Social Hierarchy

 

 

A system in which people or groups is ranked one above the other according to status or authority. The upper echelons of a hierarchical system are those in authority. A hierarchy is a system of organizing people into different ranks or levels of importance, for example in society or in a company.

 

A hierarchy is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important concept in a wide variety of fields, such as philosophy, architecture, design, mathematics, computer science, organizational theory, systems theory, systematic biology, and the social sciences (especially political philosophy).

A hierarchy can link entities either directly or indirectly, and either vertically or diagonally. The only direct links in a hierarchy, insofar as they are hierarchical, are to one’s immediate superior or to one of one’s subordinates, although a system that is largely hierarchical can also incorporate alternative hierarchies. Hierarchical links can extend "vertically" upwards or downwards via multiple links in the same direction, following a path. All parts of the hierarchy that are not linked vertically to one another nevertheless can be "horizontally" linked through a path by traveling up the hierarchy to find a common direct or indirect superior, and then down again. This is akin to two co-workers or colleagues; each reports to a common superior, but they have the same relative amount of authority. Organizational forms exist that are both alternative and complementary to hierarchy. Hierarchy is one such form.

 

Many countries have caste systems. It may be religious affiliation or economic wealth or family background. We segregate each other by our identity.

When you get employed, there is a caste system. Bosses have offices and secretaries and that position is to be strived for it brings more pay and power.

Hierarchy is good for everyone to know their place in society. If you are comfortable with the status quo, then everything is fine. If you live on the other side of the tracks, life is a struggle to cross over for the promise of the other side hope and wealth and a better life for you and your family.

Until you get there and it is not the field of dreams you wished for.

In the end it doesn’t matter. The worms will eat the rich and the poor.

17

 

17 is old enough to drive but too young to get drafted. 17 is young enough to be living with your parents but not old enough to drink alcohol (legality). 17 is limber enough to do all the dances and perfect to model teen magazines. 17 is being carefree without being responsible.

I remember 17. Not so worried about what college to beg me in. Not carrying about SAT scores. Most of the time was making an effort of getting a ‘date’ and finding a party to go to. The rest of the time was listening to the English Invasion music and trying to figure out the chords on my cheap guitar.

17 was living at home but staying out all night. 17 was obeying the family rules and attending weekly seating at the house of my father’s denomination waiting to get home and have friends over to play cards and listen to records.

17 was picking out your own clothing that didn’t match or fit but you had change in your pocket. 17 was finding out what the back seat in a drive in was about without considering the consequences. 17 was hanging out with folks your parents did not approve of. 17 was being cool until you got in trouble and had to depend on someone else to get you out of it. 

 

Predictions

 

I opened my eyes this morning. The sun was just starting to light.

What were the plans for today?

Perhaps you have a calendar or a reminder to tell you the chores or assignments or events to attend today? I don’t.

Everyday is the same as yesterday and who knows about tomorrow?

I check the weather for I ride a convertible and the forecast gives me some idea of what to where and when to travel.

Forecast

The weather person can point to maps with H and L’s moving on curved lines with their predictions of what will be happening outside your window.

Speculation

Hold some sand in your hand and toss it into the wind. That will show you which way the wind blows but just for that moment. What does the forecaster make of this action/reaction?

Probability

Gathering data of previous events can make a prediction sound so scientific. Get your charts and graphs ready.

Guess

Like a flip of a coin? That is how we get married.

Prognostication

Some will take the possible recurrence as a previous time so it is projected into the future.

Anticipation

The best is the hope that today will be better than yesterday.

And it should because you have today to plan tomorrow.

Let Me Entertain You

 

There is much more leisure time now so we must find ways to entertain ourselves.

What is your entertainment?

Before radio and television was invented, we had to entertain ourselves. We could sing together with songs of religion or history of times. Then we created instruments to accompany our out-of-pitch off-key singing.

Then electrical lines wired us all together so we could gather around the set and be entertained by someone else with little selection. Records were our next option to listen to preferred classics but it was just watching a spinning wheel of vinyl.

