https://nypost.com/2020/07/09/17-nyc-catholic-schools-will-close-due-to-covid-19/
I read the above with alarm. Catholic schools are not
only often the best schools available; they are often the only alternative
schools available for many lower income, intercity children. Related to this I
want to share a story. I grew up in the sputnik/we better have exceptionable
schools era. People in Buffalo were familiar with the Bronx High School of
Science and other schools in New York City. But Buffalo was a fraction of the
size of New York City with the city schools serving about half the population
and about a half dozen suburban districts serving the rest. No district had the
resources for specialized schools. But the Catholic schools covered the whole
area and decided to open a school for geniuses. They gave entry exams and many
of those that qualified were Jewish.
Since religious instruction was required they added a rabbi to their
faculty.
But the above is a background story about the growing
concentration of power. While a specific school was the project, the greater
significance is the existence of a group with resources and some power separate
from expansive government and the mega corporations. Warren Buffet represents
another somewhat independent source of power. Putting his politics aside, he
has traditionally invested domestically and in basic industry. I like that.
The ongoing lockdown has accelerated the concentration of
power by so many orders of magnitude that we can’t even currently comprehend it.
Both small and large businesses are going under so rapidly that I get confused
between the daily news and the science fiction I read as a teen anger. The Walmarts and Home Depots are thriving.
But this process is far more than a news item, it has and will affect us
increasingly on a daily level, lockdown or not.
Those of us who post on Facebook know all too well of
their censorship and usage suspensions in Facebook jail. Many claim Google
search can sway elections. Anyone interested can find more
examples of the media giants and their agenda quite easily. One upon a time,
before radio, etc, the average city had about five newspapers. Everyone freely
debated their future there.
Along with Facebook, I use Microsoft Word daily. I will
type in a word and Microsoft tells me it’s misspelled or that it’s not a
word. Upon looking it up, I learn that’s
it’s a word and that it’s spelled correctly. The primary system of most written
communication today follows a seemingly deliberate plan of dumbing us down. This fits nicely with Gates’ role in Common
Core and vaccinations. Read about his deadly experiments with children in
India.
I experimented with what could have been a lucrative
business on the eBay/PayPal combine. On a cash basis I made some money, but
even if being paid $10 an hour I lost money because my time was consumed trying
to mitigate their thievery. EBay would mysteriously make charges on my credit
card account without my consent. When I
denied and reversed those charges they did the same thing with another credit
card of mine. Companies get away with this because you have probably consented
with a click. If you question them you get answers like its on page 83,
paragraph 5, section 63X. Unless you took a few days off from other activities
to study the agreement and perhaps hired a consulting attorney, your click
agreed you to be ripped off.
PayPal would refuse to send me my money. During one
horrendous phone conversation they produced a list of former addresses and
asked me if I had lived there. Like eBay, they had immediate access to all data
about me. And the above are just highlights of their thievery. The fact that I had a 100 % satisfaction
rating from my customers was irrelevant to them. For certain items I tried a
specialized sales site, but they also required the PayPal monopoly for payment.
While undoubtedly others have suffered as I have, PayPal stock is soaring. It’s
probably a shrewd bet on the New World Order cashless society. The Globalists
are winning.
Despite the many complaints, including Congressional
hearing on social media concentration and censorship, one needs to understand
the underlying background of scale. The
number of computer chip manufacturers is surprisingly small. The more
sophisticated and expensive production is the fewer participants are possible. Not
that terribly long ago in the span of human history you would go to a tailor
for a pair of pants. You would be measured and fabric cut by hand. The
industrial revolution created the sewing machine which was later electrified.
Clothes became made in factories/sweat shops with the fabric cut 10 bolts deep
with a band saw like machine. But they pulled at the fabric limiting their
capacity with bolt or two being cut a bit shorter. Some of you may remember
trying on a pair of jeans, then grabbing another pair the same size and having
the clerk tell you to try on the second pair.
They understood the production process. Today laser beams cut fabric in
vastly higher quantities.
The more efficient the technology is the greater the
scale and minimum investment required. Most people would be frightened to learn
how few factories actually produce all the semiconductor chips the world now
depends on. While monopolies and public utilities can be regulated are social
media a business service or a first amendment protected news media? The
hearings on Capitol Hill appear inconclusive.
I have no prognostications, only fears. Given the technologically driven monopolies
or semi-monopolies plus the pandemic and mobs burning businesses, the free
enterprise system is in danger. And while capital, as in Capitalism, is
critically important and should be available it is useless without
innovation. The free enterprise system
means the right to freely enterprise. The less restrictions you put on somebody, the
more likely their innovation will become reality and benefit many. I don’t see
it as more complex than that. The rest is all intellectuals talking to each
other.
Copyright 2020, Mark L. Bennett
