How we abuse entitlements and mismanage intrinsic conflicts to cripple our nation. Part 1

Posted on March 19, 2010 by Edwin Lee

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”  (Walt Kelly in Pogo)

This multi-part essay suggests how we’ve gotten ourselves into the political, economic and religious mess we’re in today and indicates how we might go about making major, systematic, lasting improvements. It addresses three critical concepts in the design and operation of systems, be they political, religious or economic: entitlements, intrinsic conflicts, and tradeoffs.

These concepts and their relationships can be tools to sort productive changes from facile ones, and to develop real and lasting improvements. However, for those looking to self-righteously blame “them” and get “them” to change (them being politicians, bankers, CEO’s, regulators, union leaders, terrorists, etc.) the following remarks will disappoint and even anger. Many of “them” do have to change or be replaced, but that alone is not even a good start; necessary but not sufficient.

Unless we accurately adjust our personal perspectives, unless we realistically adjust what we claim to be our due and our ongoing obligations as individuals, families, citizens, races, religions and tribes, and unless we make serious and possibly frightening personal conversions, we will merely continue to self-righteously find scapegoats while our human experiments of democracy and industrialization collapse and remnants of humanity return to the default conditions of tribalism and scarcity. The need for Personal change should be good news, because it’s something we can do with or without the help of other people. We cannot change others. We can only support and encourage those who chose to lead their own changes.  (See Essay We cannot save other nations! We can only generate failed states  )

Entitlements

The concept of “entitlement” is fundamental to the Industrial Revolution and to all human institutions, political, religious, economic and military. Basically it is a useful human construct that says “because of A, an individual or group is entitled to B”.  Private property rights and intellectual property rights are entitlement s. So too are contracts, salaries and bonuses, interests on property and money, inheritances, corporate entities, lower taxes, the Natural Law, Constitutional Rights, water rights, Medicare, Social Security, seniority and the Senate Filibuster. Military Rank and seniority are relational entitlements within the military community. The Mosaic Covenant was a tribal entitlement. Plenary Indulgences in Christian Crusades for killing infidels and promises of heaven for terrorists who blow themselves up in the name of Allah are entitlements. Promises that believing in Christ will guarantee Salvation, that baptism washes away sins, or that 9 First Friday masses will insure instant admission to heaven are entitlement beliefs.

The benefit and attractiveness of an entitlement is that is enables an individual (or group) to perform some definable actions (often mere rituals) which they believe to provide security, predictability and to increase their scope control and power. Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Sustainable Economies | 3 Comments

The World That Trade Created: society, culture and the world economy 1400 to the present (Book Review)

Posted on December 11, 2009 by Edwin Lee

The title is the least interesting thing about this book by Kenneth Pomeranz and Steven Topik, professors of History at UC Irvine and two people who know how to tell fascinating stories. It is a wonderful collection of historical vignettes about the global trade that shaped our world; short stories that form brightly colored threads woven into an impressionistic and painfully realistic tapestry of our global economic system. The modern world we know and love emerges brightly in the foreground with its prospering advanced societies, abundant and varied foods, and self-congratulatory cultural myths about how we earned it with open markets and free trade. But in the darker background, formed by the same threads, are pictures of poverty, slavery, drug addiction, and desolation wrought by economic winners onto economic losers usually through government sponsored monopolies, force and intimidation.  

The World that Trade Created is a world in which we have learned how to trade with strangers, a world powered as much by drugs, greed, force of arms and dumb luck as by wind, water, coal and oil. It is a world largely built by indentured servants and slaves: mainly native slaves in the silver, gold and copper mines of Central and South America and African slaves in cotton, sugar, rubber and coffee plantations around the globe. It is a world in which the majority of slave holders and slave traders were members of Christian churches; Dutch Calvinists, Portuguese and Spanish Catholics, as well as British and American Protestants, people and church leaders who successfully rationalized their religious beliefs to support a pernicious practice that made them wealthy.

