Are we acting like the old buffalo hunters in the late nineteenth century? I once heard it said that as the bison disappeared, hunters had three options – they could find better ways to hunt the remaining buffalo, they could find ways to nurture the herd back to health, or they could find things to hunt besides buffalo. What they could not do, but sadly chose to, was sit in saloons drinking while waiting for the herds to return.
Now it looks as though we are following the hunters’ path with regard to oil reserves. It’s as though we figure we can continue to party on in our Suburbans, Expeditions and Hummers while we wait for oil supplies to build back up and prices to come back down.
It could be a long wait.
That’s because our current oil prices are not so much a result of supply problems as they are of demand. We like to think that the war in Iraq has disrupted oil production, leading to higher prices, but that’s not the case. The real culprit lies in exploding demand in developing nations, particularly China. Save for a collapse of the Chinese economy, that dynamic is only going to get worse.
So what are our options? Let’s consider the buffalo hunters.
We can look for new sources of petroleum. That seems to be the primary answer sought by the Bush administration. While they have made some cursory comments regarding alternative solutions such as hydrogen-based fuel cells, their foremost strategy is to drill more wells.
That is a short-term solution at best. The fact is that petroleum is a finite resource. What we have is what we get. It took millions of years for plants and dinosaurs to decay and become liquid oil. In little more than a century, we’ve gone a long way toward depleting that supply. It may last a few more decades or a century at best, but then what? The time to act is before it’s gone.
That leads to solution number two. We can nurture the resource. That means conservation. Despite arguments that this is no more than a touchy-feely solution with little real value, it must be our first step. Conservation buys us time. Were it not for improvements in energy efficiency over the past thirty years, we’d currently be consuming as much as forty percent more oil than we are today.
I find it strange that we have stricter controls on how much water we can flush down a toilet than on how much gas our cars can burn. That must change – water simply goes back into the environment. Oil disappears forever.
The real answer, however, lies in solution number three – finding alternative energy sources. There is no shortage of energy, only petroleum. Of the options, hydrogen fuel cell technology is among the most intriguing. But we must consider all our energy options, including wind, water, solar, geothermal, and yes, nuclear.
The handwriting is on the wall. Or should I say it is on the pylon sign in front of the filling station. Those prices are rising because we are squeezing a precious, limited resource. They are not a sign of impending disaster, but of the need for aggressive out-of-the-box thinking. The time to act is now, lest we finish off the last of our oil like the delusional buffalo hunter down to his last drop of whiskey.
8/20/2004
Let Kids Be Kids
Growing up, there were these three solitary trees that loomed far in the distance from my house. They always seemed to be calling us – come climb our branches, sit in our shade, jump in our leaves. I can remember as a kid asking for permission to go down to the Three Trees (yes, the name was capitalized, since in my mind it was a proper noun just as much as Cincinnati or Omaha).
So, with mom’s blessing – and perhaps a sack lunch – we’d hike off across the fields that led from our house to a day of adventure.
I was reminded of those trees by two recent conversations. One was with my neighbor, who was reminiscing about the days spent fishing at local ponds when he was a kid. Like us, he and his friends would disappear for a day of seclusion, where fun was limited only by the imagination – and where there wasn’t a parent or adult in sight.
The other was with a mom worried about what our kids would do during the summer in the event we do not build a local $34 million community center.
Wow, has life really changed that much? Is the world that much smaller, that there are no adventures for kids to find on their own? Or has it become so dangerous that the only places we feel they can be safe are within our view or the confines of a controlled structure or activity?
I worry about today’s kids, whose lives seem to be planned out days, months and years in advance. I recently read of a ten year-old who played more than 100 baseball games last year. No big deal, we played that many and more every summer when I was growing up.
The difference is that we played four or five a side – sometimes even one-on-one – with no umpires, no uniforms and with scrap plywood for bases. This kid travels hundreds of miles with select teams, in the hope that someday he might get a shot at the major leagues. But is he having fun?
Because that is what childhood should be about. Fun, adventure, learning. With no coaches or umpires we had to pick teams (tossed bats and "bottle caps"), make up ground rules (a ball under the bushes is a double) and argue over hits, runs and outs. Along the way we not only learned baseball, but also leadership, compromise and conflict resolution. And we had a blast doing it.
Today, kids’ schedules are so packed with soccer practice, piano lessons and dance recitals that I fear they are missing out on developing some of those intangible skills that are just as important, if not more so, than the nuts-and-bolt talents their structured pursuits require.
I’ve always chuckled when I read how poorly U.S. students stack up academically with those from other nations. If we lag so far behind, why is it that we seem to run everything? From mass-produced automobiles to fast food, from music to the internet, we have led the way in just about every industrial, technical and cultural innovation.
I would argue that it’s because we have always valued creativity over conformity. Yet in a world where twelve year-olds now carry Day-Timers and Palm Pilots, I fear that they are going straight from cradle to cubicle.
I think we’d all be better off if they spent a little more time down at the Three Trees.
So, with mom’s blessing – and perhaps a sack lunch – we’d hike off across the fields that led from our house to a day of adventure.
I was reminded of those trees by two recent conversations. One was with my neighbor, who was reminiscing about the days spent fishing at local ponds when he was a kid. Like us, he and his friends would disappear for a day of seclusion, where fun was limited only by the imagination – and where there wasn’t a parent or adult in sight.
The other was with a mom worried about what our kids would do during the summer in the event we do not build a local $34 million community center.
Wow, has life really changed that much? Is the world that much smaller, that there are no adventures for kids to find on their own? Or has it become so dangerous that the only places we feel they can be safe are within our view or the confines of a controlled structure or activity?
I worry about today’s kids, whose lives seem to be planned out days, months and years in advance. I recently read of a ten year-old who played more than 100 baseball games last year. No big deal, we played that many and more every summer when I was growing up.
