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I Want the "Rich Guys Internet" September 19, 2024
Here's a quick outline of a "rich guys Internet", one where it costs money to participate but the payoff is a 10-fold improvement in the user experience.
That the Internet is now a toxic garbage dump is self-evident. Consider that Cloudflare Reports that Almost 7% of All Internet Traffic Is Malicious. This is akin to inflation, where the official 2.5% inflation rate has stripped us of at least 25% of the value of our wages--the cumulative impact is an order of magnitude greater than the headline number. That 7% of malicious traffic--the toxic flood of spam, phishing, etc.--has degraded the user experience by 70%. Every user must expend sustained (and unpaid) effort--shadow work--to deal with the constant tyranny of hacks, patches, spam, phishing, SMS spam, changing passwords, etc., as well as the putrid sewage of intentionally harmful content. Like fish slowly expiring in a toxic sea, we no longer even see what we're swimming in. Humans excel at habituating to the present, and so we've lost sight of how radically the Internet experience has changed in the past 25 years. We have lost track of how much of our time is now being squandered on shadow work to keep from being conned, defrauded, hacked, blackmailed, disrupted or poisoned on a daily basis. This is the Internet's Garbage Time of History, and I want the "rich guys Internet", one stripped of all malicious traffic and garbage content. Impossible, you say? Not at all. Here's a quick outline of a "rich guys Internet", one where it costs money to participate but the payoff is a 10-fold improvement in the user experience. The "rich guys Internet" (RGI) isn't intended to be a complete replacement of the Garbage Internet (GI); it's a secure compound for when we tire of the Garbage Internet. It's a second home that could be used as the primary residence should you choose. 1. No anonymity. Every participant has to have a verified human identity, the same procedure required to open a cryptocurrency trading account now: photo of the individual holding their passport, verified bank account, etc. Yes, yes, I can hear your screams: without anonymity, the black drones of the Globalists / Deep State will be hovering over my office within hours. Fine. You can keep your anonymous accounts in the GI (Garbage Internet). It's your choice. And let's face it--if the black drones really want to find out who you are, that's no problem. Anonymity is nothing more than a thin veil. Our "protection" boils down to not being worth their attention. Without anonymous accounts, there is no garbage. Nothing is allowed into the RGI (rich guys Internet) except traffic linked to a verified user. No more spam, phishing, etc. Any account linked to malicious traffic is immediately closed and the miscreant banned for life. 2. No data collection, none. No data collection is allowed. No trackers, cookies, nothing. Participants and content providers must agree to no data collection or they're excluded. In other words, no surveillance capitalism. 3. Organic search only, no "sponsored" anything. Search is search, not marketing in the guise of search. Search results are based solely on relevance, no gamed / paid placement. No ads on search results, either. 4. No ads anywhere. All ads are stripped from content. 5. Fees are paid to content providers for "clean" content. Any content provider who wants access to the RGI has to strip all content down to basic HTML. This reduces the potential for malicious leakage. 6. Encryption, triple firewalls, the works. The RGI is slower because the pipe from the Garbage Internet is narrow and it takes time to make sure nothing malicious is allowed in. 7. An RGI social media platform: no ads, no trolling, no algorithms, no garbage. Less "entertaining" perhaps, but if you want to be deranged, there's always the GI. 8. Secure email for users only. No ads, no spam, only messaging within the secure confines of the RGI. 9. High fees. You get what you pay for. Let's say it costs $50 a month. That's three fast-food meals or movie tickets or two lunches at a cafe. Is that unaffordable? Compared to what? How much is your shadow work time and mental health worth? 10. It's your choice. Nobody's forcing anyone to pay up to enjoy the benefits of the rich guys Internet. So hey there billionaires. Instead of squandering hundreds of millions on yachts, why not spend a few bucks and set up a rich guys Internet that's semi-affordable to the masses? 
