duffmann808's blog

    The United States of America is no longer the greatest country on the face of the Earth.  I am not prepared to back this up with some statement about how any other country is better, because honestly I do not see any progressive policies or ideas coming from any other countries either.  The reason we are not the best in the world, despite the deficiencies in progress of other countries, is that for 170 or so years we were the best country on the face of the Earth.  This is not to say that we did not have problems a many during those 170 years, because we had problems to the point that we had to fight a Civil War to resolve some of the issues, among other things.  This is also not to say that we will not some day regain our position atop the scrolls of progress.  I do, however, believe that without some sweeping developments in thought, we will regress further than any of us can imagine.  America, once the country known not only for its military prowess, but also for our ability to use reason to solve pretty much any issue that arose within our borders.  Other countries and their people may not have liked us, but that was(and still should not be) not the objective of our policies.  We were the greatest country in the World, and we were not in the business of being a country solely to please others.   Read More »

    The economy is a constantly fluctuating curve of actions and reactions.  There is a constant fluctuation of how much is spent, and in return, how many people are employed.  The economy is such a broad and fascinating subject that whole classes and degrees are offered on it, mainly the capitalist economy.  Capitalism relies on the interaction between buyers and sellers, and not just the positive interaction.  Capitalism relies just as much on the negatives of these buyer-seller relationships as it does on the positives of the aforementioned relationships.  If a seller wants to charge too much for the product, i.e. more than the seller wants to pay, they will quickly realize that the price is too high and that a price change is necessary.  Supply and demand is a simple concept that is often forgotten in today's world, because of the integration of socialistic policies into our government and economy.  Simple supply and demand is a policy that can and should be understood easily, but is frequently not even thought of.  Supply and demand basically states that the supply of most things is limited, whereas the demand can go on to infinity.  This is not to say that demand is infinite and will never end, because demand does have an upper limit that can be reached and not surpassed, but is to say that demand can go much higher than the available resources of most supplies will allow it to go.  This creates the perfect opportunity for a capitalist market, in which both the buyer and seller are acting in their best interests.  The buyer acts in his/her best interest by finding the object for the lowest price, while the seller acts in his/her best interest by trying to sell it at the highest level of profit possible.  These points meet somewhere on a graphed curve, and this is called the market equilibrium price, i.e. the best price for the item to be sold at.  This "equilibrium point" takes into account that the supply is limited, and that the personal utility of such items may diminish after time, and therefore make demand go way down.   Read More »

    A revolution is now more necessary than any other time in recent history.  This revolution will not be the typical revolution that involves overthrow of the government through force and violence.  This revolution will not include the trials of those who stand public office, because honestly most of the problems with out country today are not solely their fault, and they need not be indicted for centuries of injustices against the intellect of the citizens of the United States of America.  The revolution I speak of will not be a revolution based in violence, because it will be a revolution of ideas.  The new revolution will involve intellectuals again remembering that they are intellectuals because they can think, and not because they can recite what they believe should be told.  The revolution will be a time when Americans should voice their opinion without regard to how others may react to their words, as they are just that, words.  The American public has followed the decline of the rest of the world in an intellectual sense, and will continue in this downward spiral of failure until the citizens decide that enough is enough, and that they need to show some reaction to get action out of those responsible for the future of our country and our society.  Read More »

    Every day in the newspapers and the television shows and the internet articles around the world, problems are presented that show what is wrong with societies and the people within them.  The acknowledgement of this by these cultural "judges" is a good par of a functioning society, that helps these societies to progress and attempts to fix them.  There are only two problems with a majority of these articles.  Problem number one lies in the fact that most offer no solution.  Saying that there is a problem is nothing profound and nothing to be proud of, unless a better alternative is offered.  Problem number two lies in the fact that most of the solutions resolve around one or all of the society going to do something to solve the problem(s).  The real problem in most of these cases is really not what it is claimed to be, but is veiled behind this so-called problem, and is that there is a dependence on the government and society as a whole to help those who are in a tough situation.  Do not misread what I am saying and think that I am saying it is every man and woman for themselves and that we should never help them.  I do however feel that every decision we make every day of our lives affects every other thing we do.  These decisions are ours to make and help to shape who we are, who we become and what we do.  These everyday decision, such as buying a new car or riding a bike, help in some ways to determine who we are.   Read More »

Atlas Shrugged (written by Ayn Rand), at once regarded as the best and most debated book of the 20th century, is slated to be turned into a movie.  The book, coming in at close to 1000 pages, is a long read, and debatably too long to be turned into a movie.  The movie itself will have to be made in installments to allow for all of the plot elements to be incorporated correctly.   Read More »