Putting a Ding in the Universe
Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 8:26AM Today is a day of remembrance and celebration. Not for some politician or king. For someone much better. A day, for many around the world, to celebrate the life of Steve Jobs.
Personally, it gives me pause for thought about how much he changed my life. At 10 years old, in 1981, I remember begging my parents for a computer. They didn't know anything about computers. Heck, I don't even remember how I knew about it or why I felt this overwhelming desire to have one. But, I did.
My grandfather was an electronics and communications tinkerer and a Ham Radio (aka. Amateur Radio) aficionado. He had a 200 foot tall antennae in his backyard that was so large you could see it from miles away. Its tentacles hung well over the property line on every side of his yard... that was back in the old days before zoning laws and frivolous lawsuits... and whining neighbors. I'd watch wide eyed as he would go for his morning "sked" (schedule) and talk with people from around the world or even listen in to astronauts. Sure, they'd mostly just ask how the weather was "over there" and other completely meaningless conversations. But, that wasn't the point. The point was that he could talk to anyone on Earth from his basement!
He, more than anyone, understood my desire to have a computer. After all, ham radio was a precursor to the internet. So, when he heard about my request he found a company that manufactured computers in Vietnam and ordered it. A few weeks later it arrived and we had to build it ourselves. It was an Apple II+ clone called a Unitron.
;)
September 1983 in the Hamshack - Click to EnlargeI spent most of my adolescence on that Unitron in my grandfather's basement in the room called the HamShack.
As I sit here today, 30 years later, in front of the computer, headphones on, listening to music off iTunes and on my iPhone, I feel a deep sense of gratitude to Steve Jobs.
EAT THE RICH
Sadly, maybe it is for the best that Steve left this realm now. After all, the uneducated masses are beginning to light the torches and get out the pitchforks and go after the "greedy" rich.
I hate to mention Elizabeth Warren on the same page as Steve Jobs but I do so to make a point.
Here is what she said recently:
Before we talk about why Elizabeth is the devil and Steve Jobs was like a god, let's run her statement through a truth-analyzer:
To add to the insanity, Roseanne Barr, has called for anyone with over $100 million to be beheaded if they do not give it away. There is one thing that you can be absolutely sure of, then. Roseanne Barr is not worth more than $100 million.
Socialism/Collectivism/Statism/Communism, after having failed countless times and having impoverished and literally murdered hundreds of millions of people can only, at this point, be described as a sociopathic brain disorder.
Let's contrast Elizabeth Warren to Steve Jobs.
Elizabeth Warren is a thief. Not much more needs to be said about her after that.
Steve Jobs transformed an industry which created untold wealth that he placed no claim on.
Let's start with the 11,000 highly paid technologists at their Cupertino campus. After that we move on to the entire supply chain that manufactured and provided binary products to make up Apple products. Then let's move on to all the creatives who have used his products, including musicians who, upon understanding the business model, were greatly enriched by iTunes. Let's look at the App Store which allowed thousands of developers at home to become technology software entrepreneurs (would there be an Angry Birds without Steve Jobs?). Never mind that he single handedly did what the Department of Injustice couldn't do, break the Microsoft stranglehold on the desktop market. Linux has done amazing things, but it is far from going mainstream on the desktop. Because of Apple, Microsoft was forced to up their game; a fact that makes everybody win - blue screens of death have reduced dramatically in recent years since Apple has taken a larger share of the market.
For all of this, he has no "social debts" to pay back; his payment forward in value to humanity was far greater than what he got to keep.
THERE ARE MILLIONS OF STEVE JOBS'
Steve Jobs directly affected and enriched the lives of billions. But, he isn't the only one. There are countless other Steve Jobs' in the world today. Sure, you may not know their name or their products specifically but they are also to be recognized and honored.
Right now there is someone in China who is devoting years of his life to making an electronic component for 5% cheaper than can currently be made - something that could save the world massive amounts. Someone in India is working night and day to put together a new battery system that could hail the next wave of cheap, clean transportation. Right now, in Peru, a man is slaving through the jungle on a lifelong quest for a copper deposit - a deposit that if found could supply the world with copper for years.
