Selfish Seniors!

The U.S. has a huge accumulated financial debt and an equally huge current budget deficit. In other words, we owe a lot (about $14 trillion) and we are on track to owe a lot more. If we continue on this track, our country soon will be paying high interest rates on our debt and lenders will be skittish about refinancing it. Nobody will be able to "bail us out". This is very bad news, both politically and economically, for our nation and for each of us. So, what is the "right" thing to do?

For purposes of this essay, I am equating the term "right" with the term "fair"; you know, the old Golden Rule - "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." This rule provides an excellent guide for solving the debt/deficit problem.

Before we start in earnest, a little background. Please take a quick look at the chart above, which I stole from Wikipedia. You can click on it to "embiggen".

If you can read a graph, you will quickly come to two major conclusions. First, our country steadily paid down our national debt (as a % of GDP) from its very high level at the end of WWII through the Carter administration, including "paying as you go" for the Vietnam War. Second, starting with the Reagan presidency in 1981, we've been building that debt back up in a very big way. (I'll refrain at this point to comment on the administrations that built this new debt, but you can figure that out for yourself.) This debt-building occurred during a period when our country was not dealing with any cataclysmic problems like WWII.

In my view, the citizens who could vote during the past 30 years are the ones responsible for allowing this debt to accumulate. Those of us who are currently over 45 years of age are the ones who allowed the debt to happen and also benefited from the economic growth generated by the borrowing; e.g., rising wages, pensions, and accumulated fortunes during the past 30 years.

So, our country now faces a dilemma. Who should sacrifice to pay back this debt and reduce the current deficit? Should it be those who follow us, the younger generation, or should it be those 45 and over, the latter being the citizens who elected the politicians who spent this money and the ones who benefited from it? If one is interested in being "right", being "fair", then the answer is clear - we older folks spent it, and we should pay it back. If we were the kids, would we want the adults to saddle us with huge debt that did not benefit us in the slightest? We oldsters need to face up to our excesses and make it right for the younger generation, by paying back.

Now, how should us in the "forty-five and over" group pay back the money we overspent? To be "fair", we should take back benefits that we obtained but did not pay for. First, we need to pay more for Medicare and get fewer services. Second, we need to reduce Social Security outlays, probably by cutting out cost of living increases for many seniors and by slightly raising the retirement age. Third, we need to pay higher taxes on our income and our wealth, including our pensions and estates. If we do these things, we will leave our children and grandchildren a country that might give them a future beyond working for the Chinese at very low wages.

What bothers me a lot these days is that the debt/deficit problem has become politicized; the facts get lost in the midst of all the shouting and demagoguery. The republican Medicare solution doesn't penalize those currently over 55, for example, even though these are the very same people who allowed this program to get out of control and who stand to gain the most from it. The "Tea Party" folks, many of whom are oldsters, want dramatic spending cuts - except for Social Security and Medicare, their cash cows. As I write, republican congressmen who were elected on a platform of dramatic budget-cutting now face outraged seniors who want no change to Medicare. Selfish seniors! There is just no way to pay for the benefits they demand, and they seem to have no problem passing even higher debt onto their children and grandchildren.

If I was the benevolent dictator of America, I'd put the following changes into effect posthaste:

1) I'd change the Medicare guidelines for "end of life" care, eliminating hospitalization and costly procedures for seniors with terminal illnesses or advanced mental disabilities. These persons would be referred to hospice, which is covered by Medicare. To be blunt, death by natural causes should not be postponed at great cost for those whose quality of life is marginal at best. This one change would go a long way toward saving Medicare.

2) I'd review and strengthen the qualifications for "Social Security Disability", which now provides regular incomes for many individuals who are capable of working - not truly "disabled". I'd provide funds for retraining many of these people before cutting off their SSD benefits.

3) I'd eliminate Social Security cost of living adjustments for those whose income exceeds a certain threshhold - say, $50,000 annually - and also raise the Medicare premiums for this same group.

4) I'd let the Bush tax cuts for incomes exceeding $250,000 expire, institute a 1% annual "wealth tax" on those whose net worth exceeds $1 million, and repeal the tax laws that permit individuals to evade paying a reasonable estate tax.

5) I'd cut the defense budget by 5% immediately and freeze it for the next ten years, forcing the military to fund inflation out of its current budget. I'd commit the savings achieved here to massive subsidies of new technology aimed at gaining energy independence and less reliance on fossil fuels.

6) I'd dramatically increase government support of pre-K through 12th grade education, add many technical education opportunities, and give schools far more power to deal with unruly, disruptive children. I'd also take a very hard look at funds currently spent on "special education", which I believe has gotten out of hand.