There was local entertainment from a church choir to the barroom dancers giving a peek of a thrill to a drunken male audience.

Sports supplied entertainment from the earliest years. From gladiators to chariot races to boxing to dog racing. Some learned how to participate to play the sport while others were satisfied to just watch.

Others like to watch performances of show tunes or opera to loud festivals with blinding lighting and flaming stages. Some audiences would sit and enjoy the performance while others dance to the music.

Entertainment is supposed to be fun, but how do you choose?

Is a crossword puzzle more fun than mountain climbing? Can a game of cards be as enjoyable for a group of people than a kayak down the rapids?

Fear not.

Everyday influencers and critics and podcast that will tell you what you should read or watch. Of the hundreds of offerings from artist and writers and singers and photographers and dancers, the professional selectors will pick out their favorites and recommend a book or a movie or a television show or a live musical performance to entertain you.

Loud cars will still speed around an asphalt circle to entertain some. Singers with half naked dancers and smoke and flash might not be the finest composition but will go up on the charts to impress the consumer. Large people will bump into each other and the crowd will buy all the pennants, t-shirts, hats, coolers, posters, etc. while thin people will slide on the ice dance or twirl down on an aerial ballet with amazement.

Enjoy whatever entertains you (as long as it doesn’t harm any animal or human). Learn to paint or draw or write or play an instrument and you can entertain yourself forever.

Unfortunately for the feminist, the ladies are still stripping down to the basics to wiggle around for the goggling male (or female) viewers. This has become as acceptable as battles on planes or vigils of candles and balloons.

Suppose we didn’t have money?

 

Think about it. What would we do if we have no money?

There would be no banks. There would be no ATMs. There would be no cashiers. There would be no debit cards. There would be no credit cards. There would be no checks. There would be no cash or change.

Think about it. There would be no need to carry a wallet.

Want to fill the tank? Just pump in the fossil fuel and drive off. Need a loaf of bread? Go to the grocery, select rye or barley and drive home. Want a new car? Just go to the parking lot and find the one you like and drive home. Want some new shoes? Just see which ones you like and drive home.

Think about it. Wouldn’t that make life simple?

There would be no robberies because there is no money. There would be no fees. There would be no taxes. There would be no raises. There would be no foreclosures.

Think about it. There would be no inequality?

There would be no GNP. There would be no stock market. There would be no betting. There would no rich or poor. There would be no gentrification. There would be no pay scale.

Illiteracy

 

I heard someone identify as being illiterate. It gave me pause.

Illiteracy is the inability to read or write.

It is the 21^st century and I just assume everyone can read and write. I was wrong.

How can someone survive in the world without reading and writing? With all the paper signs on doors or direction signs on the highway or menus or applications or contracts, how can one not be able to read?

Yet if I was to travel to a foreign land, I would not be able to read a book or a menu or sign a contract without an interpreter. I would be illiterate.

There are still things I can’t read and need Google search to find the meaning to understand words and themes.

I did the public education process to attend classes that taught reading, writing and arithmetic. I struggled with combining words for sentences. Neither of my family were avid readers. There were few books in the house. Textbooks bored me.

My education came from the television rather than losing myself in a fantasy novel or philosophical wonders (other than the Bible). Being illiterate would never know about Harry Potter until the movie came out.

Still I got a piece of paper that read I’d been approved as being educated enough to buy a house (without reading the small print) and signing my name to a check.

When I go to the store and pass a person in the aisle I assume they can read and write. I don’t know for sure but like everyone eats, I figure everyone reads.

Unlike someone wearing glasses or holding a book there is no way of telling who can or cannot read. Unlike the clothing we wear or our haircuts, in passing it doesn’t show if you are literate or not.

For that matter who is intelligent? Readers assumed to be well read and thus more informed. As social media has shown us, it is not how much you read, but what you read and how you consume it. Does being illiterate equal ignorance?

Illiteracy is invisible. You can’t smell it or taste it. Illiteracy doesn’t have a color or gender or height.