All of these people, thanks to capitalism, work for us. They don't need to "give back". They don't owe us anything. We owe them.
Anyone who is producing more than they are consuming should be considered a friend to mankind. Anyone who wants to take the fruits of their labor, by force, and give it to those who produce nothing and only consume is the enemy.
JOBS CREATED JOBS
Today, the braying masses who have been dumbed down in the indoctrination camps (schools) all clamor for people like Barack Obama and Elizabeth Warren to "create jobs".
The way to "create" jobs has been shown by countless people like Steve Jobs, yet they say we should go after the rich and take away from their production and give their wealth to government to be destroyed. It's no wonder "lost job" sympathy cards are now such top sellers.
Steve Jobs was just one of millions who create the wealth we have in society. We should be exalting anyone who creates wealth. Whether they find a copper mine, open a successful restaurant or just serve hot dogs at baseball games and keep their expenses so low that they can save a portion of their salary each month, these should be our heroes.
In the world of socialism these people are supposed to be our enemies. Socialism/Statism contorts everything. It makes bad, good and good, bad.
If Elizabeth Warren was around twenty years ago and stole most of Steve Job's money after his first success with Apple, he would have never had enough capital to build his NeXT venture which led full circle back to his return at Apple and to things like the iPhone, iTunes and iPad. In fact, every industry would see much of the capital it needs to produce great products and necessities lost... meaning countless untold developments and innovations would never make it to market.
We'd live in a much, much darker world if people like Elizabeth Warren are allowed to "spread the wealth".
On Steve Jobs' tombstone it should state, "Here lies a man who enriched the lives of billions and gave more than almost any other". If Elizabeth Warren were to write Steve Job's tombstone, it would read, "So he built a company. Good for him."
R.I.P. MR. JOBS
Steve Jobs was quoted as saying, “I want to put a ding in the universe.”
Sir, you put a serious ding in the universe and in my own personal life. I thank you. And I will use the keyboard which you introduced to me to keep promoting your values of hard work, vision and innovation and fight against those who detract from that for their own selfish or deluded means.
-Thank you to my good friend, Pete Kofod, for his inspiration for this piece
Reader Comments (18)
Keep up the great work.
not sure if I understand you correctly. I live in Thailand, with millions of poor people who can hardly make a living.
The super-rich here and elsewhere get richer day by day and ruining the world financial system through the effects of compound interest system. The average person in many countries of this world can hardly make a living. They are stupid enough, admittedly, to go shopping for ipad, ipod, iphone etc, not noticing they can have the same or better value at less than half the price. Whose fault? Anyone´s fault? Fault at all? Apple: great design and marketing, hardly any new inventions.
Still I cannot see why the super-rich shouldn`t share part of their wealth with those who were not as lucky as themselves. Remember: if a person owns 1 billion dollars, getting only 2 p.c. interest annually, he will have 20 million more at the end of the year. Most times he will make more than 2 p.c. The interest has to be paid by the poor and middle class to the rich and the banks and governments.
see
/www.steuerboykott.org/
Best regards,
Samui
I do believe in a social contract, but that is not the same thing as accreting increasing powers to government.
Bully for you, Jeff!