All in all, my policies would require significant sacrifices from those 45-and-older citizens who allowed politicians to create an unfunded welfare state for them. The policies would also promote the development of a future citizenry and an economic infrastructure that would be competitive in the world economy. Change is good, even if it is often painful! And, to you selfish seniors, "Man Up!" - you love to preach old time values of accountability, and now it's time to live up to them.

The Rich and the Unions: Two problems to solve.

Rich guys and unions; often there's something really nasty about both of them, and you really want a cure for what they're doing to you.

Rich guys. I suppose many rich guys have always been about conspicuous consumption and competition for higher ranking on the Fortune 500 (or local 50) list, but things have gotten out of control. Over the past half century, tax rates on the richest of us have dropped dramatically. As Warren Buffet so famously said, "There's something wrong when my marginal tax rate is 15% and my secretary's is 32%" (my paraphrase). Yet, if you listen to Faux News, the rich are getting hosed. It's true, as they repeat incessantly, that the richest of us pay, by far, the lion's share of tax dollars. However, it's also true that the rich own more of America's total wealth than ever before, and their incomes are higher than ever before. It seems rather evident, then, that these taxes have been pretty easy to bear.

Tax reform is the answer to the problem of the rich. We need some more brackets to grab a bigger share from those who are making many millions or billions. We need to reclassify hedge fund profits as ordinary income rather than capital gains. We need to reinstate an estate tax with teeth; perhaps a 25% rate but no exemptions for estates over $100 million. The fact is, without some significant financial leveling our country will soon resemble Saudi Arabia - princes and peons.

Those who favor unbridled capitalism often complain that those who work harder and smarter deserve to keep most of their economic success, while those who have achieved less have not worked so hard and are not so smart. This is baloney. The truth is that the great majority of those who are rich owe their success to the accident of their birth - they enjoyed an upbringing with social and educational advantages that gave them a huge head start over most others. To be honest, I'm one of them but not one who considered wealth to be the most important thing in life. Most of the rich are not "self-made"; they are the logical result of privilege, and they owe others the chance to grow up with many of the same advantages. That's what some of their increased taxes should fund. The great republican, Teddy Roosevelt, expressed this same opinion a century ago because he understood the reasons why he was so successful.

Now to the unions. As one who lived his entire employed life under the rather strong control of management, and was himself "management" for quite awhile, I learned that nothing is so important to an organization as flexibility, and secondly, the ability to discipline employees who are not performing to reasonable expectations. Think of a family with children: the parents have responsibility to set the agenda and expectations for the kids, both of which change over time and circumstances. Parents are "management", and few would disagree. If they say, "There's not enough money to buy you an IPod", that's the end of the story. If they say, "No TV untill the homework is done", there is no debate. For organizations to operate smoothly, management must set the agenda and expectations for employee performance without undue interference from those who must do the work. If management is not always perfect in its judgments, face it, who is? That's the environment that I worked in, for more than 30 years, and I saw very little management conduct that reached the level of "outrageous".

It's historical truth that unions were initially formed to deal with unreasonable hours, work practices (safety, for example), and to fight pay pegged to the lowest common denominator - all of which remain concerns that unions should today be addressing with management through collective bargaining. Over the decades, however, unions used various strategies to obtain agreements that eviscerated management's flexibility to respond to business changes and their ability to discipline or dismiss employees with poor performance. As a result, in many ways the unions, rather than management, gained control of the production process and companies became far more focused on meeting the needs of union employees rather than customers. My one extended contact with GM, in the mid-1990s, left me with the strong impression that the UAW would ultimately cause its demise, for example. And, it did, with the complicity of GM's salaried employees who demanded benefits and work rules equal to those achieved by the unions. I view today's teacher's unions and government employee unions with same level of concern that I did GM's unions many years ago.

Anyone who disputes the idea that union controls over government and some businesses have gone too far should take the time to read a typical union contract. At the simplest level, you will find absolute dependence on seniority and unbelievable protections against discipline. The average person on the street would disagree that tenure, alone, implies ability or dedication, but the unions build their power on this very foundation - a foundation that penalizes many able and dedicated employees to the advantage of some who are neither able or dedicated. And when it comes to discipline, the rules can go past the absurd - as evidenced by the heavily populated "rubber room" of paid teachers that NYC schools will not allow in the classroom but who cannot be terminated for many years if ever. The cost of pursuing endless hearings exceeds the benefit of getting rid of any teacher who does not do something so egregious that even the contract won't protect them. This insanity needs to stop, now.

