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Written by: Kamran Mofid

Published: 04 April 2020

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We're all social distancing these days, and it's unclear when exactly that will end. But Billy Barr has been doing this for almost 50 years. He's the only full-time resident of Gothic, Colorado, USA

 

Billy Barr, pictured, is the only year-round resident in the former silver mining town of Gothic, Colorado. He moved there in the fall of 1973 after he graduated from Rutgers University.-Photo: Daily Mail

Gothic Ghost Town

Gothic was supported by the Silver mines in the area and a post office between 1879 and 1896. At one time, there were 200 buildings. The area of Gothic and surrounding areas had a combined population of 1000. President Grant visited Gothic in 1880, and Horace Tabor backed financially the Elk Mountain Bonanza newspaper. After 1914, Gothic became a ghost town, except for Billy Barr, it’s only full-time resident, since 1973.-Photo:OutThereColorado

‘Tips From Someone With Nearly 50 Years Of Social Distancing Experience.’*

"I'm the mayor and chief of police," he said. "I hold elections every year, but I don't tell anybody when they are, so it works out really well."

He lives in an abandoned silver mine at nearly 10,000 feet in altitude in the Rocky Mountains. "The snow's going sideways, it's swirling," Billy Barr said of the local weather.

Barr has tips on social distancing, but he's the first to say they may well be entirely useless.

"When I first got here, it was a relief for me to be on my own, but that's not necessarily what a healthy person does — isolate themself," he said. "I mean, I'm good at it and I do it because I like it, but what works for me, it works for me. It quite conceivably wouldn't work for anybody else."

While Barr has been called a hermit, he doesn't consider himself one. He occasionally interacts with skiers who pass through, he talks to his sister on the phone, and he works for the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory nearby, which gets flooded with scientists in the summer.

When Billy first moved to Gothic, he lived in an 8x10ft mining shack, pictured above. He lived there for eight years until he built himself an actual house in 1980, pictured below. His house is powered by solar panels and even has a greenhouse and a movie room.

Photos: Daily Mail

But the man has been living alone in a cabin in the mountains for many years, and in the winter months, he can go many days without seeing a soul. So staying home during the COVID-19 outbreak?

"Yeah, I mean this is no change for me," he said. "I come into winter with almost all my food already in."

So, without further ado, here are five recommendations for the Billy Barr method of social distancing.

Billy on one of his daily hikes.-Photo: Daily Mail

How to survive isolation and social distancing: Lessons from Billy

1. Keep track of something.

Each day, Barr tracks the weather for a number of groups including the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. He started measuring snow levels in the 1970s, mostly because he was bored.

"Everything depends on the weather," said Barr, who has skied through that "sideways" and "swirling" snow to talk on the phone from the laboratory. "It controlled what I did and so I would write it all down."

He would also write down when he saw an animal.

"With the birds, especially the ones that arrive in the spring, it was exciting," he said. "It was like, 'Oh my goodness, it's sunrise and I can hear robins.' "

Turns out, monitoring things that were important to his daily life had real value. As The Atlantic has written and the documentary The Snow Guardian has shown, his records have informed dozens of studies on climate change.

In the era of COVID-19, he suggests tracking what you can — or can't — find at the grocery store. Or, better yet, participating in some citizen science, like a project called CoCoRaHS that tracks rainfall across the country.

"I would definitely recommend people doing that," he said. "You get a little rain gauge, put it outside and you're part of a network where there's thousands of other people doing the same thing as you, the same time of the day as you're doing it. It's very interesting."

2. Keep a routine.

Barr starts early. He wakes up around 3:30 a.m. or 4 a.m., and stays in bed until about 5 a.m.

"Up until a week or two ago, I would listen to the news every morning so that I could start every day either totally depressed or furious. That's always a good way to start the day," he said.

"Now with the whole COVID and with politics and stuff," he said he just can't anymore. So, he listens to old-time radio instead.

Then it's time to clear the snow off his solar panels and file weather reports to a bunch of different agencies. The rest of the day involves work and chores interspersed with skiing.