The very first thing you must do is have some principles. Do you support theft and violence? That is all taxation is. You can justify it however you want but that is what it is, agreed? If people want to willingly give their money away then I have no problem with that. However, in fact, in most cases it would generally be better for them to reinvest it and create more wealth because almost all charity just ends up getting wasted. Sure, you can always say, "its just a small tax.... just 2%"... that is what government always does. But it never is or stays small and it wouldn't help anyway. People don't need charity, they need private property rights and investment. The biggest problem in Thailand is that the government is very corrupt (as are all in the world, but they have been especially corrupt there) and usually the largest business interests use the government to keep monopolies to make them very wealthy, as did Thaksin. Businesses, by the way, will always use government to do this. This doesn't mean businesses and corporations are evil... this means that government is evil (government is the monopoly of force). Until we all realize that we will never have true prosperity on Earth. That said, I lived in Thailand for many years... almost every single person I met was very happy. You make it sound like they are in the streets begging and collapsing from starvation... that is just not the case. Remember, your perception of prosperity and happiness is not the same as others. I know many, many Thais who have the philosophy that they will just work enough to have enough money to get by until tomorrow... as soon as they have enough they will stop working and enjoy life. Nothing wrong with this, but this is a cultural thing that explains also why they don't appear to all be wealthy... but in fact, most are very happy. You are also comparing Thailand to a place like the US. The US is on the verge of collapse after decades of massive amounts of government debt for things like socialism and the military industrial complex all made possible by the evil Federal Reserve and a fiat currency money system that has indebted each American to nearly $250,000 in government debt. This is all in collapse. In a few years many Americans will wish they were as prosperous as most Thais.
In this regard it is absolutely correct what Mrs. Warren said.
Unfortunately, like most „system educated“ fellow Americans, you simply can't jump out of your box and have a look at the matter from a distant point. A point in your mind space that is not occupied by thought mud.
Reach a different perspective and you will be able to remove the glasses in front of your eyes.
Mankind would already colonize regions beyond our solar system if, well if the manipulation of mind on multiple levels would be abandoned and mankind would understand that not only the survival of the fittest but COOPERATION - an empirically proven fact today – is the ultimate driver of evolution aka success. Until you come to this conclusion you still sitting in the backseat of live. You are not driving! You been driven!
She is a feminist-communist (those seem to go together). I explained how the Occupy Wall St. movement has four basic actors:
1) well meaning educated citizens (i.e. that brilliant young man)
2) well meaning idiots
3) collectivist-socialist-communists (i.e. Moore)
4) special interest hijackers
Of course I showed the Moore clip. She is reading Chomsky and the like and says like all of the idealists that communism works "in theory." Well how do you explain the failing governments worldwide?
I even explain how its all useless and its all about world domination via world government by big money and special interests, they care not for these mere labels. I discuss how Anthony Sutton documented the funding of the Bolshevik revolution by the same bankers, to no avail. Live and let die on this one?
The definitions you use to support your argument are not clearly defined thus your reasoning and logic seems, well, illogical. You say, “There is not one single entity in this universe, at least to my knowledge, that is capable of success without dependency.” Your definition of dependency is broad and not to the point. For instance, we depend on water and air to survive as conditions has nothing to do with the gist of what is being discussed. Further, no one disputes that sellers depend on a buyers and vice versa. However on the other hand what people don’t, or should not want, is to be dependent for one’s living on another especially if that entity just might possibly fail to deliver what was promised. It’s a fool’s errand to argue for that kind of dependency and for others, through coercion, to follow you or the pied piper. So what's your point?
Mrs Warren suffers from a bad case of guilt and would have the rest of us pay to ease her pain. If she thinks well over 30% of all companies’ profit is needed to pay for roads, traffic lights, police, firemen, etc., then she would be better off in a psychologist's chair than espousing what she seems to know nothing about. There’s a reason manufacturing moved overseas and it’s because of people like her that have nickel and dimed companies and jobs out of existence.
Look up the words fallacy, projection, hypocrisy and stupor before you accuse others of being in a mental mud hut with dirt colored glasses.
Most business people I know do not operate on survival of the fittest as a cutthroat screw the other guy shyster even though you project that onto Jeff. Anyone who has run a business knows that through competition, not only the business owner but the consumer benefits from better products and services. Free enterprise in thinking, religion, business, education, trade, money, banking, travel, energy, etc., is where success and evolution are found. Google and try to find who said: competition is a sin. There you will find your bogyman.
from Samui:
have you read the article I asked you to read:?
http://www.steuerboykott.org/index.php
It is basically about Austrian School, Boycott of taxes, Compound Interest.
Have a look at the page. Contains too many truths. So they had to leave the german server.
There are a few GRAPHICs on the page that will explain things in an instant, no matter whether you can read german language or not. Well done page. Save it to your harddisc, it might nor be available soon.