If unions are to remain a factor in America, they need to adjust to protecting the interests of members who deserve protection - it's that simple. If companies or governments need to make workforce adjustments, they must be able to do so on the basis of merit rather than seniority; objective factors should be part of the process, but not the entire process. If an employee has performance issues, the performance improvement and termination process should be simple and relatively timely. Organizations should be able to move employees from one job to another without impediments other than a fair and prompt appeal process. What bothers me right now is that unions are resisting changes like this; they want to continue to make the rules that govern their members and take away both management's flexibility and its ability to discipline poor performers. It's a battle they should not and likely will not win over the next few years.

So, there you have it. I've got strong feelings about issues other than these, but I do regard throttling back both the rich and the unions as key to progress in America. Both have accumulated too much power and too little accountability over the past 50 years, and both seem adamant about retaining their current destructive positions. Time for change!

Reducing the Deficit and Debt

The 2010-11 federal deficit is now estimated at $1.6 trillion, and the national debt is over $14 trillion. The increasing debt is a major threat to national security because the interest will ultimately consume a huge percentage of the national income, especially if our government's credit rating slips and interest rates rise. We must deal with this issue sooner rather than later, and I agree wholeheartedly with those in congress who are facing this problem honestly. But, what should we do?

The President's bipartisan committee did an excellent job of defining the problem and identifying solutions. Entitlements, including Social Security, Medicare, federal pensions and Medicaid need to be put on a more secure financial footing by adjusting benefits and increasing the contributions of those who participate in these programs. These adjustments are required because the assumptions in place when these programs were approved or last adjusted are no longer valid, and have not been valid for some time. The benefits and contributions adjustments must compensate for prior year "overpayments" as well as the higher future costs of these programs.

With respect to non-entitlement spending, including the defense budget, a serious belt-tightening regime is required. However, across the board cuts make no sense. Some programs must be increased, others eliminated entirely, and some consolidated. All spending needs to be ranked on criteria related to the mission of the larger cabinet functions and the relative "value" of the outputs produced, using objective criteria. Overall, it should not be too difficult to cut the entire pot of non-entitlement spending by 5% without losing anywhere near 5% of the perceived "value" of all programs. That is due to the simple fact that the marginal utility of the last 5% of spending is often close to zero, especially if budget reductions have not been done on a regular basis.

Although I consider myself a political liberal, I do not believe that the government has a responsibility to be a "jobs" program. Rather, it is to provide necessary services in the most professional way at the lowest possible cost. This gives the private sector far more discretionary resources to grow our economy and compete with the productive capabilities of other world economies.

The approach outlined above would result in many government and private sector employees losing their jobs. I don't mind this outcome, for two reasons. First, in environments where layoffs have not occurred for some time, at least 5% of employees are not performing to minimal job requirements - they deserve to be laid off. Second, if capable people are laid off, for example in programs that are totally eliminated, these people will find jobs fairly quickly; the cream rises to the top, as they say.

Will fixing the deficit and debt be painful? Yes. However, many of those who will feel the pain also benefited for many years from government overspending. As Robert Heinlein famously popularized, "TANSTAFFL" - there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Time to pay up, America! When the paying is taken care of, life in the U.S.A. will be much less precarious for many years to come.

Big Changes Take Long Term Planning

America has a lot of big problems: high unemployment, inadequate education, huge unfunded entitlements, energy dependence, and impending major climate change damage, to name a few. Informed citizens pretty much agree that "government" must tackle these challenges, either by taking direct action and/or enabling the private sector to take action. What is lacking, however, is a political consensus that long term planning is key to success. In fact, our political system is a hindrance to progress - perhaps a fatal one.

It's obvious that none of these problems is susceptable to instant solution; there are no "silver bullets". Neither electing a new crop of politicians nor throwing a lot of short term money at them will have much effect. What is really needed is a vision of where we would like to be in the longer term and a systematic approach to getting there. If we look at the meteoric rise of China since Mao's passing, for example, it's easy to see that this resulted from the slow implementation of very well-conceived and multi-faceted plans. We need the same sort of strategies if America is to solve its seemingly intractable problems.

In a former life I played a big part in effecting major structural change in the way a corporation accomplished an important function. The change began with conceiving a vision of the desired "end state", which was so dramatically different from the current state that the human and technological challenges to achieving it were daunting. Yet, by developing a long term plan and slowly, over six or seven years, taking logical steps in the right direction, we accomplished what lots of smart people thought was impossible. The measured pace of the change minimized disruption and chaos in the ongoing function. America's problems must be addressed in the same way - we need to get to very different places while keeping disruption at an acceptable level.

