Freedom of thought is more important to me than prosperity. I think of prosperity as a byproduct of innovative societies.

I think of prosperity as being a byproduct of innovation and freedom of thought. Even though it seems like most countries strive for prosperity, authoritarian regimes seldom, if ever achieve it. More innovative societies often do. To me, the ability to innovate is more important than the prosperity itself.

Can we grow our way out of the national debt in a world with limits to growth?

Most strategies for reducing the national debt rely on growing the economy. This is especially true of Republican strategies which also include cutting government spending. With this strategy, the debt becomes a smaller percent of a bigger, mostly private economy.

One problem with any growth strategies are the environmental limits to growth. These limits are either real or perceived. Even if just perceived, they lead to significant regulation on new construction.

Population growth is also a driver of economic growth and US population growth is significantly slower these days. One brake on US population growth has been anti immigration sentiment, largely pushed by Republicans. This is contradictory for sure.

On the other hand, less population can make protecting the environment and lowering the carbon footprint easier. I see many contradictions in demands from mainstream political perspectives.

I found an interesting discussion about the debt where the growth solution was featured prominently, but it had no mention of limits to growth. Growth was especially prominent in the Republican perspective.

Budget cuts create their own problems due to how dependent people are on government spending; especially us seniors on Medicare and Social Security. Budget cuts also can reduce overall consumer spending which is, yet another obstacle in itself to economic growth.

As for relying on the growth paradigm, I see yet, another big flaw. Is GDP growth always the best thing for humanity?

True quality of life often improves in ways that are not measured by GDP. There are many things, such as happiness, health and longevity that are not always measured by GDP. Preserving a natural area can improve quality of life, though often not measured by GDP. On the other hand, a disaster, illness or car accident can be valued in GDP due to the economic activity it stimulates to fix the problems. War can add to economic growth as well.

Many quality of life things are not really measured in GDP like community connection and volunteerism. Even technological progress isn't often measured. Today's Smartphone is likely only worth a few hundred dollars, yet it can outperform an entire 1970s computer facility that was valued, back then, in the millions of dollars.

Maybe the only way we can grow our way out of the debt, if we rely on measuring things totally in dollars, is to inflate our way out of the debt. We can, of course, create more dollars. To some extent, we have done that already. A home, in the 1970s, cost far less than a home today. There is a big price difference between a 1970s fixer upper for $20,000 and one for $800,000 today.

This home value and cost situation is also a factor of limits to growth. There have been limits imposed on housing supply related to things like neighborhood restrictions, availability of water and traffic congestion. It also has to do with monitary expansion; more dollars chasing the same amount of land.

I realize that wealth inequality is a big issue as well, though I often look at other things. Basically, I think we need totally new values and paradigms about the economy and life in general.

The political pendulum swings back and forth on pocketbook issues as the pocketbook never satisfies. I hope Democrats win based on many other cultural issues.

I hope the Democrats can take back Congress. It does seem like the economy has never been totally fixed in my lifetime, but there are other values that are threated by Trump's rule, still supported by too many Republicans.

Trump's leaning toward dictators, such as Putin, with his distain for Canadian and European Democracies is a case in point. The list of Trump's cultural damage is long including purposely stirring up divisiveness between Americans, using government agencies to go after his enemies, using the government to stroke his own ego, trying to rig elections and opposing attempts to deal with climate change.

Now it looks like he wants to sell out to Putin due to the lust for lowering diesel prices in time for the election.

The pendulum of voter sentiment seems to swing back and forth based on trying to fix the economy and it looks like its swinging back to the Democrats. In the long run, the Democrats may struggle with the economy as well. The economy never seems to satisfy people, but there are other cultural values that are important as well.

I find AI to be quite useful, but over emphasis on competition pushing it too fast can create "garbage in garbage out."

As for AI's threat to civilization, the old computer adage applies, "garbage in, garbage out." The pressure to keep up with the Joneses, either China or other corporate competition drives us forward, but it sure creates a lot of garbage.

Like having a personal tutor with plenty of time, AI has been useful as I took Windows off my old computer and installed Linux Mint. The old computer now works on Facebook, but it is still slow, that's okay. I have Theslowlane.com website.

I also now have my new computer running smoothly on Windows. It's remanufactured so the price was far less than even my monthly subsidized rent for this studio apartment. I got it online as local retail choices for remanufactured computers are scanty at best.

