Rugby World Cup Final

Faf de Klerk

England versus South Africa on Saturday and my choice in advance for "man of the match".

The Springboks' route to the World Cup final has been characterised by the strength of their hulking forwards and dominant physical displays.

But directing the Bok brutes around the pitch in both attack and defence has been Faf de Klerk, the blond-locked, box-kicking number nine (Scrum half).

Footage of De Klerk going nose to nose with Wales lock Jake Ball, who stands 25cm taller than him, went viral on social media during the match.

"We're great friends. It was just a nice moment between us," joked De Klerk afterwards. A case of the 'smallest guy on the pitch' leading the fight. In a South Africa side packed with giants, it is the 5ft 7in scrum-half who stands out.

MONEY, COMMUNITY and PROPERTY

Willi Haller aus vergangenen Tagen, zum Nachdenken (long read):

Without a doubt, money is one of man's greatest inventions. Without money as a means of exchange, a society based on division of labor, as it is today, spread all over the world, would be inconceivable. However, with its role as medium of exchange, its purpose cannot be adequately described.

The second, basically equally great function of money is that it can be easily saved and that it can be capitalised as financial assets. This saving and the consequent relinquishment of consumption may be problematic for some representatives of unlimited growth. However, it is indispensable because there are many projects which can not be financed from current income and often require the cooperation of many to finance them.

The absolutely necessary criticism of our financial behaviour is therefore not directed against money par excellence, but against the way in which we deal with accrued capital, to whom we make it available and under what terms this is conducted. 

The pure doctrine proclaims that money is not a commodity but based on trust and obligations and is therefore without obligation to claim an accrual, that is, interest. This is quite true, especially since most cash currencies have no gold security and their value is ensured almost entirely by trust.

There is a problem with interest, both in principle and in the way the interest rate is set. A fundamentalist criticism would flatly reject the application of interest. It relies on the Bible (which rejects interest rates among its peers) and the Koran (which represents the same line as the Bible). As is well known, Jesus goes even further than the so-called Old Testament. He simply says: lend without expecting anything in return. The pros and cons of interest could be arguably disputed. The fact is that it has a downright murderous offspring called compound interest. It ensures that there is exponential growth in the absence of debt service or lack of continued consumption, leading to an explosive increase in money. If, for example, a gift of ten thousand dollars in the form of a government bond was given to a baby a few years ago, its value accumulates to around one million dollars if the person does not consume the credit and its increment until retirement age. The big debt crisis of the so-called Third World has its roots here.

Out of this emergency, especially with reference to Silvio Gesell, the Nestor of interest-free or negative interest rates in recent times, to demand a complete renunciation of interest, goes past the realities. Not only are billions of dollars being raised daily by all sorts of banks and private individuals but this is specifically linked to the conditions for paying interest. In addition, almost everyone claims an annual growth for their monetary assets which goes beyond inflation compensation.Our consciousness demands this, and the zeitgeist seems to be in agreement.

Regrettably, it is usually overlooked that our interest-rate attitude is related to both a demand for and promotion of separateness by us all, an individualization that strives for every attainable financial security, above all for old age. A renouncement of this protection presupposes a solidarity community which really deserves to be called such. Unfortunately, it is virtually non-existent these days.

Much more problematic is the form of fixing interest rates practiced almost everywhere today. It is based on the so-called “credit rating” and ranges from AAA 1 for the best, most creditworthy addresses down to the loan seekers who are not creditworthy at all and therefore are not granted loans. The interest rate to be set depends on the creditworthiness, ie the credit rating. It is the lowest among the AAA 1 addresses and grows on the way down so that actually, in the end, those who pay the highest interest are the ones who need money most and vice versa. The old adage is thus confirmed: Those who do not need money can borrow as much as they like for the lowest rate of interest and those who need it most urgently don’t get a penny.

There is one last point to mention about money. We have a downright sacred awe for everything related to money. It’s not just that we do not or rarely talk about it but it is also virtually exempt from tax. Apart from an insurance tax [in Germany], the entire financial system is tax-exempt, while all sales of goods or other services are subject to value added or sales tax. It is a matter of urgent necessity to apply a value added tax of at least 0.1% on all stock exchange transactions and all bank transactions. This would not only open up a huge source of revenue for the states, but would also reduce the risk of speculative transactions everywhere.

