Поздравляю с Днем космонавтики! Юрий Гагарин - первый космонавт!

Поздравляю всех с Днем космонавтики!

Особые поздравления и самые теплые пожелания здоровья и успехов для
- сотрудников ОКБ завода им. Хруничева, где в 60е годы работал мой отец,  теперь это  ФГУП «ГКНПЦ им. М. В. Хруничева»
- всех знакомых и незнакомых космонавтов и сотрудников институтов и заводов в космической отрасли
- сотрудников, выпускников  и студентов факультета агрофизики и космических исследований  МФТИ

Again and again : Qu'ils mangent de la brioche !

When life shrinks to 4 walls and one screen many processes hidden in the speed of the global world become clear and painful. We see ourselves from within and suffer real feelings. Most of us have nothing to do at home as if we are not individuals but parts of one mad machine. Naked nerves are so sensitive that we feel the weakest signs of false nuances in news, videos, smells, and sounds of the outer world. And we start to hate some people who say something like Maria Antoinette said 330 years ago about hungry French people demanding bread for their children - Qu'ils mangent de la brioche. (Let them eat cakes.)  Her death (guillotine) on October 16, 1793, was terrible. The whole history of misunderstanding between rich and poor repeats again and again.

European Union is strengthening

There is a broader discussion on the EU future after the pandemic. It is related to the problems with cooperation and trust between European Union countries. The lack of joint efforts and help to most suffering countries is considered as the reason for the EU break back into national states or smaller blocks. However, the logic of union growth suggests that such problems are an incredible driver of the strengthening. Nobody will like to meet the next pandemic or any other global crisis in weak and vulnerable national quarters. The real discussion now is the set of measures needed to prepare for a joint reaction to future challenges. They will come anyway. The EU has a strong push to the next level. Do not miss the opportunity to join these efforts.

Coronavirus: nuclear explosion vs nuclear reactor approach

The epidemic is a chain reaction process. One person (nucleus) produces virus-full-droplets (neutrons), which infects (induce fission process) at least one further person (nucleus) and so on. There are two quite different trajectories in a chain reaction - uncontrolled and controlled. The former one is a nuclear explosion or epidemic with mild (or inappropriate) protection of citizens (e.g., season flu). Some countries have chosen almost uncontrolled chain reaction and the daily number of newly infected/deaths increases exponentially (like 20% per day). The chain reaction will naturally stop when all (related) people/nuclei went through reaction.   The latter case is a nuclear power plant generating a stable amount of energy under the strict control of absorbing rods or the current strict measures of self-isolation and quarantine in some countries.

What is the main difference between these two trajectories? Most important, the controlled chain reaction allows 1) to decrease the number of people/nuclei passing through illness/fission; 2) to lower and smooth the released energy/stress for the medical system is and does not crush surrounding media/social connections..

About self-isolation and quarantine. In order to start explosive chain reaction one needs to dramatically increase the density of fission material (e.g., uranium, plutonium). It highly increases the probability for a spontaneously (i.e. in natural radioactive decay) generated neutron to be absorbed by another nucleus. For this purpose, chemical explosives are used. Another possibility is to create a very large plutonium sphere and it will explode by itself at some point. (Do not store your plutonium in large buckets!) Therefore, in order to avoid nuclear explosion one just needs to keep fission material in non-compressed form. For the epidemic, the fission material density is the same as the physical distance between people. What we observe now, people gathering in  larger groups create conditions for explosion trajectory. Unfortunately, this process is spontaneous and probabilistic. For corona-virus, people are already contagious when they have no visible illness-specific features. Hence, any crowd may play the role of the nuclear explosion igniter. Stay safe!

Coronavirus will improve nothing for poor majority

The proprietary rights will remain without any change after the coronavirus pandemic (-s?)  is over. There is no force to dethrone the sacral wealth corona. The trend of labor relative (and now absolute) impoverishment will be strengthened and the discussion on the importance of capital for economic recovery is already in operation. All in all, the decision-makers are the same.

The labor income share plummets

One needs just one graph to understand the increasing stress in US society (data from the BEA -Table 1.10. Gross Domestic Income by Type of Income). This is the share of employees (i.e. labor; the other part goes to capital) income in the Gross Domestic Income. It dropped from 0.58 in 1970 to 0.52 in 2014  - one the year before Trump won. The share of capital grew from 0.42 to 0.48, accordingly. The labor/capital income ratio dropped from 1.38 (0.58/0.42) to 1.08 (0.52/0.48).  Considering the strong trend observed since 1990, one can expect the fall to the level observed in 1929 during the next 16 years. This cliff jump starts in 2020! The labor income share in 2019 will be indicative. 

Further wealth growth will dissolve standards of democracy

Summarizing the history described in our previous post:  the wealth (I mean the wealthiest people with personal content  prone to changes) always has the only goal - to grow in absolute and relative terms, and the wealth has all power and means to do so. The rate of wealth growth is based on the control of (contemporary) most productive population group/technology. The set of control mechanisms evolve in time and adjusts to the ultimate goal. Currently, the most developed countries squeeze the excess profit from extra rapid and global spreading of software governing almost all aspects of goods/services production (e.g. chips, finances) and human life - from basic physical health to deep mental illness. In the modern system, larger and larger groups of population become obsolete as diminishing the rate of profit. These poor people are subjects of obstruction (remember the term "deplorable") since they opposing the wealth growth by populistic/democratic procedures. For example, Trump was elected using such democratic procedures as the person expressing the previous paradigm of wealth growth (as well as people  (e.g. the middle class of the 1950s -1990s) and techniques - industry), which has been progressively losing its power and influence since the start of Internet. Trump is preaching a suboptimal approach to the overall wealth growth, and thus, he is a temporary personage (together with other losers) in the history of global wealth. In that sense, the further wealth growth has democratic procedures as an obstacle - deplorable people have to be washed out. Specific mechanisms are under development - from brainwash through defamation to intimidation.