Grandma's Chili

Ingredients

2 LB lean ground beef

1 onion, diced

4 15 oz cans of chili beans in mild sauce

1 15 oz can kidney beans, drained

1 chili seasoning packet (I like the chili kit)

1 cup (give or take) tomato juice - more or less depending on how thick you prefer your chili

salt to taste

Instructions

Brown your beef along with the onion until cooked through.  Drain the fat and transfer to a 5 qt crock pot.  Add chili beans, kidney beans, seasoning packet, and tomato juice.  Cook on high for 1 hour and then turn to low for 4 hours.  Taste and add salt as needed.

*If you are using the Chili Kit like I do, I discard the thickening packet, use the entire seasoning packet, about 1/4 of the cayenne pepper, and about half of the salt.

Serve with saltine crackers, cheese, sour cream, onions, bacon or whatever else you like on your chili.

Book Review: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

 I felt that the heart of the book teaches message very similar to those taught in the scriptures, in the temple, and by modern revelation.  Kingsolver was celebrating the variety and goodness of plant and animal life....what she didn't come right out and say but was very clear, is how she celebrates the wonder of God's creation.  If you can get beyond Kingsolver's obsessions with reducing carbon footprints and turkey reproduction, Animal Vegetable Miracle teaches what we Latter-day Saints should know, which is that all creation is sacred because it was created by God. I'm of the opinion that Heavenly Father wants us to appreciate its beauty and that He cares how we treat his handiwork.

 Before you write me off as a fanatic crazy women, think about how many times we are told the detailed story of the creation. The book of Genesis, Moses, and Abraham to name a few.

Next, there are a bunch of scriptures in the Doctrine and Covenants that back up this idea of respecting creation.

-"all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;
Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul. 
And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used,with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion"  D&C 59:18-20

"all wholesome herbs (ie. plants) God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man--Every herb (ie. plant) in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving."  D&C 89

Do we sit back and appreciate the source of all the food, clothing, and natural beauty that we enjoy?  It's hard to, like Kingsolver writes so compellingly, when we are so removed from the source of all we consume.  Compared to her personal experience with creating food, I felt like I was seriously missing out on a part of life that can be so beautiful and enriching, not to mention healthy.

The last idea, which I shared with Cindy, is I think the Lord foresaw the downward trend of the food industry that makes junk food artificially cheap and very available (which especially hurts America's poorest and uneducated). 

The Word of Wisdom "[shows] forth the order and will of God in the temporal salvation of all saints in the last days...In consequence of the evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days"

Is it just me, or does that eerily sound like what's going on today with the big food companies that sacrifice health and nutrition for shelf life and profit?  I think there are many more blessings available in keeping God's law of health than we realize. It makes me want to really study what other prophets have said on the subject.

Reasons to save the family farm

•  The nation's long-term food supply depends on sustainable practices today
• Sustainable farming requires a small farmer to land ratio because farmers need to have a "relationship" with the land in order to know how to preserve it.
• True family farms (those intended to be in the family for generations) have an incentive to preserve the health of the land.
• Family farms preserve democracy.  Huge agri-businesses result in the population being subject to a few producers for a basic need (food) similar to the population be subject to a few members of a monarchy.
• Small farms (and small businesses in general) preserve the dignity of people.  "Division of labor reduces the activity of labor to dismembered gestures." - Robert Heilbroner
• Good small farmers preserve product quality: "When workers' minds are degraded by loss of responsibility for what is being made, they cannot use judgment; they have no use for their critical faculties; they have no occasions for the exercise of workmanship, of workmanly pride ... this is why we must now buy our clothes and immediately resew the buttons" - Home Economics, Wendell Berry, p. 166
• Small farms have the potential to strengthen community ties since they cannot be completely independent due to their size (they must rely on others for certain things, e.g., a farmer will hire a seed cleaner).  If small farms depend on their community then this strengthens the community.  Large businesses/farms have no need to depend on anyone.  Thus, they do not strengthen communities.

Too big

I have a hypothesis that size kills innovation.  Innovative companies get really big and then they stop innovating.  How can this be prevented?  What if when a product reached the life cycle where it was no longer growing, the shareholders sold the business to the consumers?  In this way, they would capture the full value of their original innovation while not losing the ability to continue to innovate.  So this brings up the question of how consumers would own the business?  A co-op?

Question

Are people attracted to leadership because of the money and prestige associated with it or because they enjoy leadership?

The business formula

I think the overall formula for how value is allocated within an economic system is governed by the following formula:

Consumer Contribution = Producer value received + System value received


There are an infinite number of solutions to this equation, so how is it decided who gets how much?

The consumer contribution is determined by the market since the consumer contribution is equal to the price they pay for a product or service.  The other side of the equation seems a bit trickier.  How do producers, innovators, and systems decide how to split the value that consumers contribute?

I'll return to this question eventually, but first I want to address something that this formula highlights.  Because each of the actors on the right demand a certain minimum value, they will refuse to participate entirely if this value is not delivered.  Since our current economic system depends on all of these actors, when one actor refuses to participate, the product or service is not produced.  But what if you could create a system that didn't require so many actors, each demanding their share?  It's not likely that you would be able to eliminate producers, but what if you could redesign the system so that it weren't so needy - so that it didn't demand so much.  Suddenly, you would have a formula that could deliver products and services that otherwise couldn't be delivered and for those that are already being delivered, you could deliver them at a much lower cost to consumers.

In general, I believe that there is a way to rebalance how value is distributed.  I believe that the system is capturing far to much of the value, and that a healthier society can be achieved through allocating more of the value to consumers and producers.

Wanted: A New Business Model

There seem to be three general components to our economic system: producers, consumers and the system.  Within the producers classification there are many types.  One type that deserves calling out is the innovator.  So now we separate the system into four parts: producers, innovators, consumers and the system.  By the system, I mean the mechanisms that coordinate behavior in the economy and keep things running smoothly.  Examples include accountants, lawyers, and, perhaps most conspicuously, bankers.  My questions are these:

• Of the value that our economic system generates, how much is each group capturing?
• To maximize the benefit to society, how much should each group capture?
• If our current system is not allocating value optimally, is there a better system?