The same is true for a pedophile. The same is true for mental illness. The same is true for domestic abuse. The same is true for animal lovers. The same is true for poets. The same is true for doctors. The same is true for lawyers. The same is true for alcoholics. The same is true drug addicts. The same is true for gun owners. The same is true for renters. The same is true for those in foreclosure.  

When in public, unless our behavior is unacceptable, we all blend in to conformity. We are invisible to each other.

That is not the answer I wanted

 

It was a quiet day. Mother’s Day so I guess everyone was at church services or being polite entertaining mommy.

It was a cloudy damp and chilly day so even the birds were quiet. Just one of those days without noise so we cherishes it.

There must have been some good rain last night, but I missed it in my dreams. I was trying to figure out what to do with a lid in a book I bought.

I still had a mission to restock so I put on my sweats and my thermals, turned on my heater and rolled out into the vacant streets.

The parking lot was full of vehicles but I didn’t know why until I entered the Tummy Temple. Amid the half empty shelves and dirty floors were guys in their sweats who looked like they had been up all night celebrating the Kentucky Derby and now were decided on what bouquet of flowers to get for their sweet mother who was expecting to be taken to a nice restaurant and being reminded she told you not to live like that. Similar to Thanksgiving when a husband sent to the store to find a special spice that is in a foreign language so he’s on the phone trying to decide what brand he can bring home to satisfy the assignment or the fraternity crew stocking up for the weekend party without any decision on an amount or brand that will not be refused but will be downed by the other members without too much hesitation.

So after scattering out a buffet for my neighbors who may be celebrating Mother’s Day or not, I turn to social network for entertainment.

It used to be radio or television that provided a waste of time but now it has turned to a screen that awaits a comment or breaking news or something to hold our attention away from reality while the furry and feather critters enjoy they feast.

Being a news junkie, I always have the NPR on. Multi-tasking from what ‘news’ channels present to social media ‘truth or dare’ messages on memes and video clips.

Since most of what is classified, as ‘news’ has now become ‘entertainment’ with blogs, pod cast, and questionable journalism, whatever is presented needs to be ‘fact checked’ and ‘verified’ to believe.

A questionnaire or reporter or late night host will ask questions to someone (anyone) in hopes of getting an answer. The answer is what you can base your baize on as if it is fact rather than fiction. No one would lie to Walter Cronkite.

The problem is no one wants to make a declarative answer to a question. There is a pause and then the reflective statement of “that is an interesting question” while being pressed on the spot to form a sentence that could possibility relate to the question.

Worst of all is the answer of “Yes and No”.

So many variations of possibilities for answers leaves the listener befuddled. These are supposed to be the experts in the subject and they can’t come up with a straight answer?

Life is full of these questions that have no answers.

Will we win the war? How will we eliminate climate destruction of the planet? Is there a cure for death?

What is the answer to my question “Do you love me?”

I don’t like that answer.

Abort! Abort!

 

If you are old enough to remember the ‘space race’ you’ve heard the term ‘Mission Abort’ and the rocket blows up.

 

To abort something is to end it. When something is aborted, it’s finished.

When you abort a plan or activity, you’re ending it, usually prematurely. Halt, stop, end, call off, cut short, discontinue, terminate, arrest, suspend, check, nullify, scrubbed, axe, or pull the plug on.

If you’ve ever gotten a flat tire on the way to an assignment or event with a deadline attached, your plans are detoured or perhaps aborted.

 

I’ve understood that making a baby changes your life. As I have observed, the toys, carriages, beds, baby showers, pregnancy clothing, health matters, car seats, etc. change how a couple reacts to each other and the world around them. A baby is not a pet that can be left at home.

 

Though not having any sex education, I figured out how to make a baby.

 

I’m a guy. I can’t deliver a baby.

 

I do have to be there for a couple of minutes to start the process but I cannot carry a person in my belly for 9-months and squeeze it out of my body.

 

It must be in our DNA because we seem to like this process. Even thought there are all sorts of contraception available today, we don’t always use them in the moment of passion. Then it is a waiting period.

