The United States of America provided me with an excellent education – a BS in Engineering Mathematics at UC Berkeley and a MS in Industrial Engineering at Stanford. This was followed by ten years of work as an Industrial Engineer for half a dozen different employers who did not appreciate my independence. Thereafter I paid my rent by doing legal process serving. Eventually I was able to reclaim some utility from my educational degrees by teaching mathematics at community colleges. A couple of years ago I retired. Obviously this is not the expected background for an author of philosophical essays.