ETH plunging

I have once though that the depreciation of ETH has been caused by the entire crypto market situation. But, as I suspected the faster depreciation rate of ETH, I had a quick research on the endogenous cause of ETH depreciation. 

I found out that the ICO (Initial Coin Offering) demand has substantially dropped this year so that Ethereum's demand itself is now experiencing a massive fall out. 

By referring to a certain YouTuber's advice in his channel, I switched the majority of my ETHs to BTCs as there is still a growth expectation of the blockchain business and the crypto currency technology. 

I left only a few ETHs in case Ethereum may recover to the certain extend. However, I suspect the entire alternative (crypto) coins including ETH and the other emerging crypto currencies will keep facing a plunge at least for a few days. 

 

Tolerating Uselessness

The article entitled "Useless" was posted last time. Its attempt was to prove the uselessness should not treated as a sin and it can actually be a virtue with reference to Taoist teaching. This is an emerging crisis labelling individuals to ostracise them with the useless label, which Prof. Yuval Harari has warned of in his book "21 lessons for the 21st century". Taoism is indeed innovative enough to appreciate the uselessness and the lack of the conformity required for industrial socioeconomic structures. This project is designed to be a salvation for individuals labelled as useless as well as non-conforming. 

The current socioeconomic structure has become more capital intensive than the past. Employees and clients tend to require individuals to be equipped with multiple high skill-sets demanding money and time as well as their talents including efforts, innate abilities, and fortune to be in a right environment to achieve it. It has become materially more convenient with remarkably rapid technological innovations deriving the microeconomic advantages for firms and fortunate talented individuals. By contrast, the rest majority individuals are less likely to enjoy their microeconomic advantages while losing the equality of the opportunity to increase their income, seek better employment, and drastically improve their lifestyle.

The emerging crisis of labelling individuals as useless does not only take place in Capitalism but also in Socialism which regards highly of bearing social responsibility for all individuals. As a matter of fact, Socialism insists on participating in increasing the productivity and individuals' conformity to achieve it more than Capitalism because its productivity is demanded for deserving the whole society. Therefore, the problem of the social exclusion can be intensive in Socialism where none can be free to isolate themselves from conforming to their society. 

Almost all the political and moral philosophies having existed in the world regard of uselessness as the negative characteristic of individuals. They also insist that individuals should bear their responsibility for being non-conformists themselves without seeking supports from other individuals and society. These philosophies affirm there is a socioeconomic model with its standard which individuals are ought to comply with to achieve what they regard highly of. 

By contrast, Taoism is extremely unique as a political and moral philosophy adapting a tolerant perspective in its political and moral philosophy. The element of these academic subjects is intensively the Yang 陽 (light) kind claming for consistency, good-will, order, and perfection. When individuals and their society too much cling to accomplishing what these academic subjects insist on, it disturbs the balanced harmony of the natural world because the Yang 陽 element becomes excess. In order to maintain the balance, it requires to accept the Ying 陰 (shadow) element representing ambiguity, necessary-evil, passiveness, and, most importantly, tolerance. 

Perhaps, the socioeconomics had better focus more than usefulness for achieving their material prosperity and the philosophical and moral perfection. It had better re-evaluating the importance of slowing down the unbalanced growth among individuals and their living environments as well as tolerating the imperfection of how individuals and their society shape themselves. Instead of expecting all individuals to comply with their standard, the socioeconomic should rather take account of the factor that there are individuals unable to either be useful for the society standard or conforming to the social structure. 

All individuals are endowed with something necessary to be born in this terrestrial world by birth although nobody can be sure what it really is. It is extremely arrogant to judge an individual as no worth to live in the world as though someone were pretending to be the creator often called God pleaching. Uselessness in the terrestrial world has the use which is unable to be known by means of the mainstream terrestrial human standard. There are still several matters in this terrestrial world nature which human individuals do not yet know. 

On the other hand, there is an advantage for individuals to be useless. It means that they are less likely to be exploited than those who are treated as useful. Taoism refers to a tree with a distorted shape having survived without being chipped off as a resource. The existence of a tree is already helping to supply oxygen by its photosynthesis and taking a part of the dynamic natural environment. Furthermore, as explained in Taoism, this distorted shape can be comfortable to lean onto to be relaxed with. Judging from this story, an individual labelled as useless and/or non-conforming should be proud of her/himself instead of feeling miserable or giving up her/his life.

