What do we do now?

Its been a while, but I'm back. I haven't had much of an inclination to write so I simply haven't done so. But today I find myself wanting to write something again. Here I am tackling a big question, namely: "What do we do now?"

So...what the hell do I mean, now, and what exactly am I pulling you into by saying "we"? By "What do we do now?" I am asking what "we", as a society, as a race of sentient beings who have great power and hence great responsibility, should do next. By next I basically mean in what direction should we head, where should we take humanity now...or next as i just phrased it?

Personally, I feel that we as a society have made many mistakes over the years, but having said that I'm sure we've avoided quite a few too, so I shouldn't be too critical. There are however some problems which are of immediate concern which include problems with wealth inequality and poverty, problems with materialism and unhappiness, and problems with profit, greed and damage to our dear earth.

I feel that the capitalist system, despite its potential benefits, has been used to justify wealth in the form of monetary profit, over all other things, including our morals and values, hence including the very basis for our desire to live. The gap between rich and poor broadens, not just within countries but also between them. The poor struggle more, while the rich enjoy ever greater luxuries all the while living unhappy lives of hedonistic greed. Its been proven that doing things such as volunteering for local organisations that help those in need gives a great feeling of purpose and happiness. Why then is it that we don't all help each other to reach for higher and better things and at the same time improve not only our physical standard of life, but our emotional one?

Are you really proud to live in a world based on greed, exploitation, callousness and a moral imperative to make money over all other things? I thought not. Few of us are so fanatically inclined, yet that seems to be the system we live in. Unfortunately we, as tacit participants of the system, are, whether consciously or not, supporting such a system.

The problem need not necessarily lie in capitalism per say or forms of liberalism for that matter, but rather the ways in which they can be appropriated. I feel that a welfare liberal state could solve many of our problems. A state in which the individual has great freedom so long as he does not hurt those around him. Classical Libertarians argue this too, however their definition of "hurt" only includes physical harm and not economically crippling people by condemning them into debt cycles and so forth.

We need some degree of social welfare. We are after all, only human, and we will all have times in our lives in which the going may get tough. Its only far that if someone loses their job, or is seriously injured, or disabled or something of the sort, that there is a kind and supportive governmental system in place which can provide financial assistance to these people. The mere fact that such a system exists will also greatly reduce anxiety and worry within a society as people will no that if they should fall in life that they will still have a basic standard of living assured for them. Overall I think the benefits of such a societal structure will improve the happiness of the society. This will also be highly likely to improve not only the quality of life, but interesting the societies productivity and ability.

In contrast a complete free-market, akin to what is developing in America, creates a broader gap between the rich and the poor and creates a society based on fear and greed. The large majority of the people live lives of subservience and essential slavery, with moments of hedonism for escape. They live tough and unhappy lives, with consumerism being the favourite attempt to avoid the feelings of unhappines. In many ways I think that many of America's problems stem from its unhappiness, which stems from its inequality and harsh free-market, laissez fare system.

Don't read me wrong here, I have nothing wrong with some people being rich and some poor, difference is all well and good, however, i feel that the poor should at least be afforded the basic necessities of life while the rich should not necessarily have such a reckless excess of luxuries. I think everyone would be all the happier for this arrangement too.

With the development of technology and general advances in the world, everyone should be able to live easier lives, with more time to simply enjoy life. Yet we still seem to work so much? What for, why are we driven to work so much? A large part of our expenses are on consumerist shite which we probably don't need but feel good about buying because we typically feel so bad. So one solution is to simply be happier and hence need less stuff, and hence need to work less, in turn giving us more time to enjoy life. The cycle can however spin the other way too. It we work harder we end up having less freetime and often feel less happy and hence buy more crap we don't need and then need to work all the harder to afford the lifestyle we become accustomed too.

I suppose the big question here is what sort of society do we want to live in? I personally feel that a welfare liberal society will create a happier and more stable society, who will in turn be more positive and also, rather ironically, achieve more by doing less. Work smarter, not harder... thats something we should be remembering here. When i say achieve, i don't mean make lots of money, what kind of fucking goal is that? I believe that a welfare liberal society will support more environmental awareness, more equality, a closing of the gap between the rich and the poor, a reduction in exploitation and material greed. I believe it will allow morals and ethics to resurface, for our race to become all the more learned, and wise, with the knowledge that we live to support we believe in, and that those values should not be how many golden coins we can stuff into our pockets.