I have asked them to provide a translation into english, will take some time.
in the next few days I will have some time to elaborate to your post in more detail.
Best wishes
Samui
Jeff, awesome article again! Here is a joke for you:
"30 years ago, we had Steve Jobs, Johnny Cash, and Bob Hope. Today, we have no jobs, cash, or hope."
Samui:
I have a simple solution for you: don't borrow someone else saved output, - this way, they automatically wouldn't be able to turn up a compound interest!
Smile aside, you have absolutely no understanding yet, in my humble opinion, of what's up. Don't despair, don't take offense. I was once where you are. Keep self educating, you have what it takes, you just need to look deeper.
Sedofina:
Is your definition of "favorable condition" a condition prior to success? I am sure it is. Cause you are making no sense.
Elizabeth Warren - a dumb dumb bleeding heart. Is there anything else to say?
You look at your country and you see that someone has whatever, say 99 percent of wealth. You think you have seen the problem.
99 times out of 100, the “solution” that would be chosen by the people, would be to somehow “equalize” the wealth. At that point, you have committed the greatest mistake and there is little you can do to undo it, usually, you would have to wait until the next collapse.
The real problem, the one that needs to be fixed, is that some are assisted by the state in accumulation of their wealth, and not that their wealth is great, because, even so, they could have actually created that much goods and services.
Therefor, what needs to be done is a complete removal of any possible way that the state can affect one’s wealth, positively or negatively, unless the crime of involuntary violent involvement was committed, and the state is simply returning from the convicted to the victim.
Example: you can chase wealthy till the end of your days, but as long as the poorest guy at the bottom gets one free penny by the violence of the state, then the rich will always be able to turn that around in their favor. Just like to a smart trader, it is not important which way the market is swinging, but only the fact that it is.
If you want justice in economic circumstances there is no perfect system. We do not hold out that capitalism is a perfect system. It is just the least of evils. Most importantly, the biggest protection people have from the injustices is free market competition. It ultimately protects consumers from price gouging and shoddy sales men, but it also protects the worker from being exploited. If you have ever had to employ people where there is competition for those workers you will quickly know that you have to treat them well or end up losing them.
As Hazlitt said,
"Consumers are sometimes asked to pay too much for goods. This has been true since the beginning of time. Their great protection against overcharging has been competition. The intelligent shopper can compare price and quality, and go to the merchant who offers the best goods at the cheapest price. Consumers are sometimes cheated. This also has been true since the beginning of time. They have sometimes been the victims of deceptive practices; they have been sold shoddy goods, or defective goods, or goods that have been misrepresented. Again, their greatest protection has always been competition. They can cease to buy from the dishonest merchant." -http://mises.org/daily/5600/Who-Protects-the-Consumer
Ed Bugos
Here is something for you to read.
http://mises.org/store/What-Social-Classes-Owe-Each-Other-P195.aspx
I would add further that capitalists DO NOT TAKE anything away from labor, they simply ADD to labor’s productivity/output. If the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, or the rich are getting richer AT THE EXPENSE of the poor, then the reason is that the society we’re talking about is not free. It is based on privilege, and political power is too concentrated (impossible in stateless society). In the end either you put the wealth in government’s hands to re-distribute or you let the capitalists create wealth. The capitalists, it has been shown, invest capital better –even if the measure is for the collective benefit of the whole.
The difference between statism and freedom is: 1) an equal share of misery (or nothing); 2) an unequal share in prosperity. If you redistribute the wealth of the wealthiest you will simply kill the engine of prosperity and progress. If you abolish money and the price system, you will just take away the means for society’s entrepreneurs to calculate profit and loss and to allocate savings and scarce resources to their most effective use. That is why countries with the most economic freedom are the most prosperous...and why the poorest people in a capitalist society are always going to be richer than the poorest people in a socialist society.
Ed Bugos
Thankfully he was who he was. God Bless.
Thailands infrastructure is COLLAPSING. I can hardly send this mail to you for lack of electric and internet.
Who will pay for infrastructure?
Serious reply expected,
Samui