Natural Selection and the Economy

Let’s talk about the theory of natural selection. 1^st off I don’t want to talk about evolution of the animal kingdom, nor protection of endangered species. I want to speak about natural selection and how it applies to the economy.

In the last few months we’ve all seen an alarming trend of taking tax dollars and using them to ‘bail-out’ companies that were poorly managed. As an entrepreneur I’m upset that some companies like AIG and GM can go to the government and essentially say, “we’re so important that if you don’t give us money, the country will die.” As a patriot it scares the paints off me to see the government buying private companies out of bankruptcy (even though bankruptcy is essentially the same thing). And as a moral individual I am appalled because of the dishonesty, the lack of responsibility, the obvious burden placed on the backs of other people.

I don’t propose to be a genius of business, but as I’ve studied economy, and I make no claim to be an economist, there is the idea that as one company’s value drops someone else will buy it. It goes along with the rules of supply and demand, almost like a natural order in life. When we the government decided to step in and ‘bail-out’ AIG, GM, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, etc… we not only set a precedence, but also interrupted that natural order. Rather then letting poorly managed companies dissolve so that better ones could come along, almost like a sentimental stock trader, we stepped in and upset the balance.

A great many years ago, before almost any of us were born our country entered another depression. It was a hard time for many people who didn’t have jobs, food to eat, and many if not all the necessities of life. Our Government stepped in to help in a very different manner, they created a welfare program. The design of which was to not only help provide for each other, but also to improve our nation. The idea behind it was that the government would create jobs, such as the ‘C.C.C.’ where people who put in a good amount of work were compensated. Of course as time went by those groups were dissolved or changed into other entities, the idea of welfare also changed until what we have at present is very different from before. The idea of asking labor or effort of those seeking welfare was let go, and the idea became that we just gave money to those who didn’t have enough. Originally the welfare program no only gave gainful employment to those who sought it out, it also restored dignity. The new system depraves them of it and changes those involved into something akin to a parasite. Up until now that has only been localized to individual people. With these billion dollar give-aways we are now adding corporations to the group, and just as ugly as watching a family on welfare buy a big screen T.V. we now see the CEO, Rick Wagoner, of GM write himself a pay check for last year worth $14 million. That’s roughly $1 million less then ’07; considering that GM lost $30 billion in ’08 we can see that he’s being very responsible with the company. I ask the leaders in charge, “Is this what you wanted?” It seems the only effect of our bail-outs is to increase the cost of living, speed up inflation at an alarming rate, and take us step by step to a system of government in one way very much like communism. This is almost the exact same scenario as watching a 3^rd world country change currency, they flood the market by printing more bills until the dollar is as common as McDonald’s wrappers, and just like the wrapper the dollar is thrown away.

This brings me to my last point. A few years ago I heard about Donald Trump building a casino in Las Vegas and then shortly after that filing for bankruptcy on the same casino. This is equivalent to asking the Government to pay off all the building loans they acquired in creating the establishment. I was very disgusted at Donald’s lack of personal character, what he did was perfectly legal; he didn’t break any laws I mean to say. But it was disgusting still. Watching as these people we elected to run our country give away our hard earned money to companies that treat it with such reverence I wonder, who was the financial genius they turned to for this advice? What is to be done to save our economy?

As difficult as the last depression was there were a great many things we learned from it. We remembered the value of a dollar, the price of a loan, and the reward of responsibility. As we now head head-1st into our next depression I can only hope that somewhere we remember those lessons learned and rather then just ‘throwing money at the problem’ we try to fix it. Stop living on loans, stop living on other people’s money, and earn our living by contributing to the good of our society. Regardless of where we come from our quest in every day we live should be to go to bed a better person then when we woke up, in this we can define the progress of civilization.

The discussion for today is Public Education: what is its purpose?
Many people have differing opinions as to where it came from, and ultimately where it should go. From my perspective as someone who has worked as a substitute teacher, and a personal instructor I present the opinion that whatever the shortfalls of decades past we are now beginning a period of light-mindedness.
Probably the most obvious step was the “No Child Left Behind” act. We decided that failure was not an option. So we took the natural consequence of repeating something that wasn’t learned the 1st time out of the equation. Is not repetition a paramount part of learning? Has anyone learned a skill without 1st practicing it? Is it wrong to fail? Did the world scratch out Edison when on his 1st time he didn’t make the light bulb work?
Unfortunately the only ones who really see that this isn’t working are the ones who have lost their voice to speak out. The ‘Teacher’ is held at blame for the lack of education; the school is ‘the problem and needs to be fixed’ or even eradicated in the opinions of some. This is because we as a society have taken the responsibility of raising the child out of the home and put it in the school. The child who learns to read does it by the natural process of repetition in the end, it doesn’t matter what system or law the government passes. He practices reading with a parent at home for example, or practices reading by repeating the grade. We used to understand that.
It’s not the laws or politicians that cause the problems; it’s the mentality that the responsibility of the education system, or the government, or anyone else is to raise my child. The government does dumb things, and isn’t a perfect unit, it’s composed of people who we hope will try to make the best decision possible for the common good. As we watch the effects of the billions of dollars to bail-out defunct businesses, we see another example of a decision gone badly.
I'm not saying teachers are saints and perfect, I've had my fair share that treat it like a 9 to 5 job, but how many professionals treat their own jobs that way? Parents, not teachers, are responsible for the education of their children. We have many different groups dedicated to that specific cause, the PTA for example (Parent Teacher Association). The idea was that the parent woke up, got the child ready for school and sent him off. There the child learned skills and ideas, things that aren’t always brought up at home. Upon coming home he would then practice, study, and essentially complete the cycle of learning those skills so that the next day the child could go back and add more to their knowledge. But in how many houses does that actually happen? Or do we count the reading of ads between shows on T.V. enough practice for tonight? Is pressing buttons on a video game just as good as basic math? And after texting all afternoon on a phone, isn’t that as good as practicing writing for an hour?
There is much wrong with our public education system, but are we really fixing the problem, or just trying to treat the symptoms? In my opinion it seems that we, the society, will continue to treat those symptoms until one day the school system, like so many other things held together by duct tape, super glue, and forgotten hopes, breaks leaving us to figure out how the pieces go back together.