Our democracy, while having many laudable characteristics, is often a dis-enabler when it comes to tackling big problems. Since major change creates "winners" and "losers", politicians are extra sensitive to the concerns of the "losers". For example, the changes needed to put Medicare on a sound financial footing will excite the giant "senior citizen" voting block; a politician willing to work for change is likely to lose his/her seat at the next election. "Losers" in all the other area needing structural change will be similarly energetic. Consequently, democracies have real difficulties overcoming roadblocks set up by powerful constituencies that favor the status quo - things that "must be done" often can't be made to happen.

Unfortunately, democracies seem to enact major changes only when problems reach the crisis stage and great damage has already been done. The cost of this damage, and of the hugely disruptive and expensive "crash projects" that follow, usually far exceeds the cost that would have been incurred if the needed change had been implemented earlier and in a measured fashion. For example, slowly adjusting Medicare benefits and taxes would be much preferred to abruptly shutting down major aspects of the plan because the government ran out of money to pay the bills. Understanding this, is it possible for the American democracy to avoid the crises that it will almost certainly face if it fails to act now?

My answer to this question is that the "commission" strategy often used by presidents and the congress is the best potential solution. The commission, composed of members with many points of view, gathers facts, calculates likely scenarios, and produces one or more variations of a long term plan to solve the problem. Congress and the president then debate the alternatives and are forced to choose one of them by the "rules" that set up the commission. The "choice" also requires the congress to pass legislation and appropriate the funds to carry out the plan, and the administration to take positive implementation steps. Years ago, my management set the stage for major change by doing much the same.

Perhaps the "commission strategy" is not do-able in our democracy. If so, we will end up with crisis after crisis and pay dearly for our lack of long term planning. This would provide a lot of evidence that our democracy does not work, and set the stage for some sort of revolution and the installation of a much stronger executive - Hitler was Germany's solution in the 1930's. Do we really want this? It's time for our leaders to pull up their pants and skirts and get going on the right path.

A Gentle Reminder

Not too long ago the economy crashed as a result of something called "the sub-prime mortgage debacle". Real estate prices had been artificially pumped by allowing people to buy homes on substandard credit, at too-low interest rates, and under terms that now seem ridiculous. The resulting mortgages were then traded on the market as "AAA" securities. This house of cards had to crash, and the worldwide economy almost tanked when it did. All of us, but particularly many of the currently unemployed, have been greatly harmed by this calamity. Somehow, though, the culprits who facilitated this collapse seem to have been forgotten.

Who were those culprits? They were the politicians and government agency (read "FED") people who kept interest rates too low for too long. They were the bankers and mortgage brokers who relaxed their credit rules and wrote the ridiculous contracts, and the rating agencies who lied about the value of the packaged securities. They were the real estate agents who got rich peddling overpriced property to people who clearly could not afford it. All these big players made it possible for speculators and ignorant buyers to get hooked and subsequently get busted, and for the rest of us to bear much of the cost.

My gentle reminder is that the culprits mentioned above, the self-described champions of the "free market", are the perennial backers of the republican party. Their goals have not changed; they want want low taxes on their income and investments, and they want gentle regulation of their business interests. Many of them made big money during the boom years, and they kept it. Now they're trying to convince us that the people who got displaced by the crash don't need any more "welfare" and that the rich can't afford a tax increase. After what these people did to all of us during the Bush years, is it really possible Americans will hand them the reins again?

No Breaks for White Collar Crime!

I see that ex-Illinois governor George Ryan is asking for an early release from prison because his wife is ill and not expected to live more than three more years. Ryan's been in prison for less than two years of his 6.5 year sentence for bribery, tax evasion, and other charges. I say, throw away the key to his cell. White collar crimes don't get treated nearly as seriously as they should be.

I have much less sympathy for the white collar criminal than I do for many who go to jail for crimes of passion or desperation. Typical white collar criminals have plenty of money, considerable education, and lots of social contacts. They do their crimes not out of what one might consider "necessity" but, rather, out of simple greed or a compulsion to outsmart the system. I put George Ryan in the same stinking boat as Bernie Madoff and a host of others who have knowingly misused their positions of trust to enrich themselves at great cost to innocent others.

If prison time meted out for punishment or deterrence is to have any meaning, then it must be served. If Ryan is released early under standard "good behavior" terms, that's fine with me. However, external events should have no bearing. Those are the contingencies Ryan should have considered when he took the risks that landed him behind bars.

Haiti, Pakistan and the Concept of "Relief"

I'm in a quandary thinking about the two big disasters of 2010 - the Haiti earthquake and the Pakistan flood. In both cases, millions of people were and are in great jeopardy and in need of help. In both cases, the sovereign government was incapable of providing relief or reconstruction. And, in both cases, the affected areas were overpopulated and becoming even more overpopulated despite the fact that the basic services associated with "civilization" are unlikely to be available in the foreseeable future. Should relief be provided by the rest of the world if the affected countries do not take steps to change their ways?