Many people yell angrily when leftists talk about government intervention and raise a whole bunch of valid points about how the money is often lost in beurocratic systems and so forth. This is true to some degree but there are two simple answers to it:
1) in a free-market economy the same ridiculous "loss" of money would occur, even on a much greater scale, except that it would be done by large corporate businesses that will come to dominate certain sectors in life.
2) I believe the welfare liberal government would eventually, over time and with the development of our values, become a much fairer and honest system than many governments such as those we have today.

As a further point I would much rather have the government held accountable for what goes on in the world that giant corporations who have no interest except profit. I want ethics to matter, I want humans to be treated like I feel humans should be. As I said in “Classical Liberalism vs. The Welfare State – Which is the better ideal?” "A welfare liberal state is far more humane than a laissez-faire based one. And as a human I’m all for humaneness."

This is all well and good Sam you argue, but what are we going to do about it? Well realistically it might be hard to completely change how the world is run in one day, but then again it took them a fair arse long time to build rome so... One step a time tiger. The beginning, like so many things, starts in the mind. It starts in us collectively wanting and craving a change, and hence demanding it, hence supporting it, hence living it. If you believe in a society where the environment counts buy recycled toilet paper. Yes it will cost you a buck more, but it will mean that you are craving, demanding, supporting and living the life you choose, on the smallest level perhaps, but just imagine the potential for mass change. Imagine if everyone took that mentality, imagine if everyone bought recycled toilet paper... i think you see where i'm getting at... Alone we are divided, but together we are strong.

God, I do sound like a communist. Anyway, theres so much more I could right, but i'll save that for another rant. I think I've gotten the broader picture across. Remember to live life as you want it to be, not as you feel forced to by society. What ever made social norms right? Just because everyone else is being a stingy capitalist and cutting down all our trees to save a buck on toilet paper doesn't mean you have to. Now go out there and do your bit by buying some recycled toiletry accessories...


PS: A special thank you to the all philosophical Dominic Jarkey, for giving me the courage to get off my arse and write something inspiring. Bless you matey, for firstly sneezing into recycled tissue paper, and secondly and perhaps more importantly for simply being there for a friend in need.

Cycling and Your Wellbeing:

For about the last ten months I have used cycling as my primary form of transport. It’s a great thing to do for a whole heap of reasons. If I recall correctly I one day remembered that I’d been given a bicycle for my birthday and thought “I may as well use it!” At the time I only had a vague understanding of what I was really getting into. Now, after ten months, I have turned into a cycling advocate and feel the need to spread the word as everyone should know of the benefits of cycling. There are huge advantages, particularly when cycling is used as a form of transport. Allow me to clarify my claims…

We shall start with one of the most obvious benefits of cycling, exercise! Cycling is great for your health and fitness, both physically and mentally. If you commute by bike to work (or any regularly attended place) you in turn exercise on a regular basis. Exercise becomes easily intertwined with your day to day routine. Indeed for me personally cycling is more a form of transport than exercise. Many a day I have hoped onto my bike of a morning only to think: “Shit, I’m late for work, better pedal hard”. In comparison if I were to go for a run for the sole purpose of exercised I’d much more likely think: “Damn, I really don’t want to go for a run. Why can’t I do it later? It’s so hot… etc”. Clearly the commuting thought is much more productive as there is no direct quarrel in the mind with the act of cycling itself.

If exercise and transport are rolled into one you are much more likely to stick to your exercise routine, as it becomes so much more than just exercise, it becomes something with much more purpose behind it. Your motivation for cycling is to get to work, and with it you get the added bonus of staying fit! After you’ve gotten used to the initial changes of cycling to work it will seem far less an imposition. Indeed if anything you’ll most likely come to view it as a privilege, I know I do. By commuting to and from the city centre I now look forward to my cycling. I believe this may well be because of the added purpose given to the activity.