The difference is that we played four or five a side – sometimes even one-on-one – with no umpires, no uniforms and with scrap plywood for bases. This kid travels hundreds of miles with select teams, in the hope that someday he might get a shot at the major leagues. But is he having fun?
Because that is what childhood should be about. Fun, adventure, learning. With no coaches or umpires we had to pick teams (tossed bats and "bottle caps"), make up ground rules (a ball under the bushes is a double) and argue over hits, runs and outs. Along the way we not only learned baseball, but also leadership, compromise and conflict resolution. And we had a blast doing it.
Today, kids’ schedules are so packed with soccer practice, piano lessons and dance recitals that I fear they are missing out on developing some of those intangible skills that are just as important, if not more so, than the nuts-and-bolt talents their structured pursuits require.
I’ve always chuckled when I read how poorly U.S. students stack up academically with those from other nations. If we lag so far behind, why is it that we seem to run everything? From mass-produced automobiles to fast food, from music to the internet, we have led the way in just about every industrial, technical and cultural innovation.
I would argue that it’s because we have always valued creativity over conformity. Yet in a world where twelve year-olds now carry Day-Timers and Palm Pilots, I fear that they are going straight from cradle to cubicle.
I think we’d all be better off if they spent a little more time down at the Three Trees.
7/16/2004
One Step to Fix the Health Insurance Problem
What difference can one person make? A lot when it comes to health insurance. My company recently hired one person with a pre-existing health condition in the family. The change in health premiums? More than $24,000 a year. That’s a 42% increase in our annual premiums due to one health issue.
And that’s why we have nearly 44 million uninsured people in this country. Neither employers nor individuals in low-wage industries can afford the cost of insurance when a serious health issue is involved. And the way group health insurance works in the U.S. makes it almost impossible to work around it.
Take my situation, for example. Due to the nature of the work, our average wage is right around ten dollars an hour. Economics keep us from paying any more than that. Yet the one employee above requires health insurance that costs more than $11.50 an hour, which is on top of her normal wage. That alone makes the employee uneconomical. He or she will not be able to generate enough profit to cover the cost of insurance.
So I have three options (keeping in mind that I can neither legally nor ethically fire the person). I can eat the cost myself, which I cannot afford. I can pass the cost on to my employees, which they cannot afford. Or I can drop coverage altogether, in which case we’ll have twenty more families without health insurance.
If I pass the costs on to the employees, it can be expected that a number of them will drop the coverage. If we lose any more participants, we will drop below the 50% participation threshold insurers require to provide group coverage. That requirement exists so that carriers don’t find themselves covering just the sick.
But that’s precisely what happens. I already have healthy, young employees who have found individual coverage that costs far less than it does to participate in our plan. The only ones who remain are those with health issues.
One thing that would help would be the ability to join a larger group so that risk gets spread around, but the way it works now – well, it just doesn’t work.
That’s because even when part of a group – say the chamber of commerce, for example – each employer is still considered a separate group within the combine. So risk is not spread and small employers still bear the brunt of high-risk workers.
Even when groups treat all employers as one large risk pool, when high risk members join, the group’s premiums increase. Insurers then come in and cherry-pick the low risk employers with promises of lower premiums. The program eventually crumbles under oppressive premiums as only the highest risk employers remain.
So what’s needed is to find a large group that small businesses can join which will spread the risk, without fear that the larger group will bolt the program.
One such group exists – federal government employees. They have negotiated benefits administered through private insurers. It is not government health insurance. But it consists of a large, diverse group that would spread the risk far and wide. But more important, federal employees would not be able to flee the group in a way that now leaves small employers in the lurch.
Let small employers buy into that plan and they might no longer face premium increases of 42% because of one unfortunate health situation. And we might actually see a few of the 44 million uninsured finally get coverage.
And that’s why we have nearly 44 million uninsured people in this country. Neither employers nor individuals in low-wage industries can afford the cost of insurance when a serious health issue is involved. And the way group health insurance works in the U.S. makes it almost impossible to work around it.
Take my situation, for example. Due to the nature of the work, our average wage is right around ten dollars an hour. Economics keep us from paying any more than that. Yet the one employee above requires health insurance that costs more than $11.50 an hour, which is on top of her normal wage. That alone makes the employee uneconomical. He or she will not be able to generate enough profit to cover the cost of insurance.
So I have three options (keeping in mind that I can neither legally nor ethically fire the person). I can eat the cost myself, which I cannot afford. I can pass the cost on to my employees, which they cannot afford. Or I can drop coverage altogether, in which case we’ll have twenty more families without health insurance.
If I pass the costs on to the employees, it can be expected that a number of them will drop the coverage. If we lose any more participants, we will drop below the 50% participation threshold insurers require to provide group coverage. That requirement exists so that carriers don’t find themselves covering just the sick.
But that’s precisely what happens. I already have healthy, young employees who have found individual coverage that costs far less than it does to participate in our plan. The only ones who remain are those with health issues.
One thing that would help would be the ability to join a larger group so that risk gets spread around, but the way it works now – well, it just doesn’t work.
That’s because even when part of a group – say the chamber of commerce, for example – each employer is still considered a separate group within the combine. So risk is not spread and small employers still bear the brunt of high-risk workers.
Even when groups treat all employers as one large risk pool, when high risk members join, the group’s premiums increase. Insurers then come in and cherry-pick the low risk employers with promises of lower premiums. The program eventually crumbles under oppressive premiums as only the highest risk employers remain.
So what’s needed is to find a large group that small businesses can join which will spread the risk, without fear that the larger group will bolt the program.
One such group exists – federal government employees. They have negotiated benefits administered through private insurers. It is not government health insurance. But it consists of a large, diverse group that would spread the risk far and wide. But more important, federal employees would not be able to flee the group in a way that now leaves small employers in the lurch.