Having considered these matters, the tolerance seems to be the key to accept individuals labelled as useless. Instead of either abandoning them being excluded from the society mainstream or forcing them to conform to the socioeconomic standard, it might be feasible not to artificially fix the problem so promptly. As Taoism teaches, individuals had better lean how to be passive to the freely flowing spontaneous natural flow of how their surrounding environment changes. Moreover, everyone should be proud of themselves without being either arrogant or miserable. All in all, useless is just one shape existing in the natural world so that it has its own freedom to exist.

Light Opposition: Buddha was born on the full moon day

Buddha was born on a day of the full Moon which means Moon forms the opposition to Sun according to the astrological aspect. Whereas people usually have some romantic soft mood of the full Moon, it is the hard aspect by means of the astrology. Well, the story of individuals born on the day of the full Moon explains the hard life of Buddha.

In terms of the astrological aspect characteristics, Sun and Moon are so called "Lights" which indicate the core personality of an individual through their life. Sun represents the  entire life plans and values of an individual and their surrounding world social environments. Moon represents various internal characteristics and qualities of an individual such as mentality and innate personality originally endowed by birth. When these Lights from the soft aspect together, what the world environments and society and their own mind are in the harmony. By contrast, when these Lights from he hard aspect together, their mind faces the challenges from the world environments and society. 

In particular, one of the major hard aspects, the opposition, enhances this challenging life situation because it is literally opposing to their mind and innate personality. This challenge works as a good element training and improving this individual with this aspect if s/he is well-aware of her/himself. Furthermore, this aspect, the opposition, is in fact the best aspect to clearly and intensively pointing out the quality of the opposing sign from another. When Lights from the opposition together, it enables this individual's mind to become sensitive to feel something questioning and needing to change in their life and terrestrial world clearly and intensively. In another word, it is the best at enlightening their mind in the world.

These individuals with their natal Lights opposition tend to have a dynamic lifestyle with various challenges coming from both their internal mindset as well as their surrounding external factors. Many of them tend to relocate their place of living and seek challenges drastically reforming their life. It is really convincing that Buddha was born with this hard aspect of his natal Lights, and this is indeed an encouraging story for those endowed with this Lights' opposition aspect including myself.

In conclusion, the natal hard aspect especially of Lights (Sun and Moon) seems to enable these saints to realise something deep in their own life as well as their terrestrial world they have been dispatched to. This indicates that those individuals endowed with the hard natal aspect by birth are capable to challenge and overcome from various hardships and enlighten not only themselves but also the others with a brand-new innovative perspective. Hence, we should feel positive about our life facing hardships explained by the astrological hard aspect.

Long life

 The life expectancy of human individuals in the world has significantly extended so these individuals will eventually tend to live up to 100 years old or beyond unless there is any unexpected accident threatening their life happening before then. At the same time, more individuals nowadays tend to complain about their lack of opportunities for increasing their income gain, improving their career path, and offering a reasonably satisfactory future for the next generation. Mediocrity, misery, and hopelessness are haunting their life even longer than the past. Have these individuals become happier with their longer life expectancy? Let's consider it. 

Focusing on the retiring age, many countries used to set it as 60 years old while some countries have extended it to 65 or even 70. Up to the middle of the last century, many workers died off before turning to be 70 years old, so they claimed to spare their leisure time left before their death after their retirement. By contrast, their time left left after their retirement is almost 3 decades which are way too long to spare for their joblessness. The pension scheme is no longe sustainable to prop up the budget for looking after these jobless elder individuals. The budget incapability is derived from not only the increasing elderly population but also the shrinking fertility rate of the newer generations. 

The technological development is so superb nowadays that many firms and a few fortunate elite individuals enjoy their microeconomic advantages. At the same time, the entire world economy is shifting toward the capital intensive rather than the labour intensive which implies that the labour demand i.e., employment is shrinking. Furthermore, the opportunity of improving their income and career path requires more demanding skill-sets and merit for firms to hire them with a reasonable wage. Recently, the certain degree of the equality of outcome for individuals is more essential to accomplish the equality of opportunity than it used to be.  However, the socioeconomic policies of the current world are still neither competent nor generous enough to offer such an opportunity for majority individuals. 

The fertility rate is dropping down in majority of developed countries. Even though these residents enjoy their surrounding physical resources of their national economy, the distribution of their access is restricted. The main cause is that the inequality of their disposable income and their social mobility opportunity is expanding due to the shrinking macroeconomic market multiplier. Therefore, their desperation for their future prevents them from bearing their offspring, and they struggle to escape from their own mediocrity and desperation. 