What are the basic services associated with civilization in the 21st century? I suppose the short list would include a reliable internal food supply, commonly available clean water, transportation and communications infrastructure, workable governance and justice systems, and an education system that trains people for useful work. Governments are responsible to provide these things, I believe, as first priorities. Neither Haiti nor Pakistan provides these services, except for the elite. That's just the way it is.

The area of Pakistan affected by the floods has about 20 million residents. It's agricultural, with plots as small as two acres. Girls are often married by age 14 and have many children through age 25. The residents have no capacity to pay, through taxes, for the basic services described above. Moreover, each year the population becomes more likely to fall prey to those who would blame their subsistence conditions on the failure of their government or the outside world to "take care of them". That's why fears of insurrection rise when disasters like these occur and the government is unable to respond.

So, here's the quandary. Should the outside world provide massive relief to bring the disaster-ravaged areas back to roughly the same "uncivilized" condition they enjoyed prior to the disasters, with no preconditions? Or, should the outside world require governmental reforms and population control measures as the price of relief? Is preventing future disasters as important as mitigating current disasters? Should TANSTAAFL (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch) be applied?

In general, I've concluded that the second and third worlds now require a lot more supervision than in past times. Technology now provides great opportunities for these countries to upgrade their standards of living, but it also provides great opportunities for them to make mischief - North Korea and Somalia are poster children for the latter. Consequently, perhaps it's time to put out the carrot and the stick to Haiti and Pakistan's elite "quasi-governing" classes. Relief must be accompanied by radical changes in their societies, changes that in the long run will make for long term success.

Louisiana Scofflaws Cry the Blues

It's sad. So many of those in the Louisiana fishing industry who have been harmed by the BP oil well debacle will not qualify for BP's reparations because they can't document their 2009 income. Why not? Well, they didn't file tax returns, that's why. Doing business on a cash basis and not paying taxes is traditional, it turns out, just like in the country of Greece and other semi-civilized places. Now it's time to pay up for these sins, folks!

After five minutes of research I found that Louisiana has only a four percent sales tax (it's 8.25% where I live), a 2,4, or 6% state income tax rate after generous deductions, and very low property taxes. I suppose that's because the state has lots of industries and natural resources extractors that put taxes and fees into the state coffers. Louisiana is a very tax-friendly state, made much friendlier when lots of folks don't even file tax returns.

Somehow this news makes me feel much less generous when it comes to government relief for hurricanes or oil blowouts in Louisiana. We pay much higher taxes here in New York, and they're much harder to avoid. Why should we send that money to bail out the scofflaws who don't do their part?

Well, my Christianity tells me I should be generous, so I'll make an offer. BP should pay compensation to these people if they are willing to pay five years back state and federal taxes on the amount they claim as lost income from their fishing business. Amnesty! Sounds good to me. Otherwise, go fish!

Regulation - An Often Meaningless Panacea

Yesterday's supreme court decision regarding the personal applicability of the 2nd amendment has gun control advocates "up in arms", so to speak. They seem to like the status quo in places like Chicago where the city is swimming in handguns but only the criminals have them. I'm no fan of handguns, but I can understand the decision; if one wants to defend him/herself against a criminal, one's got to have a weapon. "Regulation" to the point of banning something has turned out to be a total farce in this instance. That brings me to highlight a few other regulatory fantasies.

Marijuana cultivation and sale is against federal law, but it's the highest grossing agricultural product in our country and some states have even partially ("medically") legalized it.

Coal mines and oil drilling platforms are regularly inspected, but recent events have proved that many operators have figured out the system and how to get around it or ignore it.

The SEC and and the accounting profession have a myriad of regulations covering financial reporting, but some big companies and investment firms have "cooked their books" with impunity for years before being caught (or not).

Many states have laws banning cell phone and texting usage while driving, but one out of four drivers in my town, where it's illegal, seem to be on the devices almost all the time.

And yes, it's illegal to enter the United States without some form of official approval. Somehow, at least 12 million humans ( four in every 100 U.S. residents) are here without approval of any kind.

I'm sure you have plenty of personal examples of regulations that seem to have little or no effect on conduct. That's the problem with regulation - without effective enforcement, they are meaningless or even detrimental. People assumed, for example, that Bernard Madoff's operations had been scrutinized by the SEC, much to their impoverishment.

In my view, government entities that make regulations should be required (by a regulation) to make a convincing case that the regulation will be enforced generally. That is, that adequate resources have been assigned to ensure the regulation will be followed by the great majority of those affected by it. If the regulation does not pass this test, it should be put on hold until such time as the case can be made.

