The execution-style killings in Newark

The execution-style killings in Newark have interrupted my "vacation" in Alaska. This was an act so depraved by any civilized standards that it creates "value vertigo" ... an unstable swirl of right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable behavior ... and attitude ...

What is going on?

I would like to focus on the simple fact that the working-poor nuclear families can no longer bring enough income/resources into the household to provide for the needs of the children AND allow an adult to nurture the children.

The simple fact behind this is that the globalization of wages for labor--the work where human beings supply the effort rather than animals or machines--has destroyed the concept of the head of household earning enough to support a family. Wages for human labor are being reduced to the amount that will keep one person alive and strong enough to provide the effort.

First, let me emphatically state that this result is not the "fault" of market capitalism. It is the result of "free" market monopolism, where the powerful are allowed to set the rules because they have convinced enough of us that the "Invisible Hand" (of a God?) is best, not the rational development of rules and regulations such as governs any other area of human endeavor from baseball to driving on highways.

"Free" market monopolism in baseball would allow the Yankees to move the homerun fences in whenever they are up to bat in Yankee Stadium ... because the other teams want the revenue of the New York City audience.

"Free" market monopolism on the highways would allow trucks to be oversize and overweight ... and speed ... all based on the capability of the truck and its driver.

We must come up with a rational economic system that supports the nurturing of children within the family unit. (C'mon, folks, Milton Friedman is dead AND buried!) It may mean allowing for an extended family to receive community based resources. For example, what is so damn abhorent about paying capable grandparents to be the pre-school guardians of their grandchildren? We have to start thinking about solutions ... using our creative imaginations ... but then, isn't that what we--our society--are losing by not being able to play when we are children?