Values

Chapter 1 - Measuring Value

I've drooled buckets over the nation of Bhutan's paradigm-bursting declaration of measuring Gross National Happiness rather than Gross National Product. And I know most of you will say, yeah, but how else do you measure a nation's worth... that's just pie in the sky crap, Luth.

But let me ask you this: Isn't Gross National Product - a method of determining the "value" of something wherein the dollar value of units produced is divided by the number of people there - a kind of disturbing, even perverse way of calculating the "value" of anything?

Seriously.

Is that how you determine the "value" of your kids? Your memories? Your musical or athletic ability? The last good meal you had? Anything of any real importance to you?

Didn't think so. So it's not just me and my liberal ideas... it's not just pie in the sky. GNP is pretty arbitrary and if the past ten or so years have taught us anything, it's that dollar values don't measure the true value of anything worth having. Dollar values, my friend, are the real pie in the sky. Just ask Lehmann Bros.

Chapter 2 - Family Values

All right, how many more times do we have to hear that a leader from the party of family values is actually a normal human being with normal human instincts, and, like most normal humans, fallible?

I don't care if a senator found a boyfriend in an airport bathroom via his wide stance, or a governor met his girlfriend online... it's none of my business and it's none of yours unless you're that governor or senator's spouse.

No, that doesn't bother me in the least and it certainly doesn't say anything about their ability to govern. The problem with both instances... and any others I've left out, is the hypocrisy of those particular folks. Both criticized a sitting president for the exact same behavior as though it had never occurred to them and could never happen to them... as if they themselves weren't also human.

Why is it that the party who implies that they've got the most authoritative command of Christian values is the first to judge (rather than forgive - very UN-Christian, by the way) UNTIL one of their own gets caught?

I'll tell you why: when that's what you build your platform on, you've got no choice but to pretend you are in fact holier than thou and thus set yourself up for just such a fall. It's simple really, when you espouse moral superiority via standards, etched in stone, which violate your human instincts, you are by necessity, definititon and design establishing standards by which no one can measure up. You then either have to admit that you're just like the other guy and are only saying things that you know sound good and will get you elected (so you're a liar, a panderer and a hypocrite) OR that you're JUST a hypocrite. Time will prove one or the other in every case. What's that you say? They're the same conclusion? Yep, and time has proven them.

So give it up party of values, party of "no." Either get in the game with some alternatives to what you don't like about the majority in power, or jump on the party train and enjoy it, cuz it left the station about 160 days ago.

Chapter 3 - The Value of Free Markets

Why is it that the party of free markets is so opposed to a little government competition in health care? Isn't competition good for the market? To hear them say it, no government organization could ever win such a competition anyway. So why not give it a shot. And I'll head you off at the pass before you whine that such an experiment would be a waste of tax money because there are plenty of folks who said the same thing about the Iraq war, but that sure as hell didn't even slow it down. If we've got two billion a week to blow on experiments, let's at least get something out of it. After all, aren't they quick to say things like: do you really want the people who brought you the post office to provide your medical care?

Let's think about that question for a minute. The one known government entity that generates its own income and will get something delivered from coast to coast in about a day and a half for 40 fricking cents is the one they use as an example of inefficiency?

Yeah, I'd do that. How bad could it be. The USPS has managed to be self-sustaining since they replaced the friggin Pony Express... through all kinds of markets, through all kinds of setbacks, still chugging after the telephone AND the Internet were going to shut them down instantly.

Seriously, offer a friend, or the UPS guy 40 cents to get something to LA or Baghdad for you before next week and watch how they respond. The USPS ROCKS!

I'd say if there was a health insurance company, or a healthcare network that could perform and deliver as efficiently as the USPS does (for 40 cents a pop!) then I'd trade my plan for it in a minute. And you would too... don't lie.

And then there's the Veterans Health Administration, lauded by Fortune reporters, authors, Business Week, Time, and just about every other news organization for being the best healthcare system in the country and among the best in the world. Yep... right here in our own little government. How do they do it? Well, by focusing on lifelong wellness vs. selling profitable treatments until you change jobs and move on to become some other insurance company's problem for one. By establishing the nation's first nationwide electronic health records (with peerless security, by the way) allowing displaced Katrina victims to receive uninterrupted care no matter where they ended up and allowing their new providers access to their complete histories for another.