Most of us learned, early in life, that parental instructions are to be followed only if we wish to, or if we are likely to be caught violating them. And, if the punishment for violators is minimal, forget #2. These are laws of nature. Why, then, do we let our governments spend their time making laws that they know are either unenforceable or will not be enforced? It's time to regulate the regulators!

Thanks, Praise, and Payback

This is the sermon that I delivered at Christ Clarion Presbyterian Church this morning. It's based on Psalm 39, 4-7 and Matthew 5, 43-48. It's from both my mind and my heart.

Thanks, Praise, and Payback

One of my favorite songs is one by James Taylor, called “Walking Man”. I like the melody, and I like the idea of the singleminded person portrayed in the lyrics. “Everyone else stops and talks, but the walking man walks.”

Most of you probably know that I’m trying to finish hiking the Appalachian Trail. This year I’ve already walked 145 miles in the New England mountains, and I’ve got to hike another 70 in July to finish Vermont. In total, I’ve already walked 1,700 miles in ten states, so you can imagine why I identify with the “Walking Man” song; except for one thing, that is – I do stop and talk a little with most of the people I meet on the trail.

Walking so many miles in the wilderness allows me to experience something that I value very highly – solitude – life with minimal distractions. I’m alone with my thoughts, and I’m usually surrounded by the world at its most elemental level – nature, filled with beauty but also with challenges if one has to walk through it, day after day. As I subconsciously plan where I’m going to put my next footstep, to avoid a root, a rock or a puddle, my conscious thoughts often turn to the temporality of life, how short it is when compared to the mountains I’m climbing – mountains that have been there for several hundred million years, all of them being slowly worn down by wind, rain, and ice. I think about all the things that had to happen for me to even exist, and about the miracle that I have intelligence and can consider how all this came to be and what it means. I recall that everything I can see is made of elements formed in the hearts of stars, billions of years ago and so far away. And, here I am, the walking man. What does it all mean?

It’s at times like this when the thoughts of men and women from the Bible often come to mind. As I walk through primitive places, I can place myself closer to the Israelites who walked through the desert to the promised land. I can think about the pain of the Hebrew exiles as they walked from their homes to Babylonia and captivity. I can ponder Jesus’s years of walking from town to town to speak about God, or of Paul’s travels across the Roman world. All of these people had points of view on that big question – what does it all mean? And that’s what I had in mind as I thought about the scriptures for today. So, I chose a very thoughtful and contemplative passage from the Psalms, and then a part of Jesus’s sermon on the mount that is particularly special for me.

In the scripture that Sharon read earlier, we hear the Psalmist contemplating the meaning of life. “Let me know my end, and the number of my days”, he asks. He understands that he is a temporary being, here today and gone tomorrow, and that everything he values is fleeting and insignificant. It’s a sad and searching moment. Is there anything of permanence, anything worth waiting for and holding onto? After setting everything in his life aside, he asks “And now, Lord, what do I wait for?” From somewhere deep within him, an answer comes, an answer of faith - “My hope is in thee”. We all, at the core of our being, want to know what this life is all about, and we know that only God will be able to provide the answer. So, we thank God for everything, continually, and we wait for God to fill in the blanks each day of our life, and in the life to come. Our hope is to finally rest in God. This was true three thousand years ago, and it is still true today.

When our hope is in God, it’s natural to be filled with thanks and praise. Thank you, God, for creating everything, including all of us. For the heavens full of stars, for the warmth of the sun, the beauty of the flowers, for the incredible miracle of every sensory experience and emotion, whether pleasant or not. God’s power and majesty is beyond comprehension. Knowing this, every breath I take, every thought I think, every experience of my life is God’s gift. What gift could be more valuable, more deserving of thanks every day? Does it matter that my life will some day come to an end? I don’t think so. Who of us would prefer to never have lived – not me, that’s for sure. I can’t imagine never holding a loved one, never feeling the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat, never existing in any way. How can we not join with the Psalmist and, with confidence and heartfelt thanks, repeat the the simple truth of faith – “O God, my hope is in thee.” For me, there is no alternative.

Let’s jump forward eight or nine centuries from the time that poignant Psalm was written, but we’re still in the same country. Jesus has been roaming, walking, visiting small towns and preaching out in the open. People follow him everywhere because he’s been doing amazing things. His words follow a similar pattern wherever he goes. He repeats his summary of the Ten Commandments – “Love God and your neighbor as yourself”. He tells people that God wants far more from people than simply following a rule book of laws – he wants them to live a life of love from the heart, to have gentle spirits, to be peacemakers. Years later, Matthew compiles Jesus’s words in Chapters 5 through 7 of his gospel. This story, of Jesus teaching on a hill as he often did, is known as the Sermon on the Mount.