It is a world in which “Marco Polo claimed that public safety and commercial honesty were far better maintained in China than in Europe; without Christianity as the basis for morals” ―a claim that undermined his credibility and didn’t win him any friends. Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Business Health, Sustainable Economies | 1 Comment

Imaginary letter from Mark Nelson the leader of “NO on Measures 66 and 67”

Posted on December 3, 2009 by Edwin Lee

As I’ve learned more about the people who wrote and funded the Carol Leuthold letter, I’ve pondered what a letter from one of its authors would look like if he were temporarily unable to lie, as in Jim Carrey’s movie Liar!Liar!

The following is my best guess. Enjoy!

Dear Oregon voter,

Hi, my name is Mark Nelson, the name Carol Leuthold was merely my nom de plume in the letter of November 16. I’ve suddenly been overcome by a strange sensation; just now I seem to be incapable of lying! I hope this sensation passes quickly because it could cost me my plush job spearheading a vicious, deceptive and well funded campaign to defeat Measures 66 and 67, Oregon’s Tax Initiatives.

I was tagged for this leadership role by the well-heeled individuals I represent because, in my former job as a tobacco lobbyist I demonstrated a capacity to do anything for a buck; and I couldn’t pass the bar exam. I’m just an ordinary, upper income guy pursuing the American dream without being hindered by personal scruples or by whom I hurt. Hell, if these Measures are defeated I might save a few dollars on my own earnings of $250k a year or more, so this is personal, not just business.

Please understand, the individuals I represent only care about one thing: keeping all the money they’ve been able to siphon out of their businesses in salaries and bonuses. I’m not here to judge whether they’ve earned their compensation of well over $250k per year or not, only to explain that they wish to keep every penny. Continue reading →

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Reply to deceptive anti-tax letter from Carol Leuthold

Posted on December 2, 2009 by Edwin Lee

A few days ago I received a letter from Carol Leuthold opposing Measures 66 and 67. This letter has apparently been received by most voters in Oregon and it is deceptive in the extreme. I suspect it’s merely an opening salvo in a well funded campaign of obfuscation and fear mongering. 

Background:  Oregon’s Legislature has struggled to balance its budget and did so with severe cuts in public services and two modest tax increases, one on businesses and the other on the highest personal and corporate incomes. The tax increases have been submitted for a public referendum in January as Measures 66 and 67. What seems like a no-brainer is, of course, faced with selfish opposition heavily funded by large corporations and their lobbying groups. Although the fig leaf is to benefit the organizations, the reality is that their highly paid executives are able to delegate funds to this cause whether or not it does. In essence, they seek to avoid the personal tax increases of Measure 66, and fund the campaign against it at no personal expense. I applaud their clever misuse of business resources.  Among the opponents funding sources are Weyerhauser (with highly paid executives in Oregon) and the Oregon Bankers Association (whose banking executives seem to have as much concern for public welfare as Goldman Sachs) as well as individuals such as Carol Leuthold, who may or may not have provided any hard cash.

I have mailed the following reply to Carol Leuthold.

Carol Maria Leuthold
Leuthold’s Wilsona Dairy
2425 McCormick Loop
Tillamook, OR 94141

Dear Carol:

Have received and read your letter urging a NO vote on Measures 66 and 67. I don’t know if you really believe everything in the letter, or if you merely lent your name to an anti-tax organization funded by Weyerhauser, Oregon Bankers Association and other big businesses in Oregon. Since, the letter contains errors in fact as well as unsubstantiated fear mongering, which is the bread and butter of anti-government groups, I hope that you naively lent your name and are really a more intelligent person and a more concerned citizen than the letter makes you out to be.

I too created small businesses ―in the electronics industry ―and was CEO of one of them for 16 years. (You can find substantiating information on my web page at www.elew.com)  My companies were in California where taxes were much higher than in Oregon.  Even in the 1960’s the minimum annual corporate “fee” was $100… equivalent to over $300 in today’s dollars. We also paid substantial property taxes on our inventory of finished goods, work in process and raw materials as well as hefty sales taxes. We thrived by accepting these taxes as costs of business and by getting on with the job at hand.

