1.) Politics, economics, and "Modern Capitalism"
I like the idea of
capitalism but think people who
espouse Free Market capitalism as the end all be all anwser for all
that fails in the world are the same type of people who praised and
estolled the values of pure communism. No one view in political
theory is 100% good but you need to take elements from each and add
them to a collective pot of political theory and ideas. You need to
take a look at human behavior and level out what is the percentage
of those who game the system and what are the prcentage who use it
because there is no way out and who takes from the system but
doesn't return to it.
I think government should have no connection or money flowing to it
from private donors and representation should be limited to running
on your own platform not a party. You only join a party once you
get in office. So no party has more than 25% of elected congress or
senate. I think that congressional representatives and senators
should only have one term with 3 years for representatives and 6
years for senators. If they leave they can't go back into private
sector for 3 for 4 years and will collect a stipend to help them
transition back into "Civilian" life. I do not want some
Representative or Senator elect seeing civil service as a get
richer quick scheme to move up the social ladder. If they want to
stay in government they have to move to the state department or try
to run for president or for a lower or higher office.
I think all elections should be publicly funded and I don't mind
having any donations made or signs printed being put into a
collective state pot with all printing of signs and banners and
stickers being done by the State or Federal Printing press. I don't
think elections which are a civil matter should be won via who has
the most money and who throws around the most cash and I don't
think anyone should be able to make money off of them either. It's
a civil duty. If you are gonna run an Ad I think the FCC must allot
the time for the candidates so each gets an equal time during
primetime programing spots in place of commercials and its randomly
selected who gets to go first. And it is them on camera not a well
played sound byte filled movie trailer attack ad.
I believe in the idea of a well established
safety net and
services for of
healthcare, free
education and retraining, and
assistance for housing and food so long as you are showing
productive goals at either getting an College degree of advance
degree or a skilled trade. I would rather have a society of poor
but constantly working academics who actual create and come up with
new public science and
innovation that anyone can use than a
small group well off elites who got where they were because of
money and only perpetuate the consolidation of ideas, concepts, and
technology in large corporate only private enclaves.
Not to mention the ability to take a risk and leave your job to
start your own company can't be done at all now if you have a one
spouse working family. We are locked in to jobs for the desperate
need of health care and other "benefits packages" they use to keep
us from questioning and using our morals to make sure we don't do
things that might damage our communities. It limits true
competition as well.
I feel that people who espouse Atlas Shrugged or the works and
philosophy of Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum, a.k.a. Ayn Rand, are
only doing so to explain away their own selfish apathetic
personality disorder.
I hate Ayn Rand, objectivism is
a her failed actress / hollywood writer way of sounding smart by
trying to apply science terms to everyday interaction. She was a
terrible human being and the people who wish to be her or idolize
her typically are as well.
2.) Industrial Design for Houses and Furniture:
I'm a huge fan of the concepts of
Tiny Homes and
Tiny Home Living. I also love
shipping
container home designs and the
pre Fab house designs of
Michelle Kaufmann
and
Blu Homes.
I love to go to the green eco-house competition called the Solar
Decathlon each year in Washington DC. I love seeing what different
universities come up with for green and carbon neutral housing
designs. I'm a huge fan of
practically in these contests and
which competition houses actually seem like you could really live
in them and reasonably afford to build them for Under 200,000
dollars.
I have a fixation on space saving furniture design as well. I
particularly love an italian line / style of
Murphy Bed /
Flying Bed by a italian furniture
company called
Clei
that turns into a couch that seats multiple people. There is this
amazing importer up in NYC in the interior design / furniture
shopping distinct across from Bloomingdales called Resource
Furniture. But they charge an arm and a leg, nearly three times
what Clei typically charges for their furniture. It makes it near
the price of a bloody brand new car.
One of the other things I love is the idea of gutting an old
Airstream
trailer. I would then love to redesign, rehabbing it to live in
with custom feature sets that suit my tastes and needs. I love
industrial design in architecture and furniture. I'm a huge fan of
blogs like
Dwell or
Apartment
living as well as product
repurposing blog
Ikea Hacker.
3.) The future of Manufacturing:
I'm a huge fan and supporter of the movement of the home
3D Printer makerbot as well as the
Makerspace /
Hackerspace /
Community
Fab Lab
Fabrication
shop movement. I feel the future of design is not about huge giant
factories per say but small shops that anyone can throw up. It's
being at home and having a production on demand when you need it.
Being able to download a 3d CAD file called a Shapeable for the
product you need or want and be able to print it at home or at one
of the many Fab Labs popping up around the united states and world.
I mean you can even print metal parts that can be used to make
bikes, making titanium shapes you could never get out of
traditional huge giant metal extruders or two or even three Axis
CNC machines.
4.) Mass Transit in America:
I am a huge supporter of
Mass transit systems and
car sharing programs
like
ZipCar or the
car share your own car in the currently San Francisco only based
peer-2-peer car sharing Startups like
Wheelz,
RelayRides, or
Getaround
5.) Open Source education:
Easy acces to open free digital textbooks created by the professors
at state schools that help create an open standard of education on
the national and state level. I'm a huge fan of open digital text
book programs like the k-12.org group and the One Laptop Per Child
program. I think we need to start applying these principles to
students in america and require these 100 dollar laptops / ebooks
be given out to all students. I mean the average cost of a public
school text book is 200 dollars. A lot of the time some schools
don't even have enough for the students to take home because of
over crowding in schools. When I was in high school I had to carry
close to 75 lbs. of books on me at all times since the crowding in
the halls wouldn't give me enough time to get to multiple classes
and back to my locker in time. I also am a huge fan of moving high
schools and middle school over close to how we do college classes
and the A day B day 2 hour long classes. also I'm a fan of going
back to the 5 students in a round table style of desks as well
creating study groups inside the classes and the ability to
integrate better curriculums that engage group discussion rather
than being fed a scantron or fill in the blank style of education.