Sure they make some mistakes - you'll have that in the nations largest healthcare network - but unlike their commercial competition, VHA SHARES its mistakes publicly and immediately in order to remedy and prevent repeats across the country. Private providers surround mistakes with lawyers and you never hear about them until someone you know dies. (Until they call VHA hospital directors and say, "I've got this friend who wants to prevent this thing from happening in HER hospital... I've read you've dealt with it... what can you tell me, I mean, my friend about it?")

Surprise! There's a government-created and managed healthcare model just waiting to be tapped right there under our noses but someone out there doesn't want us to try it. VHA didn't get invited to the table to discuss healthcare reform with the new administration?! Hell, the Clinton administration even got a Republican congress to approve sufficient budgeting to cover EVERY U.S. veteran and their families FOR LIFE through VHA because the facts showed it would save billions compared to providing the far less efficient Medicare and Medicaid for those same veterans currently not covered. Imagine that, the Gingrich House and the Dole Senate actually agreed with a Clinton proposal to spend money on what these days is considered "socialized" healthcare. VHA must have been pretty damned good for that to happen! Of course, W wiped that budget out and pushed VHA back to the antiquated system of prioritizing only battle-injured veterans in spite of the promises made upon enlistment, in order to fund his war. But hey, the Value of Healthcare is another chapter.

The point is, if government is so inefficient, and free markets/open competition is so great, then what's there to lose by allowing the government to enter that competition. Give them a fair shot in the free and open market... or isn't that what you mean by "free" and "open?"

Chapter 4 - The Value of Being the Victim

Charles Swindoll (yes, Ray, I know he was a pastor!) says that life is only 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react - the attitude we CHOOSE to adopt regarding that 10%. I believe that to be fact... though I might suggest the ratio would be even more lopsided.

Not only is attitude THAT important. Not only do we CHOOSE the attitude we wear, but Attitude is THE ONLY thing we choose FREELY. We must die, pay taxes and all of the other inevitabilities in life, but how we feel about all of these things is entirely up to us. We can say, "that guy in traffic pissed me off after a really bad day" but no one can reach inside your head and activate that part of your brain but YOU. If you're pissed as a result of something that guy did, then it's because YOU decided to be pissed... not that guy. He can't decide that for you.

When it comes to values discussion, this fact of life effects everyone regardless of party affiliation, social or economic status... heck, I believe it's what got us into this economic mess (though it was steered a little by the runaway spending of the previous administration).

Here's what I mean: back in the golden age... the Reagan years, Wall Street big wheels were victims of too much regulation. By playing that victim, they pushed to have all that regulation lifted beyond all common sense. I mean, c'mon - blind, naked short selling? Even if you don't know what that is, it just sounds like something that should be regulated if not banned outright. If you do know what it is, then you know it's a little like selling something you've never owned, without any knowledge, consent, permission or proceeds of/to the rightful owner, but you keep all those proceeds. Now, describe for me any place in the world where that would be considered an above board, proper activity... aside from Wall Street since the 80's that is. Example #2: Bernie Madoff, no explanation necessary, I hope.

So anyway, those victims got most of the finance regulation lifted by playing the victim and promising that if only that heavy jackboot of basic common sense regulation were lifted from their throats, they could get the nation's economy back on the right foot. And it worked! (while the economic cycle was on an upswing and until the cycle shifted back downward and then until we started dumping unbudgeted billions into Iraq) Then they were victims again and needed more of the jackboot removed cuz even though they were growing richer and richer off of the nation's investments, the investors themselves had experienced a bit of a free market correction - meaning that while the brokers' fees and the house shares remained VERY lucrative, most investors' account values dropped nearly in half.

