The fairy tale goes that capitalism is the result of a belief in “free enterprise and competition.” The reality is that our economic system, for better or worse, is built on the concept of “limited liability.”

As a private tavern keeper, for example, if someone is poisoned by your beer you can be tried and convicted. But if you are merely a shareholder in the tavern, nothing can happen to you no matter how many people die. It’s a clever and useful way to put money to risky work. It actually may induce competition as others invest in other taverns. Although, in fact, the goal of any company is to be as monopolistic as possible. 

“Limited liability” is a strange partner with democracy. On the one hand, none of us as investors are to be held to account for the actions of the companies we own. On the other hand, collectively we are very responsible for what our government may do. 

Strange. I certainly have less control over “my” elected representative and the bureaucracy that he/she regulates than I do over what shares of stock I buy. Yet if things go wrong socially “I” and “we” are somehow to blame. 

It’s a very easy and slippery slope from not being liable, to simply being a “victim”. We seem, nevertheless, to handle all these contradictions adequately. Amazing brains. 

But don’t let “capitalism” apologists confuse the issue and claim that their form of corporate power is ethically moral. Convenient, yes. Useful, certainly. A way to guide life? Not at all.

Any lawyer knows “possession is nine tenths of the law”. Songs claim “the best things in life are free”. Neither are absolutes, and boundaries are fuzzy. 

In our culture of mass abundance, possession of many things is almost too easy. Yet, trained as we are to competition, owning something is regarded as much more important than merely appreciating it. After all, anyone can view the moon or gaze at the Mona Lisa. Peons! I want to be unique and have something nobody else does, even if it is merely my own rose bush or kitchen pot. 

Limits to ownership are also fuzzy. We’re not quite sure where the law line is drawn between temporary rental and complete control. If I own the Mona Lisa do I have the right to destroy it? If I “own” an ocean beach do I have the right to cover it with oil? On and on, a complicated dance of the ages and cultures. 

“Intangible property” is an increasingly dense legal fiction, in this era of easy reproduction of art, facts and ideas. “My” accepted ownership of a piece of land gets complicated if I produce noxious smells or loud noise or store radioactive materials or rent to terrorists or …

Obviously I have certain qualms about the magnificent and certain values of private property trumpeted these days. A useful concept, like many others, if applied in moderation. 

Variable pricing, like inflation, is disconcerting to us older people. We like to think we know, at least approximately, the cost of a loaf of bread. And, although we are used to sales and “special promotions”, we like to use the “normal static” information to budget our time and money wisely. 

The onslaught of variable pricing is a computer driven phenomenon, and no human brain can keep up. The fee for services like getting a ride goes up and down literally by the second. Nobody knows the true cost of a hotel or show ticket now until the exact moment of payment. It only gets worse, as restaurants and utilities and roads gleefully pile on. Mandatory tips add to the confusion.

It’s easy to understand, of course. Higher demand at certain times means _ in pure economic theory where all parties have full knowledge of everything all the time _ more efficient utilization of resources. We all understand that some of this is clearly socially beneficial. 

But at some point, in a human real world, the fractal finangling becomes self-defeating. You and I do not have full knowledge always. Our tolerance becomes frayed. We cannot then use prices to wisely adjust our behavior.

Oh, I know it will only get worse. And maybe I just pine for older practices out of nostalgia. Yet I wonder if at some point the “full information” of computers becomes “full obscurity” for the humanity it is supposedly serving.

To properly consider appropriate punishment for a crime, we need to make several Utopian assumptions. These are that the law is moral and logical and protects society. That the criminal is actually guilty. that the punishment is applied relatively quickly. Perhaps a few more other considerations, but it is already clear that problems exist. 

The main purpose of laws should be to protect society. So the best punishment is simply to remove the criminal from that society. This also acts as a deterrent to other possible criminals. But creeping around the edges are the need for “justice” or revenge, particularly by victims, but also by other citizens. And opposed to that, at least in “modern civilization,” the need to keep punishment in bounds so it does not become an end in itself or a form of entertainment. 

At one end of the punishment scale is “mass murder” _ the slaughter of random people. Of course this is rarely “mass murder” if carried out by military or police, so even that is fuzzy. At the other end is the poor starving mother stealing a loaf of bread to feed her family. And a whole range of shadow crimes _ usually financial but also ecological, “moral”, and so on _ with dispersed and often vaporous victims. 

In ideal societies, all this is fair, transparent, and supported by the community. And laws remain up to date, punishment proportionate to damage. 

How far we have drifted into impossible dreamland already.  

Fear can be useful. It is good to be afraid of a tiger in the jungle, a snake in the grass, an onrushing car, or a wild surf. Fear helps us avoid many common everyday threats, and imagining fear can help us lead our lives better. 

Unfortunately, fear can also be nothing but imagination, especially about the more distant future. “In the long run we are all dead” should not prevent us from living, doing, and enjoying the short run. The future is always unknown, the far future even more so, and its imagined fears usually turn out to be superseded by different _ if equally frightening _ ones.

I just read two nearly side by side articles. One claims that scientists who study climate are having no more children because they think the Earth will soon be in disastrous chaos. Another claimed there would soon be no children to worry about. The seers have a long history of predicting “the end” .

Okay, the end may come. It may not. It may come in a totally different way than most expect. The real question is “so what, Jack?” All those gloomy gloomsayers are in effect claiming that the present moment has little value. A happy day is worth nothing, a sunset is valueless, a smile on a kid’s face is of no interest. In an eon, or sooner, they will all be gone and forgotten. Alas! Woe!

