furniture. But now consider the conditions necessary for me to sell furniture- I need a market, people willing and able to buy this furniture. Say the average disposable income is $10 for furniture, in the average budget. Yet I'm charging an average of $500 per piece. It's unlikely I'll stay in business very long- I need people to be able to afford my furniture. But wait, say I can hire people to work in my factory, pay them a salary that allows them to be able to afford my furniture- well, there you go! The point I'm trying to get at here is that those who hold the reins of business need the common people. They, the business people of the world, do not live in an ivory tower, from which they can exploit the working people. A capitalist system has some merits- in theory it allows for infinite human creativity, development and potential. Wherein new innovations and inventions can be turned to profit, they can be turned to profit in such a way that they increase the standard of living, and thus create more disposable income, which in turn can be used to fuel further and further creative developments and research. In other words, what Ayn Rand described as rational self-interest comes into play. Why neither this nor Marxism, its polar opposite, works, remains kind of a mystery to me. But history indicates pretty clearly that people en masse rarely if ever actually act in their own best interest.
So back to Wall Street. It seems to me that simply protesting the crappy economy doesn't quite cover everything that needs to be done. This is not to discount the value of individual action, I'm a firm believer in the adage "Better to light one candle than curse the darkness". But this particular candle flame should come in terms of living within your means, or finding a way for your means to cover your living. This may require a radical thinking of what we consider important, and consider as priorities. I'd like to think I'm a pretty spiritual type of guy (generally I'd say run screaming from anyone who says they are 'spiritual', but bear with me here), and that there are more important, perhaps less tangible things in this life that bear examination. Happiness comes from within, not without. Does this explain why people are often buried under in debt? In some cases, yes. In others, no. The system definitely needs an overhaul, and a part of this is doing away with the credit system. Credit is all well and good, for those things that you can actually afford, and can be translated into tangible value- say, a car or house. These types of credit have actual backing. Yet credit also translates as speculation- with this, we have quite a house of cards indeed, banking on the speculation rather than anything actual. This is like investing in the promise of a return, not the actuality of a return. When the investors call in their IOUs and there's no money, what then? Unfortunately, this is exactly what has been going on for quite a while, and explains the drop in the Federal government's credit rating. When the very government meant to oversee the lending and distribution of money is no longer trusted by the institutions that same government has created, then there's something rotten in Denmark indeed!
So to sum this long rambling entry up- this may well be the intestinal product flying rapidly towards the air circulation device, or just a flash in the pan. It will depend, to a large extent, on what the next step is going to be- for better or worse. As for me, I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing, like, it seems, most of the nation is doing. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and most importantly of all, live every day in the moment- you don't get another one quite like it! Every day is, indeed, a gift.