The search is on in Cincinnati to explain why eight of the ten local area school levies failed last week. Some are claiming the schools are spending unwisely, others say they have enough money already. But I would argue that there is another factor at work – one that has its roots in consumer behavior.
A recent book entitled Trading Up explains seemingly contradictory spending patterns that have given rise to the success of retailers as varied as Wal-Mart and Williams-Sonoma. At first glance, logic would assume that one caters to lower-income people, while the other to the better off. But that’s not necessarily the case.
The authors point out that one complements the other. People of all demographics have traded down in some areas, choosing to buy low-cost staples at discount stores, in order to reward themselves with selected luxury items from higher-end retailers.
It’s really quite simple. They save money where they can so they can spend more where they want.
That, I believe, is what is going on with the school levy defeats. Consumers, a.k.a. taxpayers, are choosing to save money on taxes so they can spend their money elsewhere. Rarely do they get a chance to vote directly on taxes, but when they do, they are increasingly saying no. Unfortunately, it’s our schools that take the hit, since they’re the ones who have to go directly to the taxpayer.
It’s not that voters are opposed to schools, but they are opposed to taxes. Which is why I argue so often that every government must remember they do not operate in a vacuum. Any dollar they spend is a dollar taken from somewhere else.
And it’s not just taken from one department and given to another. It crosses jurisdictional lines, both public and private. That’s because government is competing with everyone else for the public’s money.
So when the state, county, city or township spends a dollar on roads or police or parks, that is a dollar not available to be spent on schools or libraries or cars or clothes or travel or whatever else the taxpayer might have chosen to spend it on. And once the consumer feels their budget line-item marked “taxes” has reached its limit, they’ll simply shut off the spigot when given the chance – no matter what the money would go for.
That’s why I believe if government officials at every level – local, county, state and federal – truly cared about education, they would be ever so judicious in spending the public’s tax dollars.
It may not be right, but the voter will look at wasteful spending – say an expensive new state government office building – and lash out by saying no to the schools. Politicians can argue that’s irrational, but then again, Philadelphia fans once booed Santa Claus at halftime because the Eagles were playing badly. Likewise, voters take out their frustrations on whatever target is available.
They have plenty of reasons to feel frustrated. We have the federal government running record deficits, the state of Ohio raised the sales tax by 20 percent last year and local governments are spending revenue raised through creative financing schemes. The taxpayer is not amused. So they trade down the only chance they get – when the schools ask for money. And the real spenders continue happily on their way, oblivious to the carnage they leave in their wake.
12/29/2004
12/22/2004
A Mother's Lesson: Joanne L. Szydlowski, July 30, 1932 - December 18, 2002
Please excuse my self-indulgence, but I think there’s a nice lesson here.
It begins with a story my mom often tried to tell, but couldn’t because she’d choke up in laughter. It was about the time she swore she saw a UFO around 2 a.m. then decided she had to call the newspaper and break the news. Calling the number in her Rolodex for the Detroit Free Press, she breathlessly told her story, only to be rebuffed by a grumpy voice on the other end.
“Gee, lady, that’s great.” Click. End of conversation.
She couldn’t understand the paper’s utter disinterest until my dad checked the number. “Honey,” he said grinning, “you just woke up the paperboy.”
That was my mom, always finding herself in some sort of Lucy Ricardo-style misadventure. And laughing uncontrollably about it afterward. No matter how bad the situation, she always figured it would make a good story someday. Which was fortunate, because life gave her lots of opportunities for good stories.
As the youngest of five from a broken home, she was shuffled from one Detroit foster home to another during the Great Depression. Along the way, she witnessed the death of a crying infant at the hands of one physically abusive foster mother, was sent packing by a second foster family when, despite her prayers, they chose to adopt another child instead of her and spent one winter making the long, cold walk across the Ambassador Bridge from Canada to Detroit to get to school. This all before she finished second grade.
Eventually, she was hired out as a live-in mother’s helper for another family. Her first Christmas there she got up excitedly in the middle of the night to look at the presents under the tree. Discovering that none were for her, she quietly opened and looked at each gift, then carefully rewrapped them and went back to bed. She was ten years-old.
But she never complained. Instead she found the humor. Car troubles, sledding mishaps, ill-advised K-Mart Blue Light Special purchases – all brought on tear-inducing laughter. Ask anyone who knew her and they’ll remember two things – her ready willingness to laugh at herself and her ability to make anyone and everyone feel special.
