Guest Post by Brad Spangler
Dear Supporters of the Center for a Stateless Society,
It's time for me to again report to you on our financial situation and ask you to please help us pay some bills. Our fundraising goal this month is $1,320. Please support our work. Donate using the ChipIn widget on any page of our web site. Financial details follow...
We have had $1820 in total expenses for this past month of June. Those expenses are partially offset by $300 in income from recurring donations. Additionally, we've received several hundred dollars in online course fees for the Stateless-U program of online courses. Because those course fees are not a monthly source of income, though, as well as because enrollees can potentially drop classes and ask for their money back during the remainder of the month of July, we're only counting a portion of that money toward the June expenses; $200.
That, then, is how we arrived at our fundraising goal for this month:
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$1,820 EXPENSES
-$300 DONATION INCOME
-$200 COURSE FEES INCOME
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$1,320 FUNDRAISING GOAL
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The monthly expense breakdown is pretty similar to what you've seen in recent months. Tom Knapp is now our part-time Media Coordinator, so his pay has changed. Although you'll continue to see the occasional written commentary from him, Tom is now mostly doing promotional work aimed at media placement of our content. Darian Worden is now making more money as well because he's taking up some of the writing slack from Tom writing less. Additionally, I'm drawing a $100 monthly stipend now and had $20 in phone expenses this past month. Here's the expense listing:
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Research Associate: Carson — $425
News Analyst: Knight — $160
News Analyst: Worden — $260
Web Administrator: Gogulski — $215
Media Coordinator: Knapp -- $640
Director (Stipend & Expenses): Spangler -- $120
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TOTAL EXPENSES: $1820
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That's where we're at right now.
Will you please support our work? Donate using the ChipIn widget on any page of our web site.
Regards,
Brad Spangler,
Director, Center for a Stateless Society (C4SS)
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Monday, July 05, 2010
New Blog Thing
Seldom a month goes by without me starting a new blog or web site.
My strategy here is simple:
If I have an idea, I go with it. If it "takes off" -- by which I mean if it returns significant money or attracts significant interest -- I stick with it. If it doesn't "take off," I let it wither on the vine, or look for someone else who might be interested in nurturing it.
When possible, I go with projects that fit into my existing routine.
For example, I spend a good part of each day surfing/blogging material for RRND. There's a category of stories -- I'll just come out and call them what I call them when I see them, "weird shit" -- some of which fit the RRND bill and some of which don't.
Is Elvis still alive? Did the ghost of Howard Hunt blow up the World Trade Center? That thing up there in the sky ... it's a bird! It's a plane! It's ... hmmm, not really sure what it is.
In other words, conspiracy theories, UFO sightings, etc.
Lately I've been thinking two things.
First, I've been thinking that there's an awful lot of that kind of stuff out there.
Secondly, I've been thinking that that even if the people who are interested in that kind of stuff are a niche market, they're probably a significant and dedicated (maybe even obsessed) niche market.
Which means that instead of just walking on past the stories of that type that aren't RRND material, I should probably do something with them (preferably, something that lets me show ads to and sell books and DVDs to that niche market).
And so, without further fanfare, I give you Tinfoil Beanie: All the conspiracy stuff that's fit to link."
My strategy here is simple:
If I have an idea, I go with it. If it "takes off" -- by which I mean if it returns significant money or attracts significant interest -- I stick with it. If it doesn't "take off," I let it wither on the vine, or look for someone else who might be interested in nurturing it.
When possible, I go with projects that fit into my existing routine.
For example, I spend a good part of each day surfing/blogging material for RRND. There's a category of stories -- I'll just come out and call them what I call them when I see them, "weird shit" -- some of which fit the RRND bill and some of which don't.
Is Elvis still alive? Did the ghost of Howard Hunt blow up the World Trade Center? That thing up there in the sky ... it's a bird! It's a plane! It's ... hmmm, not really sure what it is.
In other words, conspiracy theories, UFO sightings, etc.
Lately I've been thinking two things.
First, I've been thinking that there's an awful lot of that kind of stuff out there.
Secondly, I've been thinking that that even if the people who are interested in that kind of stuff are a niche market, they're probably a significant and dedicated (maybe even obsessed) niche market.
Which means that instead of just walking on past the stories of that type that aren't RRND material, I should probably do something with them (preferably, something that lets me show ads to and sell books and DVDs to that niche market).
And so, without further fanfare, I give you Tinfoil Beanie: All the conspiracy stuff that's fit to link."
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Creative solutions to America's problems, part 1: The national debt and unfunded liabilities
The US government is in debt to the tune of $13 trillion.
Estimates of the US government's unfunded future liabilities run to more than $100 trillion.
Hey, we can fix it!
The US uses a fiat currency. There's no problem, in theory, with temporarily pegging that currency to another, or accepting/offering another currency in payment of debt.
All Congress needs to do is pass a law temporarily making some other currency legal tender for the payment of debt. If they got really creative, they could get it down to the instant, e.g. "at the moment of payment of government debt, [insert currency here] shall be considered legal tender."
After that, it's just a matter of spending $2.98 on eBay (including postage!), and ...
... problem solved!
N.B. I see from comments that my C4SS colleague, Mike Gogulski, has launched his own site for displaying and selling large-face-value fiat currencies: Big Banknotes. Check it out!
Estimates of the US government's unfunded future liabilities run to more than $100 trillion.
Hey, we can fix it!
The US uses a fiat currency. There's no problem, in theory, with temporarily pegging that currency to another, or accepting/offering another currency in payment of debt.
All Congress needs to do is pass a law temporarily making some other currency legal tender for the payment of debt. If they got really creative, they could get it down to the instant, e.g. "at the moment of payment of government debt, [insert currency here] shall be considered legal tender."
After that, it's just a matter of spending $2.98 on eBay (including postage!), and ...
... problem solved!
N.B. I see from comments that my C4SS colleague, Mike Gogulski, has launched his own site for displaying and selling large-face-value fiat currencies: Big Banknotes. Check it out!
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