It is increasingly hard to write a blog about our lives in
21st century America. I mean, how does one shift away from our idiot
President? He is a daily source of
corrupt, or just idiotic sayings—“Covfefe” anyone?? I keep wondering, did he do
this moronic tweeting at 3:00 AM before he was President, or is this a function
of him thinking he is important?
We have issues of great global importance and our President
is fixated on his TV ratings. It is
increasingly clear that he tweets because he cannot write. Tweeting requires
little beyond a 3-year old’s vocabulary and understanding of the world. One
does not need to communicate in complete sentences, or even complete thoughts .
. . or indeed any thoughts at all.
Floating around the world are issues such as:
Catastrophic global climate changes
Terrorism run amok
Collapsing American infrastructure
Bipartisanship run amok, wherein nobody is running our ship
of state to benefit the people
Russian interference in our democratic system of governance
Collapsing international systems of cooperation
One could go on and on, because our President seems not to
understand our system of government at all, so he has no clue how to oversee
it, including how to staff the oversight functions. His appointments to run
important Federal functions have been uniformly catastrophic. When you have
Federal roles in subjects like education, environmental controls, public health,
et al, and you appoint people who are fundamentally opposed to any federal
role, you are abdicating your responsibility. Whatever their reasons for voting
for him, it seems unlikely that people voted to elect Trump because they wanted
no public education of their children, or no health care, or smog levels
rivaling India or China. He seems to
want to turn over to private interests all functions of government. What could
go wrong with that scenario?
I think back to Jimmy Carter, and the end of airline
regulation. We had, until then, a relatively healthy and productive airline
industry—two international carriers, a half dozen major national carriers, and
numerous regional carriers. I flew then,
often, both domestically and internationally.
Flying was, if not fun, at least something you need not agonize over.
Then Jimmy deregulated the industry. Almost immediately, the
predators, omnipresent in any private enterprise, began taking over. And the
industry began collapsing from within.
Low cost became the sole criterion of interest, and service went to hell
in a hand basket. We stopped flying
altogether in 2001 when one carrier, USAIR, dumped us in Baltimore, halfway to
our destination, and told the passengers, “sorry ladies and gentlemen, that we
could not get you to where you wanted to go.” FULL STOP. No mention of buying us dinner
until they could board us on the next plane to our proper destination. The plane’s population simply disappeared into
the airport to figure out their next course of action. We decided then that the airline industry had
collapsed from within. It has not materially improved since then.
Similarly, we seem to be on course to transfer
responsibility for educating our children to private interests. For reasons I fail to understand, rather than focusing on figuring out how to
improve our system of public education, a decision was made to shift resources
to a system of private “charter” schools, some non-profit and some for-profit. What our ruling geniuses seemed not to
understand is that the national systems of public education really produced the
middle class in America, and that the middle class produced the powerhouse
known as America.
It is not that public education was problem-free. On the
contrary, public schooling has been ailing for many years, decades even. Many
schools are superb, among the best in the world. But many, especially within
low income neighborhoods, have been failing their students for many years. Part of the problem is attributed to inadequate
funding, and part to student inability/unwillingness to learn. Low income
children often live within families that were failed by the system. Without a
tradition that values education, children would often rather do something else.
Mind you, the systems of public education, while still
public, have been financed largely by state and local tax dollars. There is
Federal money in the system, but the contributions by state and local
governments means that differences in per pupil funding are inevitable.
So, our system was ripe for change. But change requires
thought. Abandonment, e.g., let’s shift to private schools, publically financed,
so we can stop worrying about all the ugly details, seems attractive to
legislators who choose not to think a lot as a vocation. One would need to commission studies in all
districts to look for insights into success and failure, and to tease out the
reasons. Then productive solutions might be possible.
On average, charter schools seem to do no better, and might
be doing worse than public schools, so this solution seems a non-solution. Trump and his mistress Betsy Devos, a person
who has zero experience with public schools, seem to prefer to ignore reality
and embark on a whole system of let’s pretend schools—think Trump University.
Similarly, Trump is now proposing turning our air traffic
control system over to private enterprise –oh that should make air travel so
much better, and he seems to be toying with the idea of turning the job of
infrastructure development over to the private sector. Ike helped to build the US interstate highway
system. Trump may build the Trumpway system—use your own imagination.
So, is the private sector never better than a public sector?
Well, no, but private vs. public often depends on the function. The public
sector doesn’t do profit-motive real well.
We have some considerable evidence that a wholly public sector approach
is less than perfect—the Soviet state comes to mind.
I have worked over many years in and with the for-profit
sector, both large and small, with public sector entities, and with several
levels of government. One outcome of
that working life is that I came to understand that size often matters more than
the public-private designation—as entities grow in size they become more bureaucratic
and, therefore less flexible and less responsive.
One difference between public and private is that private is
often less hindered by rules, and therefore, becomes more flexible in pursuing
areas of interest developmentally. And
that thing, the profit motive can be either a huge plus, or a significant minus
when pursuing operational changes.
My observation caused me to think about and pen a few
thoughts on the issue of balance. In connection with a perception of corruption
within the public sector, I wrote:
“In "in economic matters, extremes do not work. Under Bush, we
shifted dangerously in the direction of a fascist state—that is, a state in
which private owners of businesses dictate government policies. The inevitable
result is Enron, et al, as well as the collapsed financial system. We have been
drifting in that direction for quite some time now, even under Clinton.
