So, I’ve been thinking a lot about something lately. I don’t pretend that this is a new insight and others have articulated it much better than I can, but I think it is worth repeating and pondering anew given the direction that the current administration seems to be moving with centralized, government oversight and control.
Today I had to go UPS to mail a package. It took me about two minutes to do what I needed to do including getting the mailer, the label, and paying. There was no wait. At the United States Postal Service, just down the street, I regularly wait for at least twenty minutes, regardless of the time of day.
I don’t mean to criticize the post office, they actually do a good job moving all the mail in an efficient way. But I can’t help think about the difference. The private company seems faster and more responsive.
Think of the last time you went to a gas station or an ATM. You just assumed that the machinery would work, right? And it probably did. Not a big deal. Barring unusual circumstances, you probably didn’t have to wait in a long line and were in and out in a few minutes.
Now think of the last time you went to the DMV or somewhere like that. If you were lucky, you got in and out in less than an hour, but that would be really unusual in my experience.
I had to go get a birth certificate copy last year and went to a state office. It took quite a long time and required a great deal of waiting. There was no parking, either, so it took me several hours all told. To get a piece of paper printed.
Why can I go to McDonald’s with my whole family and be in and out in under five minutes?
In the course of my church work, I have frequently had to go to two hospitals. They are right next to each other. One is a university hospital and the other is the VA. It is amazing the difference between the two. The VA is grim and dreary. It always seems dim and dark. There is never anyone there to help you find rooms. The patients seem to be totally isolated and on their own. The whole experience feels like living in Kansas in the first part of The Wizard of Oz—it’s dark and gray. There is an almost palpable feeling of despair and dreariness in the air.
The other hospital, across the street is exactly opposite. It is bright and airy. There are receptionists and others to help you. The décor is pleasant and inviting. Patients call for a nurse and don’t wait for a small eternity.
The difference is pretty clear to me. Public operations, no matter how well intentioned just don’t work as well as private ones. I am open to correction on this if I am missing something that the government runs that works really well.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Last One Out, Turn the Lights Back On
Well, in case you have been living in a cave (which seems to be the ultimate goal of some), you know that it is coming up on Earth Day. In a burst of goodwill, our school is having Green Week. Each day there is a different theme. Yesterday we were supposed to not produce trash, Monday we planted trees, and so on. Today is Light’s Out Day. Rooms that have windows are supposed to keep their lights off and in places like the hall where this is not possible, they have turned out all but one bank of lights.
Ok fine and good. I actually wash my water bottle out every day instead of using a new one. I recycle and so on. I think these are good ideas and that it just makes sense to do them.
I also think it is a good idea not to waste electricity and at my own house, I am always walking around turning lights out, both as a cost-saving measure as well as to not be wasteful.
But this is starting to go too far for me. First of all, I really have a visceral dislike of symbolic actions that make people feel virtuous. All these kids (and faculty, too) are feeling as if they are really doing something important by sitting in the dark during math class. I think that is just silly and question the long-term benefits that will come because of this. Will the kids change their habits? Probably not. Not to mention it gets in the way of doing work.
But here’s what really bugs me: here is a misanthropic undercurrent running through all of this. The message is that humans are bad for the earth and cause lots of problems. While this is undoubtedly true and we can do better, I don’t like that as a focus. Humanity has done some wonderful, wonderful things and we ought to celebrate them, not wallow in guilty self-abnegation.
Further, humanity has been struggling for thousands of years to come out of the elements, to make shelter and create amenities that would prolong and improve life. Turning our lights out just seems to go against the grand trajectory of the human endeavor.
Will we be the first generation in recent times to leave a less-developed, less-comfortable life to our children? A life in which simply having lights on in a classroom is considered morally suspect? Where virtue is defined as what our ancestors would have considered being uncivilized and unhygienic? And will we do it cheerfully and voluntarily, patting ourselves on the back and feeling virtuous about it?
Ok fine and good. I actually wash my water bottle out every day instead of using a new one. I recycle and so on. I think these are good ideas and that it just makes sense to do them.
I also think it is a good idea not to waste electricity and at my own house, I am always walking around turning lights out, both as a cost-saving measure as well as to not be wasteful.
But this is starting to go too far for me. First of all, I really have a visceral dislike of symbolic actions that make people feel virtuous. All these kids (and faculty, too) are feeling as if they are really doing something important by sitting in the dark during math class. I think that is just silly and question the long-term benefits that will come because of this. Will the kids change their habits? Probably not. Not to mention it gets in the way of doing work.
But here’s what really bugs me: here is a misanthropic undercurrent running through all of this. The message is that humans are bad for the earth and cause lots of problems. While this is undoubtedly true and we can do better, I don’t like that as a focus. Humanity has done some wonderful, wonderful things and we ought to celebrate them, not wallow in guilty self-abnegation.
