When
giving consideration to many things, I tend to initially approach
them with a very naïve eye.
Consider
food. I might simply ask how it tastes. The naïve part in
such an example comes from not wanting to know the ingredients,
preparation methods and so on. But if it tastes lousy and I’m
not going to eat it, then thoughts of preservatives and deep frying
it wrapped in bacon and serving it slathered with butter really
don’t require much of an investment on my part.
I
get it. That’s not the most complete way of doing things. It often
leaves some thoughts and details off to the side. Occasionally
there are issues worth considering and investigating. But here’s
the biggest thing I’ve learned in my life: Numbers lie.
What
I mean by that is more than specifics about numbers. It’s a general
recognition of situations. Very rarely—and that should probably
read VERY rarely—are any of us
presented with complete stories. In a scenario using numbers,
people twist them like balloon animals and carefully present them
from selected angles to create your sightline of their opinions.
Two plus two is almost never simply four. In addition, people
tend to research things until long enough to gather materials
that prove their opinion correct. Then, full stop.
Realistically,
it means that all of us need to approach things with a bit of
caution and skepticism. Or, as I like to think of it, don’t become
too concerned with whether the glass is half-empty or half-full
when you should be looking around to see who took some of your
water. Get multiple sources. Consider there may be an upcoming
drop of second, third and fourth shoes. At least listen to the
other side.
And
so, we recently had one of the longest shutdowns of our government
in history. And yes, I was a bit naïve. But that approach
allowed me to see something quite clearly: our political system
is being run by idiots. I have an example. (Stop me when I’m wrong.)
As
the beginning of the shutdown first approached, it was acknowledged
that there was a group of people that would be told not to come
in to work, and during the work stoppage would not be paid.
If
the government shutdown went on long enough, some paydays would
arrive and pass with no paychecks issued.
Once
the government reopened, elected officials would look at a certain
segments of this group (say in a “full-time employees yes, contracted
freelancers no” possibility) and decide (my words) “…it wasn’t
their fault, so let’s approve retroactive pay for them…” and
a good portion will be paid.
Now…
three simple concepts. But so far, I have yet to find anyone that
says this outline is incorrect or inaccurate for many of those
in the center of the storm. People wouldn’t work. People wouldn’t
get paid. Once things were wrapped up, backpay would be arranged.
And it is from this that I begin to have issues with the stupidity
of our government.
Essentially
what our elected officials are operating is a system where everyone
knows these people will be paid, but the scenario is going to
be played out where they won’t be paid. Work won’t get done… overtime
and additional expenses will be required to get things back on
track once we get the office doors open again, which wouldn’t
have been necessary if everyone had just kept coming in to work…
hundreds of thousands of people will have issues and battle hardships
with their household expenses as a result of the missed paydays…
and yet every politician seems to know, not even in a wink wink
nod nod type of way but actually acknowledged and readily agreed,
that these people will be paid later on exactly what they would
have been paid had they worked.
In
short… let’s set millions (if not billions) of dollars on fire
unnecessarily so that we can have a meaningless pissing contest.
Yup…
apocalypse.
Now
before you go looking for the contact information of my web site
and begin planning your blistering response to my ignorance, I
once again plead for understanding about my naïve approach.
I’m not talking about the extremes or difficult issues that need
solutions. What I’m saying is this…
Our
supposedly smart and educated elected leadership has a scenario
where they won’t keep some offices open, staff on duty, or provide
services… they are going to punish those employees without pay…
then, they are going to give those the employees the pay they
missed while facing a situation where additional monies might
be needed to help get everything caught up, organized, and back
in place. And somehow, that is preferable than agreeing that it
would be better (and far less costly) to just keep the offices
open, staff on duty, and provide services.
About
six years ago, I was reading an article as the possibility of
a government shutdown approaching at that time. Basically, it
outlined how the closure of some offices was going to result in
certain permits not being issued.
At
that time, the article reviewed a specific and time-limited fishing
season, and would result in thousands of dollars lost each day
that could never be made up. The season would end up being shorter,
plus other countries would simply ship in their catches to stock
the markets while American boats were stuck at the docks. There
was no way that these losses could be recovered.
Point
is… stupid is stupid, regardless of how naïve it may seem.
There are many things politicians do that do not need to be done.
Forget the finger pointing and blame… stop wasting my money. Because…
naïve or no… the money being wasted more likely than not
could fix a ton of the issues that really need some attention.