James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© September 4, 20012
A READER WRITES:
Don't you just love inciting these political discussions? What's most interesting about these things is the volume of misinformation getting passed along as truth. Even more amusing is the righteous indignation inspired by meaningless words and actions. Was it a director's cut or slash your throat symbolism implied by Clint's gesture? Was that a sneer on his face when he made the gesture or just his naturally harsh look?
I've never been a fan of Clint Eastwood or his movies. "Letters From Iwo Jima," though, held my interest. The Italian Westerns, the man in a poncho schtick, and Dirty Harry (4 of them) were examples of the "waiting for a hero" meme popular in the 70s and 80s, which he revived with "Gran Torino." He's an actor and a director. Both professions indicate he knows how the most nuance motion will be interpreted differently depending on the audience member's state of mind.
I thought f*** was implied in Clint's comments. I don't remember him actually saying it. Also, while Joe Biden did say the word, it was not "into the microphone." It was an aside during his embrace of the President, which was barely picked up and amplified to determine what was actually said.
More important than any of this was that Romney's forty-five minute, non-committal speech was upstaged by Clint's 5-minute riff. The three-day infomercial (as all political conventions have become) ended with a pratfall.
We quickly forget how we felt four years ago, not knowing whether we would end up in a prolonged recession or depression. The S&P was at 675 and the Dow at 6500 shortly after the stimulus package was signed. You know, the one Republican primary candidate said they created "zero" jobs. Today, each index has doubled. This means the value of big businesses has doubled. It also means big business has more money to spend. It doesn't mean they will spend it. It certainly doesn't mean they will use it to create jobs. They are not job creators. They are profit creators. Any CEO will tell you his job is to maximize dividends to the shareholders. In business, all the popular programs are designed to reduce waste (read: mistakes.) Mistakes and wasted time require more work, which requires more laborers and higher payroll leading to lower profit and dividends.
The real purpose of business is to balance labor with demand and eliminate waste to minimize labor and improve productivity, not to create jobs. Jobs are only created by consumption. Greater consumption drives a need for greater capacity, which, in turn, after the exhaustion of overtime, leads to hiring. Giving more money to the rich through tax breaks does not increase consumption. The rich family will not by another car or refrigerator or washing machine or more food and clothing. Although, it might hire another minimum wage servant. Conversely, increasing taxes on the rich will not reduce consumption. They will continue to have money to spend.
Middle class tax reductions have a bit more of an effect. That money will be spent on necessities. Further, government stimulus money used to upgrade infrastructure, as tax credits to retrofit homes, and other like initiatives bring people into the workforce and create demand for consumer goods. This, in turn, strains the production capacity of businesses, who then hire more people to supply both the government stimulated projects and increased consumer demand.
I understand the rich like to have the word creator attached to their name. It legitimizes their god-complex. It just isn't so. We are all part of a system. The parts are not equal, but they're all necessary. Besides, I know the stimulus package put people to work. The evidence is all the traffic delays I've experienced over the past three years driving through construction zones. And, please, don't bring up Solyndra as an argument.
The US invested $30 billion in alternative energy. China responded by investing $100 billion in theirs, lowering the cost of goods sold through subsidies in an attempt to destroy the burgeoning industry in the US.
Michael
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DR. FISHER REPLIES:
Michael,
I feel your passion, and I wish I had the clarity of one party being the devil and the other the angel, but in my long life I have not developed such clarity.
You can use indexes -- stock market prices, or whatever -- to indicate "progress," but I didn't see one word in your analysis that indicates we have out spent our ability to deliver, which is as true of the Republicans as the Democrats.
Everything has evolved or devolved to spin, while the safety net that we have, continues to leak, and one day, if something isn't done to change it, will collapsed totally holding nothing but air and "hope."
Obama has been a disappointment to me. His inexperience in management and leadership has proven a barrier to his ability to govern over time. We are in trouble. Can he get us out? Does he have the courage to make the hard decisions? Or is he going to continue to pander to one point of view and blame the continuing slow recovery on "big business," or the Bush Administration," or Europe?
He was given a bad hand. So was Roosevelt. The war pulled Roosevelt out of the soup. We have Afghanistan, which is called "the right war." War is never right when it is not necessary. Afghanistan is Vietnam all over again, and yes, Iraq doesn't look any better.
Courage is a rare commodity in anything, in the personal, professional, private or public arena. I have seldom seen much leadership in my many careers. My extensive reading informs me that leadership has been rare throughout history. Personal leadership seems to follow this same curve.
Most people go along to get along, don't make hard decisions, find someone to blame when they don't work out, aren't focused enough, determined enough, patient enough, or bold enough to stay the course, or to get out and try something totally new when they run into a wall. Instead, they deny the wall, make excuses for the wall, or blame others for there being a wall, and there always is a wall, for everybody. It is called “life.”
I'm speaking of individuals, but I could just as well be speaking of leaders in my experience.
In every place I have ever been, from grammar school through high school through college and university to my many professional careers, it has always been the same. Most of the effort is provided by a slither of the total population involved.
It isn't the best and the brightest that have set the mark on society, as Tom Brokaw insists, but the people willing to get off their asses and do something, take chances, accept defeat and unpopularity. They knew where they were going, weren't sure they'd ever get there, but weren't going to cry in their milk to anyone that would listen if they didn't get there.
I've never worked in single environment in which half or three quarters of those with whom I worked were as talented or more talented than I was. Most of them never got out of the rut, never went anywhere, never did anything, and on occasion, I'm told, have said terrible things about me, but never to my face, not once, which incidentally, would have been appreciated for the display of courage.
In one of my missives, I mentioned giving a class on "ethics and leadership" to a high school senior class of an upscale preparatory school, a school that costs these kids parents upwards of $18,000 a year. Sad to say I would say out of a class of fifteen there were three interested in what I had to say, the rest couldn't wait to get out of the class. An African American boy, apparently a super athlete on scholarship, slept through the class and the teacher didn't say a word.
No, Michael, your arguments as sound as they are, as much as they are based on selective information, and all such arguments are so based, will not save us from this sinking ship.
Someone in leadership has got to put it on the line and say, "Listen up, people, we are in trouble and it is not important why we are in trouble or who is the blame but if we don't get off our asses and do something about it, you can kiss our heritage goodbye!"
My problem with the RNC and DNC is they seem like doppelgangers to me, both devils.
Be always well,
Jim
PS I haven’t mentioned Clint Eastwood. Like him or not, he got off his ass a long time ago with not much more going for him than good looks, and ended up making his day at a supreme moment in American history. I am a philosopher that has written a minor characterization of that moment. I suspect books will be written about Clint and the “empty chair” to the RNC contretemps.
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