An Enemy Called Average
If you are finally tired of the color beige . . . if you are sick of always making excuses for failure . . . if you are at the end of your rope . . . if you want to rekindle your dreams of significance and success . . . if you are ready to say no to procrastination-beginning right now . . . then this book is for you!International speaker John Mason has inspired millions of people in business, church, civic, and educational settings with his unique and captivating blend of wisdom, encouragement, and blunt honesty. Now for the first time, an updated and expanded edition of the very same book that has sold almost half a million copies at the back of auditoriums, is available to everyone who is ready to blast beyond average - including you.Let one of the world's premier inspirational speakers challenge you to grow and become all that God has created you to be with timely and enduring teachings that include - * A goal is a dream with a deadline. * The chip on the shoulder weighs a ton. * The best time of day is now. * God will use you right where you are today. Are you ready to defeat that Enemy Called Average in your life? Your life is about to change forever as your mind and soul are renewed through reading the wisdom of this book!
An Enemy Called Average
where WG is a function of R and B representing the average fitness gain resulting from host attack and CR and CB are increasing functions of R and B representing the fitness costs of adaptations. The average fitness gain resulting from host attack WG is stated as
Finally, note that we assume that the two adaptive traits are independent [8-10,50]. Partial derivatives of enemy fitness W (Eq. 1a) with respect to the level of physiological adaptation R and the level of behavioral adaptation B give
A second popular reason for the so-called lack of sustainability is the ageing of the Dutch population where the old-age dependency ratio fell from 8 in 1950 to about 3.5 nowadays and is tending to about 2 in 2040. However, this demographic rationale makes no sense either for the Dutch occupational pension system as it is not run on a pay-as-you-go-basis. In essence each participant saves during his working years for his own pension, although at a micro-level there may be transfers between generations or individuals, for instance, because some retirees live shorter than average and some longer.
President Discusses Strengthening Social Security in Washington, D.C.Capitol Hilton HotelWashington, D.C. President's Remarks view In Focus: Social Security 1:19 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Thanks forcoming. Thanks for the warm welcome. Thanks for the kindintroduction, Gary, it's good to keep it in the old Texas family.(Laughter.) All you other Texans who are here, make sure you behaveyourself. (Laughter.) But I'm really honored to be here. I appreciate ABC, I appreciateyour leadership, I appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit, I appreciatethe fact that you're hiring people and making your communities betterin which you live. I want to thank Carole Bionda and Kirk Pickerel and the board ofdirectors for having me here. You made a mistake, you should haveinvited Laura -- (laughter) -- to be your speaker, if you were lookingfor the A-team in our family. She's become quite the comedienne.(Laughter.) I'm pleased to report, though, that she's doing great.I'm a lucky man when she said "yes" when I asked her to marry me. AndI think the country is lucky to have her as the First Lady.(Applause.) You know, I came to Washington to get some things done. This isn'tmy permanent home. I'm going to give it my all, put my energy into thejob, and pour my soul into my work, and when time is up, I'm going tohead back home. But I want it to be said that my administration cameto Washington, D.C. to solve problems. And when we had a problem thatwe square -- that we dealt with it squarely. And we did it based uponprinciple. And we've been presented with some problems in thisadministration. One of them was a recession, because of an enemyattack and the down-cycle in the economy. We had to deal with therecession. And at the heart of my decision making was my understanding thatmost new jobs in America are created by small businesses -- (applause)-- and therefore any relief, any decisions as to how to deal with therecession had to be good policy for small businesses. And the taxrelief we passed made a difference for our small businesses here inAmerica. (Applause.) And the economic policy is working. I mean, after all, more peoplework in America today than ever before in our nation's history. Theunemployment rate is down to 5.1 percent. Small businesses areflourishing, the entrepreneurial spirit is strong. But there's morework to be done, there's more work to be done. One of the main jobs we have here in Washington is to protect ourcountry. You see, not only did the attacks help accelerate arecession, the attacks reminded us that we are