Is It Time to Restructure the Financing of our Social Programs?

More “tymlee” than ever in light of our upcoming election.

Tymlee's Blog

Now is the time not only to manage government debt responsibly, but also to restructure debt financing through the government access to capital markets.

Following the Great Recession of 2008 to 2009, governments in North America and elsewhere are faced with smaller tax revenues at a time when citizens rely more heavily on government funded social programs. This has resulted in significantly increased government deficits and debts, which in turn have put pressure on governments to reduce fiscal outlays for social programs in order to reduce the debt load.

Here, and in the United States, most of the social programs, such as health care, government pension plans and social security, employment insurance, etc., may be described as “unfunded liabilities.” This means that, with the exception of the Canada Pension Plan, social programs rely largely on tax revenues and interest bearing notes for funding, and are not supported by capital investments.

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Dear Marci, My friend, My Hero

My dear friend Marci,

The very thought of you brings warmth to my being as an upturned face in the spring sun. The breadth of your caring and generosity of spirit is infinite, as I know will be its legacy. Your fidelity of conviction, and your commitment to putting action to your passionate belief that the most vulnerable amongst us are the most deserving of our efforts, are startling in their profundity and inspiring in this world hued by a “beggar thy neighbour” psyche. You truly are the embodiment of  compassion and humanity. You are, at once, brave and humble. Selfless and determined. Light hearted yet aching viscerally for those who suffer.

I only knew you for a few years and, though we never met, despite having tried a few times, I will cherish our friendship for the rest of my life. I will resolve to use your inspiration to continue to be engaged, to push this world forward, to be the better place that you knew it could be and that you strove to effect through myriad, cumulative acts.

I am so happy you were able to get to your daughter, Marlee’s wedding – I know how much joy it gave you. I know how proud you are of Barry’s work and Rachel’s music.

Your column on Twitter will always stay right beside mine, where it has always been. And tomorrow I am going to wear the Tweetnik t-shirt you sent me. I love you Marci and, though I’m in a pool of tears, I am also celebrating the remarkable mother, sister, friend, activist and person that you are. Go with peace my friend, your time here has left us all the richer for having known you. Good bye my friend, you unsung hero who would cringe with humility to hear this elegiac au revoir.

All my love,

Michelle (Tymlee)

P.S. You always said we would go to Kuwait together when Fayiz was freed – I promise I will still go and give thanks to you when I’m there.

Application of Quantized Metrics in the Treatment of Non-local Events as Produced in Double slit Experiments

Gregory C. Matthews

January  27, 2013 (copyright)

Abstract

This article provides an ontological interpretation of the results of standard double-slit experiments by consideration of formulations of quantized metrics. A quantized metric form describing particle propagation in a quantized space-form would result in non-local trajectories. A reexamination of the double slit experiments may confirm and describe experimentally the exact form of a quantized metric.

This essay explores a reinterpretation of the famous “double slit experiment” in the context of proposed formulations of quantized metrics, in part, to determine if the results of the experiments agree with the formulations of quantized metrics, and, in part, to advance ontological interpretations of the results. The essay argues that a quantized form of the metric is needed in order to model quantum gravity, and that any form of the metric would also yield ‘non-local effects.”

In standard Einstein models of the space-time metric, a fundamental precept of relativistic theories is that theories resulting in non-local effects are invalid, [1], where such phenomena are described by classical relativity theorists as “spooky action at a distance.” Most of relativistic theory was formulated before the advent of quantum mechanics and the formalism adopted in the Copenhagen Interpretation of 1929.

Much of the observed behavior of particles described by quantum mechanics seemed to defy the general intuition of physicists and mathematicians trained in classical and high energy relativistic physics. One of the most famous examples of particle behavior that seemingly violates basic models of space-time constructs is the double slit experiment [2], [3], [4]. In this experiment, single particles are admitted to an apparatus constructed with two slits available for the impingent particle to pass through, and then impinge on a detector. Observations of the pattern produced by the detector apparatus using many repeats of the experiment, show an interference pattern scatter consistent with a model where the impingent particle interferes with itself as it propagates through the double slit apparatus. The observed particle behavior may be seen as a violation of the predictions of classical and relativistic physics. The results of the double slit experiment seem to be consistent with a single particle propagating through both spatially separated slits at the same time.