It is usually overlooked during the whole discussion about money and capital, that the capital employed per job has grown tremendously over the past decades. According to figures from the German Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden, today we need an average of around a quarter of a million marks (or roughly half in euros) to finance a job with all the trimmings. As a rule, employees do not have enough financial assets (or credit) to do so. Outside investors are therefore indispensable. So how are they going to be paid or compensated?

Let’s move on to the question of property. Again, there are no simple black and white answers. Property, as we know it today, was probably created in the first half of the last millennium BC. Before that, everything belonged to everyone, so it was common property and private property was largely unknown.

This changed with the tremendous upheavals of the time, which were mainly due to climatic conditions and which lead to the private ownership of land. For example, private ownership of land was largely unknown among the ancient Teutons. There was the commons, the parish common and the fief. That seemed to be essentially enough. Today it has become an almost sacred cow for Westerners and one which has to be defended under all circumstances. It seems that there is the need for a differentiated approach.

Nobody seems to seriously question private property for the objects of everyday use. In home ownership, however, this is different and even more so with land ownership. For Westerners, owning a home seems to take on the role of a second skin. Private property with home ownership is therefore probably morally harmless, even though ownership, for example, through a foundation and the lifelong right to reside might seem more appropriate. It becomes problematic only when home ownership exceeds its own needs for the purpose of serving investment (and tax savings). The same applies to ownership of land.

Nobody will seriously question the ownership of resources for the founder and original entrepreneur. Again, as with many property issues, it will only be problematic for the first or second consecutive generation because they have contributed little or nothing to the emergence and preservation of wealth. The most problematic is undoubtedly ownership of more or less large amounts of money that are not used to cover one’s personal cost of living. It then only serves to increase and exercise power, for which, as a rule, it is poorly qualified and does little good for the debtor and the general public, often even harming it. The ideal here would undoubtedly be to place the sums which exceed one’s own financial needs into a foundation in order to use them to to meet part of the capital requirements of the economy and the rest of society. The keyword for this is called “neutralisation of capital”.

W. Haller (2002)

10 Jahre BST Gesundheitszentrum

Aus zwei Mitarbeitern wurden nunmehr 30, unter ihnen Diplom-Sportwissenschaftler, Physiotherapeuten und Fitnessökonomen.

Die Anzahl der Behandlungskabinen ist von fünf auf vierzehn gestiegen. 

Des Weiteren wurden Duschen gebaut, eine Halle für unsere Reha-Kurse etabliert und schließlich der Speedcourt fertig gestellt. Dank neuer Aufzüge wurde das BST Gesundheitszentrum zudem barrierefrei. Darüber hinaus haben wir unseren Fokus erweitert und behandeln mittlerweile auch Kinder, Kleinkinder und Babys. In diesem Zusammenhang erfreut sich die Kindersporthalle großer Beliebtheit.

Mit unserem Konzept sind wir zu einer der bekanntesten Anlaufstellen in Sachen Physiotherapie in Solingen geworden.

Im BST Gesundheitszentrum sind Menschen tätig, die mit viel Herzblut bei der Sache sind und für die die Patientenarbeit nicht nur ein Beruf ist, sondern eine Leidenschaft. Das versuchen wir jeden Tag aufs Neue zu vermitteln, gemäß unserem Credo „Wenn unser Team glücklich ist, sind unsere Patienten es auch“. Dabei machen wir keinen Unterschied zwischen Patienten die einen einzelnen Termin bei uns wahrnehmen und solchen, die dauerhaft unsere Unterstützung benötigen.

BST steht für „Bewegung, Sport, Therapie“. Mein Team und ich sind stolz, Ihnen nach 10 Jahren alle Facetten der physiotherapeutischen Behandlung wie klassische Massage Therapie, Krankengymnastik, Elektrotherapie, Manuelle Therapie, Lymphdrainage und vieles mehr anbieten zu können und stets daran zu arbeiten, uns fachlich und menschlich weiterzuentwickeln. Damit wir unsere Ziele auch weiterhin erreichen orientieren wir uns sowohl an unserer Erfahrung und unseren Werten als auch vor allem an Ihnen und Ihren Bedürfnissen, liebe Patienten. In diesem Sinne freuen wir uns auf viele weitere schöne und spannende Jahre mit Ihnen.

-Marlon Horvath & Team

Ways to Grow

Ideas for 2020 on Ways to Grow. (Thanks Joe!)

