Think or Know?

I like to fiddle with words. Fiddling helps me learn how best to use words, or use them most appropriately. Too often people use the wrong word and that’s the root of miscommunication. Lying is not the biggest problem, unintended obfuscation is. “What’s that?” you ask. Thanks for asking.

Someone once said that less is more, that someone probably wasn’t a banker or an IRS agent. Most people when asking a yes or no question don’t ask a yes or no question. For example – “Are you going to the game tonight? We are because my cousin’s daughter’s boyfriend’s first cousin knows the guy who works in the concession stand.” The asker simply wanted to know if the other person was going to the game, but they went on to qualify the reason for their going to the game and odds are the question never got answered and was followed up with – “Oh, when I was in high school I used to work in the concession stand.” And then the person who originally asked the question would respond. “Me too. I used to put too much salt in the popcorn and increase soda sales.” And the conversation would continue until their high school years were sufficiently embellished and relived. A simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer would have saved everyone a good deal of time. That’s an example of less being more.

But that’s not my point. Try this experiment. Instead of asking someone, “What do you think about Herman Cane?” Ask them, “What do you know about Herman Cane?” And you don’t have to ask about Herman Cane, you can ask about Obama Care or heck, even the alien spacecraft that landed in Roswell. You’ll notice that the simple substitution of ‘know’ instead of ‘think’ will drastically change the tenor of the response. Why is that? Glad you asked.

Thinking is essentially the act of forming thoughts based on knowledge. But you’ll notice how people will go on adnauseam about things which they know little about when asked what they think. But ask them what they know and you’ll turn a gadfly into a mute.

I’m reminded of a quote I read in the book Hoskilonians – “After all is said and done, more is usually said than done.”

Say what you mean, mean what you say, don’t obfuscate; that’s for the politicians.

Occupy Your Street

Occupy Wall Street has been going on for nearly a month. Thousands of mostly New Age hippies are protesting for what they know not. Many of their assertions are correct, in that there’s too much of an alliance between Wall-Street and K Street but there are two major problems with the movement.

The group doesn’t understand that government policy, through regulation, played a large role in the failure of the largest corporations. For the bank failure one needs to look no further than the Community Reinvestment Act and the role that Freddie and Fannie played in providing the banks a place to sell their high risk loans. So, in a sense, the government forced banks to make high risk loans and when those loans failed, the government had a fiduciary responsibility to participate in the loss. A large part of many bank’s bad business was forced upon them by the government. Most banks did not voluntarily make zero money down loans to people with incomes too small to support the payment.

The same holds true, to some degree, for General Motors. The CAFÉ standards dictate a minimum MPG for all auto manufacturers. And GM, being the oldest and biggest has the greatest challenge in meeting the CAFÉ standards, particularly since GM sells best its large cars. Should car manufacturers be required to produce cars with reduced emissions? Yes, but at what cost and to what degree? And then there’s the right to work issue with which GM must deal.

The point is, the federal government has foisted a good deal of costs upon the major drivers of the American Economy. The above are just a couple of examples; there are more. The question is who is influencing whom? Does Wall Street influence K Street? And If so, why would Wall Street lobby for laws that make America less competitive? And if K Street rules, then why would they lobby for laws that cast America in a less than competitive position?

Who’s in charge? Who’s influencing whom? Are all bankers greedy? Are all lobbyists criminal? Are all Congressmen corrupt? Is government the problem or the solution?

These are tough questions, the resolution of which requires deep thought. I’ve yet to see a protestor that appears to be a deep thinker, maybe a deep inhaler, but deep thinking, I think not.

It has been said the all politics are local. So what could the occupiers do to help themselves and their local community? That brings me to the second point that the latte drinking, deep inhalers are missing.

Small business, not Wall Street, account for 75% of all new jobs. Small businesses employ the majority of all Americans. Small businesses create the majority of non-farm GDP in America. So, if they want to help America and create jobs they should occupy their hometown streets and shop local. When a $100 is spent at a locally owned business, $68 of that stays local. Rather than Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Your Street. Go to - www.independentwestand.org for more facts regarding locally owned business.