"I kind of follow a set time schedule," said Barr. "Sometimes I forget what day it is, but I know what time it is."

Most importantly, he said, is leaving a reward for the end of the day. He'll read, knit something, watch a movie and then watch a game of cricket.

"It's pretty much the same day after day. Most of it I enjoy," he said.

Notably absent from his daily routine: keeping a personal journal. He said he used to, for about a decade or so, but then he went back and read it. "And it was so boring. It's like, 'OK enough already. Let me go watch some paint dry.' "

3. Celebrate the stuff that matters, rather than the stuff you're supposed to celebrate.

Barr has mostly ditched holidays and birthdays, but he does celebrate Jan. 17, when sunrise goes back to what it was on the solstice.

"To me, that's a big deal because I get up so early in the morning that the lighter it gets, earlier, makes my day a lot easier," he said.

He also celebrates when he gets back from skiing 8 miles each way into the town of Crested Butte for supplies.

"Town can be kind of stressful," he said. "So I save my favorite movies and I save my favorite meals and I save things to do so when I ski back from town and I'm home, it's like, 'Woohoo!' Big party time."

4. Embrace the grumpiness.

Sometimes, Barr said, it's kind of satisfying to be grumpy about something.

"I do get sick and tired of snow, but I like kidding about it. I live in an area where people live for snow, but I'm not that carried away with it, so I like being grumpy about it," Barr said. "You get older and you start saying 'OK, I'm not going to necessarily be pleasant when I don't feel pleasant.' "

These days, Barr is feeling especially unpleasant.

"Ironically, I have been in contact with one person in the last nine days. That was eight days ago," he said.

And then the guy got sick.

"I don't know what he has, but for the last week, I've been sitting around wondering If I'm going to get it," Barr said. (Another week has passed since this interview.)

Which brings us to his final tip...

5. Use movies as a mood adjuster.

"If I'm really stressed I might watch an animated movie, something cute and funny that takes my mind off it. If I'm depressed, I can reverse that," he said.

"My tastes are reasonably fluff-oriented," he said. Movies like Pandemic or The Shining? Hard pass. "The Princess Bride is my pretty much favorite movie. I like Hugh Grant stuff, like Love Actually, Notting Hill."

He also recommends Bollywood movies like Om Shanti Om, Bride and Prejudice and English Vinglish.

"They're colorful. They're pretty, there's good music and stuff," he said. "I have a list of favorites that I'll only watch under certain circumstances. I save them for that."

Here are the 357 movies at the top of his list.

About 20 years ago, Barr added a movie room into his cabin. It has a projector, carpeted walls, and three chairs.

"I have a nice chair for me and I have two other chairs with the idea that I'd invite people up," he said. "And I never do."

*This story told to Rae Ellen Bichell was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUER in Salt Lake City, KUNR in Nevada, the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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Written by: Kamran Mofid

Published: 03 April 2020

Hits: 1476

This is why debt relief should be the answer to this coronavirus crisis

Yesterday I was watching the daily Coronavirus briefing from Downing Street and I could not believe my ears... 

Breaking News: NHS has £13,400,000,000 debt written off to help coronavirus battle

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said:

‘As we tackle this crisis, nobody in our health service should be distracted by their hospital’s past finances.

Today’s £13.4 billion debt write off will wipe the slate clean and allow NHS hospitals to plan for the future and invest in vital services.’-Photo:Metro UK

These are the words that I thought I would never hear to be uttered by any minister in any government idolising ‘free market’ economy. 

But there you have it, he said it, and I heard it! 

As he was talking, things were flashing in my head!  I began to think deeply, recalling that a few years back, myself and two other fellow ‘Recovered’ economists, GCGI Senior Ambassadors, had written something on ‘Debt Forgiveness’, which in the light of Mr. Hancock’s announcement, I thought that piece must be opened up again, read and get the recognition that it justifiably deserves. 

So I began the search and in the GCGI archives I found it. I couldn't believe what I was reading: A fantastic recommendation for anytime, but profoundly significant for NOW, the Cornovaruis crisis ridden world.

Please join me, read it with me and then share it with the world.