Now we'll add the investors to the list of victims - oblivious to the cyclical market, and wanting desperatly to earn something for nothing by just dumping some money into a fund and forgetting it until they were millionaires come retirment time at age 50, they too repeated the mantra: lift the regulation... cuz that's what my rich broker said and I want to be rich just like him (or her) and the only way I'll ever get there (according to surveys of Americans during this wonderful era) is to win the lottery or win a lawsuit, or to get ridiculous returns on my 401k that can only be possible through a) miracles and b) total deregulation of the financial industry. For the love of Pete, we can't actually be expected to WORK for a living and SAVE our money for retirement... we're victims here!

As the victims succeeded in relaxing all the rules, new investment strategies followed, like the highly successful junk bond market, the savings and loan industry, and the securitized debt trade. Victims of their own success, the sky became the limit. The first million wasn't enough. Now we need the second. A bedroom and bathroom for every person in my household isn't enough. I now need two for each! 3500 square feet in a 10 year old house isn't enough... I need 5000 in a brand new house! A car that gets me to work and back isn't enough, it needs to take up most of the road and proclaim my status to the world and burn a gallon of fuel for every thousand feet, because I can and I am a victim and I am entitled to that.

Victims all. If that's what we choose to be, then that's what we are, which brings us to...

Chapter 5 - The Value of Perspective

The week before we went on vacation, the brake/shift lever interlock switch on our 6-year old Honda Odyssey went out for good, moments after I'd arrived at work 30 miles away. This $9 part that I eventually swapped out in the dealer parking lot where I bought the replacement, caused my wife to be late for her last day of work before the vacation.

On the third day after our return a piece of metal, consistent with that prevalent in the wife's work parking lot, caused a flat tire on said van that was discovered as my wife came out to leave for work one morning.... moments after I'd arrived at work... 30 miles away. My brother came over and plugged the tire for her, but not until she was late for work again for the second time in about four days of work.

My wife and my daughter both made comments suggesting it might be time to replace said van... as though these two minor incidents costing less than $12 and 15 minutes to remedy (total) were an indication that the quality of the vehicle were somehow suddenly called into question. Mind you, this is a six year-old, completely paid for van that safely carried my family and friends over 130,000 trouble free miles getting 20-25 mpg along the way.

They could have decided that either my wife or I should stop going to work - that's a perspective that's at least as logical as the bad van theory. They could also have decided I should buy a motorcycle since only two wheels reduces the chances of another flat by 50%, but we're not big on statistics.

I don't tell this story to make fun of my beloved wife or daughter - given the situation my wife found herself in twice in a two week span... and a span of only four work days... I can certainly understand her frustration. I tell this story simply to point out how a different perspective changes what we determine to be "the truth."

For instance, when the Bush administration opened up the floodgates of the bailout by handing over the first $700 billion, including $20 billion to GM and Chrylser, the "truth" was that this necessary influx was the right thing to do for such important American industries. But now that we're 160 days into Obama's task of sorting out how to guarantee the conditions of those loans are met, suddenly the "truth" has taken on a slightly different interpretation. What was once a solid move is now a socialist agenda and runaway spending. Nevemind that Bush offering bailout money is kind of like Jose Cuervo paying for alcohol rehab. Nevermind that Obama was handed this mess but is now being blamed for causing it. Nevermind that he's been in office all of 5 months.

Perspective changes the truth - even for people who claim that "situational ethics" is a horrible thing.

Which brings us to...

Chapter 6 (or "Conclusion" if you prefer) - The Value of a Short Memory

I remember W coming in to office with the first federal budget surplus in my lifetime. I remember him telling us first that we invaded Iraq because that's where the 911 terrorists were, then because they had weapons of mass destruction, then because Saddam was an out of control dictator, and then because the Iraqis (apparently more than people in any other nation) sought democracy. I remember him telling the world the mission in Iraq had been accomplished. I remember when we started spending $2 billion a week there. I remember W initiating the bailout. I remember W leaving office with the highest deficit in American history. And I have a vague memory of those same people who support the continued spending of that unbudgeted $2 billion per week suddenly worrying about spending money right here in America.

I wish my memory were as short as the memories of others.

I'd value that.

Then again, who am I?

Luth,

that's who.