Further, humanity has been struggling for thousands of years to come out of the elements, to make shelter and create amenities that would prolong and improve life. Turning our lights out just seems to go against the grand trajectory of the human endeavor.
Will we be the first generation in recent times to leave a less-developed, less-comfortable life to our children? A life in which simply having lights on in a classroom is considered morally suspect? Where virtue is defined as what our ancestors would have considered being uncivilized and unhygienic? And will we do it cheerfully and voluntarily, patting ourselves on the back and feeling virtuous about it?
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
I Like Rich People
Some of you have already read this elsewhere, but I thought I'd post it here, too. I have a big work event tonight and have been out of town, so I don't have much else to say at the moment.
Today I just want to share a quick thought: I like rich people. I am not a rich person and frankly, given my profession, a music teacher, the odds are extremely small that I will ever be one (although, I would take it if it came along. But it probably won’t). Assuming that our economy doesn’t completely collapse and we don’t all end up living in either mud huts or gray cinder-block high-rises (circa East Germany in 1967), I will probably live and die in the lower portion of the middle-class and I have made my peace with that.
But still, I like rich people.
I wish that our culture and government weren’t becoming so anti-rich person. I like them. I think they are good. In fact, I think they are necessary.
Rich people, or at least people who make a good chunk of money (most of them are technically probably in the upper middle class), send their kids to the school at which I am employed. They want their children to be exposed to the arts, which is why my school employs me to teach these children music and theatre. Also, because I am an employee my children get to attend this school and get a first-rate education, even though we are not rich. My children are able to attend because the rich people pay a lot of money for tuition and a portion of all of their tuition goes to help pay for the cost of educating children who can't afford the full price of tuition. Beyond that, some rich people have donated money specifically to help poor people to attend the school. My children are not alone—there are a bunch of kids attending our school who, without the rich people, wouldn’t be able to be here. Some of them would be trapped in schools where their lives are physically in danger. But, because of the rich people, these kids have a chance out of their surroundings.
I like rich people because they tend to be generous, in my experience. Every year, at Christmas and at the end of the year I get gifts from them. Most of these gifts are gift cards and/or cash. I use these gift cards to go out to eat, to buy books and music, and do other things that I normally wouldn’t be able to do. This provides enjoyment for me, and it provides income for the people who work at those restaurants, bookstores, and so forth. They can then spend that income and this starts a wonderful chain that helps everyone out.
Also, some of these people decide that they would like their children to learn to sing or act. So, they pay me a fee to teach them, either though camps or private lessons. They also pay for their children to take piano lessons, dance lessons, martial arts lessons, horseback riding lessons, as well as paying to participate on various athletics teams. They pay coaches, tutors, and purchase equipment. Everyone of these people uses the money to buy things from someone else.
Now, I am just one person on the rich people’s financial radar. In addition to me, they pay for drycleaning, maid services, pool maintenance, home repairs, handyman services, catering and so on. Not to mention the clothes they buy, the gyms they go to, the hair styling they get. It goes on and on. And, I haven’t each mentioned charitable giving. The beauty of all this is that they do all this out of self-interest, without even trying to help people out. A lot of them do give substantial sums to charity. But even if they don’t share any of intentionally to be nice, they actually spread quite a bit of it around.
So, I think rich people are pretty great. They are already doing a lot. I think we should let them keep more of what they make so they can keep spending it. I would rather be able to work for them and earn my money than have the government take it from them and parcel it out to me. That is my preference for several reasons. First of all, I just think it’s the right thing from a moral perspective. But secondly, I don’t want to be dependent on the government to pay for my health care or education. I like working to earn it. It feels good. And, I don’t really trust them to do it right. But most of all, if you take that money away from the rich people and give it to poor people, won’t it eventually run out? I mean, it’s not a rapidly renewable resource, is it? It takes generations (usually) to accumulate wealth.
I remember when I was at college. It was cold and I had a thin, though adequate, coat. The president of the university, who was reputed to be quite wealthy, walked by me in a thick, long coat. He was walking to a campus eatery, probably to have a hot lunch. I had peanut butter and jelly. I was envious and I thought, “He ought to divide up his money and give it to everyone who goes to school so we can all have something nice.” Then it hit me how much my envy had clouded my thinking. If we were to do that—divide his money up—he would have to be fabulously, incredibly wealthy for it to make any difference at all in all of our lives. Most likely, it would affect him in a significantly bad way while not really making any substantive difference in our lives.
I remember the story of the goose that laid the golden egg. Remember the one where the goose laid a golden egg each day? Eventually, though, the people got greedy. They decided not to wait for the egg each day. They killed it and cut it open so they could get all the eggs out at once. That was great at the moment. But then the eggs stopped. For good. Isn’t that a little bit like what we are doing now?