at war. It's adifferent kind of war. It's a war that has taken the country a whileto adjust to, because we're not facing nation states, we're facingterrorist organizations that know no border, terrorist organizationsthat know no conduct the way civilized nations know it when it comes tofighting war. They'll kill innocent people like that in order tojustify a hateful ideology. Which means that we've got to do a couple of things here out ofWashington. One, we've got to do everything we can to protect thehomeland. And we are. We're doing a better job of collecting andanalyzing intelligence and sharing intelligence. Tomorrow I'm going togo to Columbus, Ohio, to talk about the renewal of the Patriot Act,which is an important piece of legislation that on the one handguarantees the civil liberties of the American people, but on the otherhand, gives our terror fighters the same tools that we use to deal withdrug lords or white collar criminals. (Applause.) We're makingprogress about making sure federal agencies do a better job ofcommunicating. The best way to defend the homeland, though, is to stay on theoffense, is to find these people, is to defeat them abroad so we don'thave to face them at home. And that's exactly what the United Statesof America is doing. (Applause.) And for those of you who have got aloved one in the United States military, I want to say two things toyou: one, we'll make sure your loved one has whatever is necessary toprotect America; and, secondly, thank you for their sacrifice.(Applause.) And the second way to defeat the terrorists is to spread freedom.You see, the best way to defeat a society that is -- doesn't have hope,a society where people become so angry they're willing to becomesuiciders, is to spread freedom, is to spread democracy. You know,during the course of the last campaign, I used to tell people about thepower of liberty to transform societies. And what I meant by that wasthat one of my close associates in world politics is Prime MinisterKoizumi of Japan. He's a buddy. He's a friend. He's the kind of guyyou can sit down at the table and say, what are we going to do togetherto help keep the peace, how best to deal with the -- with Kim Jong-ilin North Korea, for example. We strategize. All aimed at making theworld a more peaceful place. But it wasn't all that long ago that an 18-year-old Navy pilotnamed George H.W. Bush -- and I'm confident some of your relatives --were at war with Japan. When you really think about it, 60 years isn'tall that long ago, is it? And yet today, the enemy has become afriend. And the reason why that enemy is a friend is because offreedom and democracy. Democracy has got the capacity to change theworld. (Applause.) I believe everybody wants to be free. I believe mothers all acrossthe world, regardless of their religion or where they live, want tobring up their children in a free society. I believe that is auniversal drive and a universal desire. And it has been proven thatdemocracies are peaceful. The best way to defeat terrorism in the longrun and the best way to leave behind a foundation for peace for ageneration of Americans coming up is to spread freedom and democracyaround the world. And freedom is on the march. For the youngsters here today, I want you to pay attention towhat's in the news. You're living in a remarkable period. Just thinkabout what has happened in a quick period of time. Millions voted inAfghanistan. Millions defied the suiciders in Iraq to vote. Peopleturned out in the town squares across Lebanon demanding freedom. Inthe Ukraine there was a freedom revolution. People in the world wantto be free, and the United States of America will promote democracy andpromote freedom movements for the sake of peace and stability.(Applause.) So while we'll continue to work to do our duty to secure you, wegot to work here at home to keep this economy growing. And here's somepractical ways to do that. First, I understand that health care is anissue for small businesses. See, if most new jobs are created by smallbusinesses, it makes sense to have good economic policies that helpsmall businesses. And so, therefore, one of the things we've got to dois to be wise about how we help small businesses deal with insurance,health insurance. One thing is for certain, to deal with health insurance is we needto pass medical liability reform. One reason your premiums are high isbecause of the junk and frivolous lawsuits that are running gooddoctors out of practice and running up the cost of medicine.