Efficiency - in the Private Sector????

A friend of mine has raised a lot of concern about inefficiency in the public sector, especially education; at one point, my friend says: "as a lifelong educator in the classroom and at the administrative level, I can assure you there is plenty of our taxpayer $$ being wasted by poor planning, budgeting, and lack of half way decent financial skills."


He may well be right.


But I raise the following question: where, then, can we find efficiency, good planning, budgeting and financial skills?


America's banking industry?

Oh, that's right; they so cleverly invented "sophisticated" financial instruments and brought us the worst financial disaster conceivable, and then had the temerity to come to Uncle Sam with their hands out.

Big biz?

Goodness, any insider can ya' that big biz is no paragon of virtue, on any front.

Having spent a good part of my life knowing and talking with folks in various American industries - coal and steel in Pittsburgh, oil in Tulsa, the auto companies in Detroit, and the movie industry in LA - there is tons of waste, extravagance, poor planning, bad goal setting and a host of lesser sins. But it's mostly hidden from public view. American industry has no sunshine rules like the public sector.

One of the great American myths perpetrated by Reagan and Big Biz is that Big Biz is efficient, and could run government services so much more efficiently, and government is always the problem.

Horse patootie ... big time.

But myths are hard to defeat, and this silly myth of private-sector efficiency has brought us our knees, and has millions of Americans scrambling to dismantle public education in favor of charter schools, private schools and home-schooling. Ya sure, you betcha!

Every time I see a fire engine responding to an emergency, or visit a national or state park, or get a letter in the mail, I see just how efficient government is.

I'm a product of both private and public education, and while one might well promote private education for philosophical purposes, it's a total mistake to suggest that the private sector has a financial leg up on the public.

It simply doesn't, no more than anyone has a moral or ethical leg up on anyone else.

The myth is just that - a story, and not a very good one at that.

Give me the public sector any time, and give me the inefficiency of our public schools, and if we're going to improve our education, let's quit demeaning our teachers; let's start building them up, touting them as the heroes they are, and let's fully fund our schools, once and for all. And let's pay attention to the home, and let's quit being such silly hypersensitive parents who quickly attack the teacher when little Billy wets his pants.

But that's another story.

Unions Have Helped Us All

History helps ... and that's the problem - too many people today enjoy the benefits of other's labor, and take things now for granted.

The story behind the miners in West Virginia, steel workers in Pgh, auto workers in Detroit (Ford, interestingly enough, understood, because he felt that well-paid workers would buy the cars they build, and he was essentially building cars for the people), and oil-field workers in OK and TX. Unions lifted millions out of poverty, gave them relief when injured, and saw to it that they could earn a living wage, buy a home, and enjoy something of the American Dream.

As some folks say, when the water rises, every boat rises, too.

If unions fail, we will return to what I see here in LA all the time - folks at $10 an hour, no benefits, no safety net, no means of protection against sexual and other forms of harassment.

Without unions, it becomes a vicious food chain, and the folks at the top, of course, rule the roost. This is not what we want for America.

Right now, the Americans who have benefited from the work of the unions think the system is trustworthy, and that owners and Wall Street are fair.

Economic systems that rely on the folks at the top end up in the same place all the time - 2% own everything, and the rest are reduced to a daily grind to put bread on the table.

Wisconsin Governor Full of Baloney

Says the gov of Wisconsin: "We have to cut the budget. We can't raise taxes; that would cripple the economy even further."

The economy?

For whom?

The top 2%?

This is such a crock of bull, it's hard to describe.

To strip away bargaining rights, to decease benefits that have been hard-won over the years and are wel-deserved, to further jeopardize education (oh, that's right, he doesn't give a damn about that, what with homeschooling and private schools to further the asinine agenda of the far-right), to demean public workers and embarrass the entire state of Wisconsin, is unconscionable ... a shameless display of fiscal insanity furthering the transfer of wealth from the many to the few.

Healthy economies always utilize fair and reasonable taxation to sustain the economy and to insure that maximum numbers of families have access to good jobs and benefits.

Because the  money supply is NOT infinite.

Taxation is a form of regulation that keeps the playing field of life fair for the MAJORITY. Our current insanity is crippling the economy, not because of high taxes, but rather foolishly low taxes on the super-rich and the big companies.

Nations never prosper when the wealthy prosper alone. Nations prosper when the middle class prospers.

The madness of low taxation is just that - a madness, a disease, a great evil, part of a strategy long in the planning and dearly believed by t-baggers who have been fooled by the reactionary forces at the top of the food chain. Current fiscal policies are currently designed to kill off the middle class, bust unions, strip away working-class initiative, diminish hope and transform the nation into an oligarchy.

The GOP and its reactionary forces have been bent on dismantling the American Dream ever since Reagan, the Great Liar, took office and said "Government is the problem."

What a crock.

What a bunch of baloney.

What a pack of lies!