 

The ‘act’ is very popular and what are you going to do after television or how do you keep the species restocked, but sometimes due to situations beyond control (didn’t keep her knees together) there is an unintended and unwanted result.

 

I’m a guy. I can be there at the beginning and hand out cigars at the end, but the making of another person is no longer my responsibility. Then it is time to make a decision.

 

It happened to our parents. It happened to their parents. It happened to their parents on back to the beginning.

 

I don’t know the numbers of births that end too soon or the babies left in trash cans or babies abused or fathers and mothers who split due to the daily pressure. I don’t know the numbers of pregnancies that were terminated for whatever reason.

You can look up the data and make your own conclusions. Be sure to check all the numbers of the vulnerable killed in wars.

 

I’m a guy. I can’t carry a baby. It is the mother’s choice.

 

Why should I care about this issue?

 

I was born five years after my brother. He was born three years after my parents were married. What cause this decision to create a family? Was I a Valentine mistake? Remember there were no legal abortions? Did we have another sibling?

 

Most of the families I grew up with looked like us. Two children and one mom and one dad were the typical family. We all dressed the same, went to the same schools, ate the same food and basically lived the life presented in the 50’s.

 

It wasn’t until later that I heard about orphans, single mothers, four or more siblings, families who lived in apartments. I wasn’t anymore aware of divorces or to unintended or unwanted pregnancies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqe-mr_zBdg

Like every red blooded American male full of testosterone and plenty of willing participants, I fooled around and fell in love.

There was that girl from New Jersey or the girl from Williamsburg or the girl from England or the girl from Australia or the girl from Wilmington or…. well, you get the picture. I became familiar with the process and rarely was concerned by the results. Long distance love is difficult to keep track of.

 

So what does this have to do with me?

 

There were some girls who were panicked that they were with child because they had missed their period. Most passed with time or interest; but not all.

 

I paid for four abortions.

 

There was the girl in my class in college that after an afternoon study session led to one thing or another.

I didn’t know her that well (even though I’d been inside her) and after class one day she said she was pregnant.

I could only assume that she was telling me this because she thought it was mine. She said she couldn’t have a baby now and asked for money to get an abortion.

I gave her the money and never saw her again.

Was she really pregnant? Was this just drug money?

There was a girl I met at a party and things escalated into a horizontal rumba. Few weeks later I saw her in passing and she said she was pregnant. She never said it was ‘my’ baby but indicated she didn’t want to continue the relationship. She took me to an alley garage and I gave her money. I never heard or saw her again.

I was learning what girls had to go through in hopes of not telling their parents or friends.

I met a girl who lived close to my apartment. She seemed very interested in the processes of making babies. I had contraception but didn’t use it in the heat of the passion.

She announced that we’d have to get married for she was with child. This was not the best option for both of us. Planned Parenthood was just down the street so we walked down there and I paid more money and they told me to leave and I never saw her again.

I met a girl on a blind date. She seemed to like me. She got naked in my bedroom. She said I didn’t need to apply any contraception because she was on the pill. I believed her.

Too soon afterwards, she said she was pregnant. How could that be?

As never before, we went to a hospital and had an ultra sound to confirm the inevitable. A name started to be chosen.

With much discussion and possible persuasion, the decision was made to abort.

She set up the appointment. I went with on a very silent journey and waited. I brought her back to my house and nursed her the best I could.

 

This was her decision. She could have left me and had the child. She could have gone back to her former boyfriend who could have been the father of the child.

 

By then, abortion was legal.

Pay the bill like having your appendix removed.

 

The emotional decision applied to “I’m pregnant” is between two people. How you decide to make the decision to propagate or not shouldn’t be a law like speeding or hunting or war.

 

I finally got smart and did what I’d thought about doing in high school and got the ‘snip snip’.

 

Want To Be My ‘Friend’?