It was a wonderful gift all too rare in this age of talk show psychotherapy, where every childhood slight is an excuse for adult angst. And it was a gift she readily shared.
We buried my mom two years ago today. Among the hundreds of friends and family at the funeral was one quiet young man no one had seen before. He was keeping to himself at the luncheon following the service. Curious, my dad asked him what had brought him there.
It turned out that mom had spotted him sitting alone at another church function several years earlier. She had come over and spent about an hour chatting and laughing. In that short time, she had made him feel so welcome that when he heard she had died, he just had to pay his last respects.
As my dad related this to us, choking up he said, “That was your mom.”
Yes it was. A simple woman with a simple gift, doing her small part to spread joy and goodwill. And the lesson? Life really is what you choose to make it. Choose well.
It begins with a story my mom often tried to tell, but couldn’t because she’d choke up in laughter. It was about the time she swore she saw a UFO around 2 a.m. then decided she had to call the newspaper and break the news. Calling the number in her Rolodex for the Detroit Free Press, she breathlessly told her story, only to be rebuffed by a grumpy voice on the other end.
“Gee, lady, that’s great.” Click. End of conversation.
She couldn’t understand the paper’s utter disinterest until my dad checked the number. “Honey,” he said grinning, “you just woke up the paperboy.”
That was my mom, always finding herself in some sort of Lucy Ricardo-style misadventure. And laughing uncontrollably about it afterward. No matter how bad the situation, she always figured it would make a good story someday. Which was fortunate, because life gave her lots of opportunities for good stories.
As the youngest of five from a broken home, she was shuffled from one Detroit foster home to another during the Great Depression. Along the way, she witnessed the death of a crying infant at the hands of one physically abusive foster mother, was sent packing by a second foster family when, despite her prayers, they chose to adopt another child instead of her and spent one winter making the long, cold walk across the Ambassador Bridge from Canada to Detroit to get to school. This all before she finished second grade.
Eventually, she was hired out as a live-in mother’s helper for another family. Her first Christmas there she got up excitedly in the middle of the night to look at the presents under the tree. Discovering that none were for her, she quietly opened and looked at each gift, then carefully rewrapped them and went back to bed. She was ten years-old.
But she never complained. Instead she found the humor. Car troubles, sledding mishaps, ill-advised K-Mart Blue Light Special purchases – all brought on tear-inducing laughter. Ask anyone who knew her and they’ll remember two things – her ready willingness to laugh at herself and her ability to make anyone and everyone feel special.
It was a wonderful gift all too rare in this age of talk show psychotherapy, where every childhood slight is an excuse for adult angst. And it was a gift she readily shared.
We buried my mom two years ago today. Among the hundreds of friends and family at the funeral was one quiet young man no one had seen before. He was keeping to himself at the luncheon following the service. Curious, my dad asked him what had brought him there.
It turned out that mom had spotted him sitting alone at another church function several years earlier. She had come over and spent about an hour chatting and laughing. In that short time, she had made him feel so welcome that when he heard she had died, he just had to pay his last respects.
As my dad related this to us, choking up he said, “That was your mom.”
Yes it was. A simple woman with a simple gift, doing her small part to spread joy and goodwill. And the lesson? Life really is what you choose to make it. Choose well.
12/10/2004
The Myth of Pat Tilman
George Washington chopped down his father’s cherry tree, then fessed up – fact or myth?
Babe Ruth “called his shot” for a sick child – fact or myth?
The North fought the Civil War to free the slaves – fact or myth?
All these truths from our childhood are now in question, and so is a more recent icon of American folklore. Reports surfaced last week that former NFL star Pat Tilman did not die under quite the heroic circumstances as first reported. Apparently the squad he was leading wasn’t as large as we were led to believe, while botched communications and bad decisions had much to do with the deadly friendly-fire incident that cost him his life in Afghanistan.
But does this news diminish in any way the sacrifice that Pat Tilman made in service to his country? Absolutely not. Here was a man who turned down a multi-million dollar NFL contract so he could join the Army in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Less than three years later he was killed during combat in Afghanistan. The circumstances of his death, murky as they may be, should not detract from his heroism.
Yet the media reports it as though it should. It’s as though they relish depriving us of our heroes and legends. They do so under the guise of truth, but in the process they deprive us of our heart and soul.
