Archive for April, 2010

YOU NEED NOT KNOW MORE

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Sometimes the best defense doesn’t need to be built, it just arrives on a cloud.  Such a cloud came floating by just days ago when an AP story caught my eye.  I have lamented Union Labor in past columns, but always feel like I need to provide a quick primer nonetheless.

Here you go…my take on Unions.  Good idea when it started out.  The idea had heart and meant well, to protect workers from abusive wages and conditions, in an era when such abuses were rampant.  But it grew into something much different, a kind of overweight drunken beast that was bossy, indignant, increasingly lazy and insatiable in terms of pay, benefits and pensions.  Any logical person has had to marvel at the luxurious work packages laid out for union workers of all stripes.  It has always, from the outside looking in, seemed too good to be true.  And of course, it was…and remains so.

We watched in horror as the beast consumed the American auto industry.  Same with steel and hundreds of other manufacturing and service industries.  I have been in business for thirty years.  A small business, to be sure, the most full time employees I ever had at one time was ten.  Still, I have some nominal understanding of profit and loss, of bottom lines and competition.  Had I ever found myself in a situation where, as the owner of the business, my labor pool had taken on a power in the business greater than mine…I would have fired everyone and closed the doors.

Some of you will be thinking…”sure, but who protects employees from abuse?”  Allright, we need to do that, but not at the expense of losing businesses all together.  Everyone knew GM couldn’t pay people $70.00 an hour to install hubcaps, with 8 weeks of vacation, benefits and a pension even government workers would die for.  It made no sense.  All the money went to labor, not product, and predictably the product began to be regarded as junk, which it was for many years.  No big surprise for many of us.

But the Crown Jewel of union contracts must go to the New York City Teachers Union.  Just weeks ago, New York finally decided to stop paying teachers to do nothing.  You see, per contract, any teacher awaiting disciplinary action or resolution of a complaint, continues to get paid and reports every day to a “rubber room”.  The nickname comes from the insanity which can slowly ensue after weeks, months, and in some cases, years go by while teachers await hearings.  They play Scrabble and surf the internet.  As of this writing there were 650 of them in New York, costing the city over $30 million last year.  The “rubber rooms” are really called Reassignment Centers, but too often the “reassignment” is a little slow coming.

You need not know more.  This is the kind of ridiculous bureaucratic nonsense that could only take place in a Union or Government program.  Private business could never get away with it.  We have a bottom line, not a bottomless pit of taxpayer money.  Others will point out that 30 million bucks is chicken feed in today’s economy, but it is just that kind of thinking that got us in trouble.  We watch every dollar in our household.  I expect my government, city or federal, to do the same.

These teachers and the union that creates this kind of magnificent waste should be ashamed of themselves.  It’s all about the kids, huh?  In a city that is flat broke, with decrepit schools and a deficit of supplies and a dismal record for turning out students of adequate intellect, imagine what could have been bought with that 30 million.  How many fresh coats of paint, new chalkboards or text books could have been bought?  How many decent teachers could have been paid to be actually…gulp…teaching somewhere?

What a sham.  Just a microcosm of the world we live in.  And we wonder why we’re falling behind.

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THE NEXT FRONTIER

Monday, April 19th, 2010

As a long time NASA fanatic, it is with a certain melancholy that I anticipate the final launch of the venerable Space Shuttle.  There are only three remaining launches planned, and it will mark the end of a dynamic chapter in NASA history.  I have promised myself for years that I would witness a launch firsthand, but that is seeming increasingly unlikely.  I’m still going to try, but that trip is a tough sell for the family budget.

When President Kennedy first challenged the nation to put a man on the moon, it unleashed a wave of science that still laps at the shoreline today.  America’s best and brightest were challenged…literally…and rose to the occasion in a way that only Americans can.  From those first Apollo missions to the launch of the first Shuttle, it has been non-stop, 24/7 innovation and pressing of the envelope.  Intellect, courage, desire and talent all combined to put forth some of the most amazing milestones in the history of man.  Think about it.  In less than one hundred years following the Wright Brothers first flight, we have developed a bird that leaves and then orbits Earth, and returns, gliding, to one of a just a few paved landing strips on the continent.  Amazing.

The adventure has been marked by tragedy as well.  Challenger. Columbia.  The infamous fire on the launch pad.  I remember when the Apollo capsule was making its world tour and spent some time at the Boston Museum of Science.  We went to see it.  I stood in awe, looking at this tiny cone, looking very dated just a few decades after being invented, and thinking about  the nerves of steel that must have been necessary to sit in this thing, perched on top of a rocket.  Men and women who risked, and sometimes gave, their lives in exchange for this passionate pursuit of “the beyond”.  How remarkable.  I am so grateful.