Verses 43 through 48 of Matthew 5 always get my attention. The passage has two primary thoughts. The first is that God gives everyone an equal chance; God does not play favorites. Jesus says, “Your father makes his sun rise on the good and the bad alike, and sends the rain on the honest and the dishonest.” In this world at least, God does not punish bad behavior or reward good behavior. Wonderful things can happen for anyone, as can tragedies. Regardless of how we live, life will have its perils and disappointments. The same rain that waters one person’s crops washes away another’s home. The same sun that produces the lush foliage outside this window also parches marginal land into desert and drives affected families into despair. Even in our own relationships, no matter how hard we try, how lovingly we behave, sometimes even our best intentions do not bear fruit. We are to accept that this is the way the world works. But this does not in any way alter the fact that our world and our lives are the greatest gifts we can imagine. They are God’s gift to us, and Jesus says, “Your heavenly father’s goodness knows no bounds.”

The second thought in this passage is about payback. God did not give these gifts without having some heavy expectations about our response. Just as God gives the sun and rain to good and bad, equally, God expects us to treat everyone we meet with equal love. “Forget about the old idea of loving your neighbor and hating your enemy”, Jesus says. “If you love only those who love you, what reward can you expect? Everybody does that. I want you to be special, I want you to act like me.” Well, I don’t know about you, but I find this command to be very challenging.

The way I see it, being like Jesus does not mean just doing good when you get a chance. It means actively looking for opportunities to do good. Jesus often stopped what he was doing, or diverted his attention from another task, so that he could minister to someone who was ill or needed his help. How often do we do that? The thing is, God does not consider that kind of selflessness to be exceptional. It’s expected. It’s the payback for our gift of life and the boundless goodness of God. Can we do it? Maybe we can, much more often than we think. A good way to start would be to echo the Psalmist every morning when we get up. “O God, my hope is in you.”

So that’s it. The scriptures tell us that life is short and often unpredictable, but God’s goodness is boundless. Our every day, our every moment, is a miraculous gift from God. What else can we do but say, “Thank you, wonderful God, for all of this.” Thanks and praise. Then, it’s time to roll up our sleeves. It’s payback time.

SIck of CNN!

I've been a CNN fan from the beginning. As a long time road warrior, I watched CNN for many years in motel bars and breakfast nooks. I liked their straightforward "news" and the generally "normal people" who delivered the news. All that has changed, and CNN, to put it perhaps too bluntly, is now just another blowhard "faux news". Viewers fell away under the old regime, so CNN made a choice to go for the false news. Too bad...now they've lost me, too.

The latest big news at CNN is that the "top kill" pumping was stopped for 16 hours without BP telling the world about it. "Rick", the idiot who does the 4 p.m. show, went on and on about how this was a heinous crime, but then brought on an expert from Tulane who said it was normal to stop for awhile and measure pressures. "Rick" then went on to ask some stupid questions that proved he knew nothing about what he was talking about. That, I don't need.

What I do need is a lot more facts and experts and a lot less "talking head" baloney. That's what news is all about. So, goodbye, CNN. I'll listen to NPR and forget about you.

Hyperbole Reigns in America

What's the best advice to follow in a crisis? "Stay calm". When unexpected things happen, the situation is often confused and unclear. Under these circumstances it's easy to misjudge what has really happened and what should be done. Consequently, we often make rash decisions that actually make things worse or make us look foolish. We'd be much better off letting the dust settle and then acting rationally to resolve whatever the problem really is. Americans need to accept this simple truth and discount the hyperbole that we often attach to every unexpected event.

The recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a case in point. There are 3,400 oil platforms in the gulf, hovering over the 35,000 wells that they drain. During the past 20 years no serious accidents have occurred there and major hurricanes have not destroyed a single platform. But, accidents are inevitable when large numbers of complex machines are used to accomplish difficult tasks; we should have expected something of this nature to happen sometime. When it does, the important things are the short term actions taken to resolve the problem and the long term impact of what has happened. Instead of dealing calmly with this accident, our media, politicians, and interest groups turned the event into a circus of rash statements and hasty decisions. With many mitigation activities in progress, it's likely that most of these reactions will be found to be dead wrong. Let's check back on this in a year.

The same sad truth applies to the two other major events of the past week or so, the lone terrorist car bomb in NYC and the stock market's reaction to Greece's debt situation. Both situations should have been expected, and in both cases the real impact is likely to be minimal. The moment by moment coverage and over-reactions probably caused more problems than they solved. As Churchill said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." We actually have excellent security services and effective economic backstops; it's just that we'd rather panic than allow them to work.