The real truth is that whether any of these tales are fact or “myth” is not as important as the values those tales support – that George Washington was a man of honor, that ending slavery was a principle this country was willing to fight for, that defending freedom is more important than football glory. All draw upon events from our past to create stories that reinforce that which we want to believe about ourselves.
That we choose to perpetuate myths that demonstrate the best in human nature is healthy. It is the sign of a vibrant, optimistic society. Let the historians and scholars argue the facts. But let us enjoy our belief in all that is good and right in our world. There is no harm in that.
For proof, watch over the next week as newspapers across the country reprint the famed New York Sun editorial, “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.” Arguably the best-known editorial in American history, it achieved that status despite the fact that it argued a point we know to be patently false. It didn’t even aim to change a single mind, save for perhaps a few barely old enough to read it.
Yet it resonates to this day – not for the myth it perpetuated, but for the values underpinning that myth. The Sun understood what much of today’s media does not – that the spirit of a legend often holds more truth than the hard facts might reveal.
We need to believe that certain ideals still exist in our hearts. Pat Tilman and the countless others who have died in service to our nation show that they do. How or where or under what circumstances they died is not important. It is in the spirit of their sacrifice that we find true meaning. And if we can avoid what the Sun called the “skepticism of a skeptical age,” their stories will become part of American folklore and thus inspire the best in all of us.
Babe Ruth “called his shot” for a sick child – fact or myth?
The North fought the Civil War to free the slaves – fact or myth?
All these truths from our childhood are now in question, and so is a more recent icon of American folklore. Reports surfaced last week that former NFL star Pat Tilman did not die under quite the heroic circumstances as first reported. Apparently the squad he was leading wasn’t as large as we were led to believe, while botched communications and bad decisions had much to do with the deadly friendly-fire incident that cost him his life in Afghanistan.
But does this news diminish in any way the sacrifice that Pat Tilman made in service to his country? Absolutely not. Here was a man who turned down a multi-million dollar NFL contract so he could join the Army in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Less than three years later he was killed during combat in Afghanistan. The circumstances of his death, murky as they may be, should not detract from his heroism.
Yet the media reports it as though it should. It’s as though they relish depriving us of our heroes and legends. They do so under the guise of truth, but in the process they deprive us of our heart and soul.
The real truth is that whether any of these tales are fact or “myth” is not as important as the values those tales support – that George Washington was a man of honor, that ending slavery was a principle this country was willing to fight for, that defending freedom is more important than football glory. All draw upon events from our past to create stories that reinforce that which we want to believe about ourselves.
That we choose to perpetuate myths that demonstrate the best in human nature is healthy. It is the sign of a vibrant, optimistic society. Let the historians and scholars argue the facts. But let us enjoy our belief in all that is good and right in our world. There is no harm in that.
For proof, watch over the next week as newspapers across the country reprint the famed New York Sun editorial, “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.” Arguably the best-known editorial in American history, it achieved that status despite the fact that it argued a point we know to be patently false. It didn’t even aim to change a single mind, save for perhaps a few barely old enough to read it.
Yet it resonates to this day – not for the myth it perpetuated, but for the values underpinning that myth. The Sun understood what much of today’s media does not – that the spirit of a legend often holds more truth than the hard facts might reveal.
We need to believe that certain ideals still exist in our hearts. Pat Tilman and the countless others who have died in service to our nation show that they do. How or where or under what circumstances they died is not important. It is in the spirit of their sacrifice that we find true meaning. And if we can avoid what the Sun called the “skepticism of a skeptical age,” their stories will become part of American folklore and thus inspire the best in all of us.
12/01/2004
Sorry, ESPN, A Real Man Would Have Walked Away
I would have laughed, had I not been so irritated listening to the ESPN commentators wondering how the ugly scene that took place between fans and the Indiana Pacers at an NBA game in Detroit could have been prevented. Laughed, because the answer was so obvious. Irritated, because the same men asking the question were condoning the behavior responsible.
In case you missed it – I’m not sure how you could have – a brawl involving players and fans broke out when Indiana’s Ron Artest attacked a fan after being hit with a beverage thrown from the stands. Now, certainly the fan who threw the cup initiated the brouhaha. But it was Ron Artest’s response that escalated it into perhaps the ugliest scene in sports memory.