The future is ours, not to mention the billionaires we still follow. That's living in the modern world. At least I don't drive a car, speaking of the modern world.

Getting my Dell remanufactured computer, vintage 2018. It still works great. Thanks Santa Amazon, a repair shop and my bicycle.

My new computer has arrived. It's a remanufactured Dell Optiplex 7060 from the 2018 era. Seems to be working great. A much better price than new.

Just got it out of the box. Like Christmas. Now getting ready to put it on the shelf behind my desk and get it set up.

I was able to have Amazon send it to a computer repair shop that held it for me. Local retail choices for remanufactured computers are scanty at best.

The repair shop sold the cables it needs and was a safe place for non post office carriers to leave it at; versus, at best, to my door on the 7th floor, or maybe in the lobby of my apartment building.

Then I brought it home on my bicycle, of course. It fits well in the pannier. I squished down some of the packing material to toss out at home.

New uses for an old Safeway Building.

In downtown Bellingham, according to the webpage of Whatcom Talk, this underutilized building is planned to become an active event space for a Bellingham organization I didn't know much about. I've heard of Fire and Water Story Festival on the waterfront. Now I'm learning more about their year round activities. This is in my newsfeed read from eclectic sources.

My photo from 2020 just before it served as a larger space for Lighthouse Mission homeless shelter. It had several uses after Safeway and sat empty for some of the time.

The old building was once a downtown Safeway supermarket. I remember when there were 3 supermarkets, for a while (maybe 4) in downtown Bellingham during my college years. This was before automobile dependency and limited space for parking pushed supermarkets closer to the outlying areas along I-5.

In my college years, we had Safeway on Cornwall. We also had Thriftway on Holly (where WECU later had their headquarters).

I think there was also Prairie Market where Grocery Outlet now resides. Then I remember when they first built the building now occupied by Habitat For Humanity. It was a brand new Tradewell that didn't last long.

This old Safeway Building is now owned by the WTA transit agency who is using it to promote downtown transit friendly development, such as housing and retail. It is also future space for transit use.

Don't let the grass grow under your wheels. Rush, rush, rush.

New highway pushing forward. My cartoon idea. Drawing by AI. Yes, I know, many worry about AI, including me. It's a useful tool, but, like the automobile, it could also be a curse. One big problem is our feeling that we have to rush into it to keep up with China. There is also the rush, among companies, to keep up with the Joneses. There is the rush among people just to keep up with the cost of living. It could be driving us over a cliff.

Or maybe feet. Picture I took locally.

If associate membership in the EU can work for Canada, how about for the UK as a bridge beyond Brexit?

Now that there is talk about Canada becoming an associate member of the European Union, I got to thinking that idea could help heal the wounds, for Great Britain after Brexit. A larger, slightly less binding layer of the EU?

Thinking my ideas might have been thought of before, I went to AI. Yes, lots has been said about that. AI can sift through lots of media, that I don't have the time, patience, eye strain, or paywall money, to do.

Yes, things, like associate memberships for UK and other places, have been being discussed with both their pros and cons.

Should Canada put a surcharge on oil it sends to US and call it a carbon tax?

I've been listening to the news from both sides of the US Canadian border about the tariffs. Trump gone rouge as usual.

We do get lots of oil, natural gas and electricity from Canada. Maybe Canada could add a surcharge to the oil they send? Call it a carbon tax? That would really make Trump mad.

Maybe I shouldn't suggest it even though I don't drive. It would be a double tax to us in the Northwest as we get some of our oil from Alberta through Trans Mountain Pipeline. Washington State already has cap and trade which is kind of like a carbon tax so it would be like a double tax for Washingtonians.

We get much of our natural gas, here in the Pacific Northwest, from Canada also. Yes, the building I live in uses natural gas in its boilers for heating. My little studio apartment, nestled in a big building, is pretty efficient.

Eastern Canada gets some of their oil and gas from the US, as there aren't pipelines from Alberta to Eastern Canada that don't at least run part way through the US.

We're shooting ourselves in the foot and China is likely laughing, or feeling sorry for us.

Community wealth versus private wealth.

I've never had that much interest in accumulating personal wealth even though I'm not in poverty.

My interest is more in community wealth, the buildings, parks, bike lanes and so forth.