To this point, most methodologies applied in experimental work with quantum field mechanics have relied on classical measures, such as classical clocks and rulers. To date, observations made using the traditional apparatus of the double slit experiment have relied on classical clocks and rulers, instead of the possibility of using quantized clocks and rulers [5]. With a conjectured quantized metric, the results of the double slit experiment may be interpreted differently.

A number of theoretical physics conjecture have been proposed to explain this apparent “non- local’ behavior of quantized particles. An important aspect of quantum theory is the proposed treatment of quantized forms of the metric as described in [6], [7].

We postulate a quantized form of the metric as: gμν = ΦμΦν (1)

As part of this conjecture, we consider Φμ and Φν as waveforms of the vacuum of the constructed experimental apparatus at the loci of the double slits before impingement of a Dirac particle to the apparatus. We also postulate that the vacua waveforms are not subject to the Pauli Exclusion Principle, and may share identical sets of quantum numbers.

A logical deduction that may be made, given these two assumptions, is that if two or more vacua share the same set of quantum numbers, then, from the perspective of classical space- time, they would have the property of seeming to occupy the same event locus as each other from the perspective of the impingement Dirac particle. The double slit apparatus itself is a form of a classical ruler used in determining classical measures of event loci. From the perspective of a quantized model of the metric, however, a set of vacua particles, including shared identical sets of quantum numbers, at the loci of the two slits would treat the apparent classical spatial- temporal separation of the two slits as a single event locus. We then apply the Calculus of Variations to the formulation of the expected propagation of Dirac particles admitted to the experimental apparatus. An assumption is applied that vacua may share identical sets of quantum numbers in the neighborhood of two classically separated loci corresponding to the two slits of the apparatus, as measured using classical rulers and clocks. Equation (2) models the wave-forms to be considered in application of the Calculus of Variations:

Φ(i)μ = ΦD(i) μ + Φv(i) (2)

Φ(i)μ ΦD(s1)μ + Φv(s1)μ = ΦD(s2)μ + Φv(s2)μ = Φ(s)μ, (3) Setting Φ(s1)Vμ = Φ(s2)Vμ, for vacua sharing identical sets of quantum numbers, and applying

Boolean algebra, A + A = A, for the vacua, we obtain: Φ(s)μ  Φ(f)μ = ΦD(f)μ + Φd(f)μ at the detector (4)

In Equations (2) to (4), ΦDμ represents the wave-form of a Dirac particle, Φv the wave-form of vacua particle. The use of notation of the form Φ(i), Φv(s), and Φv(f) denotes the terms of the waveform of the particles prior to interaction with the slits, the terms at particle interaction with the slits, and the terms for interaction with the detector, respectively. Φv(s1)μ and Φv(s2)μ represent the wave-form of virtual particles in the neighborhood of slits 1 and 2, which may share identical sets of quantum numbers. The term, Φd(f)μ, represents the wave-form of the detector.

Since, Φv (s1)μ and Φv (s2)μ are stated to represent the wave-form descriptor of the two slits, they are indistinguishable from each other as a consequence of sharing identical sets of quantum numbers. Included in this conjecture is an assumption, as suggested in [8], that all particle interactions may be treated as an observation inasmuch as particle interactions result in collapse of the superposed state, whether or not an experimental physicist observes the interaction. In this model, a distinction is made between observations made by bosonic detectors as opposed to fermionic detectors, the latter of which is subject to the Pauli Exclusion Principle.

