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For 2011… This is my last turn / My very last burn / Time to review / See what I can learn... This is my last time / My very last line / Squeeze on my brain / See what’s on my mind... It’s my last time, baby / Pretty soon I gotta go / I’ll be with you this year / But next one? / 2012? I don’t know… In New York City, the top one-percent of earners ($493,000 per year) pay 43% of the city’s taxes. The top 10 percent ($105,000 per year) pay 71%. That’s actual data one may verify, not tribal knowledge coming from some stooge underwriting the Occupy Wall Street crowd. Seems like a “fair share” to me, how about you? Okay, we’ve got a sick economy on our hands, so here’s my question: What good results in expending energy projecting blame (other than the electric thrill of participating in a typical US culture whine-fest)? I mean, what are we Greeks? (We’ve greatly overspent what you gave us, Germany, and refuse to change our ways. Now you refuse to give us more. You bastards!) In addition, what good is treating a symptom instead of the real cause? If a headache results from a brain tumor does taking aspirin get to the root cause and cure the problem? I’ll answer that for you: NFW! I steadfastly maintain that blaming the so-called one-percent (those who achieve) is an erroneous conclusion based on faulty and demented thinking. Demanding the achievers give more and expecting a silver-bullet cure is like giving an aspirin to one with a brain tumor. On the other hand, I do agree with the Occupiers that there are a number of villains in government, banking, and industry that have exacerbated the problem of a falling economy. However, not even they are the main cause. Want to know who it is? I’m going to tell you right now. Look in your mirror, Sparky. That’s right, it’s us! What! What do you mean I’m off my gourd? I’ll explain, but you still won’t like it. The truth blows especially when it points right back to you. So here it is: the truth laid out in three little constituent parts, and after reading these three little pearls of wisdom you too will know all you have to know about the failing economy in America. Disclaimer: I’m not an expert about anything, but I do use my bean, and I form opinions based on whatever is banging around in there. If I’m wrong tell me, but you’d better do so with sober reason not some out-of-context, half-truth you picked up from an Internet sound-bite, or your favorite politician’s simplistic, canned spin, or tribal knowledge from some TV or radio talking head. Here we go. Number one, the most important thing about the failing economy in America is our very own human condition. That’s right: we’re programmed to tamper with and screw-up any stable system—without exception! We suffer from chronic short-term thinking and demand immediate results. I look around my neighborhood at the 5,000 to 7,000 square foot homes each with two expensive German vehicles in the driveway. The yards contain play-sets and a number of little toddlers cavorting about. These folks are hocked up to their eyebrows because they want the same house NOW it took their parents 30 years to acquire. They also demand winter ski trips, and spring breaks in Florida. Many remain unhappy because they’re still not satisfied. They owe five times as much as they bring home. Well, if our human condition is the most important thing about the failing economy in America, the second most important thing is the nature of our inner core, what Dr. Peter Whybrow of UCLA calls our lizard core. Dr. Whybrow suggests that this core is all about selfishness and satisfying our own personal needs above all else. This core is covered by a second mammalian layer that provides maternal concern and social interaction; and a third layer that includes memory and capacity for abstract thought. Bottom line: we will not pursue an agenda that violates our own self-interest for the sake of community interest. We elect legislators who will not vote against the short-term desires of their constituents for the greater long-term good of all. Therefore, politicians will not risk their political lives by doing the right thing. That right, we bitch about them then keep on putting them back in office. YOU do that! Number three. What could it be? Systems. That’s right; the third most important thing about the lousy economy in America is the systems we design (and screw up) to fulfill our perceived needs and requirements. The richest society in the history of man grew wealthy designing ways to give people what they want. See, the effect on the brain is that instant gratification is demanded; and our American dysfunction is a function of past success. So we have Madoff and others with their Ponzi schemes, and bankers coming up with creative methods of processing loans and mortgages. They’re just giving us what we want. Here’s the rub. Human history is thousands of years where our brain evolved dealing with scarcity. We cannot handle abundance! That is, we are programmed to acquire as much as we can. We’re like some obese slob preoccupied with food (C’mon, man, we can’t help it! it’s a disease!) that spots a pecan pie and there is nobody around to shake a finger at him. In the moment, the value of eating that pie exceeds the value of controlling food intake (yum-o). When faced with such moments we cannot think long-term value; only that we want that damned pie! Immediate gratification is paramount! We lack the ability and/or gumption to self-regulate. Of course we don’t blame ourselves—it’s those ratbastards who own the pastry and fast food joints. Same with the economy. A co-worker from The Netherlands remarked to me thirty years ago that the American economy is like a grill of an automobile; it looks strong but is made of plastic. So, we live with financial bubbles, run up personal and public debt, trade actively in our individual stock portfolios (not understanding the laws of statistics), legalize gambling, aid and abet drug and alcohol addition, and always, ALWAYS sacrifice long-term interests for short-term rewards. Human condition…lizard core…systems… Of course, this cycle can be broken. Here’s a metaphor: Wild turkeys are notoriously hard to get. Some people have been hunting them for 20 years with no results. A farmer in Indiana got the idea of seeding one of his pastures with a particular grain to attract the turkeys. It worked. Pretty soon he had over 30 birds gobbling away. He then charged hunters a fee to sneak out to the pasture and bag as many as they could. The farmer let them shoot all but one hoping by leaving a survivor more would be attracted. Now here’s where we are the turkeys… The survivor, a large tom, could not control his eating. He gobbled up everything. When the farmer replenished the supply and other turkeys came calling, the resident bird who had grown to immense proportions, and developed a vicious me-first disposition, chased them away. He became so large he couldn’t fly even a little bit. He became totally dependent. He was eaten by a coyote. He was doomed either way; that is, either the coyote gets him or the farmer stops feeding him. Human condition…lizard core…systems… It goes on and on. It won’t ever stop. Copyright 2011 by Gene Myers. Interested in a book by Gene Myers? Get AFTER HOURS and SONGS FROM LATTYS GROVE now in Kindle format at the Amazon Kindle web site.
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economy, blame, one-percent, Occupiers, human condition,
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