A checklist to get me started —you can either do the same thing or a different thing…

More of the same:

1. Persist
2. Get the word out

Doing something different:

1. Change an element of what you do
2. Raise your prices
3. Lower your prices
4. Make it better
5. Tell a different story
6. Serve a different customer
7. Enter a new segment
8. Change the downstream effects of your work
9. Earn trust
10. Make bigger promises
11. Organize
12. Get better clients
13. Do work that matters to someone

Patti Smith's new book

Patti in her 2016 memoir Year of the Monkey, on dreams, loss, life and love. And reaching 70.

"Marcus Aurelius asks us to note the passing of time with open eyes. Ten thousand years or ten thousand days, nothing can stop time, or change the fact that I would be turning seventy in the Year of the Monkey. Seventy. Merely a number but one indicating the passing of a significant percentage of the allotted sand in an egg timer, with oneself the darn egg. The grains pour and I find myself missing the dead more than usual. I notice that I cry more when watching television, triggered by romance, a retiring detective shot in the back while staring into the sea, a weary father lifting his infant from a crib. I notice that my own tears burn my eyes, that I am no longer a fast runner and that my sense of time seems to be accelerating… I try to be more aware of the passing hours, that I might see it happen, that cosmic shift from one digit to another. Despite all efforts February just slips away, though being a leap year there is one extra day to observe. I stare at the number 29 on the daily calendar, then reluctantly tear off the page. March first."

"This is what I know. Sam is dead. My brother is dead. My mother is dead. My father is dead. My husband is dead. My cat is dead. And my dog who was dead in 1957 is still dead. Yet still I keep thinking that something wonderful is about to happen. Maybe tomorrow. A tomorrow following a whole succession of tomorrows… No one knows what is going to happen… not really."

Work is a hobby

One of the reasons I still go into work every day is that I still want to try being a software developer in an artistic context. 
I've always seen software as a creative thing, like writing, painting or sculpting, but most of my friends can't seem to process this idea.

I've worked in Dublin, Trossingen, Altenberge and with customers all over Europe from Paris to Belgrade. Now when asked what I'm doing I get blank stares when I say I create software as an individual.

But why do you work?
I work for myself.
Who do you sell it to? I don't sell it.
I do make some money from time to time, by selling something I've created, but most of what I create doesn't make money, the opposite, it costs me money to make it.

I got lucky with Wolfgang and perbit, the company grew and our products were successful and we sold them for a long time to companies all over Germany. I enjoyed being a manager and was able to do the job, sort of, but now every day when I wake up, I'd rather create something than manage something. I don't like being responsible for other people's careers any more. So my manager days are over. It worked well for a long time and the money we made has made it possible for me to live a creative life, which is where I am most comfortable now.

I make software for others. More recently I've made products only for myself, with good results. Something new happens when you relax the assumption that software has to be easy to learn. People have a hard time understanding that you can do art with materials such as compilers, servers, editors, networks, display screens, etc. In general they have no idea what those things are but they're similar to the raw materials of writing (plot, character, story etc.).

In a sense I want to go back to the early 90s, when the internet was still a twinkle in the eye, and I had the feeling that if we created simpler networked software products, people would use them. We've been here before with the birth of the PC.

Woodstock at 50

It seems apt that the attempt to create a music event to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Woodstock music festival ended in shambolic disorder: the venue being changed to a different state, the musicians withdrawing, the tickets then being advertised free of charge, and the whole event then being cancelled.

The 1969 festival was also marked by chaotic disorder and ended as a scene of mud and rubbish.

The Woodstock festival still seems to many a defining moment in Twentieth Century culture, a rejection of tradition and convention and the assertion of complete individual freedom.

Except it wasn’t like that, I never thought it was. The festival was running late, so late that, rather than coming on at the culmination of the event late on a Sunday night,  Jimi Hendrix and his band played at 9 o’clock on a Monday morning. There were not hundreds of thousands, there were a few thousand who had remained amidst the mud and the rubbish, and their numbers grew progressively smaller as the band played. By the time of the encore, the footage of the performance shows people streaming away, and even the festival crew, standing on the stage behind the performers, are looking bored.

The programme concluded and there was a flat feeling. The only conclusions one seemed able to draw from Woodstock were that, after a party, there was a mess to clear up, and that weekends are followed by Monday mornings, when it is time to get on with the real business of life. It was hardly the stuff of dreams 50 years ago.