Let small employers buy into that plan and they might no longer face premium increases of 42% because of one unfortunate health situation. And we might actually see a few of the 44 million uninsured finally get coverage.
7/09/2004
Teaching Kids the Joy of Accomplishment
Most people are shocked to learn that I wrote my newspaper column for a year before the idea of getting paid for it even came up. But you know what? I love writing it – so much so that I would do it for free. And I did.
Everyone should be so lucky to find things to do in life that they enjoy so much that they would do them without pay. Obviously, that’s not realistic, but I am a firm believer that true success is measured by the joy and satisfaction that comes the endeavor, rather than by financial reward it brings.
This is a lesson I am trying to teach my kids – that money does not buy happiness. It’s walking a fine line trying to teach them the value of money, without making them money-obsessed. At the same time, I want them to appreciate the satisfaction that comes from a job well done, without them feeling that they should get paid for everything they do.
So how to teach them the value of money and the joy of work? This is just my two cents worth, but the bast way is to keep the two – the value of money and the joy of work – separate.
First, I do not believe in paying kids – especially young ones – for doing the things around the house that they should be doing, like cleaning their rooms, picking up toys or helping me sweep the garage. Instead, I want to reward them with thanks, a game of monkey-in-the-middle or just standing back and pointing out how good things look. I want them to feel the satisfaction that comes from a job well done.
Second, I say no. A lot. There’s not a time that we walk past a candy aisle or a toy display or a gumball machine that the kids don’t ask if they can have something. A trip through Walmart is a trip through the gates of parental hell. Can I get this? No. Can I have that? No. How about this? No.
Why not? Because it costs money, and we can’t spend it on everything you see. We need to save it for the things we really want. Now, obviously a quarter for a gumball is not going to prevent me from paying for the groceries, but they don’t need to know that.
Third, I do believe in giving them a small weekly allowance that they can spend on a small toy, or save for a while if they want to buy something bigger. Then when they ask for something, I can tell them to save their money. Nothing places a value on cash as quickly as telling them the thing they want is ten bucks, when they’ve only got six.
The time will come when they’ll realize that they can jumpstart their financial independence by doing things of value for others. Then they can get paid for working. But hopefully by then, they will have developed an appreciation for a job well done. Getting paid will be icing on the cake.
I’m no parenting guru and I do not claim to have all the answers – not by a long shot. But if I can get my kids to take satisfaction from their efforts, regardless of the financial rewards, then I’ll feel that I’ve been successful. More important, they’ll feel successful in ways that money could never buy.
Everyone should be so lucky to find things to do in life that they enjoy so much that they would do them without pay. Obviously, that’s not realistic, but I am a firm believer that true success is measured by the joy and satisfaction that comes the endeavor, rather than by financial reward it brings.
This is a lesson I am trying to teach my kids – that money does not buy happiness. It’s walking a fine line trying to teach them the value of money, without making them money-obsessed. At the same time, I want them to appreciate the satisfaction that comes from a job well done, without them feeling that they should get paid for everything they do.
So how to teach them the value of money and the joy of work? This is just my two cents worth, but the bast way is to keep the two – the value of money and the joy of work – separate.
First, I do not believe in paying kids – especially young ones – for doing the things around the house that they should be doing, like cleaning their rooms, picking up toys or helping me sweep the garage. Instead, I want to reward them with thanks, a game of monkey-in-the-middle or just standing back and pointing out how good things look. I want them to feel the satisfaction that comes from a job well done.
Second, I say no. A lot. There’s not a time that we walk past a candy aisle or a toy display or a gumball machine that the kids don’t ask if they can have something. A trip through Walmart is a trip through the gates of parental hell. Can I get this? No. Can I have that? No. How about this? No.
Why not? Because it costs money, and we can’t spend it on everything you see. We need to save it for the things we really want. Now, obviously a quarter for a gumball is not going to prevent me from paying for the groceries, but they don’t need to know that.
Third, I do believe in giving them a small weekly allowance that they can spend on a small toy, or save for a while if they want to buy something bigger. Then when they ask for something, I can tell them to save their money. Nothing places a value on cash as quickly as telling them the thing they want is ten bucks, when they’ve only got six.
The time will come when they’ll realize that they can jumpstart their financial independence by doing things of value for others. Then they can get paid for working. But hopefully by then, they will have developed an appreciation for a job well done. Getting paid will be icing on the cake.
I’m no parenting guru and I do not claim to have all the answers – not by a long shot. But if I can get my kids to take satisfaction from their efforts, regardless of the financial rewards, then I’ll feel that I’ve been successful. More important, they’ll feel successful in ways that money could never buy.
6/29/2004
The Medical-Industrial Complex: Today's New Threat
I use MSN.com as my internet home page and I’ve noticed that they seem to have quite a fixation on GERD. It seems that just about every other day, they have some link to a story about GERD – you can fight GERD, pregnancy and GERD, how to sleep with GERD.
What the heck is GERD? And why would I want to fight it and sleep with it? Is this some kind of new-age approach to marital problems?
Well, I finally clicked on one of those links and found that GERD stands for gastro-esophageal reflux disease. I think it used to be called heartburn. Apparently, it must be the primary health threat facing America, given MSN’s urgency in helping us in our war on this old ailment with the new name.
But then I noticed that every one of the articles on GERD was framed in a pretty, light purple color. A purple that is identical to the color of the little purple pill called Nexium, a product of the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. It turns out that they are the primary, if not only, sponsor of the pages with these articles on GERD. And what, pray tell, is Nexium prescribed for? Can you spell G-E-R-D?
Now I remember the days when you spelled relief R-O-L-A-I-D-S. But in today’s world, why spend a buck on a pack of Rolaids, when you can spend $120 for a vial of Nexium?