Everyone has been so concerned with government regulation that they failed to
notice that unregulated business is as dangerous as unchecked government. One
gives you fascism; the other socialism. Private business interests must always
be checked to assure that the public is protected. So too must government
overseers. Balance in everything is the answer. But balance requires mental
agility. The public has little patience—they want the world to operate on
autopilot. They need to be convinced that a world in which competing interests
are balanced is both an efficient world, and a world that is worthy.
2.
We need to pay for what
we need. The Republican Party has been, almost as a matter of policy, fiscally
irresponsible. They practice “charge and spend” politics. We will now have to
pay for their profligacy. The public—the thinking public—needs to understand
that we cannot continue on the course they charted and followed. Mainly the
rest of the world will not allow us to continue on this course. They will
simply stop buying our debt and then it will end, badly. Taxes are the way we
pay for our policies. Taxes are neither
good nor bad, in the abstract. They represent the price of operating our
country, or, perhaps, the glue of a civilized society.
3.
We must pursue policies
that are aimed at preserving the Earth. We need to conserve. We need to pursue
alternative energy policies. We need to use economic forces to create a demand
for energy-efficiency and energy independence. Under Bush and Cheney, we have
pursued policies promoting wasteful energy consumption, mainly because he and
his advisers represent the extractive industries. We need to tax wasteful
energy consumption, so as to encourage wiser use of Earth’s limited resources.
4.
We must pursue a policy
of economic independence for all our citizens. During my career, I worked for
seven organizations over a 45 year career. For 20 of those years, I worked for
several large and small companies that contributed nothing beyond Social
Security for my retirement. Bush and his republican allies have attempted on
numerous occasions to threaten that reserve. If indeed we wish to get rid of
Social Security, we do not need to “privatize” it. We need to pass legislation
that forces every economic entity in the country to pay into a portable
retirement system. TIAA-CREF comes to mind—the system used by most universities
and non-profits. If the private sector would begin to live up to its
responsibilities by a mandatory contribution system, we would not need Social
Security. Take the system used by universities and non-profits and replicate it
throughout the whole of the private sector. Do not allow companies to wriggle
out by use of part-time workers. If they employ part-time workers, they still
pay full retirement benefits. Otherwise, leave Social security alone.
5.
Republicans, continue in
their zeal to scuttle public education. We need to begin working with the
states to repair the currently deplorable state of public education. In our
area of North Carolina, they seem comfortable with a dropout rate of 35%. Think of that. We can do better. Indeed, we
are losing ground to the rest of the world, and we are at risk of becoming a
country of stupid people. Charter schools, especially for-profit charter
schools, and worse, fake private schools that are on-line, are not an answer.
6. We must examine carefully the structure of government. The
creation of the Department of Homeland Security was an absurd idea—a solution
in search of a problem. Think of it. The CIA and the FBI wouldn’t communicate
and were demonstrably inept, so we forced the Coast Guard, FEMA, and the rest
to become one entity. An idea only a truly stupid person could embrace. Structure is not the answer when the problem
is an absence of thoughtful consideration of available evidence.
What we continue to need is watchful citizens—citizens who are
willing to question both private commercial interests and public government
interests. Corruption is a problem that will always be with us, so long as we
have serious economic imbalances and so long as we have citizens who are
basically dishonest—remember both the corrupters and the corruptees are
dishonest. Both need to be exposed and
punished. It is why, by the way, that we continue to need whistle-blowers. Say what you will of the Assange-Manning-Snowden
groups, but they have informed us of some very unpleasant things about
ourselves. Transparency is key here, and we definitely do not have transparent
systems in either the public or private realms (thanks again Supremes).
We all need to stand up and be counted. And that means we need
to vote, regardless of the efforts by the GOP to prevent folks from
voting. If you don’t vote, you will get
the government you deserve.”
Indeed, voting seems the only recourse to what we are now
viewing almost daily. The parade of Trumpies continues to dazzle and baffle us.
Even our battalions of comedians are hard pressed to keep up with his barrage
of inanities. But, in between his 3:00
AM twitterati utterings, he actually does a few things—like appointing a new
loser to run something he/she hates in government, or proposes to fix something
by shouting out a solution that is 90% lie/exaggeration and then retreating
from the scene to leave us yelling or laughing, or shouting obscenities at him.
But voting to eliminate him takes time—he isn’t running again
until 2020 remember. And his GOP henchmen, Ryan, McConnell, et al, seem
entirely disinclined to muzzle him, even if they could. They keep approving his
parade of malenfants to run our government, and they continue not to disavow
his efforts to destroy America. So,
impeachment, regardless of probable cause, seems unlikely in the extreme. Burt
even if they did impeach him for cause (so many causes, so little time) we are
left with his basket of deplorables sitting in line behind him. Does anyone
really believe that Pence would make a better President?
So, there seems no plausible solution short of continued
resistance—manning the barriers of protest until it is time to vote all the
rascals out of office—including Ryan and McConnell. Some folks will get hurt in the process, but
resistance is not free.
So, welcome to our world of hurt folks. Stand up and keep trying
to shout him down. He is a menace. He must be resisted. Or we will become a
banana republic sans bananas.
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