Making the Best Better on the 4th

Holidays, especially the 4^th of July, are great opportunities to reflect on where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. Our great nation has accomplished much, yet still has far to go.

Here are the most important areas where I think we, as the United States of America, can improve so that our children and children’s children will have a better future.

Education – All should be able to get a good education regardless of their economic situation. Well-educated citizens are critical for a successful democracy. Education helps our nation make the most of its human resources. Public education and libraries helped build the foundation that made our country great.

To improve our educational system we should greatly increase teacher salaries, reward teachers based on performance, measure performance in ways beyond just standardized tests, and remove tenure for elementary, middle school, and high school teachers.

Prisons – We should minimize the number of people that must go to prison by ensuring they are educated and prepared to get whatever job they are best suited to do. Prisons should work on reforming and educating criminals to become productive citizens rather than be warehouses for punishment that foster criminals teaching crime to other criminals.

Housing large numbers of prisoners is expensive and a drain on society when those people could be productive citizens. The prison system should be rewarded based on reducing criminals and maximizing good citizens rather than locking them up indefinitely. We cannot afford this. Some resort to crime because there are no other good alternatives.  Better education is a good place to prevent criminal behavior. Reform and education must be emphasized for those who slip thru while indefinite lockup is reserved for those that cannot be reformed. The death penalty should be abolished because it is far too expensive as well as error prone with no recourse.

Health Care – Everyone should be covered by basic healthcare so valuable human resources are kept healthier (in better working condition) and are treated through less expensive preventative or timely curative treatments rather than expensive and last ditch emergency care. A stitch in time saves nine.

The Affordable Health Care Act was a step in the right direction. Encouraging Health Maintenance Organizations over traditional health insurance is even more cost effective and efficient.

Taxation – Taxes are not evil. They are investments in our government and our shared infrastructure so we can enjoy a more stable, safe, and productive community and society. We must embrace reasonable taxes and not keep dodging them at all costs. Endless tax cutting ends up hurting all of us. The wealthy have automatic advantages over the poor and also benefit immensely from a stable society that consumes their goods and services. It is a good thing for the wealthy to pay proportionately more in taxes than the poor.

To better use tax revenue, we need to balance our budget and put performance metrics in place so our government is naturally rewarded for effectiveness and efficiency. Legislation should focus more on outcomes rather than the hows. Let government professionals figure out how to maximize results just as we let the free market economy figure out how to best satisfy demand.  The City of Sunnyvale is a good example of performance metrics as well as a balanced budget in action. Please also note that the vast majority of government workers are middle class and few if any are wealthy. Tax dollars directly employ a larger number of people in government than concentrating wealth in the hands of a few.

Civil Rights – Everyone is entitled to equal rights and equal protection under the law. We are close to achieving this beautiful vision as embodied in the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.

Yes, any two consenting adults should be entitled to marry and enjoy the economic, legal, family, and child rearing benefits of such a union.

Democracy – This is the most sustainable form of government yet invented. A “government of the people, by the people, for the people” is the only practical way to govern people as they do it through their own choices rather than being told what to do by others.

We need to have positive policies to foster democracy abroad as well as encourage our populace to participate actively in our own democracy. The legal system that supports our democracy is the best defense we have against corruption.

Sustainability – Our resources are not unlimited. Resources include energy, materials, space, and time. We all must strive to budget ourselves so we make the best use of the limited resources we have and hold ourselves accountable before nature itself forces us to be accountable.  Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Our government is in the best position to put checks and balances in place to ensure we do not overly abuse our environment. Protecting our environment is extremely important yet too long term an objective to be otherwise factored into our free market economy.

Poverty – This is really the bottom line. Better managing all of the above will help reduce poverty and the inequitable distribution of wealth. When none of us want for basic needs, there will be less war and less crime. Having wealth widely distributed benefits us all. It only stands to reason. No one should want for adequate food, clothing, shelter, or health care.

Root Causes of the Arab Spring

It is marvelous and reassuring that many Arab nations have taken significant steps toward democracy. Why did this happen now? Here are my thoughts:

1. Dictatorships are fundamentally unsustainable. Democracy is simply a better system of government. People want to control their own destiny and govern themselves. The ongoing dictatorships built up much unrest in many Arab countries for a very long time and it has just been waiting for the right trigger.
   
   
2. The rise of the Internet allowed those in Arab nations to learn more about how the rest of the world operated -- both historically and in real time. Knowledge is power. An event in Tunisia proved to be the trigger that sparked its revolution and this in turn sparked others (Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, etc).
   
   
3. Cell phones (in addition to the internet) allowed groups of people to coordinate their efforts. Knowledge is power.
   
   
4. Al Jazeera provided an independent, successful and very visible free press run by Arabs with reasonably balanced viewpoints on Arab news. Many other press organizations in Arab countries have been strongly controlled by governments, but not so with Al Jazeera. A free press is necessary for democracy.
   
   
5. The election of Obama demonstrated to the world that the system of democracy in the United States did not keep the US locked into an imperialist model -- the people can speak and elect someone from a minority who has a more balanced view of how the US can work with the world (rather than abuse its power). The policies of George W Bush (particularly invading Iraq) wreaked havoc on the US's public image world wide and particularly in the Arab world. Where as Obama's Presidency has restored faith that the US system of government (and thereby democracy in general) can self correct to choose better courses of action.