The answer is both simple and complex. Simple, because we want more effective treatments for that which ails us. Complex, because the healthcare industry is all-too-eager to squeeze more and more dollars out of our pockets.
It’s common in every industry – from McDonald’s asking if we want to super-size our order, to the car dealer suggesting that we test drive the car with leather seats. But the healthcare industry is taking it to new and dangerous heights, and if we’re not careful, we’ll end up bankrupting ourselves and our economy.
It’s a new variation on Dwight Eisenhower’s warning about the threat of the military-industrial complex. But instead of playing on our fears of death at the hands of the Soviets to create a military behemoth, we have the medical-industrial complex playing on our fear of death and disease in order to satisfy shareholders’ demands for greater profits.
Certainly, the profit motive has served us well in bringing new medical breakthroughs to the market. Without it, we’d have no MRI’s, no anti-AIDS treatments, no new cancer breakthroughs. But where does it stop?
There is a frightening synergy to MSN’s mix of news and commerce. Microsoft posts headlines about GERD as news items, then links them to pages paid for by Nexium. Those who suffer then seek (or is it demand) a Nexium prescription from their doctor.
I won't argue that publicly traded companies don't have a responsibility to increase shareholder value, but at some point, shareholder gains must be balanced with the public’s resources. We risk reaching a day when our economy is so centered around health care that it starves resources for other endeavors - and due to its immensity, believed too important to the economy and too influential to be reined in.
For example, Pfizer had U.S. sales of about $26 billion last year. To achieve a sales increase of ten percent this year, they would need to sell nearly ten dollars of additional product to every man, woman and child in the U.S. That’s just one company – and we have to wonder if hitting their target will be in our best interest or just theirs.
There was a time when we would treat gangrene with a shot of whiskey and a hacksaw. Today, it’s with antibiotic IV drips and microsurgery. Thank heaven for that, but if we’re not careful, we may find that whiskey is our only refuge from the financial pain.
What the heck is GERD? And why would I want to fight it and sleep with it? Is this some kind of new-age approach to marital problems?
Well, I finally clicked on one of those links and found that GERD stands for gastro-esophageal reflux disease. I think it used to be called heartburn. Apparently, it must be the primary health threat facing America, given MSN’s urgency in helping us in our war on this old ailment with the new name.
But then I noticed that every one of the articles on GERD was framed in a pretty, light purple color. A purple that is identical to the color of the little purple pill called Nexium, a product of the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. It turns out that they are the primary, if not only, sponsor of the pages with these articles on GERD. And what, pray tell, is Nexium prescribed for? Can you spell G-E-R-D?
Now I remember the days when you spelled relief R-O-L-A-I-D-S. But in today’s world, why spend a buck on a pack of Rolaids, when you can spend $120 for a vial of Nexium?
The answer is both simple and complex. Simple, because we want more effective treatments for that which ails us. Complex, because the healthcare industry is all-too-eager to squeeze more and more dollars out of our pockets.
It’s common in every industry – from McDonald’s asking if we want to super-size our order, to the car dealer suggesting that we test drive the car with leather seats. But the healthcare industry is taking it to new and dangerous heights, and if we’re not careful, we’ll end up bankrupting ourselves and our economy.
It’s a new variation on Dwight Eisenhower’s warning about the threat of the military-industrial complex. But instead of playing on our fears of death at the hands of the Soviets to create a military behemoth, we have the medical-industrial complex playing on our fear of death and disease in order to satisfy shareholders’ demands for greater profits.
Certainly, the profit motive has served us well in bringing new medical breakthroughs to the market. Without it, we’d have no MRI’s, no anti-AIDS treatments, no new cancer breakthroughs. But where does it stop?
There is a frightening synergy to MSN’s mix of news and commerce. Microsoft posts headlines about GERD as news items, then links them to pages paid for by Nexium. Those who suffer then seek (or is it demand) a Nexium prescription from their doctor.
I won't argue that publicly traded companies don't have a responsibility to increase shareholder value, but at some point, shareholder gains must be balanced with the public’s resources. We risk reaching a day when our economy is so centered around health care that it starves resources for other endeavors - and due to its immensity, believed too important to the economy and too influential to be reined in.
For example, Pfizer had U.S. sales of about $26 billion last year. To achieve a sales increase of ten percent this year, they would need to sell nearly ten dollars of additional product to every man, woman and child in the U.S. That’s just one company – and we have to wonder if hitting their target will be in our best interest or just theirs.
There was a time when we would treat gangrene with a shot of whiskey and a hacksaw. Today, it’s with antibiotic IV drips and microsurgery. Thank heaven for that, but if we’re not careful, we may find that whiskey is our only refuge from the financial pain.
6/25/2004
Opposite Approaches to Crime and Violence
Paul’s note: The subject is a local Cincinnati issue, but with global implications.
Ten years ago I had an opportunity to expand my business when a competitor went up for sale on Second Street in Hamilton, Ohio. It was a perfect match, but the deal fell apart when I asked the owner his hours of operation. He told me they stayed open until 7:30 p.m. during the summer, but closed at 5:30 during the winter. His explanation was that it wasn’t safe to leave after dark.
Now I’m in business to earn a living and provide for my family. Money is nice, but it’s not so important that I’m willing to risk my safety for it. So I passed on the opportunity. Less than a year later the business I was looking at shut down, taking all the jobs they offered with it.
There is a lesson there for anyone who wants to provide jobs for troubled urban areas. Provide a safe environment and the jobs will come.
It’s always been a chicken-and-egg debate. One side argues that crime flourishes because there are no jobs, while the other says that jobs are scarce because crime scares them away.
Well, it appears that two Cincinnati politicians want to find out which is the chicken and which is the egg.