The worst fears do not prepare for the future. The worst fears poison the present and prevent us from doing anything sensible and missing the enchantment of consciousness. 

I ran distance track and cross country back in the ’60s, when a lonely jogger on roads or open fields was regarded as either a freak or a criminal. For about a decade I kept it up afterwards. Then I began transitioning to long walks and never looked back. I’ve had no desire to get into the current competitive mania of training and races. 

For the last 50 years, I’ve constantly walked for long distances. Not mountain trekking or overnight excursions, but a nice comfortable 4 to 10 miles off and on, 2 miles or so a day usually. Admittedly I have slowed down some now and 5 miles or so is a long distance. With pauses. 

Never, in all that time, have I tried “power walking” or ” “brisk” as my wife keeps claiming we need. I move comfortably steadily thinking and seeing, amazed at how good it all feels and how rapidly ground can be covered by an easy human exercise. 

Generally, I admit to “exercise,” but the real reason is to calm my soul. I do usually feel better physically, when I return, I usually sleep better, digestion improves. But it’s my mind, senses, memory, imagination I am exercising even more. I glory in existence as I rarely do sitting on a couch. 

No abs of steel, bunched biceps, or infinite endurance. Just a little old walk for little old me. One of the best habits I ever acquired. 

Some are born with a silver spoon, blessed with perfection in body and intelligence, fortunate in every chance they ever take. Others are delivered into hopeless poverty, crippled in body, dumber than a post, and everything always goes wrong. An unfortunate few of the former are tragically cut down in youth or in their prime. A tiny group of the latter somehow rise in the maelstrom of life. 

All of us recognize the extreme poles of luck in our own lives. We hope that hard work will make the most of whatever comes our way. Unfortunately, hard work is often overcome by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just as being in the right place at the right time can be the real difference between success and failure. Those who claim to know how to recognize the right place and time are liars. 

Hard work matters. But the real control we have is adjusting our attitude – “making a heaven of hell.” That is truly available to all of us. And, of course, continuing to hope as we cope. Real stability is only available within social groups. 

The worst people today are “winning” loners. They think there is no chance in their lives. They know they alone are responsible for all they have, anyone else could have done the same with a little hard work. They are wrong, dangerous, and corrosive to civilization. 

The world has always had heroes. Today’s financial giants are no different. And, like those heroes, many have feet of clay.

Every once in a while (well maybe too often) I get a random thought such as ” what about museums?” What are they? Why do they exist? Why do I like them? And of particular interest to me, “why art museums?”

The easiest answer is to “why do I like them.” The huge and grand like the Metropolitan, Louvre, or Natural History are simply playgrounds for mind and body, with trickles to the soul. The little and strange are windows into universes of the way other people think. All of them help me place myself in society in a new and hopefully better way. 

Why they exist – well I hate to admit it – but I think an awful lot is pure vanity and exhibitionism. The wealthy get to show off their power and taste to a gigantic and envious audience. The curators get to display special knowledge and justify their own narrative. I do not say those motivations cannot be noble and even heroic _ being noble and heroic is also a kind of vanity, isn’t it? 

I’m happy to have access to museums. I wonder how long they can continue in an age of virtual satisfactions. Like public libraries they may have already had their moment in time. Like public bathhouses, they may fade into total irrelevance in our wonderful new age. 

Random thoughts, random reasoning, but fun to exercise the imagination once in a while.  

Most Americans today want strong national borders. Many want to build a wall around the country. But the reality of today’s economy is that walls are difficult to design, hard to build, and require a kind of selective blindness. 

Permeable membranes are what people really want. Let in bananas from Central America, blueberries from Chile( in season), coffee from Kenya. But keep out the damn Central Americans, Chileans, and Kenyans. Presumably deliver things in sealed containers handled by robots. 

And of course there are other semi-permeable goods and services, like clothing, obtained much more cheaply elsewhere but a “threat to domestic producers.” So slap on a tariff. But then, maybe, the bananas will cost too much. 

And tourism? Oh no, we may want to visit them. They cannot come here. Well – maybe – if they go through the right procedures. With money. And on and on with increasing complexity. 

Mostly people who want such barriers claim they desire to save our ancient and established culture and way of life. Newcomers must be carefully and slowly allowed in. Of course the original peoples _ and their cultures even more ancient _ oh, never mind. 

Eventually, even the most obstinate may recognize they inhabit one Earth, artificial barriers or no. And they will need a much higher IQ than they currently exhibit to work that out to their satisfaction.  

As in any other time of life, grandparents find themselves in a variety of situations. Their response as elders varies. Some are fully constrained by their own health and circumstance, some more free with time, and relative financial security. Some are forced into roles such as primary caregivers. 

I’ve been very fortunate in all this, with a relatively easy glide path and many options. Since retirement, I’ve happily lived as if I were an 11-year-old. So my chosen role as our grandson grew towards 8, is that of being an elder peer – almost a brother surrogate. With privileges (authority freedom etc) only rarely exercised.

A child is mostly free of the concern with the future that arrives around year 10, and haunts us well into our 70s. And so I have been able to truly enjoy each day as if it were unique and marvelous. When things are working well, I convey that to him and we just have a fun time. 

Everyone else, of course, is really busy. When they have time, they are always “making” my grandson do something, to get him to learn. Forcing him to grow up. I hope to be a refreshing, if temporary, change from all that. 

Our precious time together is a grand experience for me, losing a little more of my own residual fear of the future as I immerse myself in all his childhood moments that remain.