A businessman, who does not understand computers, may face the loss of his job or business, even if such a businessman can do his job without given technological skills. Similarly, a brilliant computer scientist or engineer with social issues may not be able to pass an interview unless the human resource manager focuses on the value of the interviewee’s skills. Mechanics and machinists may do their job exceptionally well, yet their skills are worthless unless someone, or some business, is marketing their services and products. Janitors and chefs cannot do their jobs without the proper tools while researchers cannot contribute to society unless they have access to resources and writers need profitable channels to sustain their endeavors.
In terms of functional versus dysfunctional behavior, the job, i.e. what makes an individual valuable to society, of schoolteachers and college professors is to make people more functional by cultivating skills in others. Because teachers of the past had convinced communities and governments to pay for their services, the developed world benefits greatly from having a reasonably educated population. As not everyone can know everything and training alone does not guarantee success, developed economies thrive due to the fact they utilize the organizational and marketing skills of businessmen who serve society as facilitators of innovation, production, and service. That said, most people are not businessmen, and even fewer are entrepreneurs, thus society needs the world of business to help us fully utilize the intellectual capital of talented individuals. This is, of course, why businessmen are valuable to society. Unfortunately, it seems the world of business has forgotten this reality. Instead of acting as facilitators of the real economy, big businesses and wealthy businessmen often act as though they are part of a self-sustaining economy of their own making. In their relentless pursuit of massive profits, through their business dealings and lobbying of governments, the big businesses of the world have come to severely neglect the interests of those sustaining and growing the real economy. With a narrowing of the wealth distribution curve, fewer well-paying jobs available, and the costs of resources sharply rising, people, whose skills would otherwise be incredibly useful to our society, are unable to find a path to prosperity, so they cannot use those skills for benefit of society. This is especially important for those who lack necessary business skills and knowledge as well as those coming from backgrounds of poverty. Too many people are stuck in the minimum wage struggle while others find themselves in industries that barely tap their full potential, thus talented individuals cannot progress to a stable socioeconomic standing that would allow them to access employers who might use their skills or markets where their endeavors can yield viable returns. People need increased opportunity to make use of their unique talents and increased opportunity starts with the ability to access the economy through the use of a given set of skills. Businesses and businessmen have a social responsibility to help those, who have the skills and ideas needed to drive our economy, access the resources they need while society needs to reconfigure our public policies, including taxation policies and regulations, to ensure businesses profit the most when they serve their communities in this capacity, i.e. give businessmen incentives to do what they should be doing.
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If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit goes the saying. Using the US government shutdown as an extreme example, the American People hear politicians blaming everyone else for the problems they helped create while regurgitating the same few phrases over and over again until their constitutes just accept them as fact, even when the facts are to the contrary. Instead of helping individuals understand what needs a legislative effort is trying address and the potential impact of those public policy changes, our political leaders focus on demonizing those who disagree with their stances and telling the American People that we are thoroughly against what the other guys are doing. At their worst, our politicians want to overwhelm the American People, so we give up on public debate and let them do whatever they want. A democracy can only function when its people are engaged in government and able to make informed decisions on public policy matters.
The problem with disengage is self evident when looking at our government’s behavior over the past thirty or so years and the economic impact of that behavior. The interests of the majority has been thoroughly ignored while the interests of those who have been engaged in government are over served at the expense of the common good, Quite frankly, our political climate fosters disengage when we need greater public engagement to ensure the interests of the entire population are adequately addressed. What the American People need is to understand how policies work, so we can come to our own conclusions as to whether specific policies are good or bad. We need our leaders to present the positives and negatives of all options so we can choose which policies serve our interests, even when our representatives do not support alternatives. We do not need them telling us what we should support or boycott; they need to listen to our needs and support policies that reflect those interests. Moreover, they need to find solutions instead of just bashing faulted options. This ongoing shutdown demonstrates they are not doing this. Democratization is the process by which the power to govern is equally dispersed across a population. There are significant numbers of businesspersons and economists who have taken to calling the ability to purchase stock in a company the democratization of the markets. In many ways, this is offensive as those enjoying greater wealth and larger stakes in given institutions possess greater power, which is thoroughly undemocratic.
