The Chance of Contributing

Most of the time, we're taking things. Neither you nor I made the clothes we wear; we don't make the food or grow the foods we eat; we use a language that was developed by other people; we use another society's mathematics. Very rarely do we get a chance to put something back into that pool. I think we have that opportunity now. And no, we don't know where it will lead. We just know there's something much bigger than any of us here.

Source: Steve Jobs, 1985 Playboy Interview
Taken From: If You Want More Jobs, Look to Steve Jobs, Sovereign Man 10/6/2011

On Failing and Forging Ahead

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. . . As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. ... So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

Source: Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Address, 2005/06/12
Taken From: If You Want More Jobs, Look to Steve Jobs, Sovereign Man 10/6/2011

Death

[D]eath is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

Source: Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Address, 2005/06/12
Taken From: If You Want More Jobs, Look to Steve Jobs, Sovereign Man 10/6/2011

American Hires

Intel can thrive today and never hire another American.  It is not our desire, not is not our intention, but we can do that.

Source: Craig Barrett, Intel CEO
Taken From: Superclass, David Rothkpf, 2008, pg 120

Currency Depreciation

In essence the depreciation of the U.S. dollar adopted by the U.S. government indicates that its solvency is on the brink of collapse, therefore it wants to cut its debt through the act of devaluation with the national will; such a move has severely harmed the interests of creditors.

Source: Dagon Credit, Surveillance Report for Sovereign Credit Rating (PDF), November 2010
Taken From: Sovereign Man, The Worst Advice I've Seen In Years, 4/18/2011

Homogeneity and the Human Spirit

The economic efficiency we praise creates one-industry towns that become simplified and vulnerable communities. Businesses evolve into big corporations that dehumanize and feudalize our lives. Our monocultures of specialization create ecological disasters. We poison our water, land and air using the justification that more and faster are always better. Mass production produces the homogeneity that deadens the spirit and vitality of people they compensate by becoming hyper-consumers, fad-chasers, unsettled and disquieted beings in search of the meaning denied to them by a loss of complexity.

Source:  The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstle (2006)
Taken from:  21st Century Breakdown by James Quinn

Private Profits, Social Risks

Globalism had the same tendency to impoverish and enslave huge populations while enriching the elite who managed its operations. The American people were sold on it, even while it destroyed their towns, their landscapes, and their vocations. Globalism was primarily a way of privatizing the profits of business activities while socializing the costs.

Source:  The Long Emergency by James Howard Kunstle (2006)
Taken from:  21st Century Breakdown by James Quinn

No-Eat List

Until TSA agents start treating us with the respect and dignity that we deserve, then things will change for them in the private sector,

An un-named employee of a Seattle area Restaurant (The Consumerist, 2/22/2011)

Augustine and Business

It is not business, but businessmen who are evil.

St Augustine