State Government provides critical services that enable your dairy farm to operate: a legal system that supports and enforces property rights and maintains public tranquility, an education system that supplies qualified workers, part of the transportation system that enables you to receive raw materials and ship products to non-local markets around the state. Continue reading →

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Analyzing Rep. Greg Walden’s opposition to healthcare reform

Posted on November 30, 2009 by Edwin Lee

Greg Walden, (R-Ore.) represents the voters of central and Eastern Oregon in the House of Representatives; his district is largely rural and one of the safest districts in the nation for a conservative Republican. One would reasonably expect him to toe the conservative line and oppose meaningful reform since the alternative might cost him re-election in 2010.

Given that political reality he might well have produced this press release on Nov. 7: “Last night I voted against the Affordable Health Care for America Act because that’s what conservative voters in my district and the Republican Party expect of me. I actually care about improving healthcare for my constituents as I’ve repeatedly demonstrated by working for rural hospitals as a member of the bipartisan House Rural Health Care Coalition (RHCC) , but in this case I chose to vote for the status quo as a matter of political survival. Were I to break ranks with my Republican colleagues on this issue I would hand Democrats a political victory and my conservative constituents would classify me as a RINO.”

Of course the Press Release he issued was quite different; because, as safe as his district is, it is wiser to seem rational and principled to reassure himself, conservative constituents and his staff, and to convince some independent voters that he represents them as well. It is also a characteristic of our biological brains, evolved only to deal with the local and immediate issues of hunter-gatherer societies, that we tend to accept at face value statistics which support our belief systems, and we usually resist statistics or direct evidence which contradicts them. Consequently, it’s easy to throw together unsubstantiated statistics, or even untrue evidence to support our decisions made for entirely different reasons and feel no guilt or remorse; particularly when we are cheered on by rabid supporters; members of our tribe. (The Science of Fear by Daniel Gardner, 2008 is one of many books that discusses how the brain’s biology impacts our judgements.)

An earlier post  included an email exchange with Nick Strader of Greg Walden’s Bend office. Whereas my first email was answered promptly, the second one and the following email sent on November  20 have yet to be answered. Consequently, Continue reading →

Posted in Health Care Reform, Politics | 1 Comment

Doug Hoffman joins pantheon of professional victims

Posted on November 19, 2009 by Edwin Lee

And so another professional victim joins Sarah Palin on the right wing of the political stage. The article Doug Hoffman Officially Unconcedes in Special House Electrion, Blames ACORN  caught my eye this morning. Basically, this rather weak character was further victimized by Glenn Beck of Fox News into un-conceding his defeat.

Will Republican extremists ever find a “manly” leader like President Obama who is daily inundated with lies, virulent hatred and death threats yet focuses on what needs to be done instead of whining about perceived slights?

I doubt it. Extremists are, by nature, professional victims united by fear and hatred as Eric Hoffer pointed out over 50 years ago in his classic “The True Believer”. So long as the Republican party is dominated by extremists, we will be inundated with whining from its leadership on talk radio, on FOX news, in political battles and in Congress. Whereas Huffman and Palin are primarily whining for political power, Beck, Limbaugh, etc. are whining for dollars.

Whining is like radiation in a nuclear reactor, without the stabilizing element of moderates in the Republican party this chain reaction of whining will accelerate until the party fails…. hopefully it wont be “too big to fail” by the time its whining reaches critical mass.

Until last year I was a moderate Republican; in the spirit of Nelson Rockefeller. The extremists would classify me as a RINO. Were I still a registered Republican, I would wear that label with pride.

 Related Posts
Musings about Rush Limbaugh  (8/11)

 Stop waterboarding FOX News!  (5/8)

Republican Death Spiral tragically pursues extremist’s precedents and a need to fail   (4/29)

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