Alicia Reece, the young vice mayor, coordinated a "Day Of Peace" this past Father’s Day. Ministers and community leaders spoke of the need for individuals to each do their part to put an end to the violence that has swept the city. Business owners, including Ms. Reece’s father, preached a message of hope by speaking to city youth about the power to become successful entrepreneurs and the opportunities available to anyone.
Normally I am not a big fan of symbolic rallies, but in this case the message being sent is precisely what Cincinnati’s young people need to hear – namely, that the answer to violence lies within themselves. If we can transform the attitude from one where guns mean power to one where education and responsibility mean power, we’ll see crime drop and jobs flow back into the city.
But while this was going on, State Representative Tyrone Yates was warning the Ohio legislature that unless the state provided $4 million for a summer jobs program, we could expect violence and bloodshed in the streets of Cincinnati. Now, he wasn't calling for violence, but he sends the message that if the state doesn't pony up, we shouldn't be surprised when the street erupts. Sadly, his warning could lead to precisely the type of violence that sends businesses and jobs packing. He's not marshalling the forces, but there are certainly those who will take it as a license to disrupt. And if the street does erupt, the groundwork has been laid to blame the disturbance not on the perpetrators, but on society.
It is ironic that while Alicia Reece’s effort was aimed at curbing violence, its end result will be more jobs and opportunities. Meanwhile, Tyrone Yates effort to create jobs is likely to have the opposite effect as violence is excused and jobs become more scarce.
Worse, Tyrone Yates perpetuates the myth that things can’t get better unless someone else does something about it. Alicia Reece is saying that the answer is lying there right inside each of us. One says we can’t do it ourselves, the other says yes we can. I’ll take can over can’t any day.
Ten years ago I had an opportunity to expand my business when a competitor went up for sale on Second Street in Hamilton, Ohio. It was a perfect match, but the deal fell apart when I asked the owner his hours of operation. He told me they stayed open until 7:30 p.m. during the summer, but closed at 5:30 during the winter. His explanation was that it wasn’t safe to leave after dark.
Now I’m in business to earn a living and provide for my family. Money is nice, but it’s not so important that I’m willing to risk my safety for it. So I passed on the opportunity. Less than a year later the business I was looking at shut down, taking all the jobs they offered with it.
There is a lesson there for anyone who wants to provide jobs for troubled urban areas. Provide a safe environment and the jobs will come.
It’s always been a chicken-and-egg debate. One side argues that crime flourishes because there are no jobs, while the other says that jobs are scarce because crime scares them away.
Well, it appears that two Cincinnati politicians want to find out which is the chicken and which is the egg.
Alicia Reece, the young vice mayor, coordinated a "Day Of Peace" this past Father’s Day. Ministers and community leaders spoke of the need for individuals to each do their part to put an end to the violence that has swept the city. Business owners, including Ms. Reece’s father, preached a message of hope by speaking to city youth about the power to become successful entrepreneurs and the opportunities available to anyone.
Normally I am not a big fan of symbolic rallies, but in this case the message being sent is precisely what Cincinnati’s young people need to hear – namely, that the answer to violence lies within themselves. If we can transform the attitude from one where guns mean power to one where education and responsibility mean power, we’ll see crime drop and jobs flow back into the city.
But while this was going on, State Representative Tyrone Yates was warning the Ohio legislature that unless the state provided $4 million for a summer jobs program, we could expect violence and bloodshed in the streets of Cincinnati. Now, he wasn't calling for violence, but he sends the message that if the state doesn't pony up, we shouldn't be surprised when the street erupts. Sadly, his warning could lead to precisely the type of violence that sends businesses and jobs packing. He's not marshalling the forces, but there are certainly those who will take it as a license to disrupt. And if the street does erupt, the groundwork has been laid to blame the disturbance not on the perpetrators, but on society.
It is ironic that while Alicia Reece’s effort was aimed at curbing violence, its end result will be more jobs and opportunities. Meanwhile, Tyrone Yates effort to create jobs is likely to have the opposite effect as violence is excused and jobs become more scarce.
Worse, Tyrone Yates perpetuates the myth that things can’t get better unless someone else does something about it. Alicia Reece is saying that the answer is lying there right inside each of us. One says we can’t do it ourselves, the other says yes we can. I’ll take can over can’t any day.
6/11/2004
Ronald Reagan's Greatest Legacy
Ronald Reagan’s passing made me think of two girls that I dated during Reagan’s second term in office. Both had lost their fathers when they were twelve years old. Both had graduated from state universities – one from Ohio State, the other from Penn State. Both had taken good jobs with Fortune 500 firms upon graduating.
One adored Ronald Reagan, the other loathed him.
For you see, both women had their college education paid in part by the survivor benefits due them from Social Security. Both had seen that benefit reduced under Reagan as part of an effort to preserve Social Security. Yet, while one was grateful to graduate from college, the other was bitter that she didn’t get everything she felt she was entitled to. I’ll let you guess which one despised Reagan.
Yet their reaction to the man and his policies highlight what Reagan meant when he said that he wanted to appeal to our best hopes. Though they both faced hardships – and reacted differently to the benefit cuts – they both earned their degrees. And while it might not have been as easy without the aid, they – and the nation – are better off for having had to rely upon their own grit and determination.
That encapsulates Reagan’s greatest gift to America. More important than his tax cuts, more important than his sunny optimism, was the fact that he got us up off our collective duffs.
For more than a generation, beginning with the end of WWII, everything had gone America’s way. As the only economy to come out of the war unscathed, we built everything. But then came the Arab oil embargo in 1973. Suddenly, we were buying small Japanese cars – and finding they were pretty darn good.
We were no longer the only game in town. But we Americans were not ready to give up the good life. Like a spoiled trust-fund baby, we expected the perks and benefits to keep on coming. Automatic cost-of-living allowances, restrictive union workplace rules and ever-expanding government assistance all served to blind us to the harsh new economic reality.