Some community wealth is privately owned which is okay also. Even the wealth of billionaires, if it's serving the community; such as the buildings of a business. I have little interest in the fancy private homes, however.

On bike trips down the California Coast, I camped in San Simeon State Park a few times, but I never bothered to take the time to go up the hill to the Hearst Castle. That's the opulent mansion of the historic Hearst Family. It's now a museum and tourist attraction.

The big mansion I never bothered to visit at San Simeon.

Along south part of Big Sur Highway.

I'm headed down Highway 1 in San Simeon area 2006.

Ragged Point eatery. A place to buy food after the long Big Sur Road through mountains along the sea. One day's ride from Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park to San Simeon.

A beach near San Simeon.

A few photos from other trips in that part of the California Coast.

Big Sur in 2003, but then I had a camera with a date stamp that I never bothered to set. It stamped everything with 1994.

The kind of private property that's not open to the public. I took this for effect. A mansion view along 25 Mile Drive outside Monterey. 2003.

Bixby Bridge in Big Sur Area.

My friend Rick Segreda who joined me during my 2003 bicycle trip down the coast. Posing in a pedestrian tunnel crossing under the highway.

Riding bikes to shoebox-sized apartments can still be a prosperous vision of the future.

Some Trump supporters might think my vision of the future is riding bikes to shoebox-sized apartments and eating crickets, to quote a DOT spokesperson interviewed on NPR.

Except for the crickets, some of that is correct, but my vision of the future also involves chatting with AI, following the news from space telescopes. Biking around town following the progress of construction projects. Enjoying the sight of new construction. Looking forward to technological breakthroughs like hydrogen fusion. Having lots of friends who are millionaires (these days, just being a homeowner can mean being a millionaire).

I've experienced riding in a Rivian all electric truck, it was fun and interesting. I've also been on all electric buses and the Skytrain in Vancouver, BC. I look forward to the days of safer, self driving cars. Among my favorite travel destinations are the observation floors of tall skyscrapers.

Part of my view from observation deck of Columbia Tower in 2025 during a transit / bike trip to Seattle.

My vision of the future seems bright and prosperous to me. I still find biking a friendly way to follow the construction sites and serendipitously meet up with friends along the way. It's a more interesting way to stay in shape than working out in a gym.

As bike information is being removed from Trump's Department of Transportation, a DOT spokesperson told NPR in an emailed statement, "This is a common sense approach despite the Left's belief that everyone should ride a bike to their shoebox-sized apartment to eat crickets to achieve a phony climate agenda." <

Bellingham has been called the "Tijuana of Canada."

Some people notice empty storefronts in downtown Bellingham. I remember when I came here for college, I was amazed how many stores Bellingham had compared to my hometown of Pullman.

Bellingham was not that much bigger than Pullman, but it seemed to have many times more stores. Then someone said it's supported by Canadian shoppers. Yes, at one point, during my college years I read that around half of the dollars, supporting Bellingham businesses, were Canadian. That figure varies over the years due to exchange rates and so forth. Today, many Canadians are staying home due to dislike of Trump.

During the 1980s, I remember one national TV network (maybe CBS) doing a feature on cross border shopping. It called Bellingham the "Tijuana of Canada."

It does seem like there is a lot of floorspace devoted to retail, compared to how much the local population can spend.

Property values and rents have gotten so high that they squeeze out other spending. Today, retailing is also competing with online shopping.

Years ago, when Georgia Pacific Pulp Mill and other factories closed taking away many family wage jobs, I wondered if retailing would take a hit. Those big industries brought outside money into the local area by selling products that were used all over the world.

Some of that loss was more than made up with retirement dollars. Lots of people moving to this area bringing their retirement incomes and home equity with them.

A few years ago, I jokingly said that Bellingham's economy is based on home equity loans.

Yes, it does seem like there still is lots of floorspace devoted to retail with the downtown and all the outlying districts as well as the mall. This is a problem in many American cities.

Pullman, where I grew up, has a lot more shopping now than it did during my high school years before the development of Bishop Boulevard. Bishop is to Pullman what Meridian is to Bellingham.

Is Social Security an entitlement? It is under the first connotation of the word, but this gets conflated with another connotation of the word.

There are two connotations to the word entitlement. One is that it is something you are entitled to that you paid into and / or has been promised to you. The other is the attitude of "entitlement," like the concept of being spoiled. The two are different. The two connotations get conflated in discussion.

