The objective economic data supporting those facts is solid and has been well documented. The graphic below is based on data provided by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. My objective is to explain why this is happening and show how to identify the policies that make this happen so we can do something about it – ultimately at the ballot box.

To download a pdf file of this position paper, please click here.

(To view a video and subtitles of this text, see the video below. Otherwise, keep reading.)

These trends are the result of policies that originate from a “survival-of-the-fittest” philosophy and a system that requires individuals to be increasingly exceptional in order to achieve prosperity. Independently of the current economic climate, the rules of the game have become more difficult over time making it not only harder to win but also costlier to not be in the winning 1% of the population. Increasingly, in America fewer people win but winning means winning big. However, if you don’t win, the consequences are dark. It’s also harder than ever it’s to break the cycle of loss and begin with a clean slate. Losing begets more losing in today’s America.

An economic system rooted in behavioral psychology?
(I know but stick with me).

Psychologists discovered long ago that the most effective way to obtain a desired behavior is to reinforce that behavior with intermittent rewards on a variable schedule.

I’ll explain.

Let’s say you have a monkey in a cage and you want to teach that monkey to press a button (psychologists actually do this to study learned behavior). First, you wait for the monkey to press the button by accident or happenstance and then immediately you reward the monkey with some food. Soon, the monkey learns that by purposefully pressing the button he can avoid hunger. Press the button. Get a peanut.

The problem is that as quickly as the monkey learns the behavior he can unlearn it. Stop rewarding the button-pressing and the monkey will cease pressing the button. However, if you start making the reward intermittent (a peanut only after every 3 presses, for example), the monkey will quickly learn that the reward only comes after a certain interval. If at that point you stop rewarding the behavior, it will take little longer for the monkey to unlearn it than in the continuous reinforcement example. But, the behavior still soon goes away.

However, if you really want that learning to stick, you have to change the rewards to a variable ratio. Sometimes you give the peanut after every three button-presses. Sometimes you give it after every five and sometimes you even increase it to ten presses or more before you give up the food. In fact, over time you can increase the interval to over a hundred button-presses. When the monkey can’t predict how many times he will have to press the button before getting a reward, he will continue to press and it will take a long time to unlearn the behavior. The monkey just keeps working.

Each time you increase the interval, you’ve made the rules more difficult for the monkey. Each time, he has to work harder to achieve the same result. Yet, the monkey willingly works harder. He learns that his hard work isn’t consistently rewarded. He learns that if he keeps at it long enough, doing what he’s learned is supposed to work; eventually he will get his just reward.

These kinds of experiments work with insects, reptiles, rodents, primates and yes, with humans too. This is all well documented in psychology research. You can easily research it yourself.

America’s policy makers know this to be true and even if each individual politician is not consciously aware of this, the big political think tanks (e.g. The Heritage Foundation and the Brookings Institution and scores of others) are keenly tuned into this fact. They know that as long as our rules still make it possible for someone who starts at the bottom to wind up on top, the idea of the American promise is alive.

Going back to our experiment, if you have a limited supply of peanuts and you want the monkey to deliver the maximum number of presses, the smart thing to do would be to find the point of maximum return. You want to optimize the monkey’s output. What is the least number of peanuts you can give to the monkey without discouraging the monkey to the point the behavior slows down? In other words, how do you keep getting the button pressed and avoid making the monkey so frustrated that he stops pressing the button?

“Occupy Wall Street” is not just about Americans who can’t find work. It’s about the fact that even when they can find work, the rules have gotten so difficult; the deck has been so stacked against them that there just aren’t enough rewards in the game to make it seem worthwhile. By trying to optimize the output of our workforce to the breaking point and by keeping too many peanuts for themselves, the 1% has created this situation – with the help of our politicians they support with their political contributions.

It’s not about unions. It’s not about government spending. It’s not about collective bargaining. It’s not even about our nation’s debt. It’s about the erosion, little by little, of the ability of the working person in this country to control their destiny. It is still possible to be very successful in America. Equality of opportunity is still alive. The problem is that it takes more hard work, more good luck and a greater degree of being exceptionally good at what you do to become wealthy or to even do as well as your parents did just a generation ago.