New podcast: Is the Everything Bubble About to Pop? (37 min, 40 charts) My recent books: Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases originated via links to Amazon products on this site. Self-Reliance in the 21st Century print $18, (Kindle $8.95, audiobook $13.08 (96 pages, 2022) Read the first chapter for free (PDF) The Asian Heroine Who Seduced Me (Novel) print $10.95, Kindle $6.95 Read an excerpt for free (PDF) When You Can't Go On: Burnout, Reckoning and Renewal $18 print, $8.95 Kindle ebook; audiobook Read the first section for free (PDF) Global Crisis, National Renewal: A (Revolutionary) Grand Strategy for the United States (Kindle $9.95, print $24, audiobook) Read Chapter One for free (PDF). A Hacker's Teleology: Sharing the Wealth of Our Shrinking Planet (Kindle $8.95, print $20, audiobook $17.46) Read the first section for free (PDF). Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World (Kindle $5, print $10, audiobook) Read the first section for free (PDF). The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake (Novel) $4.95 Kindle, $10.95 print); read the first chapters for free (PDF) Money and Work Unchained $6.95 Kindle, $15 print) Read the first section for free Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com. Subscribe to my Substack for free Self-Reliance in the 21st Century print $18, (Kindle $8.95, audiobook $13.08 (96 pages, 2022) Read the first chapter for free (PDF) 
De-risk your life, problem-solve, carve a path that works for you.
When Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote his famous essay Self-Reliance in 1841, the economy was localized and households supplied many of their own essentials. In our hyper-globalized economy, we re dependent on distant sources for our essentials. Emerson defined self-reliance as being our best selves thinking for ourselves rather than following the conventional path. Self-reliance in the 21st century means reducing our dependency on fragile supply chains and becoming producers as well as consumers. Self-reliance is often confused with self-sufficiency--the equivalent of Thoreau s a cabin on Walden Pond. But self-reliance in the 21st century isn t about piling up money or a cabin in the woods; it s about humanity's most successful innovation: cooperating with trustworthy others in productive networks. The book details the essential mindset of self-reliance and 18 nuts and bolts principles of self-reliance in the 21st century.
Podcast with Richard Bonugli: Self Reliance in the 21st Century (43 min)
When You Can't Go On: Burnout, Reckoning and Renewal ( $18 print, $8.95 Kindle ebook; audiobook) 
When I burned out, what I wanted but could not find was a practical guide by someone who had experienced burnout
themselves. None of the material I found spoke to what I was experiencing or to my sense that our
economy is now optimized to burn people out.
I decided to write the guide I wanted but could not find. This is my experience of burnout, reckoning and renewal. This book is my account of what helped me. The intended audience is other burnouts and those who want to better understand the experience of burnout. Burnout is a life-changing experience in a good way, as absurd as that may sound to those in the depths of burnout. To paraphrase Samuel Beckett: I can't go on but I must go on. There is a way forward. Read the first section for free (PDF). The Introduction
The Epidemic Nobody Talks About: Burnout
Global Crisis, National Renewal: A (Revolutionary) Grand Strategy for the United States ( $22.50 print, $9.95 Kindle ebook, audiobook) 
Nations that embrace Degrowth and social cohesion will survive. Those that cling to "waste is growth" economies
and destabilizing extremes of inequality will perish.
The threats to the republic are unprecedented, and conventional responses are an accelerant of collapse: the status quo is now the problem rather than the solution. We have an opportunity to redraw America s Grand Strategy from the ground up. Should we fail to do so, the United States will fail, along with all the other nation-states that are incapable of grasping degrowth and social unity as solutions. This revolutionary Grand Strategy will be the deciding factor between nation-states that fail and the few (if any) that will not just survive but actually thrive. Read Chapter One for free (PDF). Read the Introduction Podcast discussing the book: A Grand Strategy to Address the Global Crisis (54 min., with Richard Bonugli)
Recent entries: I Want the "Rich Guys Internet" September 19, 2024 2024, A Year of No Significance September 17, 2024 The Impossible Dream: 70 Million Boomers Retire in Style September 15, 2024 What's "Free" About "Free Speech"? September 12, 2024 When Local Newspapers Close, We Lose What Matters: Journalism September 11, 2024 Does Anyone Else Smell a Market Crash in the Air? September 8, 2024 Playing It Safe September 6, 2024 Is the "Everything Bubble" About to Pop? September 4, 2024
What If All the Conventional Models Fail to Predict What Happens Next?
