Sunday, February 17, 2008

More Thoughts...

I'm really in a political mindset lately. Am I focused on the primary election? No. I don't recall whether I've ever actually voted in a primary election. Being a politically independent thinker, I think not being able to split my ticket is a giant rip-off since I usually do split my ticket. In fact, if I haven't reasarched the office in question, I just vote against the incumbent. Cool, huh? I know.

Ogre and I had a bit of a discussion yesterday. I don't think he was pleased by the outcome because he just kind of stopped...talking. I wish I could bottle it.

We were discussing politics and, while we're both behind the same guy, we have some significant points of difference. I think that we have entirely too many lawyers running our country. Why? People are fooled by lawyers. Lawyers think that they are smart because they went to law school and law school isn't easy so they must, therefore be smart people.

The problem is that, in my experience, most lawyers have no street smarts. Lawyers spend three years memorizing laws and learning to interpret them. They learn how to help people avoid prosection or to prosecute them. The specialize in finding loopholes and cutting deals. This does not prepare them to run our country. This prepares them to fulfill their own delusions of grandeur and satisfy their own self interests and those of their clients special interest donors.

Lawyers typically pay so little attention to common sense details that they have to hire someone to make sure their bills get paid. Why would we put them in charge of paying our bills? We need more business majors and CPA's in particular running this country. People who pay attention to detail to make good decisions and have proven ability to manage the affairs of a business. Yes, a business. We need to run our country like a business including making spending decisions that make sense. We do not borrow from our future with debt to fund any program that does not deliver value to the taxpayer. I would, frankly, prefer my president to be a lean guru. Eliminate waste, deliver value. It seems so damn logical, doesn't it?

I believe so very strongly that our country needs a national healthcare system so that all men, women and children have access to the same quality of healthcare. I just don't think that our government is capable of creating that plan. I envision logical delivery of care nationwide but the option our Congress and, unfortunately, any of the current presidential candidates is likely to come up with would be full of bureaucracy and pork for clients donors. Lawyers feel like they are able to inflate the cost of their services because they spent all that time in school and, well, they have bills to pay and I'm sure that a national healthcare system designed by lawyers would be a clusterfuck designed to not piss doctors off.

I believe we need to put common sense back in our tax code. When laywers create laws, laws have holes. Accountants do not make policy with holes. Let the AICPA re-design the tax code. Close the loopholes. Make taxes fair and eliminate tax loopholes designed to protect the wealth of the wealthy. I also say eliminate tax breaks for corporations that do not result in an increase of value provided to the taxpayer. I'll bet restructing the tax code would result in much greater pay equity between leadership and line level employees. But I guess you could argue that salary is market-driven. Well, except for lawyers. I am not opposed to consumption based or flat tax concepts, but I know a bunch of lawyers would fuck that up.

Give me a body of leaders for my country that really does understand the concept of value creation. That's what I want. Remember that I'm the customer and this country, this business of managing resources to provide maximum benefits to the taxpayer needs to focus on the customer - the taxpayer - to be successful. And start writing laws and guidelines in English not bullshit-legalese designed to keep lawyers from splitting hairs about what is is. And give me a decision-maker, not a decider.

Here's my wish list:
Give me good healthcare.
Remove the opportunity to create frivolous litigation.
DO NOT LEGISLATE MY MORALS OR ANYONE ELSE'S.
Don't spend money we don't have on things that don't add benefit to the majority.
Get the right people doing the right job - not just the low-cost provider.
Treat our military and our veterans with respect. Hey! Give us some of those benefits other Federal employees get or take them away from other Federal employees. Wouldn't relocation assistance have helped this family this year? Government employees who choose to move get it while military families that have no choice do not. Backwards, right? Sorry. I digress.
Stop trying to use legislation to protect people from their own stupidity.
Stop using legislation to press forth your religion.
Start trying to create an atmosphere where people are accountable for their actions and responsible for outcomes. This is completely contrary to what lawyers do, right? That's why we need fewer lawyers in our Government.

And last: Don't tell me what I want. ASK.

Peace out.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

DO NOT LEGISLATE MY MORALS OR ANYONE ELSE'S.

I feel like that would make a good thought thread on TL... I found myself reading it and thinking about how often I've seen some variation on it, and then wondered what it actually means. Don't nearly all laws in some form "legislate morality?"

Hmm, well, maybe "thou shalt not double park" isn't really a moral issue...

As far as I know, my state is the only one in the country with a mandated health care system for anyone who is employed at least 20 hours per week. While this obviously still doesn't catch EVERYBODY, it sure does make a difference to a working family in terms of health costs.

A chat friend who lives in Texas had a kidney stone problem -- emergency medical care bill in considerable excess of $4,000. A couple of weeks after that, I had one -- my total cost came to about $130 -- which is about $100 higher than last year, for some reason. So, yeah, some kind of affordable health care system is needed -- but any perusal of the complaint logs of the various countries that DO have socialized medicine shows that this is not an unqualified success, either. Not an unexpected result, I suspect -- when was the last time you had a cheerful, useful give and take with a government employee? (Military excepted)

Ross Perot had skill in running a business, but I'm not sure that would have made him a good president. However, you'll get no argument from me about lawyers.

In my not-so-humble opinion, every new law passed should come with an expiration date. You can be highly entertained reading some of the bizarre laws that sit on the books all over the country.

However, I gotta take some exception to the idea of putting "bean counters" (remember what I do for a living) in charge of helming this country. "Bottom Liners" in charge of the decisions that keep us going is not a thought that pleases me.

Fantasy novelists... now there's an idea whose time may have come. :D