Essentially being fit and healthy is of immense importance to our overall wellbeing, so cycling helps this as a viable form of exercise. As the world is so preoccupied with weight and the obesity epidemic I should also note that if cycling becomes regular exercise and part of your routine (which will automatically happen if you become committed to commuting) it will also serve to manage your weight and keep your hormones and energy balance in check. I could go into mind numbingly complex detail as to why exercise is fantastic and has many benefits, but I’d get lost as there’s just so much to say. However feel free to have a look at “The Many Benefits of Exercise, Part 1:” for a general introduction to some of the many benefits of exercise.

One of the reasons cycling is so attractive and that I call it a “viable” form of exercise, is that it can easily be implemented into a busy schedule if is used for commuting. Almost all of us could do with a bit more exercise, and those of us fortunate enough to live and work in a small proximity (say within 10 kilometres or so) could quite feasibly ride to work and back each day. Indeed cycling is often faster than taking public transport or using a car (within the city this is)! I have written another article entitled: “How to Gain an Extra Week This Year:” which illustrates the time I would save over the course of a year if I cycled to and from work and uni, when compared to taking a car. Economic matters also come into play concerning how much extra someone would have to work per year to pay off a car rather than a bike, so check it out if you’re interested.

On the old economic front, cycling is obviously much cheaper than other forms of transport; particularly in the long term and it could greatly reduce your financial expenses. In another article "Pedalling Money – How to Save Money by Cycling:” I have demonstrated exactly how much cheaper cycling is. You may be rather surprised to see the difference, especially if you take into account ever rising petrol costs!

If you catch public transport you may be familiar (particular if you live in Sydney like me, where our public transport is poorly invested in) with crowded, dirty buses and old jam-packed trains. This too can be avoided by cycling. What’s worst however is late and unreliable public transport. I used to regularly wait for up to nearly half an hour for a bus or train (this is when going into the city or back home from it). In that same amount of time I could have quite literally ridden home! But these days I wait no longer! I only waited during my naïve younger years when I hadn’t even considered the possibility of riding a bicycle for transport reasons… I am convinced I must have been terribly sick back then to not have realised the benefits I could have gained by cycling. :P

Do you have to walk along way from your bus stop to home? You wouldn’t if you cycled. If you live far away from your work place, but there are trains, you might even consider mixing them. Particularly if you’re a few kilometres from the train station that takes you to and from work. The great thing about trains is that you can take bikes on them.

Cycling as a form of transport is also what is now often referred to as “green”. And “green” is now in. What once was hippy and rather borderline is now mainstream…well sort of anyway. Cycling doesn’t cause pollution (other than maybe the pollution in the making of a bicycle, but realise that this same process exists for all things produced in factories). The bicycle is also “The Most Efficient Form of Transport in the World:”! So cycling is clearly a good way to reduce damaging carbon emissions and create a sustainable future. Cycling would also use fewer resources (such as coal and metals etc) than other forms of transport. If everyone cycled we could even do with less infrastructure (smaller roads etc), which would again save on resources.

Lastly, and possibly most importantly, cycling will no doubt improve your general wellbeing. Yes, endorphins and feelings of wellbeing are a result of exercise, but it proves to be more than just this. Sydney University is providing a course in philosophy next year called “The philosophy of happiness” and in a sort of sneak preview my old philosophy lecturer told our class that for this course a large number of studies have been done. It’s explained further in "Cycling and the Philosophy of Happiness:” if you wish to know more, but for now you’ll have to be content to know that the studies suggested that commuting time is linked with long term happiness, and that as bike riding provides the double whammy of exercise with a typically short commuting time, it would seem to follow that it would promote long term happiness.

Let’s quickly summarise why cycling is the ultimate form of transport:
1) It will help to keep you healthy, keep your fitness levels up (and for those of us who are shallow, think about how it might help you manage your weight)
2) It is much cheaper than other forms of transport – It also allows you to avoid cramped, late, crappy and unreliable public transport (of course depending on where you are your public transport might be bearable so this wouldn’t count as much)
3) It is a time saver, in that you do your daily exercise (we’ll doctors keep saying we should be doing it daily, but most of us don’t!) at the same time as travelling, and overall end up gaining a bit more time each day than if you didn’t commute with a bike and still did the exercise. Sometimes (particularly in the city) it’s even quicker just to cycle than ride by car, regardless of exercise time even if the driver weren’t to compensate for the exercise the cyclist has done.
4) It is a sustainable form of transport that has little negative impact upon the world and is also a highly efficient form of transport.
5) Exercise has also been shown to be important for emotional wellbeing and happiness, and using your travel time more effectively could well also make you happier.

