Facebook Long Posts 2019

Some long posts I saved before deleting Facebook. Enjoy.

March 20, 2019

True freedom is not in your ability to say and do whatever you please without any legal repercussions or interference from another party. So long a society needs laws to be civilized, it is intrinsically uncivilized. It is when you understand that taking someone else's life or property creates disturbance and mistrust in society. People become defensive and are quick to judge you negatively. You and yours will be denied help when needed.

It is when you understand that lies and false testimonies weaken society. You need watchdogs to watch lairs (let's say the SEC to monitor corporations), and security cameras to watch thieves. Then you realize there is no one to watch the watchdogs (let's say the SEC). The system creates a chain of watchers, everyone constantly up and alert, watching the watchers. Some western nations have already reached this paranoid stage.

True freedom is in freedom from watching, and in trust, that everyone is doing his job. It's when people understand that their best interest lies in the interest of society, that their problems are society's problems, too, that societal problems are their problems, too. True freedom is in freedom from watchdogs. Do these societies exist? Your close circle of friends is an example, where everyone intrinsically holds values, ground in trust and truth, without any contract or police

March 12, 2019

People hiring for entry levels positions are likely to be discriminate. Since minimum wage cuts the number of low skill jobs, the supply of low skilled workers exceeds its demand, giving power to the recruiters. If they have discriminatory inclinations, they would use these inclinations to sort out applicants. However, if there was no minimum wage, applicants would ditch a racist employer for a nicer one even if they pay 50 cents less/hour. The power returns to the equilibrium determined by the supply and demand for labor.

At higher levels, like the jobs a college graduate can apply for, discrimination reduces. Since the supply of highly skilled workers is less, the recruiter must give up his discriminatory inclinations if he wants to recruit an eligible candidate.

An effective parallel can be seen in people's dating preferences. They may prefer to date within their religion or race only as long as there is an ample supply of their kind. When the supply reduces, they must give up their discriminatory inclinations. The majority may not consider a middle eastern dude for a job, but they have definitely accepted him as God. Is he the only one the market?

Thus, black lives matter and feminists should really protest against minimum wage not against I don't know who. Whom do they protest against?

April 9, 2019

Some support increase in minimum wage quoting studies that have shown an insignificant increase in prices. This is the sort of reasoning that concludes that there is no sun outside because it is not visible. Labour is a factor of production. If it becomes more expensive, so does production. It is a mathematical reality. There is no way around it. Sometimes, it may not be visible for many reasons -

1. Businesses have absorbed the shock, meaning they are now either operating on smaller margins or are innovating or cutting unnecessary cost or laying someone off.

2. They are gonna raise prices after consumption rises temporarily, once the beneficiaries of the raise cool off.

3. They are raising prices so minutely that people aren't noticing.

4. They have changed the product slightly to keep the price stable. You may not notice if a restaurant reduced the serving size by a few grams, or changed an ingredient to cut cost.

5. They ware waiting for their competitors to raise prices first, so people do not call them opportunistic.

6. They are waiting for other businesses to respond first so they can be assured that the market would allow a price increase.

Feb 16, 2019

Why didn't Socrates, Krishn, Ram, Jesus, and Buddha ever write a book themselves?

I am inclined to think that they understood that putting concepts into word reduces to words. The moment you describe God in words, it is no longer God's description. The same goes with concepts like love, compassion, and friendship. To understand deeper truths, you must get out the constraints of language, to enjoy the infinite realm of intuition, art, consciousness, logos, imagination, etc. You may not be able to describe friendship, love or worship, but you can definitely do them, sing them, and dance them. Words are only discrete units of meaning but actions are continuous.

Perhaps, they understood that humans would obediently stick to their words, which are reduced version of what they wanted to tell, and never utilize their faculties to seek the truth. They would grab the texts and become braindead.

Jan 25, 2019

Is the buyer gonna show up? Will businesses be fair? Will elected officials represent my cause? Will she/he return my call? Will she/he reply to my text? Is he a real friend? Am I actually attractive or they are just being nice? Am I actually cool or they are being nice?

In a society where truth is downplayed, people ponder on these questions. When others do not respond or respond in politically correct ways, truth is lost. When truth is lost, people question other people's motives. They have troubles trusting others. To all the above questions, the answers seem to be uncertain. When the blunt truth is not told, more and more uncertainty arises. You have more uncertain questions to worry about. This, my friend, is a state of anxiety, which is common in the USA. I hypothesize that lack of truth has caused a lack of trust among the citizens, breeding uncertainty and anxiety. Go tell the truth, even if it offends people, and hurts their feelings. Truth is a virtue that warrants the cost.

Jan 18, 2019

When people demand government involvement, it may be a sign of ego and mistrust building up in society.

I said ego because when people are too egotistical to ask others for help. They turn to the government to force others to help them. They think they would have the last laugh, and I am like," just wait until you get stronger and influential. The government is coming after your ass."

I said mistrust because either the needy don't trust that others would help them or the potential helper doesn't think the needy deserve help. Again, the needy plead to the government to bully the potential helper. Once again, I am like," wait until the tables are turned."

The government was instituted to uphold the constitution. Everything else is really not its job. A democratic society is run by the people for the people. That means all charitable work, social work, etc should be done by the people, not by the government. If the government does everything, then society is no longer democratic, rather something like a minority ruling over the majority.

Feb 8, 2019

Martin Seligman blames more than 10x increase (since 1950) in depression to three factors -

1. Extreme Individualism, and self-centeredness where the focus is individual success over societal success.

2. The Self Esteem Movement, which teaches people to feel good about themselves irrespective of efforts.

3. Victimhood mentality, which teaches people the blame game.

In college, and while working at Starkville high, I could clearly see the self-esteem movement and the victimhood mentality being hammered by leftist forces. I used to wonder how many criminals are produced by public education. I guess, my intuitions were not wrong.

Source -

Zimbardo, P. G., Weber, A. L., & Johnson, R. L. (2003). Psychology: Core concepts (4th ed.). Boston:

Allyn and Bacon.

April 28, 2019

Don't be fooled by average GDP and average income figures of nations around the world. They never show average national debt. They often skip average prices. You may be making a million a month, it doesn't mean much if rent, food, and insurance take away more than half of it. It is much worse if you have loan payments to make (just like nations have national debt).

I find that an average Indian has much less debt to pay off than an average American. The former pays a lot more bribe and taxes than the latter. The latter spends a huge chunk of his income on insurance and gets ripped off on drugs. Therefore, a flat comparison based purely on GDP, or income is very misguiding.

March 31, 2019

I do not buy GDP as a measure of prosperity. Household I produces 4 units of food, 2 units of shoes, and 4 units of clothes. They have a GDP of 10 units. Household II produces 2 units of food, 1 of shoes, 1 of clothes, and 2 units of tax services, and 4 units of weapons, a GDP of 10 again.

Which household is more prosperous? The moment we translate GDP into its monetary value we fail to see what all products and services an economy is producing, which indicates its real health.

May 9, 2019

People hate on the fact that actors are paid much more than Engineers. Well, for 12 years, kids study Math and Sciences. Then, most get a degree in Engineering. If there is an oversupply of Engineers, we should not be surprised that the market exploits them. How many are trained in acting for 12 years or even for 4 years? The truth is that acting is a very rare skill. Very few can act well. That's why the skill of acting is highly prized. If we flip the situation, teach acting for 12 years, and not teach any Science at all, engineers will then become much more expensive. It does not matter how good these engineers are, if the supply exceeds the demand, employers would be able to hire engineers at the cost of eggplants, and fire them if they dared to dissent.