September 2, 2024
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Extra-Special Bonus Aphorisms:
"There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity." (Douglas MacArthur) "We are what we repeatedly do." (Aristotle) "Do the thing and you shall have the power." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." (E.F. Schumacher, via Tom R.) "He who will not risk cannot win." (John Paul Jones) "When we drink coffee, ideas march in like the army." (Honore de Balzac) "Progress is not possible without deviation." (Frank Zappa, via Richard Metzger) "Victory favors those who take pains." (amat victoria curam) "The man who has a garden and a library has everything." (Cicero, via Lee Bentley) "A healthy homecooked family meal and a home garden are revolutionary acts." (CHS) "Do you know what amazes me more than anything else? The impotence of force to organize anything." (Napoleon Bonaparte) "The way of the Tao is reversal" Or "Reversal is the movement of Tao." (Lao Tzu) "Chance favours the prepared mind." (Louis Pasteur) "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." (Winston Churchill) "Where there is ruin, there is hope for treasures." (Rumi) "The realm of gratitude is boundless." (CHS, 11/25/15) "History doesn't have a reverse gear." (CHS, 12/22/15) Smith's Law of Conservation of Risk: Every sustained action has more than one consequence. Some consequences will appear positive for a time before revealing their destructive nature. Some consequences will be intended, some will not. Some will be foreseeable, some will not. Some will be controllable, some will not. Those that are unforeseen and uncontrollable will trigger waves of other unforeseen and uncontrollable consequences. (July 8, 2014)(thanks to Lew G. for retitling the idea.) Smith's Neofeudalism Principle #1: If the citizenry cannot replace a kleptocratic authoritarian government and/or limit the power of the financial Aristocracy at the ballot box, the nation is a democracy in name only. The Smith Corollary to Metcalfe's Law (The Network Effect): the value of the network is created not just by the number of connected devices/users but by the value of the information and knowledge shared by users in sub-networks and in the entire network. (CHS, 4/6/16) My Credo of Liberation: I no longer care if the power centers of our society--the distant, fortified castles of our financial feudal system--are changed by my actions, for I am liberated by the act of resistance. I am no longer complicit in perpetuating fraudulent feudalism and the pathology of concentrated power. I no longer covet signifiers of membership in the Upper Caste that serves the plutocracy. I am liberated from self-destructive consumerist-State financialization and the delusion that debt servitude and obedience to sociopathological Elites serve my self-interests. (Thank you, Klaus-Peter L., for reminding me) "We've become a culture of excuses rather than solutions: solutions always require sustained effort and discipline." (CHS 4/9/16) "Fraud as a way of life caters an extravagant banquet of consequences." (CHS 4/14/16) "Creativity = problem solving = value creation." (CHS 6/4/16) "Truth is powerful because it is the core dynamic of solving problems." (CHS 7/21/17) "We live in a system of human emotions that masquerades as a science (economics)." (CHS 1/1/18) "Always remember, your focus determines your reality." (George Lucas) "Diversity is for poor people. Sameness is for the successful." (GFB) "When power dissipates suddenly, it dissipates completely." (CHS 7/14/19) "Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves." (Henry David Thoreau) "Markets cannot price in the value of non-monetized natural assets such as diverse ecosystems." (CHS 7/14/19) "Magical thinking isn't optimism, it is folly." CHS 1/3/22) "Tune in (to self-reliance), drop out (of hyper-consumerism and debt-serfdom) and turn on (to relocalizing capital and agency)." (CHS 1/5/22) "The path to everything you desire starts here: like yourself as you are right now." (CHS 11/20/22) "There are only two signals: how many essentials you produce and share and if you're consuming less with better results. Everything else is noise." (CHS 12/17/22) "Liberation is no longer needing any confirmation or feedback from others or the world for one's sense of self. Wealth, fame, recognition, admiration, praise, prestige, approval, sainthood, martyrdom, success: none are needed, none are desired." (CHS 12/26/22) "When fame, wealth, prestige, status and glory are out of reach, you're free to pursue other more valuable things." (CHS 2/6/22) "It is the sacred duty of every activist who seeks to better their community to grow and share as much life-giving food as is humanly possible." (CHS 6/15/23) "Being anonymous, gray and unknown is the ideal state of freedom." (CHS 3/15/24) "We seem to have entered a world of anti-leisure and anti-productivity in which the unpaid shadow work demanded to keep all the complicated digital bits in motion obliterate our leisure and productivity." CHS (5/22/24) "It is axiomatic that failing systems work the best just before they fail catastrophically." Ray W. |
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