There are far too many policies to enumerate that have created this situation to fit into this short position piece. Both parties have contributed to this. But in all fairness, one has and continues to far more then the other. When you take a debate with someone on the right to the underlying philosophy behind their policy proposals; I mean, when you break through the surface issues about them being against Welfare, Medicaid, Medicare, Obamacare, Social Security, higher taxes for the wealthy, diminished workers’ rights etc. It boils down to a basic belief that it’s about survival of the fittest with a “winner-take-most” strategy and that that’s the best way to create a competitive and prosperous society. They believe in giving workers just enough to keep them producing in what they believe is a completely optimized economy. They want to get the maximum economic return not only from workers but also from our crumbling infrastructure and even from the money that was earned by workers and set aside in corporate pension funds – which was given to Wall Street to invest, thereby optimizing that money.

Is there anything wrong with believing in maximum optimization? It’s really just a fundamental belief they have about where we should take the country. You may agree. That’s OK. You just have to know fundamentally what you’re agreeing with. If you are not in the top 1%, you are among those being optimized. And you need to understand that when you vote.

Look, I’m an entrepreneur. I believe that the one of the roles of business is indeed to get the maximum return on investments. But I also believe that when you extrapolate that to try to run a country as if it were a business and you treat humans as a resource that should be squeezed to extract its maximum output, you disregard inherent but non-measurable values like quality of life, fulfillment and dignity. When you deprive people of those things they actually are less productive, less creative and actually less optimized. Life for the individual becomes more about the pursuit and less about the happiness and when the pursuit isn’t getting us closer to our hopes and dreams for our children, and ourselves we get frustrated, angry and filled with resentment. And I just can’t get on board with that, despite the fact that I aspire to and work hard toward my own prosperity. And I make no apology for that.

I believe in the American principle of higher advancement to those willing to leverage their natural talents, educate themselves, work hard and create value. But I do not believe in a winner-take-all system where if you’re not contributing the most, you receive next to nothing.

I believe in a system in which everyone can avoid poverty and even achieve the American dream by simply working hard and being honest. If you want more than that, I think you should work harder, be more and yes, it should be competitive. I do not believe in a system, like the one we have created, where politicians tell you that if you’re not making ends meet you’re simply not working hard enough.

It shouldn’t take more than a hard day’s honest work to make more than peanuts.

And that’s what the “Occupy Wall Street” movement means to me.

Please reflect on this. Please vote.

Still at 210 today. Not 209 like I intended. OK. It’s going to be a rough day because I’m so frickin’ hungry. I have a lot to do and a lot of people to talk to today so I need to hold it together. A beer sounds really good and it’s not even noon. I think if my iPhone were rich in carbohydrates I’d have to leave it at home today.

My 4 mile time was significantly better today. I did it in about 37 minutes as compared to 43 yesterday. At any rate, both times are pathetic.

Catch you tomorrow with better news if not a better mood.

OK. One day and one pound down. I know these first pounds are the easiest so I’m not planning on getting cocky.

Yesterday, I did polish off a few carbs that were laying around the house so I wasn’t as strict as I will be from here on out. For protein though, I couldn’t ask for better food. I’m placing monthly orders to cetaks.com and if you don’t know them, they put Omaha Steaks to shame. I recommend the hot dogs/wieners. You can just pop them out of the fridge and into your mouth and they are so tasty. No bun needed.

My 4 mile time is my old 6 mile time, no not too good on that front but I’ll improve over the next week or so. I love my route which is just down the west side of lower Manhattan, right passed the Statue of Liberty. I’m a lucky guy.

Catch you tomorrow at 209 pounds!

I used to have iron will power and a raw determination that I could apply to almost anything. As far as I know, I haven’t lost my drive but I can’t sem to get myself to buckle down and lose this extra 20 pounds I’ve been carrying around for too many years. I don’t look bad but I feel less agile, older and my Tae-Kwon-Do classes beats the crap out of me – and that’s just the exercise part of it, well before anyone lays a hand on me!