Fermionic detectors are used in the classic description of the two-slit experiment. As a consequence, the interaction of the impingement particle on the detector behind the two-slits is entirely local since the detector is fermionic, and subject to the Pauli Exclusion Principle.1 No two particles of the detector may share the same set of quantum numbers, and therefore, the particle interaction with the detector is unique to the interaction with the fermionic particle of the detector on impingement.

This is unlike the proposed bosonic descriptor of the vacua constituting the two-slits of the apparatus where the vacua of both slits may share identical quantum numbers. At the quantum scale, both slits may be treated as identical, and hence the particle impingent on the two slits interacts equally with both.

At the point of observation at the detector, however, the impingent particle will contain the total information of a particle that had interacted with both slits. An observation of the contained information of the impingement particle will be resolved at the fermionic detector as if the impingent particle interfered with itself. This set of equations predicts the interference pattern observed generally in the double slit experiments.

Solutions of the application of the Calculus of Variations in this model would predict that an impinging Dirac particle would propagate through both slits where the quantum numbers of the vacua in the neighborhood of the two slits were identical, as if, from a frame of reference of quantized rulers and clocks, the event loci of the two slits were identical. Solutions may be made by inspection.

In summary, by application of a postulated form of a quantized metric to the modeling of a double slit experiment, it may be stated that the event loci would have the appearance of non- local action at the two slits, where the vacua are not subject to the Pauli Exclusion Principle.

Such results may explain apparent contradictions with Einstein’s prohibitions on non-locality in cases where quantized metrics are conjectured as opposed to metrics based on classical clocks and rulers constructed of arrays of fermions. Similar models of the vacua may be developed to describe the electron cloud geometries.

References:

1. Einstein, A, Relativity, the Special and the General Theory, Crown, New York, 1961.

2. Feynman, Richard P. (1988). QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02417-0.

3. Pfleegor, R. L. and Mandel, L. (July 1967). “Interference of Independent Photon Beams”. Phys. Rev. 159 (5): 1084–1088. Bibcode 1967PhRv..159.1084P. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.159.1084.

4. http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2010/11/interference_of_independent_ph.php>

1 A postulate is made that local behavior is required for fermions as a function of the Pauli Exclusion Principle. Non-local behaviors would require a violation of the Exclusion Principle, a principle not applicable to bosons.

G. C. Matthews, January 27, 2013

-4-

5. G. C. Matthews, A Note on Einstein’s Twin Paradox Applied to the Behavior of Entangled Particles, unpublished, February 1, 2011.

6. G. C. Matthews, A Proposed Treatment of Quantum Vector Field Theory, unpublished, April 18, 2012.

7. G. C. Matthews, A Proposed Treatment of the Vacuum as a Field of Bosonic Virtual Particles, October 21, 2011.

8. G. C. Matthews, Bayes Theorem Applied to Scalar Wavefunctions and the Statistical Derivation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, unpublished, November 22,2008.

Two Proposed Policy Options to Raise Government Revenues without Increasing Personal Income Tax

This blog proposes two means of drawing increased revenues to support government programs and services as an alternative to raising income tax rates as follows:

1.    Apply a Small Toll Fee, Payable to Federal and/or State/Provincial Governments, to Sales of Equities:

This proposed means of drawing revenue is not a capital gains tax or a dividend tax. The toll fee payable to governments would apply to any sale of equities at, say, a nominal fee of $10 total for a sale of 100 shares of equities greater in value than $5/share, $50 dollars total for sales of 100 shares of equities greater in value than $25/share, and so on using graded scale proportional to share value.

This toll fee would generate large amounts of revenue income to governments, with relatively no major dampening effect on economic growth. Share prices fluctuate so greatly that attaching a nominally small toll fee would attach only a minor cost to investors by comparison, and such a toll fee would also be small relative to brokerage fees. Considering that volumes of equity trading on North American markets usually range in magnitude from a few hundred million shares to over a trillion shares, sustained over a period of 250 business days per year, this small toll fee would generate very large revenues. Similar toll fees could also be applied to options trading and possibly bond markets. The toll fee would also lessen fiscal pressures that would otherwise compel higher capital gains tax and dividend tax.

