The Three E's in this Election: Part One

Part One: The Economy



Economics, Energy & the Environment are interlocked under The First Law of Ecology: Everything Is Connected to Everything Else, as Barry Commoner so brilliantly formulated in his classic book, The Closing Circle, over three and a half decades ago.

Although it is impossible to segregate one issue from the other two, as they are so inextricably interlinked, for analytical purposes, I must try. The point of this post is to deconstruct the economic crisis in a straight-forward manner in order to serve as a conscientious voter's guide for evaluating the major candidates for President and Vice-President.

This is not a partisan analysis, but it is personal. These ideas and conclusions are based in my own experiences, beliefs and observations during my 32-year career as a journalist. Although I've studied and am familiar with economic theory, I won't talk in abstract terms. It's important to be concrete.

I am a small business person, an entrepreneur, a fiscal conservative, and a humanist. These filters guide my thinking. Small business is the engine fueling growth not only in our country but all over the world.

Large, state-run enterprises emerged, especially in "socialist" countries, but also here in the U.S., either in idealistic attempts to reform an imperfect world, or to extend the benefits of wealth to a broader swath of the population.

They largely failed, and that model for organizing an economy stands lifeless and discredited. But the rhetoric of the era when Big Government was still an option survives in our politics, which I would characterize as the gutter politics of clueless power-seekers.

It makes me cringe to listen to most politicians as they bungle their way through economics proposals. So, first principle: Unless your politician speaks directly and bluntly to you about what you have to sacrifice in order to get things right, he or she is pandering.

True economic health requires all of us to abandon the slavish, greedy lifestyles based on credit, and re-embrace the wisdom of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. One of my grandfathers was a Canadian farmer, and was dirt poor. The other was a Scottish tradesman who immigrated here to work for the automobile industry.

My Farmer-Grandpa died over two decades before I was born, but I am very proud to bear his name. All of my life, I have been fascinated by farming, by growing things, and by the way a farmer evaluates the future, factors in unknowns (like the weather) and plants his seeds, protects his tender crops as they grow, and harvests what he hopes will be a banner crop.

As often as not, he fails, but he succeeds just enough to keep going. And, always, he protects and improves his best seeds, so that next year, he'll face better odds of outwitting nature than he did last year. Where I grew up, winter time was the season of taking stock, doing the calculations, repairing the machinery, surviving on what you were able to bottle or can or dry and salt, all the while protecting your seeds for the next planting.

My Scottish Grandpa taught me, often with scowls and grumbles, to never pass a penny lying on the street. Save it. Don't spend it. To this day, under my bed, I have a paper bag bursting with pennies. I'm quite sure all of my children think this is one of their Dad's peculiar quirks.

In fact, there have been times that bag became useful. There have been rainy weekends in our family when the kids didn't have anything better to do than bundle up a hundred of those pennies at a time, turn them in at a bank, and get something they deemed far more useful -- dollar bills -- that they in turn used to obtain some little something or another that brightened the gray skies overhead for a while.

I am, at my core, a saver.

As an executive, in every job I've ever held, my goal has been to come in under budget. Usually, I've succeeded. They key has been to track the numbers closely, understand what you are spending and what you are bringing in, and always try to make the latter exceed the former.

It makes me a little nauseous, as sometimes happens, when a higher-level official tells me to go ahead and spend money because it is "in the budget, and if you don't spend it, we'll lose it." I'd never make it as a bureaucrat in Washington, where whole divisions of agencies have disappeared even as I write these words, to use up their travel budgets before the fiscal year ends.

That's right, folks, on our dime, "public" officials are partying in Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe while you read my words, just making sure they "use it" and don't "lose it."

I would support any candidate for President who had the guts to end this gluttony. Alas, most of them don't even know about it. And none of them know who I am, what I know, or what they could learn reading this blog.

You see, most Americans may believe we reporters are biased, but that view entirely misses the point. Of course, we are biased -- just like you! Who said any person is a God?

(Well, a couple major religions did, but let's leave that aside for now.)

Small is good, in economics. Big is bad. You can improve your own economic situation through sacrifice, delayed satisfaction, and careful budgeting. If you want to start a company, apply these same simple rules.

If you've ever tried to hire anybody to work from the ground up, you have learned an amazing fact. People don't agree to come over for the money; they come for the idea of a future. All good employees are willing to sacrifice immediate gains for future possibilities, at least here in America, where opportunity is so great.

This idealism of the small business unit inspires me. It also is the spirit that makes this country great, IMHO.

Sadly, we have other forces at work. Your mailbox, like mine, is cluttered by glittery, seductive offers for yet more credit cards. "For everything else, there's MasterCard."

Bullshit. For everything else, there is patience.

This may seem like a paltry effort at describing an economics program, but it is so fundamental that I've devoted all of these words to attempt to say it. Personal responsibility...until you embrace that, we have nothing to talk about.

Welfare, entitlements, handouts, rebates, "free money" of any type represents horrible economic policy. If you are facing tough times here in the richest land the world has ever known, take a good look in the mirror.

How many pennies have you passed up on the sidewalks of your life? How many times have you suppressed an urge to consume, thinking about tomorrow. To borrow a phrase from a great song, "Don't Stop...Thinking About Tomorrow."

You also shouldn't forget which President danced to that song as he ascended to the White House. He is the only occupant of the Oval Office who carried out a very wise economic policy, without which none of the wealth generated by small businesses the past 16 years would have been possible.

Ignore rhetoric. Ignore personal or religious issues. Ignore demagogues, i.e., "inspiring speakers." Ask about their economics plans. Ask yourself about your economic plan.

It all starts at home. Check your emotions at the door. Forget about abortion, God, and guns, please! For just this once, think about butter!*

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* If you did not study economics at school, please track down the connection between guns and butter...