In addition to the physical life expectancy expansion, the psychological feeling of life has become longer for the majority world citizens lacking the opportunity to access the lucrative lifestyle. These individual citizens may find their life is indeed longer than the minority elites enjoying their lucrative lifestyle. They feel like spending longer time to pass when human individuals spend their time spend as boring, miserable, and/or painful than when they spend it exciting, attractive, and/or pleasantly instead. Therefore, the tittle is simply "Long life" to think of what the "long" of the "long" life implies. 

Economic policies should exist to make the majority individuals happy while ensuring that even the least fortunate members of their society enjoy the basic civil cultural standard of living. It is not a matter of different economic policy perspectives. Regardless of supporting the market economy or the collectivist economy, the objective taking the whole environments where individuals cooperate to cohabit in a civic society into consideration must exist. Otherwise, there is no raison d'etre of the study of economics. 

In addition, everyone must be proactive enough to adjust themselves to the new paradigm of this world without being restrained by the obsolete norms and values. Many individuals still believe in or are forced to adapt to these obsolete norms and values having existed in the early past of the last century. Neither company nor government will guarantee their job and income security due to the aforementioned factors. So, they must not be reactive to what their belonging institutes such as companies and government direct them. Instead, they has better continuously look for a better opportunity for a new employment, going back to schooling, or sparing some free time to re-think of their own life philosophy. 

In liberal-democratic countries, the majority individual citizens still have their own responsibility of electing their own governmental party allowing the elite bureaucrats ignoring these previously mentioned factors. Perhaps, they are still enlightened enough to understand their own life situation well. It is often important to be more egoistic to protect themselves to realise such factors. When a person cannot make her/himself happy, this person cannot deserve the others well.  They key is the positive energy flow of one person energising her/him to enable her/him to entertain and help the others.

The government and the corporations taking the initiative in the market economy take an advantage of it by forsaking the majority citizens. Thus, these individual citizens are ought to be angry and more selfish to insist on their needs and wants without being restraint by the altruistic norms and values. In addition, they should be egoistic also to be honest for themselves without compromising their own desires and dreams even if the others disagree or become excessively being worried about this attitude. Hence, the most ostensible, practical, and simple answer to solve this problem is to "Live your own life" regardless of its physical or psychological length of life.

Sea creatures in Japan

 

* Click here to see the other paintings of these sea-creatures. *

Why the price inflation so bad?

The price inflation is a hot topic just now. The currently ongoing price inflation has been triggered by the downturn of the aggregate supply such as being influenced by the material costs so that majority agree that this is a bad inflation regardless of the theoretical perspectives. On the other hand, there is a perspective welcoming the price inflation especially the one stimulated by the increasing aggregate demand backed up by the market confidence. "Is the inflation really bad?" is one of the most hotly debated macroeconomic debates among different theoretical perspectives.

There is a theory called the Philips curve showing the negative correlation between the price inflation rate the unemployment rate. Higher the inflation, more confidence for employers to hire more employees and invest to their business, and vice versa. Even though the price inflation depreciates the real wage of employees, the upward trend of the price in general encourages the nominal wage rise offsetting the real wage depreciation.  All in all, those supporting the Philips curve appreciates the positive effect of the price inflation.

There is a theory challenging the Philips curve model. The Barro-Gordon model claims the negative correlation between the price inflation rate and the unemployment rate prevails only in the short run. It suggests that this correlation is zero in the long run so the unemployment rate bounces back after the short0-term temporary change. When the price inflation stays high, there is no effect on the unemployment rate left so only the depreciation of the real wage remains.

Some Monetalist economists and almost all the Supply-side macroeconomists accuse any level of the positive number inflation rate. The high price inflation rate implies the scarce aggregate productivity level mostly due to the high costs and the inefficient distribution inside the supply chain networks. Thus, they insist on suppressing the price inflation with the best effort with any available method. 

In contrast to the aforementioned theorists, majority economists nowadays warn that the negative rate price inflation, so called the deflation, is bad as much as, or even worse in many occasions than, the positive rate inflation. The USA in 1930s, Japan since 1990s, and the Western European countries since 2008 have experienced the notorious economic downturn harming various kinds of the socioeconomic aspects because of the long haunting negative price inflation. This phenomenon has inspired economists to avoid the excess suppression of the price inflation. Instead, they have affirmed to set the target at 2% by taking the +/- variance of it enough to diverge from failing into either the high positive or the negative level. 

Sum up, the debate over the price inflation is still controversial whereas majority agree with each other that the substantially high price inflation is bad due to its disturbance causing to an economy. Many affirm a moderate inflation rate caused by the positive aggregate demand is good whilst some others disagree. Te controversies are how high/low it should be, and this may depend on its characteristics and its root causes. As long as the current fiat-currency based economy thrives, this controversy will hardly disappear.