Now, I know that some people who read this blog will agree with me because they already think this way. And, those of my dear friends who don’t agree with me will likely not change their minds when they read this. So I don’t expect anything to actually happen by posting this. But it feels good to say it.
Today I just want to share a quick thought: I like rich people. I am not a rich person and frankly, given my profession, a music teacher, the odds are extremely small that I will ever be one (although, I would take it if it came along. But it probably won’t). Assuming that our economy doesn’t completely collapse and we don’t all end up living in either mud huts or gray cinder-block high-rises (circa East Germany in 1967), I will probably live and die in the lower portion of the middle-class and I have made my peace with that.
But still, I like rich people.
I wish that our culture and government weren’t becoming so anti-rich person. I like them. I think they are good. In fact, I think they are necessary.
Rich people, or at least people who make a good chunk of money (most of them are technically probably in the upper middle class), send their kids to the school at which I am employed. They want their children to be exposed to the arts, which is why my school employs me to teach these children music and theatre. Also, because I am an employee my children get to attend this school and get a first-rate education, even though we are not rich. My children are able to attend because the rich people pay a lot of money for tuition and a portion of all of their tuition goes to help pay for the cost of educating children who can't afford the full price of tuition. Beyond that, some rich people have donated money specifically to help poor people to attend the school. My children are not alone—there are a bunch of kids attending our school who, without the rich people, wouldn’t be able to be here. Some of them would be trapped in schools where their lives are physically in danger. But, because of the rich people, these kids have a chance out of their surroundings.
I like rich people because they tend to be generous, in my experience. Every year, at Christmas and at the end of the year I get gifts from them. Most of these gifts are gift cards and/or cash. I use these gift cards to go out to eat, to buy books and music, and do other things that I normally wouldn’t be able to do. This provides enjoyment for me, and it provides income for the people who work at those restaurants, bookstores, and so forth. They can then spend that income and this starts a wonderful chain that helps everyone out.
Also, some of these people decide that they would like their children to learn to sing or act. So, they pay me a fee to teach them, either though camps or private lessons. They also pay for their children to take piano lessons, dance lessons, martial arts lessons, horseback riding lessons, as well as paying to participate on various athletics teams. They pay coaches, tutors, and purchase equipment. Everyone of these people uses the money to buy things from someone else.
Now, I am just one person on the rich people’s financial radar. In addition to me, they pay for drycleaning, maid services, pool maintenance, home repairs, handyman services, catering and so on. Not to mention the clothes they buy, the gyms they go to, the hair styling they get. It goes on and on. And, I haven’t each mentioned charitable giving. The beauty of all this is that they do all this out of self-interest, without even trying to help people out. A lot of them do give substantial sums to charity. But even if they don’t share any of intentionally to be nice, they actually spread quite a bit of it around.
So, I think rich people are pretty great. They are already doing a lot. I think we should let them keep more of what they make so they can keep spending it. I would rather be able to work for them and earn my money than have the government take it from them and parcel it out to me. That is my preference for several reasons. First of all, I just think it’s the right thing from a moral perspective. But secondly, I don’t want to be dependent on the government to pay for my health care or education. I like working to earn it. It feels good. And, I don’t really trust them to do it right. But most of all, if you take that money away from the rich people and give it to poor people, won’t it eventually run out? I mean, it’s not a rapidly renewable resource, is it? It takes generations (usually) to accumulate wealth.
I remember when I was at college. It was cold and I had a thin, though adequate, coat. The president of the university, who was reputed to be quite wealthy, walked by me in a thick, long coat. He was walking to a campus eatery, probably to have a hot lunch. I had peanut butter and jelly. I was envious and I thought, “He ought to divide up his money and give it to everyone who goes to school so we can all have something nice.” Then it hit me how much my envy had clouded my thinking. If we were to do that—divide his money up—he would have to be fabulously, incredibly wealthy for it to make any difference at all in all of our lives. Most likely, it would affect him in a significantly bad way while not really making any substantive difference in our lives.
I remember the story of the goose that laid the golden egg. Remember the one where the goose laid a golden egg each day? Eventually, though, the people got greedy. They decided not to wait for the egg each day. They killed it and cut it open so they could get all the eggs out at once. That was great at the moment. But then the eggs stopped. For good. Isn’t that a little bit like what we are doing now?
Now, I know that some people who read this blog will agree with me because they already think this way. And, those of my dear friends who don’t agree with me will likely not change their minds when they read this. So I don’t expect anything to actually happen by posting this. But it feels good to say it.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
The Reluctant Conservative
All my life, I’ve been in sort of a weird, in-between place in terms of politics. Except for a brief flirtation as a Limbaugh listener, when I was a fire-breather, I find myself in the position of being a reluctant conservative.