So, this is it! No turning back at this point. I’m going to drop all 20 pounds in 20 days and then I’ll slowly put it back on in the form of muscle rather than fat. I’ve read all the books, done all the research and the diet I’m choosing for the next 20 days is pretty much the Atkins diet with a few small variations. I’m also going to be running 4 to 5 miles per day.

Today, I weigh 211 pounds. By September 19th I will weigh 191 pounds. Take it to the bank!

I’ll log my daily progress for the next 20 days here on the blog.

But the differentiating factor about Music Xray is an incredible team who are both good at their jobs and passionate about the work we do. Music Xray is the farthest thing from a one man show and is far from being “my” company. The company is privately held by a cadre of the senior team, co-founder shareholders, investors and early friends and family.

Every day, CTO Jeff Durand and his team work to keep the site purring along while building out new features and keeping it all scalable. Bert Hartmann, our COO manages a very professional team of 18 software testers and customer service and support staff. Those are the real assets at Music Xray. I’m just the guy doing some of the business deals and generating awareness.

After taking some video (below) I decided to put my iPad to good use and made a little sign. The sign was a big hit and my picture must have been taken a thousand times (no exaggeration). Some people who came a bit later mentioned they’d seen me on the news before heading down. Funny.

Below is some of the video I shot. It really transmits what it was like to be in the crowd.

From Wikipedia:

La Diada de Sant Jordi, also known as el dia de la rosa (The Day of the Rose) or el dia del llibre (The Day of the Book) is a Catalan holiday held on 23 April, with similarities to Valentine’s Day and some unique twists that reflect the antiquity of the celebrations. The main event is the exchange of gifts between sweethearts, loved ones and respected ones. Historically, men gave women roses, and women gave men a book to celebrate the occasion—”a rose for love and a book forever.” In modern times, the mutual exchange of books is also customary. Roses have been associated with this day since medieval times, but the giving of books is a more recent tradition originating in 1923, when a bookseller started to promote the holiday as a way to commemorate the nearly simultaneous deaths of Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare on 23 April 1616. Barcelona is the publishing capital of both Catalan and Spanish languages and the combination of love and literacy was quickly adopted.

In Barcelona’s most visited street, La Rambla, and all over Catalonia, thousands of stands of roses and makeshift bookstalls are hastily set up for the occasion. By the end of the day, some four million roses and 800,000 books will have been purchased. Most women will carry a rose in hand, and half of the total yearly book sales in Catalonia take place on this occasion.
The sardana, the national dance of Catalonia, is performed throughout the day in the Plaça Sant Jaume in Barcelona. Many book stores and cafes host readings by authors (including 24-hour marathon readings of Cervantes’ “Don Quixote”). Street performers and musicians in public squares add to the day’s atmosphere.

23 April is also the only day of the year when the Palau de la Generalitat, Barcelona’s principal government building, is open to the public. The interior is decorated with roses to honour Saint George.

Catalonia exported its tradition of the book and the rose to the rest of the world. In 1995, the UNESCO adopted 23 April as World Book and Copyright Day.

Do you ever see random people on the subway or at the store and think to yourself, “I wonder what their life is like.” or “What’s that guy’s deal?” Well, About.me gives you that little window into people’s lives – albeit in a way that is completely controlled and curated by the person you’re wondering about. And while that’s not quite the same, it is pretty interesting. It’s also noteworthy to realize that About.me is legitimizing the “vanity blurb” in a way that no other social network or profile page has. Because About.me is meant to be a quick digital calling card, it seems to be more accepted to “advertise” yourself in a way that would be seen as more narcissistic on other sites including Facebook and even LinkedIn.

I’ve seen a lot of different profiles over the past few days and I’ve categorized them into five types. I’ve given them names for the purpose of simplification. Which one are you?

The upstart professional: These are posted by people who may be young, just getting going in their careers and who don’t have a lot of accomplishments under their belts to mention so they come up with clever ways of saying who they are. Maybe they have a great photo or a unique depiction of themselves to go along with it. The strategy seems to be to call attention to themselves via their profile page and to say a few words simply about what defines them most. Here’s an example. Here’s another one.

The photographer or designer: About.me pages are perfect for these kinds of professionals because they can display their work right on the page itself. The page actually features what they are good at doing. They don’t need to say too much about themselves because the page design or the photo says it all. Here’s an example of that. Here’s another one.