In sorting it out afterward, the ESPN crew – John Saunders, Greg Anthony, Stephen A. Smith and Tim Legler – to a man defended Artest’s decision to go into the stands, saying that anyone would have done the same thing under the circumstances. John Saunders went so far as to say a similar response would be justified if it took place in Times Square.
That’s when I got irritated. The underlying theme was a testosterone-driven attitude that no self-respecting man would ever walk away from a challenge to their honor. I am sorry, but they have it 180 degrees wrong.
A self-respecting man does not feel the need to defend his honor at the drop of a hat. A self-respecting man doesn’t care about the slights of others. And a self-respecting man doesn’t care if others view him as weak for walking away from a fight, because he knows in his own heart that the real sign of strength is in the ability to walk away.
Too bad the ESPN crew didn’t see it that way. They missed a golden opportunity to convey to a largely male audience that there is no dishonor in walking away. Instead, they fell into the same misguided mindset that caused Artest to retaliate. And in the process gave an excuse to the next clown who overreacts.
Think I’m wrong, and the ESPN guys were right? Well, let’s look at it. What if, instead of running wildly into the stands, Artest had simply walked to the center of the court and took a few deep breaths. Instead of being viewed today as the troubled problem child of the NBA, he’d have been heralded for his maturity and restraint.
It’s ironic that some would view the need to retaliate as a matter of self-respect, when that behavior is both a manifestation and a cause of low self-esteem. Yet the news is constantly filled with stories of altercations that arise because one party feels disrespected. In just the past month, we’ve had the NBA brawl, another between the Clemson and South Carolina football teams and one at the Vibe Awards show in Santa Monica, not to mention the six killed in Wisconsin in a dispute over a deer stand. Over and over we hear how one party "dissed" another.
So what do we do about it? Well, no public policy can instill self-respect. Instead, we as a society need to value restraint. We need to applaud those who walk away from the fray, letting it be known that doing nothing is not a sign of weakness, but of strength. Too bad our friends at ESPN missed their chance to do just that.
In case you missed it – I’m not sure how you could have – a brawl involving players and fans broke out when Indiana’s Ron Artest attacked a fan after being hit with a beverage thrown from the stands. Now, certainly the fan who threw the cup initiated the brouhaha. But it was Ron Artest’s response that escalated it into perhaps the ugliest scene in sports memory.
In sorting it out afterward, the ESPN crew – John Saunders, Greg Anthony, Stephen A. Smith and Tim Legler – to a man defended Artest’s decision to go into the stands, saying that anyone would have done the same thing under the circumstances. John Saunders went so far as to say a similar response would be justified if it took place in Times Square.
That’s when I got irritated. The underlying theme was a testosterone-driven attitude that no self-respecting man would ever walk away from a challenge to their honor. I am sorry, but they have it 180 degrees wrong.
A self-respecting man does not feel the need to defend his honor at the drop of a hat. A self-respecting man doesn’t care about the slights of others. And a self-respecting man doesn’t care if others view him as weak for walking away from a fight, because he knows in his own heart that the real sign of strength is in the ability to walk away.
Too bad the ESPN crew didn’t see it that way. They missed a golden opportunity to convey to a largely male audience that there is no dishonor in walking away. Instead, they fell into the same misguided mindset that caused Artest to retaliate. And in the process gave an excuse to the next clown who overreacts.
Think I’m wrong, and the ESPN guys were right? Well, let’s look at it. What if, instead of running wildly into the stands, Artest had simply walked to the center of the court and took a few deep breaths. Instead of being viewed today as the troubled problem child of the NBA, he’d have been heralded for his maturity and restraint.
It’s ironic that some would view the need to retaliate as a matter of self-respect, when that behavior is both a manifestation and a cause of low self-esteem. Yet the news is constantly filled with stories of altercations that arise because one party feels disrespected. In just the past month, we’ve had the NBA brawl, another between the Clemson and South Carolina football teams and one at the Vibe Awards show in Santa Monica, not to mention the six killed in Wisconsin in a dispute over a deer stand. Over and over we hear how one party "dissed" another.
So what do we do about it? Well, no public policy can instill self-respect. Instead, we as a society need to value restraint. We need to applaud those who walk away from the fray, letting it be known that doing nothing is not a sign of weakness, but of strength. Too bad our friends at ESPN missed their chance to do just that.
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