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About five years ago, poverty inspired me to take a
ghost-writing job, one of those yupscale how to
experience a successful career
books. Since I have no
personal knowledge of such matters, I did extensive
research, wherein I found a book called The Greatest
Management Principle on Earth.
The principle was simple. People do what you encourage them to do. The problem is that we're seldom aware of what we really encourage.
One example was that of a machinist who wanted to take
three days off to go deer hunting. His foreman pointed to a
pile of work and said nobody was getting any time off. The
next morning, the machinist was late to work. His angry
foreman snarled Next time you're late, you'll be off
three days without pay.
Guess who was late to work on
the day before deer season started.
Consider that principle as applied to American democracy, and a lot of things start to make sense.
We say there's too much federal bureaucracy. But how do we judge our representatives? Nobody I know pays much attention to which way Rep. Joel Hefley votes on major issues of vital national concern. But we do notice how well he handles missing Social Security checks, misplaced grazing allotments, funding for new sewer plants, etc.
A congressman impresses constituents by untangling snarls in the federal bureaucracy. The more bureaucrats, the more complications, and the more opportunities for him to straighten things out. The more such resolutions, the greater the number of pleased constituents, and the better the congressman's chance at the next election.
We say we're opposed to more bureaucracy. But we've arranged matters so that a congressman is actually rewarded for creating and expanding bureaucracies. We get what we reward, but we don't realize what we really reward.
Or look at campaign finance. We all say that the current system is an abomination. Campaigns cost lots of money. That money comes from special interests, who want favorable consideration in return for their investment in a candidate. They generally get what they pay for. A few years ago, the high-flier S&L lobby set up PACs to funnel money to candidates, who gained office and used their influence to delay regulatory action against high-flier S&L's. The public got stuck with the bill.
Why are campaign contributors so important that their interests come before national solvency? Because campaigns are expensive. Why are campaigns expensive? Because candidates have to get your attention, which requires not only money for advertising, but high-priced expertise: pollsters to determine what the public will respond to, producers who can put a strong emotional hook into a 30-second TV commercial, writers to come up with an effective 10-word slogan.
Otherwise, we pay no attention to the candidate. So even though we complain about how special-interest money dominates elections, we actually reward the candidates with the most money, and never mind how unsavory the sources of that money.
The Greatest Management Principle on Earth explained how one person can get worthwhile results by thinking things through. Unfortunately, nobody seems to know how to get a whole country to start thinking things through.
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