That said, America does need to see the democratization of our economy for our Nation’s economic interests to be better served. The distribution of wealth continues to narrow as the household incomes of average Americans stagnate or even shrink. Excess wealth allows individuals to invest in our economy through the stock markets and other financial vehicles. The true democratization of the economy would mean individuals would have the leverage they need to negotiate larger incomes and greater access to financial opportunities, thereby allowing the economy to reach equilibrium instead of creating artificially accelerated inflation and bubbles. The consequences of a far more democratized economy would translate into our financial institutions being compelled to better serve the interests of the American People. Businesses exist solely because they serve a purpose in our society, yet there are far too many incidences were the interests of big businesses have conflicted with the interests of Americans to the point these institution caused harm to communities and our broader society. As the world saw after the Great Recession, our society has grown incapable of punishing the harmful practices of businesses. Part of this stems from the amount of influence corporations have gained over the legislative process as well as their increasing economic power. If the US economy would start experiencing a democratization of our financial institutions, the interests of the American People, i.e. our society, would be far more relevant. By focusing on the means by which our economy, versus government, distributes wealth, more Americans would enjoy greater leverage in our economy. Beyond putting more dollars into people’s pockets so they can have increased purchasing power as consumers, average Americans must have expanded ownership of publicly traded firms. It is the nature of big businesses to put their interests before the interests of all others, even if ignoring the broader interests of our society hurts them, while it is in the interests of our politicians to cater to the interests of those who fund their campaigns and post large financial gains every year. Moreover, the US economic is more and more failing to serve the interests of the American People. The strength of democracy, i.e. its long-term potential to continually recognize and address the interests of an entire population, can help ensure an economy runs smoothly. Consequently, our modern economy needs to be truly democratized in order for our “free” market system to function properly. Focusing on getting more money into the hands of the majority and incentivizing the deliberate investment of excess funds will allow for increased socioeconomic stability and improved economic growth. The latest shutdown strategy of the GOP involves the restoration of funding to popular Budget items, such as the National Institute of Health, the national parks, the National Guard, reservists, veterans' benefits, FEMA, and WIC through mini-CRs. Although there are those who believe our legislators should take a line-by-line approach to the Budget in order to cleanse it of wasteful spending, voting to restore funding to individual government programs is terribly inefficient and thoroughly dysfunctional as doing so is simply destructive in the real world. Meanwhile, alleviating the pain inflicted upon key constituencies only has the potential of alleviating pressure on our political leaders, thus this effort will likely extend the shutdown. It is good that Republicans want to restore funding to programs like FEMA and WIC, but I feel this is only done to manipulate the American People, i.e. make us turn on the Democrats for failing to support their own social priorities. On the other hand, an effort on behalf of the GOP to accept key Democratic priorities in return for Democratic support on key Republican priorities is needed. That said, imagine a manager who tells his employee that she must finish three times her normal workload in half the time then threatens to fire her instead of helping her find a way to accomplish the herculean task. She may well get her work done after a frantic rush, but she will almost assuredly resent her boss and screw him over as soon as she gets the chance to do so. If Republicans manage to extract concessions from Democrats while the Country teeters in a state of duress, it will only foster even greater distrust and dysfunction. What our legislators need are working relationship that are built on given-and-take solutions, trust, and respect. Issues like the Budget, Obamacare, and the tax code are complex issues that should not be dealt with in a rushed manner. Our leaders need to understand and honestly debate the merits of policy changes instead of a accepting some Frankenstein Democratic-Republican “compromise” that uses incompatible ideas from both sides of the aisle and creates more problems than it solves If Republicans truly belief in the power of democracy and negotiation, they need to agree to end the shutdown with a clean CR and to engage in immediate negotiations over key related issues like the Budget. Certainly, Democrats have played their part in allowing the government to become so dysfunctional. There were times when the GOP burnt their bridges by irrationally attacking Democratic efforts for political gains, but Democrats allowed their emotions to dictate their responses and they shutout potential olive branches from individual Republicans members. Moving beyond bad politics, Republicans might not get their way if they give up the ill-gotten, poisonous leverage the shutdown affords them, yet they can ensure GOP priorities will be better addressed in the future by working with Democrats through compromises and sensible solutions today. This is always the only way Republicans can save face over this debacle. The US government shutdown demonstrates the faults of democracy. Given that the Middle East and other underdeveloped regions of the world are attempting to develop new forms of government and grow as societies, democracy offers the Peoples of such Nations the guaranteed representation they need to ensure their interests can be adequately addressed in the future. As the most prominent democracy, the successes of America’s political institutions serve as an example of the benefits of the democratization process. With our democratic institutions in chaos and divided over relatively petty differences as our Nation faces a myriad of critical issues, we are telling the world democracy in the modern age will bring about instability and dysfunction. We are in a pivotal moment in history, the US government needs to show democracy can overcome political strive.
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April 2020
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