Since the toll fee would be applied only to equity sales, it would support market stability and investor confidence by providing a small incentive to investors to hold equities over longer periods.

2.    Provide Government Access to Investments in Financial Markets to Support Programs Such as Social Security, Health, and Infrastructure Programs:
Perhaps the greatest single driver of government debt loads is that the only funding means for most government programs lies with tax revenues. The result is a slate of unhealthy debt-equity ratios for those programs.

Funding programs such as Social Security, Health, and Infrastructure, by allowing government agencies access to investments in capital markets would, over time, provide lucrative financial support to the programs and would appreciably improve debt-equity fiscal issues. Such funding programs could be done on an actuarially sound basis, similar to models used in insurance companies.
The Canada Pension Plan funding program established by former Finance Minister and Prime Minister of Canada, Rt. Hon. Paul Martin, has demonstrated both the feasibility and success of such programs.

A. Luchnoi

Bob Rae’s Farewell to the Leadership

A poised, witty and quintessentially statesman-like Bob Rae announced that he was not running for leadership of the Liberal Party today with this Shakespearean sonnet:

Let those who are in favour with their stars
Of public honour and proud titles boast,
Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars
Unlook’d for joy in that I honour most.
Great princes’ favourites their fair leaves spread
But as the marigold at the sun’s eye,
And in themselves their pride lies buried,
For at a frown they in their glory die.
The painful warrior famoused for fight,
After a thousand victories once foiled,
Is from the book of honour razed quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toiled:
   Then happy I, that love and am beloved,
     Where I may not remove nor be removed.

The Treatment of the Vacuum as a Bosonic Field

The Treatment of the Vacuum as a Bosonic Field, gcm

Is It Time to Restructure the Financing of our Social Programs?

Now is the time not only to manage government debt responsibly, but also to restructure debt financing through the government access to capital markets.

Following the Great Recession of 2008 to 2009, governments in North America and elsewhere are faced with smaller tax revenues at a time when citizens rely more heavily on government funded social programs. This has resulted in significantly increased government deficits and debts, which in turn have put pressure on governments to reduce fiscal outlays for social programs in order to reduce the debt load.

Here, and in the United States, most of the social programs, such as health care, government pension plans and social security, employment insurance, etc., may be described as “unfunded liabilities.” This means that, with the exception of the Canada Pension Plan, social programs rely largely on tax revenues and interest bearing notes for funding, and are not supported by capital investments.

Paul Martin, while serving as Finance Minister of Canada in the late 1990s, put in place legislation that would allow Canada Pension Plan to access the capital markets in order to provide a capital base by purchasing equity funding for the Plan. Basically, the Canada Pension Plan assumed the same approach to funding as corporate pension plans. The Canada Pension Plan is now on much more solid footing with a capital and income base to weather economic storms and reduce the long-term burden on tax-payers and government debt.

Based on this experience, it would seem equally appropriate to apply the same measures to finance health care, and other social programs. For example, in the United States, the Social Security program, and government funded parts of Medicare, could be funded by the same means used by private insurance companies. In the late 1990s, former U.S. President, Bill Clinton, advocated such an approach to Social Security. That approach was not supported by Congress at the time. Our Canadian experience with the Canada Pension Plan has demonstrated the net benefit of such fiscal policy approaches.

While there will always be an ideologically based core group who advocate separation between government and private sectors, obviously there would be a net benefit to the private sector, as well as the public, if governments were to gain broader access to equity markets to fund and capitalize social programs generally. This is because, in part and over the long haul, it would bring a lower tax burden on citizens and corporations, would reduce government debt-equity ratios, and provide increased and lasting stability to capital markets.

Restructuring social programs as funded liabilities would allow governments to truly invest in the people they serve.

Can We Engage the Private Sector in Joining Governments in Funding Programs for Energy and Infrastructure Programs?

