When we no longer water our plants, trees or gardens, they become brittle, wither and die. When we don't maintain our home (if we are fortunate enough to have one), it falls into disrepair. If we don't take care of our car it falters. When we do not take care of ourselves we become sick and weak. There are many different entities around us that require our attention, our nurture and care. It's interesting to me that nurture and caring are thought of as soft qualities and result in strength.
Many of us are so distracted and anxious within our own lives we can barely care for what is immediately around us. We are on a very dangerous course. When we neglect our societal infrastructure we are diminishing the quality of life for ourselves, our families, our communities and our future.
As a society we are measured in Gross Domestic Product. The more we produce the greater the wealth that we generate (although there is no guarantee that the wealth is allocated fairly). The more affluent a society is, the more power and influence the society has in the scope of global affairs and resource allocation. An affluent society can allocate wealth in a manner that allows everyone to improve their quality of life. It can allocate wealth to conduct wars and to grab additional resources to create more wealth. Or it look beyond GDP and the resultant transfer of wealth by funding research that can yield a better quality of life for its citizens and the entire planet without regard to geographical or artificially-drawn borders. Cures for disease, exploration of space and our oceans, eradication of hunger and privation and other programs that are discretionary investments and can yield wealth and high-regard as great contributions to humanity.
Before we can consider such discretionary spending we must address our own infrastructure, which has been neglected through years of corruption and tactics intended to consolidate wealth while stealing our future. Levee's are part of our infrastructure. So are libraries in places like Salinas, California -or at least when they used to exist in Salinas.
We cannot wave a magic wand and say here's a democracy then expect it to thrive. Nor can we bomb a country into a democracy and expect it to conform to our theoretical idea of a democracy. A democracy is participatory -it requires the civic and active engagement by its citizens. This means more than voting every two or four years. In order for there to be meaningful and active engagement in democracy, the people must be well-educated. Democracy requires that all people be well-educated, not just a few that can afford it. A democracy requires that people have sufficient time to engage, actively in a democracy. No one can work a 65 hour week, raise children and effectively engage. A real democracy requires a brand new perspective on work and responsible allocation of wealth. Societal investment in education, healthcare, environmental protection and protection from corporations and a management class run amok -- such investment is not discretionary it is the absolute price we must pay for the hope of democracy, someday.
In the upcoming elections we will hear about the "Tax and Spend" liberals. We will hear about so and so that "never met a tax he or she didn't like". When as a society we don't provide an infrastructure that creates opportunity for all of the people through education, early childhood programs, senior programs, healthcare and societal protection we are trading the real hope of democracy for a fascist regime that will continue to widen the abyss between those that have, and those that do not and will rob America from its potential. America can rise and become a model for other nations to voluntarily aspire to, or we can continue upon our current path that will require most of our societal investment to underwrite military and defense spending so we may try to defend ourselves from a world committed to our destruction for their own survival.
Just a few thoughts from my over-caffeinated alphabetic mind.
About the Author: Mr. Polisner founded alonovo.com in March of 2005. He has been working in most aspects of Information Technology since 1981 and was an early commercial adopter of the UNIX operating system. Prior to founding alonovo.com earlier this year, George was a Director at Oracle Corporation. He is a frequent contributor to newspapers regarding political and economic policy and often appears as a guest on radio programs. In fact, when it comes to alonovo.com, it's pretty difficult to get him to stop talking.