(Applause.) When I first came to Washington I wasn't so sure this wasa federal issue. You know, being the former governor of a state, Ikind of felt like the states could take care of medical liabilityissues. But you see, all these lawsuits cause docs to practice whatthey call defensive medicine. They practice more medicine thannecessary just in case they get sued. And all these lawsuits arerunning up the cost of medicine because premiums go up that they passon to the bill payer. Well, it just so happened the federal governmentpays a lot of medical bills. So you were paying Medicare and Medicaidand veterans benefits. It is estimated that these junk lawsuits arecosting taxpayers about $27 billion a year. And so I decided, well, maybe this wasn't a state issue; maybe thiswas a federal issue since it's affecting our federal budget so much,and it's a federal issue that requires a federal response. And so Iput a good bill out, the House passed it, it's stuck in the UnitedStates Senate. For the sake of affordable health care, the Senateneeds to get a good medical liability bill out of that -- (applause.) A couple of other practical ideas that small businesses need tolook at and that Congress needs to act upon, one of them is healthsavings accounts. I urge you to take a good look at HSAs as a good wayto help deal with the rising cost of health care, and at the same time,make sure your employees have got coverage. Take a look at it. A second plan that makes sense is to allow small businesses to poolrisk across jurisdictional boundaries, what's called association healthcare plans. It means that if you're a small business in Texas andyou're a small business in New Jersey, that you can be in the same riskpool if you share the same type of industry -- restauranteur, forexample, in Maine, and a restauranteur in Florida can be in the samerisk pool. Obviously, the more people in the pool, the more you spreadrisk, the lower the cost. The way I like to put it is this: Congress ought to allow smallbusinesses to join together so they can buy insurance at the samediscount that big businesses get to do, for the sake of health care forsmall businesses and their employees. (Applause.) One way to make sure this economy continues to grow is to show themarkets and the people that we're wise about how we spend your money.I sent some budgets up to Congress that are lean, that said, well,let's -- why don't we set priorities and also ask the question of, youknow, some of these programs we're funding, are they working. And ifthey're not working, let's stop funding them -- kind of aresults-oriented system. I'm pleased to report both the House and theSenate passed my budget -- which, by the way, will mean that we can cutthe deficit in half in a five-year period of time without raising yourtaxes. (Applause.) Speaking about taxes, if we want this economy continuing to grow,we got to keep them low. The Congress ought to make the tax relief wepassed permanent. (Applause.) Part of that tax relief was a provisionI know you might be interested in. You see, I believe a person oughtto be allowed to pass their assets on to whomever they want without thegovernment taxing them twice, once while you're alive and right afteryou die. (Applause.) We put the death tax on the way to extinction,except unfortunately the law says that in 2011, it's going to come backto life again. That's not fair. And it's not right. The Congressneeds to make sure that death tax is gone forever, for the sake ofsmall businesses. (Applause.) I'm going to make two other points about how to make sure thiseconomy grows. One of them is going to be -- I'm going to talk aboutSocial Security. I think that's an economic issue. It's a fundingissue. It's an issue that says we got a lot of debt that we owepeople, and the fundamental question is how are we going to pay forit. The other issue, before I get there, is energy. You know, when Ifirst came to Washington, I recognized that we were -- our dependencyupon foreign sources of oil was going to be a problem for us. You see,if you're depending upon somebody else to provide energy, at some pointin time it becomes an issue -- either an economic issue or a nationalsecurity issue, or both. And so I put a strategy up to the UnitedStates Congress, said, look, why don't we do something smart. Whydon't we put an energy strategy into law that will accomplish someimportant goals. They've been debating this energy strategy for fouryears. And so I'm here to describe to you our strategy, and at thesame time, remind the United States Congress that for the sake ofeconomic security and national security, they need to get an energybill to my desk by August of this year. (Applause.) American families and small businesses are paying higher gasolinebills, which is like a tax. And I understand that this has -- thatthis tax has a drag on our economy. It's money that's going out ofyour coffers that could be otherwise used to pay a laborer, or pay forhealth care. And the reason why your gasoline bills are going up isbecause we are dependent on foreign sources of energy. We import over60 percent of the crude oil, which is the major stock for gasoline,from overseas -- or about 60 percent. That's a lot. And, therefore,when global demand is such and price goes up, we pay for it at thepump. And so I said to Congress, we need to diversify away from ahydrocarbon society. And that's going to take awhile, but we need tolay the