HOW TO BECOME A TOTAL FAILURE

Yellowstone National Park has been an environmental proving ground. Park rangers told us that the forestry pendulum initially swung wide toward micro-management of public lands and animals. Wolves were considered to be a menace and bounties were offered to eliminate them. Without the wolves the elk herds flourished. The elks ate all edible vegetation in sight until they began to starve for lack of food. One thing impacts another and no one really knows where, when, and how to tweak it for maximum results. Heck, no one even knows what the maximum results should be.

Currently the pendulum has swung back to a hands-off approach to management of public lands. Now if lightening causes a forest fire park rangers let it burn. There is a belief that a periodic cleansing burn is good for the environment. What is the truth? Is large scale fire good or bad?

Human beings seem to be pretty inept when it comes to managing almost anything. The larger the scale the more inept we seem to be. How does that old seventies Johnathan Edwards song go, “…you can’t even run your own life, I’ll be damned if you’ll run mine”?

I was just reading the latest news about the World Bank and the countries of the world gathering together to manipulate the economy to end the recession.

“WASHINGTON — The global financial crisis could become ‘a human and development calamity’ for many poor countries, the World Bank said, urging donor nations to speed delivery of money they have pledged and consider giving more.

Developing countries, its main constituency, face ‘especially serious consequences with the crisis driving more than 50 million people into extreme poverty, particularly women and children,’ the bank said Sunday.” –Copyright 2009 The Associated Press, Associated Press Writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report.

Do you notice anything about the language? According to the World Bank they are doing it for the poor women and children. Have you ever seen a financial organization that truly exists for the purpose of helping the poor women and children? That’s their story and they are sticking too it. I spoke with a man recently that used to work in travel. He told me that in his experience World Bank executives were the most demanding customers. Everything had to be first class. They wouldn’t go economy, no way. So with the World Bank is it really about the poor, the women, and the children or is it about cushy lifestyles for their executives? Helping the downtrodden is a good way to live.

So world’s top bankers gather wearing their socially concerned masks and all the while whispering that the poor are partially responsible for the financial collapse. If the government hadn ‘t pressured banks to into taking risky loans so that the poor could have housing, we wouldn’t have so many defaults. The poor people, according to the humble bankers, pressed congress and tied their hands. The poor must be at fault.

Do you see where this is going? How does the old joke go, “How do you know if a politician is lying? His lips move.” There are red flags. Whenever I’m told that something is for the children, or to help the poor or homeless, you can bet that someone is going to make a lot of money and a chunk of it will circulate magically back into big fat lobbying accounts that flow into campaign contributions. There it is Washington’s real circle of life.

Why are we so vulnerable to these ruses pulled on us by our leaders? People, including the Joe-average person on the street, really care. We do care about children. We do care about the environment. We care about the needy and the oppressed. We believe in the essential goodness of mankind. And, believe it or not, we trust our leaders.

Nearly thirty years ago there was a strong movement to implement term limitations for members of congress. Some states adopted them, most did not. Why? It turned out that the people were for term limitations on congressmen from other states, but not their own. They believed that their guys were the good guys it was just the others that were bad and needed restraint.

Is there anyone left in this country still believing that the unholy alliances between Government, Banking, Oil, Health Care and Industry are all about the people? If you believe that, then ask yourselves why has the American Middle Class gone nowhere over the last forty years? Why is the gap between the rich and the poor even greater than ever?  Why is the country’s wealth concentrated on the top 20%? Why is the USA ranked 38th in the world in health care for its citizens? Why do American soldiers have to apply for food stamps? Why is there enough money for cruise missiles and not enough for body armor? Why, why, why….

Written by Bill Ruesch blog author of Talking Through My Hat, A Print Broker’s Ruminations www.billprintbroker.com