But when economic reality hit on top of the humiliations of Vietnam, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis, a woe-is-me attitude settled in.
Enter Ronald Reagan. He refused to let us give in to the malaise that Jimmy Carter spoke of with such resignation. Like John Belushi’s character in the movie Animal House, who convinced his fraternity brothers that the day of their expulsion could become the best of their lives, Reagan convinced us when we were down that America’s best days still lay ahead. In the process, he knocked complacency on its ear.
He sent notice to the unions that it was no longer business-as-usual when he fired the striking air traffic controllers. He began trimming social benefits. Where some saw a safety net, he saw a blanket that was suffocating the American spirit.
Some feared we wouldn’t survive his policies. But rather than wither and die, we instead responded like a once overprotected child who thrives when finally removed from the withering care of mother, father and Big Brother.
Ronald Reagan had faith in the American people. He had faith that when left to our own devices, we would flourish like never before. And like my old girlfriends, we rose to his challenge and proved that faith well-founded.
One adored Ronald Reagan, the other loathed him.
For you see, both women had their college education paid in part by the survivor benefits due them from Social Security. Both had seen that benefit reduced under Reagan as part of an effort to preserve Social Security. Yet, while one was grateful to graduate from college, the other was bitter that she didn’t get everything she felt she was entitled to. I’ll let you guess which one despised Reagan.
Yet their reaction to the man and his policies highlight what Reagan meant when he said that he wanted to appeal to our best hopes. Though they both faced hardships – and reacted differently to the benefit cuts – they both earned their degrees. And while it might not have been as easy without the aid, they – and the nation – are better off for having had to rely upon their own grit and determination.
That encapsulates Reagan’s greatest gift to America. More important than his tax cuts, more important than his sunny optimism, was the fact that he got us up off our collective duffs.
For more than a generation, beginning with the end of WWII, everything had gone America’s way. As the only economy to come out of the war unscathed, we built everything. But then came the Arab oil embargo in 1973. Suddenly, we were buying small Japanese cars – and finding they were pretty darn good.
We were no longer the only game in town. But we Americans were not ready to give up the good life. Like a spoiled trust-fund baby, we expected the perks and benefits to keep on coming. Automatic cost-of-living allowances, restrictive union workplace rules and ever-expanding government assistance all served to blind us to the harsh new economic reality.
But when economic reality hit on top of the humiliations of Vietnam, Watergate and the Iranian hostage crisis, a woe-is-me attitude settled in.
Enter Ronald Reagan. He refused to let us give in to the malaise that Jimmy Carter spoke of with such resignation. Like John Belushi’s character in the movie Animal House, who convinced his fraternity brothers that the day of their expulsion could become the best of their lives, Reagan convinced us when we were down that America’s best days still lay ahead. In the process, he knocked complacency on its ear.
He sent notice to the unions that it was no longer business-as-usual when he fired the striking air traffic controllers. He began trimming social benefits. Where some saw a safety net, he saw a blanket that was suffocating the American spirit.
Some feared we wouldn’t survive his policies. But rather than wither and die, we instead responded like a once overprotected child who thrives when finally removed from the withering care of mother, father and Big Brother.
Ronald Reagan had faith in the American people. He had faith that when left to our own devices, we would flourish like never before. And like my old girlfriends, we rose to his challenge and proved that faith well-founded.
6/04/2004
Bill Cosby's Message of Empowerment
I am guessing that most everyone is familiar with the serenity prayer - grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Bill Cosby seemed to be invoking that prayer at an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In his remarks, he criticized the poor English used by so many in the black community and refused to view African-American criminals as victims.
Referring to incarcerated black males, he stated, "These are not political criminals. These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake and then we run out and we are outraged, [saying] 'The cops shouldn't have shot him.' What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?"
While many conservatives jumped on these remarks as a finger-pointing "I told you so" opportunity to say that racism is not the problem, others saw them as an unnecessarily negative attack on the black community. Such responses miss the deeper context of his comments.
Rather than being a negative slam, his remarks were all about empowerment. The power to make personal choices that can have a marked impact on one’s own life. One can choose to make good decisions and one can choose to make bad decisions. While he focused on the negative choices that he feels are made too frequently, the underlying truth is that there is a choice.
So often, self-destructive behavior is the result of hopelessness. One gets laid off and has trouble finding a job. Frustration sets in and is taken out on those around us. Families break up, relationships are lost. Sorrows are drowned in alcohol and drugs. Self worth plummets. A vicious cycle sets in where our negative outlook only serves to reinforce and justify our self-destructive behavior.
It can happen to anyone, be they black, white, green or blue. Add the deleterious effects of racism, and that hopelessness can become overwhelming.
But there is hope. Sure, life is hard and often unfair. And while we may not have control over the external events in our lives, we have complete control in how we react to them. We can choose to get up in the morning. We can choose to believe in ourselves, no matter what anyone else says. We can choose to do the right thing. External factors can encourage us to do the wrong thing, but they cannot force us to do so. We as individuals have complete power over our conduct.
Making the right choices gives us the peace of mind that comes from knowing that no matter what life has thrown our way, we have made the most of our opportunities. To paraphrase, we have been granted the wisdom to accept the things we cannot change, the power to change those we can and the serenity that comes from knowing the difference.
That is what I get from Bill Cosby’s remarks. Make the right choices, do what you can do as an individual to better yourself and disregard those things that are beyond your control. Do not accept obstacles as excuses to fail but as challenges to rise above. Therein lies the wisdom.
Bill Cosby seemed to be invoking that prayer at an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. In his remarks, he criticized the poor English used by so many in the black community and refused to view African-American criminals as victims.
Referring to incarcerated black males, he stated, "These are not political criminals. These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake and then we run out and we are outraged, [saying] 'The cops shouldn't have shot him.' What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?"