groundwork to do so. And what does that mean? It means we'vegot to be better conservers of energy; we've got to have an incentivefor people to conserve more. We can do a better job of being wiseabout how we use our resources. Secondly, we need to spend money on research and development tofigure out how to use soybeans, for example, to develop fuel. Now, Iwent to a plant the other day in Virginia, a small soybean refinery,where they're making soy diesel -- diesel fuel out of soybeans, calledbiodiesel. The more diesel engines there are that can use soybeanfuel, the less dependent we are on foreign sources of energy. It makessense to explore ways to make sure that we can use corn or soybeans todiversify away from oil that come from a foreign country. We'respending money on clean coal technology. Do you realize we've got 250million [sic] years of coal? But coal has got environmental hazards toit, but there's -- I'm convinced, and I know, that we -- technology canbe developed so we can have zero-emissions coal-fired electricityplants. We ought to be using nuclear power. It's a renewable source ofenergy. I know that technology has changed where I could say to theAmerican people, nuclear power is a lot safer than it ever has been inthe past. These are all parts of this energy bill that Congress needsto pass to encourage renewable sources of energy, different sources ofenergy, clean sources of energy that will enable us to be lessdependent on foreign sources of energy. We need to be, by the way, exploring for oil and gas in our ownhemisphere in environmentally friendly ways. You know, a hot issuehere is ANWR, the big track of land in Alaska. It's millions andmillions and millions of acres. And, yet, because of the advance oftechnology, we can find oil and gas on those millions of acres in atrack of land about 2,000 acres in size. It's an amazing technologicaladvance. But we ought to be using this technology to make us lessdependent on foreign sources of energy. There's a lot of things we need to be doing and are doing. I don'tknow if you remember, but I put out a new initiative for exploring thepossibility of using hydrogen to power automobiles. See, I believe in10 years' time, with the wise use of taxpayer's money, a new generationof Americans will be driving automobiles driven by hydrogen, not by oiland gas. Congress needs to stop debating this issue and stop playingpolitics and get this bill at my desk so I can say to the Americanpeople, this country has got a strategy which may not pay offyesterday, but will pay off tomorrow for the American people.(Applause.) There's one other issue I want to talk about, that's SocialSecurity. First, Social Security worked great for a lot of folks for along period of time. My predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, did asmart thing in setting up the Social Security system. Social Securityprovided a safety net for a lot of seniors, and it was an importantsafety net. So you know, I'm traveling -- or you may not know, I'lltell you now, you will know -- (laughter) -- I'm traveling a lottalking about Social Security. I'm meeting people that say, I'mdependent upon my Social Security check. I'm confident you know folksthat say, I need my check; it's a part of my life. And so the system has worked fine for a lot of folks. As a matterof fact, it's going to work fine for everybody born prior to 1950. Soif you're a senior getting your Social Security check out there, youhave nothing to worry about, the system is solvent for you. You're ingood shape -- I don't care what the politicians say, I don't care whatthe ads say, the pamphlets say. Don't let them scare you; you're goingto get your check. And that's important for people to understand. But if you're a younger citizen, you'd better be paying attentionto this issue. And here's the reason why -- here's the reason why:There's a lot of people like me -- we're called the baby boomers -- whoare getting ready to retire. See, my retirement date is 2008.(Laughter.) I'm turning 62 years old on 2008. (Laughter andapplause.) It's a convenient time. (Laughter.) And I'm just thebeginning of the baby boomers. See, I was born in 1946, we're calledthe leading edge of the baby boomers. And there's a lot of othersbehind me. Do you realize that there's about 40 million Americans retiredtoday; by the time the baby boomer generation fully retires, there willbe 72 million Americans, more or less. There is a lot of us. We'reliving longer than the previous generation. You know, we're livinglonger, I hope, than any other generation. I'm pulling for that partof my generation. (Laughter.) And a lot of politicians have run prior-- in prior years, and said, vote for me, I'll increase the benefitsfor a generation coming up. And you know what? They did. And so,therefore, my generation, our generation, which will be living longer--and more of us -- have been promised greater benefits, which is okayuntil you realize this aspect of the problem: fe