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Letter: Forget Utopias and work on things together
Op-Ed · September 11, 2014
Looking for a way forward, a new vision for our country calls us to step outside of our comfort zones.
How can we work together to solve our county’s problems? One of the first steps will be to properly identify problems, and their causes. Another is to let go of ideas that may have worked in our past, but aren’t working now. Being willing to take pieces from our favorite “isms” and join them with others to form paths forward.
Could our national “character” use a little tweaking towards more gentleness and cooperation, and less fear and competitiveness?
Separating the ideals of how we would like government to work, from the pragmatics of what we actually have available to work with, and what is actually possible.
Can we solve the debt issue? If we (temporarily!) value the principle of low taxes less than the solving of our debt, yes we can!
Through restructuring our tax systems (temporarily!) by raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and changing loopholes, we can erase our enormous debt.
While doing that, we also need to discuss the deficit in our budget using sound mathematics and accounting principles rather than ideological principles. We need to be willing to reassess priorities. We need to debate respectfully how our “scope of government” and “the general welfare” might be different in this century, from the time period when our nation began.
We spend a tremendous amount of money on public assistance of various kinds.
Romney’s figure of 47 percent will do for an example. Mathematically, is this percentage of “non-producers” in our economy sustainable? Of course not!
In a perfect world, that percentage would be zero, but that is not a realistic goal. This is where accurately identifying the underlying causes of this problem comes in if we want to lower that percentage permanently. If we are assisting people who can’t make ends meet because they are not educated enough for “good jobs,” wouldn’t investing more up-front for their education be both more economically sensible and offering them more dignity as humans? If we are assisting people who can’t keep a job due to health issues, isn’t investing in supportive, early intervention health care that keeps them more productive both more logical and dignified? The only thing keeping us from investing properly in our citizens and our future is our love of the principle of “making it on our own.” This principle needs the perspective of properly defining average versus exceptional. Our American “rags to riches” dream celebrates the success of exceptional people. We are not all exceptional people. By definition, very few of us are exceptional. Most of us are average, some of us are below average, no matter what category we discuss.
Can we solve our off-kilter political system? To perfection, no. Since so many of us are too frustrated to participate in elections, should we come up with a different form of governing?
Should we limit who “qualifies” to vote, or should we pay more than lip service to educating voters? Governing, or managing, happens. In business contexts, we value the concept of managing.
We seem to view managing/governing in our civil lives as evil. Either we manage our society with accountable elected officials, or we let others manage it, i.e., religious groups or business interests who are not accountable to us. Our management needs are different now, than when we began, and “small government” is another principle that distracts us from improving how government does its job.
Let us admit that we cannot reach any of our desired Utopias, and work on things we can fix, together.
Laura Twing, Tipton
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