United We Stand...

With all the emotion and negativism that’s rampant throughout the land I thought I’d take a moment and step back to look at the big picture.

The conservative right is all about eliminating government in our lives and allowing more self-determination. They perceive the government as intruding on their freedoms and I can see their point.

The liberal left, on the other hand, is afraid that the government is the only protection their constituency has and, therefore, they want the cop to stay around and protect them from the ruling class. And I can see their point.

Meanwhile, the changes that each side is recommending are about as likely to ever pass that the rest of us can sit back and wait for some watered down, over-compromised solution that will not make anyone totally happy. And, whatever solution they ever do come up with, will take so long that the problems we are experiencing today will no longer be current events.

So, stepping back, I asked: “Why do we need our government at all?” I came up with two reasons.

1) To maintain standardization
2) To do things that the private sector will not do on its own

We don’t think much about standardization. The fact that wherever you buy a light bulb in the United States you can be sure it fits any light socket. Or that screws tighten clockwise or gasoline works in all cars or railroad tracks are all the same gauge. We appreciate these things but don’t think about them as a major function of government. One of the major strengths of our “united” system has been that we, as a nation, conduct commerce seamlessly. In fact, thanks to the Uniform Commercial Code, certain fundamental laws are common to all states which expedites our ability to count on each other to be fair. Our federal system of justice makes it possible for every citizen to feel somewhat protected. The European Union was formed 200 years after our founders launched our experiment because Europe and Asia have been suffering from non-standard currencies and laws and manufacturing specifications forever. Bringing standardization to all the member nations has allowed the EU to play a role in world commerce that would otherwise be unavailable. Countries are begging to become members. Standardization is what has made the US of A the most powerful economy in the world.

Secondly, we hear continuing reference to the capitalist system and its profit-driven, free market vision. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I strongly believe in capitalism. But, capitalism has a couple of flaws one of which is that, if the private sector is totally profit oriented, it won’t take care of things that need to be done but aren’t profitable. If we slow down the frenzy momentarily, we can imagine what some of those things are. Actually, if we look at Russia or China with their new found capitalism we have a model. Moscow and Beijing are two of the most polluted cities in the world. Their rivers and atmospheres threaten human life in the same way our smokestack industries and sweatshops did before the government stepped in to regulate. If profitability were my only motive, why would I be inclined to provide a safe workplace or clean effluent or scrubbed smokestacks. If you honestly take a look at what happens when profit motivation is allowed to exist in the absence of any rules it’s a nightmare.
Additionally, what about things that just don’t inherently make money? Airports, highways, park land, rural services, schools and indigent citizens come to mind. And let’s not forget the court system and the tax system and homeland security?

It seems like a great idea to eliminate taxes and to get the government out of our lives but, the real answer is found in understanding what we really need government for before we get on our soap box. Frankly, if the private sector would recognize long-term profitability as being as important as short-term profitability, many of the things the government intervenes in would be eliminated. That’s another flaw in the capitalist system: it attracts people who want to make a quick buck or respond to an hourly change in their stock price, rather than the responsible private sector that laissez-faire economics assumes.

Personally, I blame the private sector for inviting the government into their businesses. If they would do the responsible thing for the UNITED States of America and not just for their shareholders, profitability would be an ongoing, natural product of long-term planning. Unfortunately in a totally free enterprise system a company can (and will) build an unsafe mine or dump toxic waste or manufacture a plug that won’t plug into your socket.

United we stand, divided we fall.

I am Proud to be an American This Week!

I am proud to be an American this week.

I’m so surprised to say that. The last time I remember being really proud to be an American was during Ronald Reagan’s administration. I remember how he rose above the politics in Washington and did what he thought was the right things to do. I think that’s called “leadership”.

I’m proud because we intervened in Libya. I’m proud because we intervened in a situation where an out of control despot was murdering his own people in order to preserve his personal money machine. I’m proud because, for once, we did it the right way.

Forget the budget and the politics and the “what’s in it for us” attitude. I was always taught that ethics only count when they cost you something. If you want credit for doing the right thing, do it when there’s nothing in it for you except the knowledge that you behaved as a human being amongst other human beings. That you acted out of pure civility. We don’t do much of that anymore.

There are two types of error: errors of commission and errors of omission. The former means that you did something wrong. The latter means that you did nothing. I think an error of omission is by far the more egregious.

When my daughter’s twins were born in November I took a course in infant CPR. One of the questions for the instructor was “How do you know if someone actually needs CPR? How do you decide?” Her response was that the worst thing you can do is nothing.

We did nothing in Serbia and the Sudan and Rwanda. Is genocide our business? Are we policeman for the world? You betcha.

And we finally did something about it. And that makes me proud to be an American.