Wendell Berry on the Economy

"If the Golden Rule were generally observed among us, the economy would not last a week. We have made our false economy a false god, and it has made blasphemy of the truth. So I have met the economy in the road, and am expected to yield it right of way. But I will not get over. My reason is that I am a man, and have a better right to the ground than the economy. The economy is no god for me, for I have had too close a look at its wheels. I have seen it at work in the strip mines and coal camps of Kentucky, and I know that it has no moral limits. It has emptied the country of the independent and the proud, and has crowded the cities with the dependent and the abject. It has always sacrificed the small to the large, the personal to the impersonal, the good to the cheap. It has ridden questionable triumphs over the bodies of small farmers and tradesmen and craftsmen. I see it, still, driving my neighbors off their farms into the factories. I see it teaching my students to give themselves a price before they can give themselves a value. Its principle is to waste and destroy the living substance of the world and the birthright of posterity for a monetary profit that is the most flimsy and useless of human artifacts."

Spend, Spend, Spend - Make Sense?

Turn on radio, read an article, scan the internet - the prevailing word of wisdom: we gotta spend more money. The American Consumer (sounds hideous, doesn't it?) has to dig in and get going - spend, spend, spend!

An economy built upon mindless spending and ceaseless consumption is just plain silly, and destructive of the soul, the family and the environment.

"We work in order to spend and we spend in order to work, and the more we spend the faster we must work" (Miroslav Volf, "Against the Tide," p.12) Like a squirrel in it's own spinning cage - going nowhere fast.

First, such a pace is destructive of the soul, as it transforms us into a consumer - like a toilet or a garbage disposal or some flesh-eating bacteria. A mindless, bloated, gobbling machine never satisfied and always yearning for the happiness that's just a purchase away.

Second, it's destructive of the family, as Mom and Dad spend more hours at work, fill the house with toys for the children that are played with once and then thrown into the closet, only to be sold in next summer's garage sale for 25 cents. Children watch Mom and Dad sell their souls to the company store; they learn how to use credit cards; they look at their playmates enviously or imperiously, depending upon the status of their possessions; they are distanced from the natural world of hikes and kites and butterflies; they are overweight and physically out of shape; the family doesn't know its neighbors, and no one has the time for a picnic.

Third, we're pillaging the environment to make junk to put under the next Christmas tree - plastic comes from oil, and once it's plastic, it's plastic forever, mostly to end up in landfills. Our homes are piles of stuff with a roof over it all, and we build storage units to hold more of our stuff. And when we divorce, or die, we fight over the stuff.

And in order to have more stuff, it has to be cheap, so we outsource the jobs, destroy the middle class, rely on credit and buy more junk.

Enough!

How about an economy built upon savings, careful and thoughtful purchases of well-built items made here in the US?

How about consuming less and spending more time with one another?

How about being satisfied with the things we have and basing our life not upon what we have but who we are?

How about working fewer hours and taking more time to stroll through the nearby woods?

How about more vacation time? And it doesn't have to be a stellar cruise on a billion-dollar ship, or a madcap escapade at some Dizzy World that'll take every dollar we've got and leave us tired and cranky, but a couple of weeks in the mountains in a small cottage.

How about filling up the American banks with our savings, so that the American banks and government don't have to borrow from the world?

How about slowing things down and recovering the manufacturing sector of America, with TVs and washing machines that are more expensive and better built to last.

A slower economy with lower unemployment.

A soul satisfied with less things in order to have more of life.

A society less inclined toward violence and war.

Smaller inequity gaps.

Families that truly know one another and know their neighbors, too.

Wall Street reigned in.

The American Consumer transformed into the American Giver, the American Worker, the American Guardian of the Environment.

When George Bush stood in the rubble of 9/11 and told us to go out and shop, I realized just how sick we've become, and sick it is.

An economy built upon mindless spending is too fragile to maintain and can only collapse again and again.

We need a robust economy, not based upon spending, but savings and investments and real jobs.

We need to take a good long look at ourselves and no longer see ourselves as consumers but builders.

We had it once - the Greatest Generation understood those values.

We can lay claim to them again.

The Economy Is So Bad ... (a good chuckle)

The economy is so bad that . . . . 1.  I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail. 2.  I ordered a burger at McDonald's and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?" 3.  CEO's are now playing miniature golf. 4.  If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them. 5.  Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM. 6.  McDonald's is selling the 1/4 ouncer. 7.  Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children's names. 8.  A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico . 9.  Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting. 10. Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore. 11. The Mafia is laying off judges. 12. Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen. 13. Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal.  Oh, great!!  The guy who made $50 billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 trillion disappear! And finally... 14. I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Lifeline. I got a call center in Pakistan, and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

Obama the Calm

President Obama tells the truth, calmly and coherently: the quintessential professor brings to bear upon the subject at hand a great wisdom grounded in study and deep reflection (see the New York Times).