I remember exactly where I was the day Challenger exploded just after liftoff, taking with her one of New Hampshire’s own.  There was anger and remorse, and in the end, pressure-to-launch seemed to have played a role.  NASA took a lot of heat, though I’m sure there was no group of people more devastated than they.  I remember also defending NASA and assuring people that astronauts are fully aware of the risk they are taking.  Every launch is a marvel and defies physics.  Every launch requires pressing myriad envelopes to their breaking point.  Just think of the number of mechanical and human elements at play during a shuttle launch and mission.  The opportunity for failures is almost infinite, and yet, the ship has had a remarkably successful run.  It has allowed the construction and maintenance of the International Space Station, one of the few places where there seems to be no racism or cultural tensions.  It has been an under-appreciated multi-national classroom where significant bonding between nations and cultures has transpired.

The shuttle made possible the dispatch of, and, years later, the subsequent repair of the Hubble Telescope, which has indulged us with stunning pictures from deep space that we would otherwise never have enjoyed.  Eventually, the Hubble will retire itself into terminal orbit, another piece of hardware zooming around the planet, but it will have bestowed upon generations priceless glimpses of the world beyond us.

I hope NASA, and the country, will embrace the next frontier in space.  You won’t be surprised to know, I spend a little time on the NASA channel, and recently a gentleman spoke about why the space program is “worth it”.  It encourages young people to consider science, to embrace it.  NASA has for years been the “go to” place for those sharpest of minds who not just desire, but demand, a challenging intellectual environment.  Where dreams can go from paper, to prototype, to production.  It’s easy to ask…”what’s in it for us?”  The answer is sometimes vague, and the space programs are expensive.  Still, I feel, for humankind, the need to discover new things is a given, space is the final and infinite frontier, and I hope with all of my heart that we, as a country, and NASA, will write the next chapter with the same grace and wonder that we did the last.  When that last shuttle launches, and particularly when it lands safely back on Earth, everyone of us owe a moment of silence to the collective blood, sweat and tears that were required to make it happen.  Godspeed to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and, thanks for the memories.

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THE DEADLIEST DEBT

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

Say what you want about this administration, there is never a dull moment.  I have written in past columns how extraordinary the Obama Team is at, if nothing else, blind ambition.  Leaving half of the country convulsing over the passage of the largest and most incomprehensible piece of legislation in American history, this week they have made a “deal” with Russia regarding nuclear arms and the use of them.  The “deal”, in essence, announces to Russia and the World at-large, that we would never, ever use them, so, give us your best shot and don’t worry about it.  One small step for man, one giant stumble for mankind.

I’ve said it before.  It’s as though they enjoy it.  They are drunk with power and running through the liberal checklist like a fighter pilot anxious to get off the deck.  Sure, November is going to slow things down at least, but they will have plenty of power to spare. So why the rush?  The rush, I believe, is because that is how entities that are powerful and largely exempt from the consequences of their own behavior and decisions, operate.  Look, at the end of the day, there isn’t a single suit on Capital Hill that is going to be left on the street or living in their car while they look for work.  You’ve got to remember this, because it is perhaps the one most important element that separates them from the rest of us.  They seem oddly oblivious to the danger this massive piling on of debt will expose this country to.

My mood is lightened somewhat because of something completely unrelated…or maybe not.  This Tuesday begins the new season of “The Deadliest Catch”.  I watch very little television aside from my nightly brainwashing sessions with Fox News, but this series which follows second and third generation crab fisherman in the Bering Sea really drew me under and I’m hooked now.   It’s documentary-style and follows a handful of different boats and their crews as they embark on their often life-threatening sojourns into the Bering Sea to catch crab.  The chemistry between Captain and crew, fathers and sons, is beyond entertaining.  The weather and thrill ride is made-for-tv and just watching it is bracing.  Trying to imagine living it is a thrill.

And there’s a lesson in it, too.  About tradition.  About hard work.  About profits and losses and bottom lines.  Equipment failures and payroll.  A place where inefficiency is not only not an option, it could cost you your life.  I watch this program in utter amazement and have suggested only half-joking that the country would be better off with one of these Captains and his crew running the White House.  The kind of no-nonsense management style that we need so desperately.  Pragmatism?  I can’t imagine an environment where it is more prevalent.  There is no room for twisted logic, for shifting the paradigm.  What worked for the last generation, made them money and got them home safe…still works.

And I think too of how deadly it will be when guys like that have to give up a third of their take to pay for folks too lazy to even look for a job, much less perform one.  How is that fair?  It isn’t, and we know it, and that’s one more reason I tip my hat to Sig, Andy, Keith, the late Captain Phil and all of the others up there.  Someone should tell them…they don’t have to do it anymore.  They could get a Grant or some government program to pull them through, find a Congressman to buy them a new boat or a Crab Museum where they could take turns as curator.  It wouldn’t matter, of course, because they would have none of it.  I’ll bet they could win a collective lottery and they would still go out there and risk their lives, because it’s what they do.  Little do they know, they’ve offered me much more than entertainment.  They’ve given me hope.  Have a safe season, boys.

