Obama Shows us some change

It is a great feeling to see the budget actually include everything we need to spend as a nation in one place instead of the shell game that the last administration played since the 2003. It is also great to the see the shift towards more logic driven policy funding, it is the best way to avoid situations that result from ideologically driven policies such as the "ownership society" that was the genesis of the housing bubble.(http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/27/some-housing-pictures/)

This isn't going to be an easy or short trip from the Greenspan driven "self-regulating markets", another ideological misstep that lasted past Reagan for another two decades mainly due to most people hoping that the myth that markets had an inherent morality that would create a fair work place. Despite the evidence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality) of an increasing inequality in income and mounting debt requirements of the lower and middle income earners the idea that this "rugged individualist" was how society work.

This was wrong, both currently and historically, the countries that have the highest "happiness rating" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness_economics) also have the highest levels of common interests, elevating the provision of care to people that are not coping with the challenges of life as well as most. Reaching that level of common caring is very difficult for the US as the diversity that has lead to our innovation also come with elements that make it harder to integrate concerns and causes.

No one likes to feel they are biased but tests tell a different story, if you don't believe me try a few, (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html) and don't get angry if the tests show something that you don't like, use the knowledge to change the way that you react in the next situation that may be affected by a biased decision or reaction.

The reason that this primer on bias was inserted into a post on the budget is that a key component of acceptance of any proposal is fairness, and biases are at the center of biases, one way that biases express themselves in society is in the validation of self entitlement based on race, gender, physical characteristics and handicaps, religion, ethnicity, geography, or culture.

We need to look at the budget at a kitchen table of 300,000,000 and counting and agree to find a way to help those that need it, reducing suffering first and increasing opportunity as close to simultaneous as can be managed. Will it be fair on an individual basis? Most likely not, we have a tax system based on proportionality and that can be a tough concept for some people to grasp, talk to a "flat tax" advocate and you'll see what that means.

The right question to ask is if the country, and indeed the world, is served by this budget as well as we can tell at this time. It should always come with a set of Key Performance Indicators to avoid floating objects, and be adjusted if the facts are showing that a change in the situation or an erroneous assumption has altered the need.

This kind of societal focus driven by an effective government of the people has been seen before, here and around the world, and this is a time for the concept to go global. There is no better way forward than with objectives aligned, self interest tempered and a concern for all future generations.

Free Markets - Free to who?

As the religion of free market grew during the Reagan years, continuing through the Bush I, Clinton and now Bush II, one genius financial minds after another has preached from the pulpit of Wall Street a sermon of confidence. Confident that the US was infallible, confident that everyone from an Ivy school from a "good" family was a genius and confident that the Invisible Hand of Adam Smith would guide them through the storms. 

The idea was the Government was wasteful and inefficient, welfare queens were driving Caddy's in the Ghetto and there was no incentive to work if you gave someone a little less than needed to live, mediocre health care and school lunches.

Now the truth is clearer, the private managers are far more corrupt than government, the guys from the Ivy's are mostly inbred 3rd and 4th generation guys that are dumb as a stump and feel entitled to, well, everything.

This country was built on the backs of immigrants and the middle class, the hard working people who didn't think about Country Club memberships, status cars and getting into "elite" schools. Now we are being asked to bail out the all of the organizations that were put in better hands by the neo-economists in the last two decades. The IPO's are over, the money is in off shore banks and now pension funds and common shareholders are being asked to pay for the failures of the best and brightest.

Remember when you hear the talk on private management of Social Security, that would be the last goal of the neo-conservatives, elimination of the inter-generational contract that has tied one generation to the next since the 1930's. The plan will fail, but not until all of the money is stolen by Wall Street, and then we will be England with better teeth and a new royalty.