That some might suggest "distance" and "too analytical" misses the point: now is NOT the time for rhetoric or histrionics, but a cool and focused review of the needs and solutions.

Tough to be President - if he's too cool and calm, he's accused of being distant. If he's humorous, he's labeled a stand-up comic or punch-drunk.

And the Repubs and the Dems in Congress right now are all on the same bent: they're not likely to see the big picture, nor are they likely to make the changes needed to fix our economy, especially the sacred cash-cow of health care. Biz as usual is the name of the game, but if there's a game that needs to be ended NOW, this is it. Biz as usual got us to this point, and what a mess it is.

It's not that all of this was inherently flawed from the beginning. Not at all. What was, was! And it worked, but the point is this: nothing remains the same; what worked 50 years ago, just because it worked, is no guarantee that it'll continue to work; in fact, anything that worked as well as it did ought to warn us of its time-conditioned nature.

As the world changes - globalization, technology, terrorism, expanded healthcare (because it's available) - all of this and more signals the need for huge change requiring both adjustment and sometimes a complete overhaul.

Anyway, it was reassuring for this hearer to listen to Obama - the man knows his stuff, he has a command of the language, he's thoughtful, and, indeed, speaks only when he knows what he's talking about.

I hope and pray our nation has the wherewithal to ask the primal questions and do the hard work of crafting a nation for the 21st Century. I hope and pray that our politicians will buckle down and cut their rhetoric, curb their self-serving instincts and begin to work together to heal the nation and help America be the leader it has been and can yet be. I hope and pray that Americans will see clearly just how perilous are the times, and rather than panic and look for quick solutions, will support the President and encourage their politicians to lead this nation to a new day.

Can we do it?

Of course we can.

Clinton's Confidence; Obama's Reality

Former President Clinton suggested that it was time for Obama to exude a little more confidence about the economy; I disagree. For the first time in a long time, including Clinton, we have a President who's telling us the truth.

Americans have been treated as spoiled children, addicted to happy, clappy, sappy everything from politics to religion; maybe we are spoiled children.

But it's time for a reality check. A time to grow up.

Read this piece from the New York Times - click HERE.

Olympics - Opening Ceremony

Wow!

That's all I can say - Wow!

They did it. The opening ceremonies were over the top in the very best of ways. As one commentator put it, "Retire the trophy!"

The Chinese showed the world they are on their way to becoming a great nation, a superpower of superpowers - 1.4 billion people proud and ready ... and what a history they have.

Bush's half-hearted attempt to criticize China's human rights was poorly timed and, frankly, useless. If ever there were a time for an American President to be a statesman, to build upon the positive, to praise China and celebrate its achievements, encouraging them to even greater heights, this would have been the time.

But small minded people are always that, I guess.

And, by the way, is Laura on Prosac? Both of them seem dazed most of the time.

It's good for Americans to see China emerging - to see greatness somewhere else, and to witness the patriotism and pride that others have in their flag, their national anthems, their land and their people.

For so long, Americans have perceived themselves on top of the heap, and such thinking has harmed our character.

I've heard all my life the silly statement, "We're the greatest country in the world."

What the hell does that mean?

What about the Netherlands?
Or Japan?
Or the Roman Empire?
Or the British Empire?
Or Greece?

The kind of boasting found so often in America is just plain unhealthy, and perhaps represents a poorly formed ego masking serious doubt.

Anyway, hats off to China, and if we're smart, we'll start teaching Chinese to our children and grandchildren.

And may this help America grow up, to see itself as one nation among many, with gifts and greatness, but not the sole owner of such things.

And Laura, change your perscription.

McCain and the Republican Philosophy

I can often see both sides of an argument, but not this one.

The Republican enterprise has failed the nation - economically, morally, environmentally and strategically.

Could it be any worse?

What I don't understand is how so many Americans can close their eyes to the debacle, and how so many of them would give John McCain even a moment of their time.

Can they not see that McCain is Bush all over again?

That offshore drilling is a short, very short, term strategy that, if undertaken, would have no lasting impact on our oil-dependence, and even if the new supplies were to slightly alter the picture, it would be short-lived at best.

We don't need offshore drilling; we need a new strategy to limit oil consumption and rebuild our economy on restraint rather than maniacal consumption.

Though I am hopeful about our nation and its future under new leadership, I am stunned by America's dreamlike state - like sharks overfed on a whale carcass - having eaten their fill, they become lethargic and oblivious - virtually drunk on their full bellies. Americans have sliced the carcass and consumed madly since Reagan. In our feeding-frenzy delirium, we have lost our capacity to think beyond the immediate "need" to purchase the next item on our list and to enjoy the next adventure of consumption. Nationally, we borrow money from China to buy oil from the Saudis, mortgaging our future and the welfare of our children and grandchildren. At best, this is idiocy, and we've swallowed it, hook, line and sinker.

Lord have mercy!