By that I mean that my political and religious convictions, as well as my own reading of history and understanding of current events, point me in a fairly conservative direction. I believe that government ought to be limited to a few essential functions and that it ought to do those few functions extremely well. I believe that human happiness is maximized—that more people will be more happy—if there is more freedom and less regulation in nearly everything. I have rarely had positive experiences at places like the Post Office or the DMV or other large government run beauracracies (new definition of Hell: trying to get process as a teacher by New York City’s Board of Education. Words don’t do justice to this onerous process…).
While I concede a lack of perfection and problems with traditional institutions, such as the free market, I don’t see how letting the same folks who run the DMV or the Post Office or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac organize health care or plan for our energy usage is a good idea.
At any rate, minus my few embarrassing years as a crusader, I’ve always been pretty embarrassed by the fiery extremist sorts—folks like Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh, etc. I’m embarrassed by the fact that my views basically are similar to their’s—minus the sarcasm and bombast. Essentially, my convictions match the talk show line up, but my temperament is more towards the NPR side of things.
This makes for some difficult moments. During the Bush administration, I had basically morphed into a sort of non-partisan pragmatist.
But now, I feel like our country is falling apart. Everything—and I mean pretty much everything—that I have ever loved and valued about the United States seems to be at least on the endangered list.
And, everyone with whom I am temperamentally simpatico seems to think that this is a good thing and wants to hasten the change.
This leaves me with the yahoos that sort of appall me. And what’s worse, as I watch the country lurch towards government rationed health care (Dad! Hurry up and get your treatment for your cancer while it’s still allowed!), the increasing assumption of extra- and anti-Constitutional powers (ex post facto laws? Bah! Who cares. AIG execs are jerks. We can do whatever we want. Don’t you know we won?), an open attempt to boost my energy costs by 30%, the silencing of political opposition and stifling of dissent, and many, many more slimy and destructive things, I am left with a scary thought: My gosh! What if the yahoos were right all along! What if all their slippery slope stuff that I sort of was embarrassed by is really true?
So, this blog is my attempt to sort of work through this stuff. And, because if life in our country is going to change, I at least want to be part of the conversation—even if nothing changes because of what I say.
On thing—since I work in a fairly liberal field, I am going to keep this anonymous for now, so if you know my name, please keep it between us.
By that I mean that my political and religious convictions, as well as my own reading of history and understanding of current events, point me in a fairly conservative direction. I believe that government ought to be limited to a few essential functions and that it ought to do those few functions extremely well. I believe that human happiness is maximized—that more people will be more happy—if there is more freedom and less regulation in nearly everything. I have rarely had positive experiences at places like the Post Office or the DMV or other large government run beauracracies (new definition of Hell: trying to get process as a teacher by New York City’s Board of Education. Words don’t do justice to this onerous process…).
While I concede a lack of perfection and problems with traditional institutions, such as the free market, I don’t see how letting the same folks who run the DMV or the Post Office or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac organize health care or plan for our energy usage is a good idea.
At any rate, minus my few embarrassing years as a crusader, I’ve always been pretty embarrassed by the fiery extremist sorts—folks like Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh, etc. I’m embarrassed by the fact that my views basically are similar to their’s—minus the sarcasm and bombast. Essentially, my convictions match the talk show line up, but my temperament is more towards the NPR side of things.
This makes for some difficult moments. During the Bush administration, I had basically morphed into a sort of non-partisan pragmatist.
But now, I feel like our country is falling apart. Everything—and I mean pretty much everything—that I have ever loved and valued about the United States seems to be at least on the endangered list.
And, everyone with whom I am temperamentally simpatico seems to think that this is a good thing and wants to hasten the change.
This leaves me with the yahoos that sort of appall me. And what’s worse, as I watch the country lurch towards government rationed health care (Dad! Hurry up and get your treatment for your cancer while it’s still allowed!), the increasing assumption of extra- and anti-Constitutional powers (ex post facto laws? Bah! Who cares. AIG execs are jerks. We can do whatever we want. Don’t you know we won?), an open attempt to boost my energy costs by 30%, the silencing of political opposition and stifling of dissent, and many, many more slimy and destructive things, I am left with a scary thought: My gosh! What if the yahoos were right all along! What if all their slippery slope stuff that I sort of was embarrassed by is really true?
So, this blog is my attempt to sort of work through this stuff. And, because if life in our country is going to change, I at least want to be part of the conversation—even if nothing changes because of what I say.
On thing—since I work in a fairly liberal field, I am going to keep this anonymous for now, so if you know my name, please keep it between us.
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