Is AI a better tutor? AI to the rescue when the time of professionals becomes a scarce commodity.

AI seems like it can be good at one on one individual tutoring. Yes, it's good to have redundant ways to fact check. Still, AI has time when lots of professionals advisors are too busy.

I had a conversation with someone who had recently graduated from college. I was amazed how hard she said it was to get an appointment with her faculty advisor. Advisement was sometimes booked out over a month.

I don't remember that being a problem during my college years. Faculty advisors and other faculty were easily available. I had many an informal conversation in faculty offices. If I needed something signed or an official consultation, it was easy to make an appointment within a day or two.

I assumed that would still be the case, but maybe not. How long does it take to get an appointment with a doctor? I can see why people go to AI for advice.

Republicans say cut government spending, but it's harder to be specific. Meanwhile there's still lots of money at the top of the wealth spectrum.

Washington State is facing a budget shortfall due to lower than expected state revenue. This news is met with the typical Republican response that spending needs to be cut with no specific cuts mentioned, so far in the news. What cuts to schools? What cuts to state salaries, parks and so forth? It's easier to just say spending is out of control than to really say what needs to be cut.

On the revenue side, there is good news that the state's capital gains tax is bringing in more revenue than expected. It's one bright spot in the otherwise weak revenue picture. This is due to the rising stock market and the continued rising fortunes of the very wealthy.

If the stock market takes a hit, however, it's seen as a volatile source of revenue that would be difficult depend on.

These issues face governments nationwide.

AI and other new technologies are often a boom to consumers, but a mixed bag for workers.

There is worry that we are in an AI bubble. Could it burst?

Through most of my life, new technologies, from automated factories to the internet, have brought a plethora of useful and sometimes free things for the consumer. This has not always been a blessing for workers.

During these decades, asset values have also gone way up compared to most wages. Assets like land, homes and stocks have appreciated so much in value that there is a lot of loose money, around the world, looking for lucrative parking spots. This vast amount of private capital drives a lot of investment in emerging technologies, such as AI.

There is great pressure to keep up with the Joneses. Everything from keeping up at work to the US feeling pressure to keep up with China has created a pressure cooker that leaves many workers behind.

In past decades, such as the 1970s and 80s, automation and globalization in manufacturing brought more abundance for consumers, but also brought layoffs and the hollowing out of high paid manufacturing employment to many communities.

The internet boom of the 1990s brought many low cost and free services to consumers. We have free long distance phone calls and 24-7 banking from home without having to conform to banking hours. We have social media as well as millions of websites and media channels at our fingertips. These blessings have been more dubious for workers and in the long run for consumers as well. Since consumers are often also workers, lower wages effect consumers as well.

The benefits of online services has brought the cost of more surveillance. There are algorithms pushed by the need for clicks so advertising can pay the bills. From this we get echo chambers of similar belief as well as what's called "manufactured outrage."

Now we have the AI boom, also driven by a desire to keep up, plus all that private capital, from rising asset values, looking for lucrative places to park money. Huge fortunes drives the AI buildout.

Consumers are now seemingly benefiting from the free AI services while workers fear the loss of control over the fruits of their intellect. Admittedly, I use AI quite a bit as it sorts through lots of reading saving me time as I research and fact check for my own writing. In the past, teachers often didn't have the time to provide individualized instruction for people, like me.

Yes, I know, AI can make mistakes.

AI can benefit the user providing personalized services, such as teaching, tutoring and counselling, while Professional services, from humans, can cost a pretty penny and have been subject to budget cuts.

Still, this comes with hidden costs and consequences that we can't predict for the long run, let alone the moment.

Behind these buildouts, whether it's been automation in factories, internet technology, or the most recent rush to AI, is the question of whether the whole thing is sustainable. Will AI ever make a profit, or will the bubble burst and lead to a panic?

Will there ever be a sustainable business model of paying consumers and workers, with livable wages, for continuing these business models into the future?

These are questions that we keep needing to ask?

In some cases, a slower economy might be better.

An expanding GDP isn't always good news. If the GDP goes up, it could be just due to inflation. This doesn't necessarily mean progress.

