I had my umbilical cord cut in Houston, Texas, which we locals affectionately called Space City. My mother smoked during her long and difficult labour. (It wasn’t considered harmful at the time.) A-Tisket, A-Tasket would have likely been playing on the nurse’s lounge radio. I have it on good authority that the doctor who delivered me was a cigar man and had a stogie in his jowls as he pulled me into the fluorescent light.
Exactly eight months after I was born, the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik-1 satellite. It fell out of the sky exactly one month shy of my first birthday. Although I wasn't directly aware of those events, I found myself quickly ushered into both the Cold War and the Space Race. By the time I could read science fiction books, they weren't really as far-fetched as they had seemed to the generations ahead of me. For all I knew, the mysterious Mr. Bass, might have been my own neighbour. Some HAM radio operators recorded and broadcast the signal pulses from Sputnik-1, back in 1957 and it gave everyone the chills.
My country of birth responded with the creation of NASA and DARPA. We children were drilled at school for the anticipated nuclear war. Although we scampered under our desks weekly, all that actually happened was a bouquet of home-grown assassinations, a war was undertaken under the euphemism, “police action” in Korea and another war that was already underway in Vietnam was entered into. Essentially, we were fighting to curtail an ideology which we had allowed to expand in Europe after the last World War. The Kool-Aid company began selling soft plastic jugs and cups that smelled like make-up, but most kids got used to it pretty quick. I strongly preferred glass because it smelled like clean beach sand to me.
When I was twenty, looking at the economic structure through autistic eyes; I tried to imagine explaining it to another person like myself. Not knowing that I was autistic until over the age of sixty, the piece I wrote at twenty years old was in the form of a Reconnaissance Report by an alien visitor. Such is the feeling of being an alien when you do not yet know that you are not alone, even though you do know that you are definitely different from the majority. After tasting “adult life” for several years, I couldn’t imagine how people explained “normal” human economic culture to their children and retain a good conscience. Luckily, I had no children yet.
Earth Probe Economic System Reconnaissance Report
1977/Random Male/Mike
• Mike works for Company
• They pay Mike Money, less Tax
• Government takes Tax
• Mike puts Balance in Bank
• Mike earns Interest, less Tax
• Government takes Tax
• Mike pays Phone Company with Cheque
• Bank takes Service Charge
• Mike pays Hydro Company
• Bank takes Service Charge
• Mike drives to Gas Company
• Mike pays Gas Company with Card
• Mike drives to Work
• Mike drives Home
• Mike pays Card plus Interest, plus Excise Tax
• Bank takes Interest, Government takes Tax
• Mike drives to Store
• Mike buys Food
• Mike drives Home
• Mike watches Cable TV
• Mike pays Cable Company plus Tax
• Bank takes Service Charge
• Mike receives Bills in Mail
• Phone Company raises Price
• Hydro Company raises Price
• Gas Company raises Price
• Cable Company raises Price
• Bank lowers Interest Rate
• Mike's Money devalues
• Mike's Employer cannot raise Mike's Wage
• Mike's Employer must raise Prices
• Mike's Employer files for Bankruptcy
• Mike loses Job
• Government pays Mike less than 50% Wages, less Tax
• Government takes Tax
• Mike moves to cheaper Apartment
• Mike pays Damage Deposit to Landlord
• Mike pays Rent to Landlord
• Mike earns Interest on Damage Deposit, less Tax
• If Mike vacates before 11 Rents, Mike must pay Penalty
• Mike's father dies, leaves Mike Money $250
• Government takes Tax
• Mike buys Tobacco and Rum from Government, plus Tax
• Government builds Road