Some people will understandably voice concerns about the safety of commuting by bicycle. This is a valid argument, but one that is often blow out of proportion. The fact is that as cycling increases in popularity due to the move towards green transport and so on, and as numbers increase so too does bicycle infrastructure, bicycle safety equipment and awareness of cyclists by pedestrians and motor vehicles. The Sydney morning herald gives the example of a 50% increase in cyclists in Sydney over the last three years, with an almost non existent increase in injuries, which is pretty darned impressive. If you wish to see the link, clicky here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/bike-riders-on-the-increase-but-road-deaths-stable/2007/10/07/1191695739443.html

Like everything in life, just be sure to use your common sense when riding a bike. Always be sure to indicate, wear a helmet, gloves, sunglasses, a reflective vest and use reflector lights. When its dark also be sure to have proper electric lights. If you do all these simple things you greatly reduce your chance of being involved in an accident, and as the number of cyclists continue to increase, the percentage of overall accidents should continue to drop with the developments that follow the increased demand for cyclist infrastructure, equipment and awareness. So hop on your bike!

Pedalling Money - Saving Money by Cycling:

No, there’s nothing illegal going on here… honestly! Rather, this article is about the amount of money you could save by riding your bike to work, instead of either taking a car, or public transport. Bikes are relatively cheap. In fact if your general travel is within say 10 kilometres of you, it would be far cheaper to ride around on a bike and get to work and various other places, than it would to use a car. Let’s get down to the number crunching:

Cost of riding a bike:
If you were to ride a bike it might cost you around 1000 dollars for the initial start up costs over the year (this is Australian dollars I’m talking here). The cost of the bike (as with a car in ways), will of course depreciate with time and once you’ve bought the initial investment. I know from personal experience that my bike cost me $500, and it was more than ample for the task, in fact it works pretty damn well. You could easily go and spend much more on a better quality bike, but I’m really comparing what the average sort of person would be looking at spending. On top of this its worth investing in a basic pair of sunglasses (you’d be surprised by the amount of crap that finds its way into your eyes otherwise!), a decent pair of bike gloves, which will stop you shredding your hands if you ever have a tumble, and of course a helmet. Investing in some panniers would be a good idea too. Panniers are essentially bike racks that typically go over your back wheel, so that you can attach two bag like storage containers on your bike. There essential if your ever going to ride with anything more than what you can fit in a small backpack. So the bike was $500, then the gloves, sunnies and helmet would be about $100, the pannier system might total 100 to 150 dollars (I got mine second hand from my father, but his model only costs about 105 dollars now) and then you might take the bike in for a couple of checkups each year costing maybe another 200 in total.

So our total for bike riding costs for the year is: roughly a 1000 dollars for the first year, but keep in mind that this is only the first year and that its an investment that will pay off long term (more on this in a moment). Now of course this is rather basic cycling gear were talking and you could easily quintuple this by buying the best racing bike and the best pannier system in the world, and so on and so forth. But for the average commuter it can be done, and done well for just under 1000 dollars a year. What’s more the costs will begin to depreciate as years go buy. Chances are that a 500 dollar bike may last a good 5 years and more. So suddenly you take out $500 for the next four years. Admittedly you might have to repair it a little more, so maybe we end up paying an extra 100 or 200 dollars for extra repairs as it ages per year, but even then you’re still saving more and more. Likewise the pannier system, the gloves and the sunglasses will all last a long time if you look after them. This insures that in successive years you only really have to pay for repair costs, as your initial investments should still be road worthy. Therefore over a 5 year period riding a bike would probably cost you something like:

Year: Cost: Total Cost:
1st $1000 $1000
2nd $200 (repair costs only from here onwards) $1200
3rd $250 $1450
4th $250 $1700
5th $300 $2000


So after five years we have a running total of 2000 dollars, which works out to be only 400 dollars per year! Now you could argue that when riding you have to eat more and you would have to buy more food, but I’d probably just laugh loudly, as we (in the western world) all eat much to much anyway, and its unlikely you’ll need to up your food costs. Plus condensed energy is so cheap in our society, a loaf of bread a week would supply you with HEAPS of excess energy, and maybe cost you a buck or two! So $400 dollars a year for transport, keep that in mind, and you could also argue that some even argue that commuting allows you to do away with your gym membership because of all the exercise you get through traveling.