Some people think an ideal world would not have money, but I don't go that far. I think money is a needed tool to keep track of the math. Instead I just think a high GDP should not be the bottom line goal. Health, happieness and good stewardship of the planet should be the bottom line. These things can be measured also. In some cases, a slower economy might be better.

Some economists do call this Triple Bottom Line Accounting, I hear. I apply it to the whole economy.

Higher GDPs and faster growth, just measured in dollars, isn't necessarily better. It can also mean higher costs of doing business and more hardship for people as well as the environment.

I do find economics interesting, so I still think about money, but I don't see it as a god or the ultimate goal. I see it as a tool for running business and government, but the ultimate goal is not just money.

Does a billionaire business owner need a huge personal yacht as business asset for the business to serve the public?

Mark Zuckerberg's 300 million dollar yacht is an example of wealth that I think should be taxed more. I can see a billionaire business owner needs to keep the wealth that runs the business, like server farms for instance, but a huge yacht for personal private use? Maybe he needs it to entertain for recruiting top talent to the company? That's all I can think of for it's possible justification. Somewhere, a line does need to be drawn.

Excerpt exchange from comments on my Facebook page.

YIKES. You're making the case that its cost was tax deductible as a business expense. -Phil.

My Reply. I don't know the specifics in these cases, but right wingers often say, "the rich need their money as they create the jobs and provide the products and services." Right wingers and other members of the rich do seem to find ways to justify whatever. They can afford the best lawyers money can buy. -Robert.

Phil's reply. We have the best Congress that money can buy. -Phil.

Redefining progress and the American Dream.

Hearing a radio interview about career opportunities for today's young people brings me back to my first years out of college as if nothing ever changes.

It's said that this generation may be the first to have lower standards of living and smaller homes than their parents. I heard that before and I keep thinking, smaller homes, but maybe better social lives?

Since my college days, I've been thinking that we are running out of room on planet Earth. If not actually running out of room, at least economic development has been constrained by more and more regulations. These regulations are attempting to protect the environment, such as farmland preservation, wetland rules, zoning and so forth.

If not actual limits to growth, we have imposed red tape limits which is basically what people, on the right, keep harping on. I still think most of these limits are there for good reasons. Yes, we do need to protect the environment. Still, this does have an effect on the ease of attaining economic growth and prosperity.

For years, I've kept thinking it's a tradeoff. We can live better without necessarily consuming more space on the planet.

Examples of this come from social progress in personal fulfilment and community life. Progress in gay rights is one example. More use of public transit, versus the space hogging private automobile, is another example.

For the entirety of my adult life, at least, cities, such as Seattle, have delt with traffic congestion. I keep thinking we could solve that, but people have just acquiesced to it instead; for the most part.

Back in my days right out of college, the big issue was lack of job creation. Industry faced red tape limits. Mining was going overseas and so forth. We faced the energy crisis with gas rationing during my college years. Since then, new technologies have brought more fossil fuel energy from fracking and so forth. Innovation and substitution has brought new wealth around the limits. We've had the tech boom.

Lack of affordable housing is a big issue now, whereas back in my past, it was more the lack of jobs. Today, there are more jobs, but they don't pay enough to afford the same space in housing.

Somehow, I still keep thinking we need to make fundamental changes in the way we define as the American Dream. I still think life can be better now than in (for instance) the 1950s. "Better" can be defined in different ways. Information and personal choices can be seen as wealth. Free time can be seen as wealth.

We need to think differently about the definition of the American Dream. Just taxing the super wealthy isn't going to solve this problem. Yes, I'm for taxing the rich, but even just taxing the super rich still has consequences for all consumers. Today, people are worried about Washington State's wealth tax chasing away the super rich and businesses with them. Will this impoverish our state?

We may need to learn to redefine what wealth means. Can one have a happy life while not necessarily living in a bigger house than their grandparents lived in?

Windfall for American oil under Trump.

As the Strait of Hormuz continues to be closed, oil production is ramping up in other parts of the world, including USA. This may make the straight less important in the long run. USA is now the biggest oil producing country in the world. Since oil is more expensive, US oil companies are making lost of money on the world market. The BBC said that this is one factor pushing up the Stock Market.

I add that this basically lines up with Trump's philosophy which is basically pro big business and pro billionaires. Much of the world, including even in USA, in spite of Trump is gradually transitioning more to cleaner energy. Possibly an unintended consequence of Trump's governance as well.

I heard this on BBC business news from London.