The Canadian approach to funding energy and infrastructure projects should include, in future, investment funds jointly funded and managed in cooperation with the private sector.

To date, in part because many provinces in Canada generally power their electricity grids by means of government owned power utilities, the burden for raising equity for investment in the electrical power generating sector has fallen in large measure on the tax revenues accrued by provincial governments, and by the rate-payers. Strategies for electrical energy sector investment have also been developed in large measure by provincial government energy ministries which then must vie with competing budgets in other ministries, and market forces. Capital outlays for needed new electrical power developments can easily result in severe effects on government fiscal policy where those outlays are paid for by public debt instruments and tax revenues.

Some provincial governments have made the electrical energy sector more open to development by private investors, most notably in Ontario. However, huge capital investment is still needed in the province to meet forecast demand loads, which will place great pressure on the governments’ ability to manage and meet all the demands on its fiscal policy. Similar considerations apply to most other provinces in their energy sector strategies.

Ontario has also led the way in providing an overall government agency to promote and advise on investment strategies for electrical power generation, including investment in clean energy producers. This agency, the Ontario Power Authority, advises and directs the government and business leaders in matters of developing and allocating investment programs.

While this policy approach has resulted in meaningful improvements to the development of diverse and clean electrical energy supplies, huge capital outlays are still required for sustaining and building base-load power generation. It may be possible to address these funding issues by engaging private investors in a government sponsored investment fund to build capital reserves for new electrical developments, including base-load power generators.

Such a fund, structured along the lines of a mutual fund, would provide a source of capital for power generator providers where the private and public investors would be compensated by dividends arising from the revenues accruing from the new electrical power generation. It would have the advantage of funding provincial and private investments in the sector by providing a source of equity otherwise not available. It would also address impacts on the debt load on the provinces that otherwise would accrue from current approaches to funding new power plants.

Certain tax credit mechanisms may be included for private investors to apply against other capital gains and taxable revenue streams. Equity raised by the funds would be done on a “just in time basis,” and electrical power developers would be required to make interest payments on capital obtained from the fund, in advance of dividends arising from revenues that may later be realized by power generation from new power plants. In this manner, investors would be compensated in a reasonable and timely manner for capital investments in power plant construction that would take many years to complete. Companies, including government owned companies, that borrow capital from the funds would be held to strict financial guidelines to ensure that the companies are on a sound investment grade structure. Any investment capital provided by the funds would be done as a secured debt meeting applicable provincial legislation, or through other ad hoc means of reciprocal equity financing by providing direct and proportional ownership of the new plants by fund investors.

In a time of fiscal stress now impacting provincial and federal governments, new financial strategies will be necessary to address demands and impact on government’s fiscal policy. This would be true, as well, for infrastructure projects generally.

Joint government and private sector investment strategies for infrastructure investment may be just what the doctor ordered in these times of fiscal stress.

Quantization of Special Relativity, amended, gcm

An Imperial E-Mail to Americans

          To the citizens of the United States of America

            from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy). In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and, therefore,not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up ‘revocation’ in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.  A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour,’ ‘favour,’ ‘labour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters,  and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise.’  Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels.  (look up ‘vocabulary’).

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ‘like’ and ‘you know’ is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf.  The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter ‘u’ and the elimination of  ‘-ize.’

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists.  The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent.  Guns should only be used for shooting grouse.  If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler.  Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect.  At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables.   Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon.  Get used to it.

8. You will learn to make real chips.  Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps.  Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all.  Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of  known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager.  New Zealand beer is also acceptable, as New Zealand is pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer.  They are also part of the British Commonwealth – see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys.  Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters.  Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.

11. You will cease playing American football.  There are only two kinds of proper football; one you call soccer, and rugby (dominated by the New Zealanders).  Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball.  It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America.  Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable.  You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Australians (World dominators) first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

13. You must tell us who killed JFK.  It’s been driving us mad.

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream)  when in season.

God Save the Queen!