The “too successful to mention” professional: These are profiles by people who are so successful or so well-known that they don’t have to say much about who they are. In fact, they can completely understate it without appearing to be falsely modest. These are people who are on TV or are otherwise famous. Here’s an example of that. Here’s anther one.

The successful (but still rising) crowd: I fall into this category. This is the kind of profile for people who are mid-career, have a few successes under their belts but are relatively unknown and still need to let people know who they are and what they’ve done so they can continue to build upon it. Speaking for myself, I find that if someone is going to read something about me and I miss the opportunity to put my best foot forward I will end up missing out on further opportunities to achieve the next level of success – something I’m very focused on at this stage of my life. Here’s an example of that. Here’s another one.

The professional whose organization lends them considerable prestige: OK, kind of a long name for a category but this is the category for professionals who are moving up, who are probably pretty talented and successful but who can afford to understate it because the organizations they work for lend them credibility. They don’t need to “show off” by listing their achievements. Here’s an example. Here’s another.

So there you have it. This isn’t a definitive list and I’m sure you can think of more categories or better define the ones I’ve listed. If you create a profile for yourself be sure to post it here in the comments section or on my Facebook wall so I can check it out.

The idea was based on the fact that we all have multiple scattered social networks in which we’re present. Youtube, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, Twitter, LinkedIn… plus many people have their own blog. The best place to find someone online depends on what type of interaction you’re seeking with that person.

What we need is a sort of digital calling card that tells people a little bit about us and then directs them to the various other online locations where we can be found.

That’s what about.me is about. You go there, sign up, get your own vanity url such as http://about.me/yourname and then use their tools to easily design a nice little profile for yourself. Here’s mine: http://about.me/mikemccready

Another cool feature is their statistics dashboard that lets you see how many times people view your profile and other little tidbits of fun data. Wow! Back when I was in school I never thought I’d say the words “fun” and “data” in the same sentence.

About.me was in beta trials for most of the year they’ve existed and they emerged from beta just over a week ago. Then, yesterday it was announced they were acquired by AOL for an undisclosed amount. One of the founders had previously sold another company to AOL so both he and his investors are probably happy to an undisclosed degree today.

On the top of each profile page, there’s a little button you can click that will take you to a random profile and you can also go to the directory to see some of the featured ones. People have gotten really creative and there are some excellent designers, photographers and poets coming up with all sorts of creative ways to create their own personal brand.

It’s also a great little link to put below your signature in emails. A little click and people will know a little bit about you. And just like all things digital, you can change it whenever and as often as you like. So far, it’s completely free. I wonder how AOL plans to monetize it and when.

About me

I grew up in a rural, remote, small town called Ord, Nebraska and as you can imagine, coming from the heart of the nation’s bread basket, I have a special appreciation for top-of-the-line meats and produce. And when I refer to prime, grade-A meats, I don’t mean top-of-the-line like you might find at YOUR local gourmet meat market. I mean the kind you can only get at the source. In other words, if you’re not from there you’ve probably never had such quality. Maybe the closest you’ve ever had is from Omaha Steaks but even that doesn’t quite meet the excellence I’m talking about.

In Ord, the locals have a special place in their hearts for the Cetak (pronounced Che-tock) family, who have always run the best local meat-cutting business. In fact, any time a family member of mine goes back to visit, it is expected they will bring back a few packages of cold cuts, steaks and hot dogs from A.J. Cetak’s Meat Market. But this holiday season I became aware that the Cetak’s have gone national with a website and national delivery network that can put this incredible product on your table no matter where you live. If you like your taste buds you have got to place an order. You won’t be disappointed.

My part of Nebraska was settled by immigrants from central and northern Europe and the Cetak legacy began in 1904 with traditional family recipes for savory Czech bratwursts and sausages. The tradition continues today and you can get everything from choice cut steaks to Cetak’s signature wieners / hot dogs (which I especially recommend).

You can check them out here and if you do it fast, you might even get it delivered in time for the holidays. They ship every Monday and Tuesday to insure the flash-frozen products don’t linger in delivery warehouses over the weekend.

Treat yourself!!