While many conservatives jumped on these remarks as a finger-pointing "I told you so" opportunity to say that racism is not the problem, others saw them as an unnecessarily negative attack on the black community. Such responses miss the deeper context of his comments.
Rather than being a negative slam, his remarks were all about empowerment. The power to make personal choices that can have a marked impact on one’s own life. One can choose to make good decisions and one can choose to make bad decisions. While he focused on the negative choices that he feels are made too frequently, the underlying truth is that there is a choice.
So often, self-destructive behavior is the result of hopelessness. One gets laid off and has trouble finding a job. Frustration sets in and is taken out on those around us. Families break up, relationships are lost. Sorrows are drowned in alcohol and drugs. Self worth plummets. A vicious cycle sets in where our negative outlook only serves to reinforce and justify our self-destructive behavior.
It can happen to anyone, be they black, white, green or blue. Add the deleterious effects of racism, and that hopelessness can become overwhelming.
But there is hope. Sure, life is hard and often unfair. And while we may not have control over the external events in our lives, we have complete control in how we react to them. We can choose to get up in the morning. We can choose to believe in ourselves, no matter what anyone else says. We can choose to do the right thing. External factors can encourage us to do the wrong thing, but they cannot force us to do so. We as individuals have complete power over our conduct.
Making the right choices gives us the peace of mind that comes from knowing that no matter what life has thrown our way, we have made the most of our opportunities. To paraphrase, we have been granted the wisdom to accept the things we cannot change, the power to change those we can and the serenity that comes from knowing the difference.
That is what I get from Bill Cosby’s remarks. Make the right choices, do what you can do as an individual to better yourself and disregard those things that are beyond your control. Do not accept obstacles as excuses to fail but as challenges to rise above. Therein lies the wisdom.
5/20/2004
What If Our Team Lost the War, Dad
The question came from my five year-old son sitting in the backseat of the car.
"Dad, what would happen if our team lost at war?"
After I did my double-take – our team, what, lost, war, uh, well, hmmm – I realized it was not a question I had really thought about.
Now, I understand that he was probably looking for some reassurance that we would be okay. That life would continue to be filled with school, baseball, fishing, bike-riding and all the other things that constitute life to a five year-old kid. But, darn if it wasn’t a good question. What would happen if we lost the war? And for that matter, what would happen if we won?
I first tried to tell him we don’t have to worry about losing because we have the best army.
"But dad, sometimes the best baseball team loses."
You’re not going to make this easy on me, are you son.
So I gave him the simple answer. "Well, if we win, the country we are fighting will be run by people who like us. And if we lose, it will be run by people who don’t."
But it’s not that simple, because defining victory isn’t that simple. We’ll have won when Iraq becomes a free and open democracy. When a thriving economy provides jobs for today and hope for the future. When investment in educational opportunities enlightens the citizenry and brings their society into the twenty-first century.
We’ll have won when people in neighboring countries witness the transformation in Iraq and demand reform in their own nations, leading to peaceful overthrow of tyrannical regimes and the establishment of democracy throughout the region. We’ll have won when a voice at the ballot box eliminates the need to make oneself heard through suicide bombings and terrorist attacks.
That’s when we will have won.
Anything short of that will be defeat. After all, this is a war on terror. If we do not eliminate tyranny, hatred and despair throughout the entire region, then the Middle East will remain a festering pool of warring factions, religious zealots and desperate fanatics bent on gaining the upper-hand at home and causing pain and destruction abroad.
So it begs the question, if those are our goals, if that is what constitutes victory, are we going about it the right way? Is victory even possible? There are no easy answers. In fact, there only seem to be more questions.
Have we simply taken the lid off centuries of hatred between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds in Iraq? Will that hatred manifest itself as a bloody civil war? What if anarchy in Iraq spills over to its neighbors and we see turmoil topple autocratic, but relatively stable regimes in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria and elsewhere? What if radical Islamic fundamentalists bent on destroying western society gain control of the bulk of the region’s oil fields?
If any or all of those things happen, are we prepared to stick it out in the Middle East? Are we willing to put even more American lives at risk? Is putting more lives at risk the answer? How many lives?
So many questions, no easy answers. But they are questions we need to ask and answer. Otherwise, we’ll learn the answer to my son’s question. What if our team loses? It’s not one I wish to learn.
"Dad, what would happen if our team lost at war?"
After I did my double-take – our team, what, lost, war, uh, well, hmmm – I realized it was not a question I had really thought about.
Now, I understand that he was probably looking for some reassurance that we would be okay. That life would continue to be filled with school, baseball, fishing, bike-riding and all the other things that constitute life to a five year-old kid. But, darn if it wasn’t a good question. What would happen if we lost the war? And for that matter, what would happen if we won?
I first tried to tell him we don’t have to worry about losing because we have the best army.
"But dad, sometimes the best baseball team loses."
You’re not going to make this easy on me, are you son.
So I gave him the simple answer. "Well, if we win, the country we are fighting will be run by people who like us. And if we lose, it will be run by people who don’t."
But it’s not that simple, because defining victory isn’t that simple. We’ll have won when Iraq becomes a free and open democracy. When a thriving economy provides jobs for today and hope for the future. When investment in educational opportunities enlightens the citizenry and brings their society into the twenty-first century.
We’ll have won when people in neighboring countries witness the transformation in Iraq and demand reform in their own nations, leading to peaceful overthrow of tyrannical regimes and the establishment of democracy throughout the region. We’ll have won when a voice at the ballot box eliminates the need to make oneself heard through suicide bombings and terrorist attacks.
That’s when we will have won.