Breaking the Chains of Debt: Lessons from Ancient Wisdom for Today’s Coronavirus Crisis

Overcome Fear and Embrace Hope

 

Photo:resilience.org

Promised Land Revisited: Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors

By

My Guest Bloggers Steve Szeghi, Jamshid Damooei and I

(First published on 16 June 2012)

Photo:PLI

'The global economy is in crises, whilst stuck in a consumer debt trap. Consumers and businesses, not to mention local and national governments, are in the dregs of a balance sheet recession. Without increased government spending to mitigate the demand crisis, there’s little chance the economy will jump start on its own.

Whilst we can turn to the trusted Keynesian spending model to fix a balance sheet recession and get consumer spending to kick back in; there is also the old biblical idea of a jubilee - a national cancellation of private debts. We believe forgiveness is the best present we can give ourselves, as it will set us all free.

Contained in what many Christians refer to as the ‘Our Father’ or ‘Lord’s Prayer’, are the following words in some interpretations, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive of debtors”. The words imply that since we owe much to God, that we should stand ready and willing to forgive what others owe to us, and to stand ready to do that every day as the prayer also says, “give us this day our daily bread”. What has happened to the concept of forgiveness of debt? Much of the developing world is saddled with debt service payments that take such a large and substantial portion of GDP that not only is development imperiled, but life itself for a multitude of people in the country is imperiled. While occasionally for many decades now there has been talk of debt forgiveness, little has changed.

From Ireland, to Portugal, to Greece, to Spain, to Italy, throughout Europe and elsewhere there is one sovereign debt crisis after another. Debt forgiveness while spoken about is seldom significant enough to make a difference. In the United States as a result of the financial crisis of 08-09, huge financial institutions were rescued, in some sense forgiven, but there has been little to no relief for the individual homeowner, just as there is little to no relief for individuals who borrow be it in micro credit markets or by more conventional means throughout the world

The global financial and economic system is structured, and it is ever increasingly the case, to resist forgiveness of debt. Creditors bristle at the mere suggestion. The notion of debt forgiveness rankles their inmost being at its very core. But yet we cannot help but to think of the words, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” In coming to grips with the problems of growing inequality, poverty, continuing financial instability, and stagnant economies, debt forgiveness stands out as a requisite part of the solution. A system that refuses to forgive debt is a system that is essentially siding with creditors, bailing out their bad choices, at the peril of the stability of the system itself, in addition to exacerbating inequality, perpetuating poverty, and stalling the engine of economic progress.

Forgiveness of debt was an essential ingredient of the political economy of the Ancient Hebrews. All debts of fellow Hebrews were to be forgiven in the Sabbatical Year (which occurred every seven years). In addition all slaves who were ‘kinsmen”, were to be set free in the Sabbatical Year. Forgiveness of debt was an essential part of Hebrew society. Debt forgiveness was structured into the system which in turn allowed for social cohesion and unity. Not only were the Ancient Hebrews required to forgive debts in the Sabbatical Year they were required to lend freely even as the sabbatical year grew closer. “Be on guard lest, entertaining the mean thought that the seventh year, the year of relaxation is near, you grudge help to your needy kinsman and give him nothing: else he will cry to the Lord against you and you will be held guilty.” Deuteronomy 15, v 9

Jesus of Nazareth extended this wisdom of the Torah. For Jesus, all human beings, Hebrew and non-Hebrew alike were kinsmen. So for Jesus the tradition of the Torah was extended to all. In addition Jesus instructed those who followed him to lend freely to all, fellow Hebrew or not. His teaching was to be willing to forgive every day, every year, and to lend freely without any care as to whether or not the one you were lending to could pay you back. For Jesus then, every year becomes the Sabbatical Year. In Ancient Israel it is forbidden to charge interest, such was called usury, and in the Christian Middle Ages throughout Europe usury was considered one of the seven deadly sins. Yet here is Jesus of Nazareth not just forbidding the taking of interest but also teaching not to even expect repayment of principal. (Luke chpt 6)