Lastly, I can't help but take on the Obama issue. From the screams I hear from the right, Obama is destroying the country. From the real news, I see that the market is back (despite this temporary setback), housing and car sales are up, manufacturing employment is coming back, the Iraq war is winding down on schedule, foreign policy is steady and rather uneventful (that's good), and Obama seems to be pretty comfortable in his job. Bush II left him a real bag of snakes, and he's coped pretty well with the mess. With a couple of years to go before having to run again, I'd give Obama pretty good odds of being a two term president. So much for the screamers; there's plenty of time to judge whether or not they make any sense at all.

We need to calm down and dampen the hyperbole. There's far too much noise from the right, the left, and the media in general. Life does go on, and problems generally get solved without the world coming to an end. I have a lot of trust in the ability of people and governments to do the right thing over time, even though there are always hiccups now and again. Screaming and overstating seldom add any value to the problem solving process, and we should not accept it when we see and hear it. Relax, America. It's going to be OK if we just keep our heads calm and focused.

48% Approval for Obama?

Americans are so fickle! We seem to be satisfied only when everything is going just great. Instant gratification. No memory. That's why Obama's approval rating is just under 50%. Sometimes I think we don't deserve him. McCain would have been far worse.

Other times, I think the republicans got out in 2008 while the going was good. The economy in shambles, the deficit out of control, wars not being concluded...how bad could it get? Time to cut and run, give the problems to Obama and then blame them on him. So far, this cynical strategy seems to have some traction. After all, if people can listen to Glenn Beck they can believe anything.

I'm very happy I voted for Obama. He's quietly pursued progress in many areas and achieved quite a few goals in just over one year. The stock market has rebounded and the economy is slowing rebounding - slow, but much faster than most people would have predicted twelve months ago. Iraq is winding down to a conclusion, and Afghanistan is on a timetable. Obama's won a health care reform war that some opponents wrongly thought would be his "Waterloo", and a financial reform package is also likely to pass. He's beefing up education policy, and he's done pretty well with foreign policy. Not too much to complain about!

Republicans and tea partiers call Obama a socialist or worse. The problems they decry were made worse during many years when their own party was in control, but memories are short and anger, even inane anger, is powerful. It's not what Obama has done, but the idea that he personifies a government that does things and influences our world, that is the reason they hate him. I just disagree with them, for the most part.

Time is on Obama's side, I think. As the country continues to heal economically, and, if there are no big uncontrollables to sidetrack him, Obama's steady pace of accomplishment will win back the independents. This will be true especially if his opponents continue to oppose but have no plan of their own to sell. November's elections will be important, but they will not make or break Obama. He has several more years to make the case for his approach, and the republicans need to worry about 2012 - it's far from in the bag for them.

Entitlements Gone Amuck!

Our country's political process has been broken for a long time, but I'm not talking about the partisanship that seems to be tearing us apart right now. I'm talking about the decades-long loss of political will to to say "no" to unaffordable spending. We are now on the verge of a massive upheaval that will be required to get us out of the giant hole we have put ourselves in.

Governments at all levels are swimming in debt, saddled by huge unfunded pension and medical liabilities, and trapped by gold-plated labor contracts that seem ironclad. There is no easy way for many of these public entities to escape bankruptcy, and that's why I predict a massive upheaval over the next few years. It's going to be interesting.

Under-taxing and over-spending got us into this mess, and correcting the problem will require over-taxing and under-spending for quite a while. In addition, the fix may also require the "managed bankruptcy" of many governments. This unavoidable medicine will certainly cause a massive upheaval in our society as we rebalance our governments.

It's almost funny that addressing the entitlements problem has taken so long, since it's been as obvious as the noses on our faces for a long time. In the private sector, we saw GM slowly die as its untenable labor contracts killed off its competitiveness - and then we paid to fund its bankruptcy and backstop the outrageous deals it had made with its workers. But who can save all these bankrupt governments? Only us, by forcing change that will be hard for all of us to take. Or, will the politicians demogogue this issue until our country collapses under the weight of its incredible debts and unfunded entitlements?

The stock market is currently jumping up and down in reaction to the problems Greece's insolvency is causing the EU. Greece is a tiny player, but its unraveling finances are creating great uncertainty. What would the world's reaction be when its largest economy can no longer pay its bills? Massive upheaval, that's what, and perhaps of the worst kind that one cannot even speculate about without praying hard. That's why we need to engineer our own mini-massive upheaval, starting this year. A stitch in time saves nine, as they say.