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BARE METAL

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Sometimes you have to do a little grinding and scraping to get beneath the surface and see what is really underneath the paint.  Many times, absent doing just that, any conclusion about what lay underneath is pure conjecture.  One could ponder endlessly, analyze and surmise, but without stripping things down to bare metal, you just don’t know.  And, once revealed, the picture becomes clear and all need for guessing is gone.

As a culture we are deep into over-analyzing everything, it seems.  Health care reform is a good example.  It’s pretty clear what is wrong with the system, two or three things jump out, like the rampant and flagrant abuse of mal-practice suits, for one.  We all know who pays for that at the end of the day, and it isn’t the insurance companies, hospitals or doctors.  It’s the premium payers.  Yet we have studied and probed for decades, back and forth, while pragmatically there can be no argument posed that it is a simple fact.  Mal-practice suits are an industry.  May I cite John Edwards as an example.

So it is, also, with the reaction to the reaction of the passing of ObamaCare.  Folks are acting surprised at the level of anger, even though it was well known, before the “vote”, that better than half of the country was vehemently opposed to it.  I wrote last week that I certainly do not condone or recommend a violent response by anyone, towards anyone, but at the same time, I understand the anger fully.

Strip away all of the talking heads and over-analyzing and it’s really quite simple, where this anger comes from.  It’s been brewing for a long time.  It’s about more than health care legislation.  It’s about more than political affiliation.  And, it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Folks who opposed this over reaching piece of legislation oppose it for good reason.  The government has a really lousy track record when it comes to staying on budget, achieving goals and conducting honest business.  We’ve all known this for years, but it’s much easier to overlook when your own world is in order.  However, when a gargantuan piece of law like this comes along, with a multi-trillion dollar price tag that we all will share regardless of how we “voted”, at the same time that the country is in the throes of the worst recession since the Great Depression…well…you can pretty much count on an uprising, can’t you?

Here’s the problem.  People like me, who find the expense and expanse of this bill as a literal threat to the security of our country but are still expected to pay for it, are at our wits end.  In the crowds of Tea Party folks I see the very people I grew up with.  Regular people who have played by the rules.  Worked several jobs, raised families, sent children to college without aid or handouts.  They’ve spent a lifetime sacrificing for family and community.  They have sacrificed themselves, choosing to save money rather than spend it frivolously.  They have core beliefs of being good neighbors and good community members.  They are charitable, but painted as being cheap and selfish by our boorish media.  They have spent a lifetime getting up and going to work, always doing a little more, not a little less, and taking pride in having done it themselves, without a hand out from anyone, especially the government.

Now, the country finds itself quite divided between essentially two groups, the one described above and a newer group that expects that so many of the things in life which were previously expected to be earned, are now entitlements.  Yes…you’re “entitled” to it simply for being here.  For having a pulse.  You don’t need a degree to see that this can never work.  There has to be a commonality in ethic, in expectations, and that simply doesn’t exist anymore.  And I don’t think it’s coming back.  Stripped to bare metal…those of us that bust our humps are not going to be kicking in any extra for those that choose to sit home watching television and hitting the bong.  It’s over.  The message is clear.

This same sense of entitlement has ruined our industrious nature and weakened us.  A recent article in the Union Leader by Greg Kwasnik cites a speech given to students at Saint Anselms College by Ken Solinsky, co-founder of Insight Technology of Londonderry, NH.   His company is wildly successful but Solinsky grew up in the projects in Brooklyn.  He is self made and understands what it takes to succeed, and the danger of taking that drive out of society at large.

“When I’ve been to China, those people are working harder, they’re griping less and they don’t need air-conditioned buildings.  I feel it’s very important for this country to regenerate its manufacturing capability.”  Solinsky has stripped it down to bare metal.  He fears the increasing sense of entitlement as a cultural cancer.  “I’m concerned that if we as a population feel we are entitled to things and we don’t take a sense of ownership and responsibility, we’re going to lose our place in the world.”  Yes, we will.  He encourages young people to study sciences or business.  “There are a finite number of massage therapists this country needs.  If you make meaningful contributions I would suggest to you that your work will be meaningful and you’ll be very well rewarded for it.”  Bare metal.

Do we really want to take all that away?  Do we want to discourage innovation and hard work and replace it with a one-size-fits-all society where it is all leveled out.  I’ll work three jobs to make sure I have enough to make it “fair” for the guy who doesn’t work at all?  Is further explanation needed to enlighten the other side?

We’re killing the whole thing.  It’s not just about health care, it’s about America.  It’s about the values that so many of us were raised with and are now being told that we are fools.  And sure, it’s about history because it is the bracing journey to create a comfortable life for oneself and ones family that has made this country great.  The self-satisfaction of achievement, of overcoming a fear, of pushing oneself to limits and then beyond to attain a goal.  Don’t ask us to trade that in for a world where everyone waits in line with their bowl.  This is America.  That’s not gonna fly.

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