• Mike drives on Road and pays $0.10 to City whenever Mike Parks
• Mike arrives late back to Parked Car and City takes Mike's Car
• Mike pays Ransom Fee for Car
• Mike drives faster than Sign says
• Mike pays Fine to City
• Mike buys License for Car, plus Tax
• Mike buys Insurance for Car, plus Tax
• Mike pays City Fine for not wearing Seat Belt
• Government raises Price of Mike's Insurance Premium
• Mike's Car falls apart
• Mike goes to Bank for Money
• Bank Loans Money to Mike
• Mike gives pays Car Company, plus Tax
• Mike gets new Car
• Mike pays portion of Bank Loan Balance, plus Interest for four Earth Years
• One Earth Year later, Market Value of Mike's Car less than Balance owed to Bank
• Landlord raises Mike's Rent
• Mike buys Work Boots and Tools, plus Tax
• Mike gets Job with Shipyard
• Mike joins Labour Union
• Mike pays Union Dues
• Government raises Price of Rum and Tobacco Tax
• Union raises Mike's Wage
• Government raises Mike's Tax
• Mike makes Ships for Shipyard
• Union makes Contract with Shipyard
• Contract with Shipyard Expires
• Shipyard cannot Sell expensive Ships
• Union cannot Afford expensive Rum
• Union stops Mike's Work
• Mike goes Home
• Government pays Mike less than 50% Wages, less Tax
• Union restarts Mike's Work
• Shipyard pays Mike more Money
• Government raises Mike's Tax
• Union raises Mike's Dues
• Mike buys more Rum and Tobacco, plus Tax
• Mike works until Ship is finished
• Union sends Mike Home
• Mike drives to Restaurant
• Mike smiles at Restaurant Man
• Restaurant Man smiles at Mike
• Mike thinks Restaurant Man is Happy
• Restaurant Man thinks Mike is Happy
• Restaurant Man thinks Mike has Money
• Mike thinks Restaurant Man has Money
• Restaurant Man sees Mike's Car
• Mike sees Restaurant Man’s Restaurant
• Bank owns Mike's Car
• Bank owns Restaurant Man’s Restaurant
• Mike pays Money for Steak, plus Tax, plus Tip
• Restaurant Man pays Bank Minimum Interest on Loan Balance
• Bank pays Restaurant Man Interest on “Profit”, less Tax
• Government takes Tax
• Restaurant Man goes to Store to buy cheapest Steak, plus Tax
• Mike goes to Store to buy expensive Steak, plus Tax
• Mike goes Home
• Neighbour needs ditch
• Mike digs ditch
• Neighbour pays Mike Cash, less 10%
• Mike may put Cash in Bank and earn Interest, less Tax, or
• Mike may buy new shovel, plus Tax
• Mike cannot Decide
• Mike goes to Theatre
• Mike Rents soft chair, plus Tax
• Mike Buys popped corn, plus Tax
• Mike watches Movie about visitors to Earth from Outer Space
Some forty years after I wrote the above, I allowed myself the privilege of penning the Assessment and Recommendations responses to the “Earth Probe Economic System Reconnaissance Report”
Overall Assessment of Earth Resources
Abundant naturally occurring planetary resources able to adequately support all life in a unique dynamic balance
Carbon-based life forms found in two major symbiotic kingdoms, Plants and Animals
Approximately 12% of humans managing 82% in return for temporary special privileges bestowed by the top 6%
Mass human anxiety apparent in all highly developed areas
Recommendations and Field Notes
Do not intervene, humans prone to stampeding behaviour
Re-assess situation after sixty Earth Years
Currently controlled by parasitic Corporate Entities, apparently content to destroy their human hosts and replace them with bio-engineered versions and machines
Control is accomplished via emotional, chemical, biological and psychological assault of subjects while under the mass hypnosis of “convenience”
Low risk to universe due to self destructive tendencies of majority
Re-assessment
2015, a Bill in the British Parliament passed making three parent babies legal
Carbon Tax to be levied soon by some carbon-based life forms upon other carbon-based life forms
Polar bear observed to swim over a hundred Earth Miles and a snake observed to live six Earth months without hydration or food.
fin