 

Just fill out the form:

Name

 

Address

 

Phone Number

 

Email

 

Gender

 

Height & Weight

 

Shoe size

 

Marriage status

 

Bank account number

 

Credit Card number (with expiration date and PIN)

 

Automobile

 

Children (ages and gender)

 

Pets

 

Favorite color

 

Favorite music

 

Arrest record

 

Medical history

 

Favorite movie

 

Favorite alcohol

 

Favorite sexual position

 

Favorite partner

 

Religion

 

All the meds you take

 

Terms and Conditions:

If you fill out all the boxes honestly and correctly, after being vetted and crosschecked by an outsourced firm you will be notified that you can be my friend (for a brief period) until you have done friendly things and have spoken friendly words. This will NOT cost you anything except your time and if you are denied, you can no longer contact me. If you fully agree to these terms and conditions, check the box below.

Fiduciary

 

Being of an age when everyone wants to help you invest what little shekels I have stored in my mattress. They will buy you dinner, put you up for a weekend at a beach resort, and make you fantastic offers if you just sign over you money for them to play with.

Along the way I heard the word ‘fiduciary’. fi·du·ci·ar·y. It is a funny sounding word. 

 

A fiduciary is a person or organization that acts on behalf of another person or persons, putting their clients’ interests ahead of their own, with a duty to preserve good faith and trust. Being a fiduciary thus requires being bound both legally and ethically to act in the other's best interests.

 

Overview. When someone has a fiduciary duty to someone else, the person with the duty must act in a way that will benefit someone else, usually financially. The person who has a fiduciary duty is called the fiduciary, and the person to whom the duty is owed is called the principal or the beneficiary.

 

By definition, a fiduciary is “a person who has the power and the obligation to act for another under circumstances which require total trust, good faith and honesty.” Fiduciaries are required to act in your best interest, regardless of what they stand to gain or lose.

 

Generally, you pay for financial advice in one of three ways: advisory fees for fee-only advisors, commissions, or a combination of fees and commissions for fee-based advisors. Fee-only advisors charge either a flat or hourly rate, on a per-service basis or as a percentage of assets under management.

 

Fiduciary risk – DFID defines fiduciary risk as the risk that funds are not used for the intended purposes; do not achieve value for money; and/or are not properly accounted for.

 

Working with a fiduciary ensures you’ll have the financial advice and guidance you need to adjust to life’s curveballs. Your adviser can help you fine-tune your adjustment strategy, account for changes in your circumstances and achieve major goals like buying a home or paying for your child's education.

 

What Is a Prohibited Transaction? A prohibited transaction is the improper use of IRA assets by you the IRA owner, your beneficiary or any “disqualified person.” A disqualified person includes: Any family member such as a spouse, ancestor, lineal descendant or their spouse.

 

One of the biggest arguments against the fiduciary rule is that it could unfairly impact smaller and independent retirement advisors, who might not have the ability to afford the costs of complying with the new regulations

 

 

Brokers: Are held to suitability standard. Under this standard, brokers can only recommend investments that they reasonably believe are appropriate for the given situation. Fiduciary advisors: Are held to stricter rules, known as the fiduciary standard of care.

 

Who do you trust? The church? The church should offer you caring advice but they are also a business for profit. You bank will promise to keep your money into safe and sound but they are in business to use your money to loan to others for interest. Even your lodge club members might mention a deal that made them money but if it doesn’t work out it is no sweat off them.

A few years back I saw LLC on the back of construction trucks. I had not seen that before. I’d used contractors before. I’d agree to an estimate for work requested and if the estimate had to be adjusted, we’d haggle for an adjusted price. There was no ‘money back guarantee’ but an understanding if the handshake agreement was not up to satisfaction, tweaks would be made for customer service.

The estimate presented was for materials, labor, and profit. Re-dos cut into profitability so now Limited Liability Company makes sense. At the same time it doesn’t assure the request to be quality workmanship.

 

How you handle your money is up to you. If you buy a house with hopes that it will appreciate with age is a crapshoot. The location may grow more valuable but the plumbing, electrical, roofing, foundation, chimney, etc. can flitter away whatever value is left.

 

I’m conservative with my funds. I do some minor philanthropy but am still rational enough not to fall for scams and skims. Make me an offer I can’t resist because you are a fiduciary and only working in my best interest and I’ll…