Now we live in a time when interest is charged freely without even any maximum caps (For example it is estimated that a typical annual interest rates (APRs) of between 650% to around 4000% and more is charged by the “Payday” loan companies). We live at a time when an increasing number of people cannot have their debts forgiven, not ever, because they fall in a particular demographic or income category. In the United States today under the new Bankruptcy law passed in the latter years of the George W. Bush Administration, so long as a person makes the average or above income in their state, bankruptcy is increasingly impossible to declare, in the sense of having one’s debts permanently discharged or forgiven. We live in a time when an ever increasing share of total debt, has been placed in a non-forgivable or non-dischargeable category. These types of debts include student loans in the United States, as well as micro-credit loans in many countries.

In the United States for example, those with more than a million dollars in debt are allowed to play by the older more generous bankruptcy rules. So millionaires and corporations are still generously forgiven, and through other means as well, in addition to bankruptcy court. Corporations, and the individuals who run them and benefit the most from them, routinely escape responsibility, but middle class and poor students trying to get through college, there is little to no debt forgiveness for them. The financial system that we have across the globe, a system that resists debt forgiveness, has no caps on interest rates, and no limits on wealth, is unsound on a moral level, and is also unsound on an economic level. The poor countries of the world are mired in debt and need forgiveness. First we experienced the housing bubble. The remedies for that crisis amounted to little or no relief for actual homeowners, and so the effects of that crisis continue to linger. Now we have the sovereign debt crisis of the European countries coupled with the debt burdens of the developing world. Next will come, either the student loan bubble or the credit card bubble, both of which are securitized just as was the case with home mortgages and both will cause just as much damage and instability as the housing crisis. It is time to wipe the slate clean and start fresh and new.

Significant debt forgiveness is clearly called for. But in addition we need a structured and systematic means of forgiveness for debt such as was the case for the people of Ancient Israel. It cannot merely be something that is trotted out on an ad hoc basis to respond to a lingering crisis and its aftermath. It has to be a regular part of the social contract. We need a structured means to limit the accumulation of wealth just as the Ancient Hebrews had with their Jubilee Year. Such means to limit wealth should include both a wealth and an inheritance tax of significant magnitude. While it is likely too ambitious to insist upon interest free lending, caps on interest rates are clearly called for, and in consideration of social justice discounted rates for the poor to provide for their means of support are crucial.

We think creating a clean slate is the only way we can really move forward that does not replicate the past. In looking at Forgiveness on a collective level, we were reminded of this Ancient process of both the Sabbatical Year (the Seventh year) and the Jubilee Year (seven times the Seventh Year). The Jubilee is the Sabbatical of the Sabbatical years. Every Sabbatical year, debt is completely forgiven and the slaves may return home as freed men and women. In the Jubilee Year, not only were debts forgiven and slaves returned home, but all land was to be returned to its original owners. (Leviticus 25) The Jubilee Year functioned as a structural means of redistribution to limit wealth – as most wealth consisted of land at that time in history, so that in the words of Isaiah the rich would not join field to field and leave no room for the poor.

Forgiveness is about release of past wrongs and hatreds. It is the healing of old wounds held deep in the social and personal fabric of our collective and personal bodies. The energy and time wasted in servicing debt is blocking the life force teeming up from the hearts of those who choose to see a new earth.

In theological terms, as a time of Grace, the Jubilee Year provided an opportunity to stop, to listen and to consider. It was an opportunity to enact forgiveness. It marked an occasion—what theologians call a kairos moment— A God-given moment of destiny not to be shied away from but seized with decisiveness; the floodtide of opportunity and demand in which the unseen waters of the future surge down to the present. It’s the alignment of natural and supernatural forces creating an environment for an opening to occur; a time when heaven and earth align with one another in a spiritual sense; a time when heaven touches earth in a way that will never be forgotten, the Promised Land once again.’

Steve Szeghi PhD (ECON), Professor of Economics, Wilmington College, Wilmington, Ohio, USA

Jamshid Damooei PhD (ECON), Professor of Economics, California Lutheran University, USA

Kamran Mofid PhD (Econ), Founder, Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative (GCGI), UK

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Photo:America Magazine

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