Part 1
Everyone wants to make a living. We all know we need good jobs.
Part 2
When we get a job, we don’t want someone taking it away.
Government exists to develop and protect systems in which bribers can make enough to bribe government agencies to protect their livelihoods. Today, bribes may be known as “campaign contributions”.
Suppose, for example, that one wants to be a dermatologist. A governing body of dermatologists keeps track of how many dermatologists there can be without reducing the income of existing dermatologists. Complicated systems that include qualifying tests, admissions, graduations, and getting hired by hospitals keep the number of dermatologists under control. Every occupation’s governing body prefers that problems with which they make a living be kept difficult to fix. Dues levied on members provide “campaign contributions” to ensure that organizational desires can be properly legislated into law.
Suppose, for instance, I discover that using a magnifying glass to focus a beam of sunlight on age spots for several seconds makes them disappear a week or so after the “treatment”.
Should this become publicized in such a way that dermatologists’ income might be reduced, the governing dermatologists would soon direct their media shills to solemnly warn us about “The dangers of using magnifying glasses to focus sunlight on age spots”. Access to media is always the result of payola, with funds generated from dues and donations.
Then, I may discover that a magnifying glass, when used to focus light on moles one or two times for 7 or 8 seconds in mid-morning or afternoon, will cause them to disappear a few days later. The governing dermatologists will increase the urgency of their media messages, and threaten lawsuits that might accuse me of “practicing medicine without a license”.
After that, I may discover that a person could use a magnifying glass to focus sunlight on small skin cancers, and that they were thereby destroyed.
Then, one or two dermatologists would break from the herd, and announce that “It is true that skilled, licensed professionals may focus sunlight on moles and age spots and make them disappear. We have discovered that magnifying glasses made of quartz transmit the full spectrum of light. They get rid of melanin deposits (moles) in the skin more safely than anything else. No one but a licensed dermatologist should be allowed to do this. ”
Suddenly, the dermatologists’ governing body will work to have laws passed so that quartz magnifying glasses would only be obtainable by medical doctors who are board certified in dermatology. Some may want to outlaw magnifying glasses altogether. Others may develop and patent lenses made of materials allowing partial spectrums of light to be focused to remove different kinds of melanin deposits.
Such a process would be widely believed to be “progress”.
Others may think that real progress would be to show anyone who wanted how they could remove moles and age spots for free.
Imaginative readers may wonder if I actually did make moles and age spots disappear by using a magnifying glass to focus a bright spot of mid-morning light on them for several seconds.