Here are some lessons to take away from the Arab Spring phenomenon:

1. Nation building by force (like Iraq) is a very, very costly and wasteful proposition.
   
   
2. Providing a fertile setting and letting nature take its course is much more cost effective and sustainable (Tunisia, Egypt, etc).

Strangely but not surprisingly, the US and England shot themselves in the foot in regards to spreading democracy when they interfered with a budding democracy in Iran in the 1950s -- choosing instead to clandestinely engineer the return to power of the Shah of Iran -- in order to achieve some short term gains. This proved disastrous in the long run with Iran later turning violently anti-US. Imagine how the Arab world might have turned out had democracy succeeded in Iran in those early days and if we had helped a democratic ally rather than undermining it. Iran might have then had 50-60 years of democracy for it to stabilize and hopefully spread to others in the region. This may or may not have been how it would have played out, but it could have. I think it is important for the US to have a cordial and supportive relationship with all other democracies -- even if they choose policies that are not what the US might want . If the country in question is a democracy than it is what the people of that country wanted. It is important for the US to honor the sovereignty of other countries so that they in turn are more likely to respect us.

These same dynamics along with growing wealth and a growing middle class will eventually lead to change even in China despite the considerable success China's government has had in perpetuating itself. It will take time but it is inevitable. The will of the people shall rule in the long term.

TSA - Terribly Stupid Agency

The TSA is developing a reputation as the Terribly Stupid Agency (Touching Sensitive Areas, etc). It is wasting billions on expensive, time consuming, annoying, invasive, and ineffective security measures that assume everyone is a terrorist when almost no one is. The terrorists have won if we all suspect everyone and each other.

Where is the check and balance on this 1984ish bureaucracy? Some rational and intelligent people need to step in and reduce the waste in this prime example of out-of-control government spending. These dollars could be greatly reduced and more effectively spent.

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

Rational Choices

Too many folks rely on typical stereotypes and want to pigeonhole people:
- borrow and spend warmongering conservative Republicans
- tax and spend pacifist liberal Democrats
etc.

In the most recent election I believe much of the electorate was fooled by those playing to emotions and fears rather than making rational choices about what we really want for the US. We must get beyond stereotypes and knee jerks to figure out how to make our lives and our government better. Recognizing the real pros and cons of what is accomplished or not. Fear is a great motivator but it is a very poor decision maker. And it takes real work to make improvements. I voted for people who have shown they can work hard with the system to make a change -- and a change in the direction I want our country to go.


Regarding Obama, he has not accomplished as much as he or I had hoped, but nonetheless in the last 2 years he and the Democrats did more to move the United States forward than Bush and the Republicans did in the previous 8.

Obama & the Democrats:
1) Restored worldwide respect for the US as a place of reason and balance (Bush & the Republicans trashed our reputation)
2) Made significant progress on reforming Health Care and making it cover more people in a reasonably efficient and affordable manner (Bush and the Republicans did nothing in this space)
3) Are working to get us out of wastefully expensive and destructive wars overseas (Bush and the Republicans caused us to overspend in this area to the tune of trillions of dollars).
4) Saved our country and the rest of the world from a likely second Great Depression. (Bush and the Republicans lead us into that economic mess -- over deregulation can be dangerous, government is an important check and balance on capitalism)

These are HUGE!

#1 allows us to have more credibility and work diplomatically with other countries
#2 greatly improves how the US manages valuable human resources, helping people be productive and healthy rather than sick and a drain on society
#3 saves us big bucks, lots of lives, and helps with #1
#4 saved all of us.


We have a phenomenally good government overall in the US. Just compare the totality of what our government does for us and how efficiently it does it compared to other countries in the world. Think about everything you do each day and how our government is involved in making it possible and reasonably safe:
- we have a military that is well managed, does not attack our citizens, and actively keeps foreign bad guys at bay
- we have police and fire fighters keeping us safe at home
- we have a legal system that generally works well -- courts, judges, laws, etc
- when you drive down the road, you have a well paved road to drive on, your car has to meet certain safety standards, you can breath the air behind your car, people stop at stoplights and let you thru, etc.
- when we walk down the street we generally have a sidewalk on which to walk and we generally are not afraid of getting mugged
- we all have safe water to drink from our faucets (how many countries in the world have this?)
- we have generally safe food available to us all in abundance
- everyone in the US has free public education available to them
- we have vast stores of knowledge available to all for free -- notably our public library system
- we have building codes that keep us safe from fire, collapse, earthquakes, etc.
- we have freedom of the press and speech so we can speak, be heard, and learn about what is happening from many sources that serve to check and balance each other
- we have freedom of religion so we can practice our own beliefs without fear of retribution from government
- and much, much more...

Our government has a positive impact on just about everything that you or I do. All of the above requires significant money to accomplish.

If some other country is doing a better job overall for its citizens than the US, please name it and how.

Sure there are things that we can improve, but don't let the exceptions outweigh the vast number of things that work well and most of us take for granted. Blindly cutting taxes and cutting government spending will hurt us. We need a well funded government for the US to continue to succeed and protect all of us.

Without our national, state, county, and city governments the United States would not be the great nation we are today. Be very careful about throwing things out, because you may be throwing the baby (our future) out with the bath water. Respect our government and work with our established systems to effect change because these are the systems that help our society and government run reliably.

Let's engage in reasoned dialog so we can work together and make improvements as a team. We are one big team that needs to cooperate and compromise to succeed in a dangerous and challenging world. We all cannot have it just our way. United we stand, divided we fall.

Thanks for reading.