Anything short of that will be defeat. After all, this is a war on terror. If we do not eliminate tyranny, hatred and despair throughout the entire region, then the Middle East will remain a festering pool of warring factions, religious zealots and desperate fanatics bent on gaining the upper-hand at home and causing pain and destruction abroad.
So it begs the question, if those are our goals, if that is what constitutes victory, are we going about it the right way? Is victory even possible? There are no easy answers. In fact, there only seem to be more questions.
Have we simply taken the lid off centuries of hatred between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds in Iraq? Will that hatred manifest itself as a bloody civil war? What if anarchy in Iraq spills over to its neighbors and we see turmoil topple autocratic, but relatively stable regimes in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria and elsewhere? What if radical Islamic fundamentalists bent on destroying western society gain control of the bulk of the region’s oil fields?
If any or all of those things happen, are we prepared to stick it out in the Middle East? Are we willing to put even more American lives at risk? Is putting more lives at risk the answer? How many lives?
So many questions, no easy answers. But they are questions we need to ask and answer. Otherwise, we’ll learn the answer to my son’s question. What if our team loses? It’s not one I wish to learn.
4/07/2004
Don't Fall For Sound Bite Economics
My grandmother once told me the reason she was a Democrat was because FDR ended the Great Depression. I pointed out that it wasn’t FDR, but World War II that brought an end to the Great Depression. Since we had Adolph Hitler to thank for that, by her reasoning she should have become a Nazi. She laughed and said, "Oh, you sound just like your daddy."
Such exchanges between grandmother and grandson might be rare, but unfortunately, strongly held positions based upon such faulty assumptions are not. Too often, people latch onto an idea and hold it as gospel without even allowing for the possibility that the entire premise for their argument might be wrong.
Take the recent uproar over the job market. If you were to believe the news or the political ads, you would assume that our manufacturing sector is in the toilet, all the jobs are being shipped to China and as a result the economy is worse off than it ever was under Bill Clinton.
Well, guess what. You would be wrong, wrong and wrong.
Here are the facts. According to a report from the National Center for Policy Analysis, the U.S. output of real goods as a percent of GDP is higher today than in any decade since the 1930’s. As for jobs being shipped to China, would you believe that China has fewer manufacturing jobs today than it did just a few years ago? That’s according to BusinessWeek Magazine. And here’s the real kicker – the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average unemployment rate during George Bush’s first three years in office was lower than it was during the same period under Bill Clinton (5.5% versus 6.0%).
So why all this talk about job losses? Well, part of the reason is a change in the way jobs are classified. In the past most companies handled all aspects of their business, from accounting to janitorial services. Regardless of the job description, if the company was a manufacturer, all its’ jobs were considered manufacturing jobs.
Today, many companies contract out tasks like payroll, accounting, programming and maintenance. Those employees now work for service providers and are classified as such. The jobs haven’t disappeared, they’ve just been reclassified.
Another reason for concern comes from dramatic improvements in productivity. In the short term, this causes dislocations among workers, but it eventually leads to an improved standard of living for everyone. If you don’t believe that, look back to Henry Ford’s revolutionary five dollar day. It almost single-handedly created the American middle class. But it came two years after Ford had devised the moving assembly line, which reduced the number of workers needed to assemble a car by eighty-six percent. The five dollar day would have been impossible without that improvement in productivity.
But the biggest reason that we believe the job market is in the tank comes from partisan politicians who hope that if they repeat a claim often enough, it will become ingrained as truth among voters. The danger in creating phony problems is that it opens the door to phony prescriptions that have nothing to do with solving the problem, but everything to do with fulfilling personal political agendas.
We can accept what others want us to believe, or we can choose to learn the facts for ourselves. Democracy demands that we do the latter.
Such exchanges between grandmother and grandson might be rare, but unfortunately, strongly held positions based upon such faulty assumptions are not. Too often, people latch onto an idea and hold it as gospel without even allowing for the possibility that the entire premise for their argument might be wrong.
Take the recent uproar over the job market. If you were to believe the news or the political ads, you would assume that our manufacturing sector is in the toilet, all the jobs are being shipped to China and as a result the economy is worse off than it ever was under Bill Clinton.
Well, guess what. You would be wrong, wrong and wrong.
Here are the facts. According to a report from the National Center for Policy Analysis, the U.S. output of real goods as a percent of GDP is higher today than in any decade since the 1930’s. As for jobs being shipped to China, would you believe that China has fewer manufacturing jobs today than it did just a few years ago? That’s according to BusinessWeek Magazine. And here’s the real kicker – the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average unemployment rate during George Bush’s first three years in office was lower than it was during the same period under Bill Clinton (5.5% versus 6.0%).
So why all this talk about job losses? Well, part of the reason is a change in the way jobs are classified. In the past most companies handled all aspects of their business, from accounting to janitorial services. Regardless of the job description, if the company was a manufacturer, all its’ jobs were considered manufacturing jobs.
Today, many companies contract out tasks like payroll, accounting, programming and maintenance. Those employees now work for service providers and are classified as such. The jobs haven’t disappeared, they’ve just been reclassified.
Another reason for concern comes from dramatic improvements in productivity. In the short term, this causes dislocations among workers, but it eventually leads to an improved standard of living for everyone. If you don’t believe that, look back to Henry Ford’s revolutionary five dollar day. It almost single-handedly created the American middle class. But it came two years after Ford had devised the moving assembly line, which reduced the number of workers needed to assemble a car by eighty-six percent. The five dollar day would have been impossible without that improvement in productivity.
But the biggest reason that we believe the job market is in the tank comes from partisan politicians who hope that if they repeat a claim often enough, it will become ingrained as truth among voters. The danger in creating phony problems is that it opens the door to phony prescriptions that have nothing to do with solving the problem, but everything to do with fulfilling personal political agendas.
We can accept what others want us to believe, or we can choose to learn the facts for ourselves. Democracy demands that we do the latter.
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