Now onto the car costs:
Car costs can vary quite a bit more than bike costs, because of so many things like insurance and whether you get parking fines and speeding tickets or not, the cost of the original car varies much more as do repair costs. So I decided to have a look at a few other sources. Here is an American site and the link can be found here (the info I quote about half way down the websites page if your looking for it): http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/almanac.html

Principal on car loan $3579
Finance charges on car loan 359
Gas & Oil 1279
Insurance 819
Maintenance & Repair 662
Licenses, Parking, & Misc. 534
Total Yearly Costs $7,232

“Annual costs of car ownership in the U.S. is over $7000. The Bureau of Labor Statistics gave the breakdown shown in the table at right in 2001. AAA of Minnesota puts the annual cost at $7,754 for 2003 for a vehicle driven 15,000 miles. Cost per mile is $0.517”

So were looking at around seven grand there. However again we must realise that the costs would depreciate once the car had been paid off. As it all gets a bit confusing using other people’s figures I thought I would make some conservative figures as to the cost of a car:

Suppose an average car costs you around $3000, the insurance and maintanence and repair and licensing costs cost you around $1500 per year, Petrol (which is becoming ever more expensive) probably costs you a good $2000 per year (you would be seriously surprised how much people actually spend on petrol). Even these relatively conservative figures come up to be $6500! (This is also providing that you pay for your car outright with no loan!) Of course once the car has been bought the costs decrease as would be expected, but repair costs will also slowly increase, so heres a five year look at a car:

Year: Cost: Total Cost:
1st $6500 $6500
2nd $3500 (cost of car taken out from here on) $10000
3rd $3750 (Repair costs now begin to rise slightly) $13750
4th $3750 $17500
5th $4000 $21500

So after five years we have a running total of $21500! Wow, that’s a bit of money isn’t it? It ends up being an average yearly cost of $4300!

The Comparison:
Now I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a fair bit of a difference to the $400 per year to pay for a bike! In fact its over ten times as much. Needless to say not only can you stay fit and healthy as well as help the environment by reducing carbon emissions through riding a bike, you can also save yourself a small fortune over a few years!

The same website mentioned above from “bicycleuniverse.info” then goes on to provide some more interesting information by comparing the money saved by cycling to the time that would have been necessary to spend earning it:

“One interesting thing we can do with the car costs is convert the car costs into time. The average American earns about $17/hr., or $14/hr. after federal taxes. So $7,754 in annual car costs takes 554 hours to earn. That's over three full months of work each year. Just to pay for the car. And cars are supposed to be saving us time? Drive to work, work to drive.”

Now, even using my more conservative figures of an average cost over five years of $4300, and an average income of say $20 dollars an hour (we’ll say after tax too for simplicities sake) we still find that we’d need 215 hours of work to pay it off!!! Whereas to pay off the average costs of a bike over five years (at $400 per year) would only take you 20 hours!

By these figures if you rode a bike instead of driving a car you would save yourself (215-20) 195 hours of time each year!!! Alternatively you could still work for the same amount of time and either have more spending money, or have more money to save up with!

So by cycling you can save yourself money (or time as the old axiom goes) and also keep yourself healthy. We could also argue that by keeping fit and healthy you’d reduce the cost of needing medication for various problems like diabetes and obesity and so on. Exercise has great benefits for both the body and the mind (see "The Many Benefits of Exercise, Part 1" for further details) and leading an active lifestyle such as cycling promotes will pay great dividends throughout your life. This too could save you money in a sense, although here I think we get to a much more important argument, that is to say what of those things which are priceless?

No value can placed on a human being, nor on the environment, these things are simply to sacred to be commodified like a table or a chocolate bar. Cycling as a form of transport promotes both a healthier body and a healthier environment, really these are the greatest benefits cycling gives. However, for those are concerned with money and perhaps somewhat greedy maybe the above argument will persuade them to start cycling. Alternatively, for those who don’t have money as their primary objective in life it’s simply nice to know that what you do isn’t only ethically good, but also financially viable.