Written 2022: ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Formula for world leadership in the number of children slaughtered at schools or supermarkets or sitting in cars or attending a party or simply walking down the street: ready, legal access to an array of guns not contemplated when a bunch of white guys wrote the constitutional amendment about the right to bear arms, add a mental health establishment which too often believes that incendiary comments by a patient can be dismissed as not actionable, and, for good measure, include the inability of parents to connect the dots of their child’s behavior.

How many more must die before substantive changes are made! When will the public gnashing of teeth and grand statements be supported with action. How can a nation which kills its young have any claim to moral leadership in the world.

Meanwhile, the NRA convention in Houston takes place as scheduled. In the words of the mayor, “it could not be cancelled.” Of course not, there is money to be made, and, actuarially, children are worth nothing. Perhaps a Latino or African American server could add some “spice” in the kitchen to the filet mignon they will set down in front of the person fighting for the right to keep their children exposed to unmatched risk.

The NRA will cite the horrible procedural mistakes made by Uvalde police and, of course, they will opine on the nature of “evil.” Logically then, they are saying the United States is both dumber and more evil than all those countries which have figured out how to protect their children.  Hmmm!

For domestic perspective only, these are but a few factoids:

*Having a gun in the house triples the risk of a gun homicide; a suicide is five times more likely.

*African American men 15-34 years old are 38% of gun homicide victims; they are 2% of the population.

*Gun homicides in 2020 were the highest in 26 years.

*Government gun deal inspectors have on average about 140 licensed gun dealers to monitor.

*There are 400 million guns in the country.

P.S. The Buffalo massacre reportedly was live-streamed on Twitch; later, ads ran next to the video.

P.P.S. The shares of publicly-traded gun manufacturers rose the day after Robb kids died, meaning the odds of more guns being bought were greater than the chances of meaningful gun reform.

Words fail me!

Written 2018: MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL

I cried. I cursed.

No, not again!

Please, no more “our thoughts and prayers are with you” and “heartfelt condolences” and “trained grief counselors will be available for all those in need.”

Please, do not shift the focus away from gun control by ideas like, “let’s train everybody at the school in how to handle guns; let’s have nearby store personnel ready to stanch the flow of blood from wounded kids.”

Read the data, best brought together in the Max Fisher and Josh Keller New York Times article entitled,  “What Explains U.S. Mass Shootings?” Spoiler alert: it is guns!”

Maybe this time will be different.

The walk-out planned for March 14, the activism of students (#NeverAgain, #Enough), the decision by a wealthy Republican funder to close his wallet unless there is meaningful gun control – provide hope. (I will ignore the fact that many states have ceased requiring a permit to carry a hand gun.)

There are numerous rules pertaining to guns (and to the way mental health information is handled) which can be changed without infringing on the Constitution and without hindering, e.g., the ability of hunters to pursue their sport. Americans will not suddenly become more vulnerable to terrorists (in truth, we should be more scared of ourselves!).

Maybe we cannot close the gap to our more civilized neighboring countries, but I cannot countenance the image of more kids going down in a hail of bullets.

This cannot be normal.

This time must be different!

Written 2012: SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Inevitably, no matter how horrible an event, one hears the phrase, ‘a return to normalcy.’ It is meant to represent a positive lift to one’s spirits, not for those directly affected – because their lives will never be normal – but for all the others, whatever their degree of separation.

It is as if ‘a return to normalcy is a desirable goal for all concerned. IT IS NOT.”

It cannot be accepted as normal to have school killings as a consistent front page story and then move on. It cannot be normal to be “able to buy a gun with less difficulty than getting a driver’s license.”

It cannot be normal to think that the “NRA is the last word on interpretation of the Constitution, with its members historically having more energy than the rest of the political population and thus able to fight off changes which might have saved some innocent kids.

It cannot be normal to “lead the world in gun ownership and the number of children killed by guns.”

To be in favor of a return to normalcy is insane!

*The United States leads the world’s list of “advanced economies” when it comes to the percentage of people who think major reforms are needed in politics (85%) and healthcare (76%). (Pew)

*People are afraid to speak their minds; over 80% regard this as either a “serious” or “very serious” issue. Compared with ten years ago, white people feel less free (38%) to talk about race relations, whereas black people (42%) feel more free. (NYT)

*Only 36% of white adults feel a “strong connection to their roots,” compared with 61% for African Americans and 71% for Hispanics. Some 38% of adults ages 25-54 are neither married nor living with a partner, up from 29% in 1990.  (Pew)

*If funding is available, the telephone number 988 (analogous to 911 or 211) will become a hotline for people needing help, particularly those with suicidal ideation. (NYT)

*There is a connection between having a sense of purpose (often reflected in volunteering) with better health, reduced likelihood of contracting Alzheimer’s, and greater longevity. (The Book of Joy)

*Some 40% of white adults age 25 or older have a Bachelor’s degree, compared with 19% for Latinos. With Democratic Party policies increasingly skewed to the interests of the former demographic, Latinos are less inclined to be automatic Democratic votes. In 2012, President Obama received 71% of the Latino vote; this dropped to 59% for President Biden. (NYT)

*Pedestrian deaths in New Jersey were the highest in more than 30 years (NYT).  Factors include bigger cars on average than in years past; distracted drivers and walkers alike (cell phones); an aging population; increased road rage; and more of a tendency to view Stop signs as suggestions or decorations, not actual legal requirements.

*The maternal mortality rate in 2020 rose 18% to 23.8 per 100,000 live births, continuing a pre-pandemic trend. The rate in Norway is less than two; France and Canada are less than nine. The death rate for over 40 year-old women is nearly eight times that of under 25. The African-American maternal mortality rate is almost triple that of white and Hispanic women.  (WSJ and NYT)

*Customs and Border Protection “apprehended or turned back” over 1.9 million people in 2021, the most in twenty years. Within categories of immigration motivation, Mexico is #1 when it comes to work (33%); India is #1 when it is family (22%), and China is #1 when it is education (20%).  (USA Facts)

*In 2021, there was a slight decline, to 30%, of high school seniors who had used marijuana in the past year. Meanwhile, covert consumption of cannabis edibles is replacing vaping with many teenagers bent on getting high. Note: there is a linkage between excessive marijuana consumption and depression/suicidal thoughts. (WSJ)

*In 2010, high income homeowners held 28% of housing wealth; by 2020, this had risen to 43%. Middle income housing wealth declined to 37% from 44% and low income’s share of housing wealth dropped sharply, to 20% from 28%. The rich get richer—often not because of income per se, but rather appreciation of owned assets, net of debt. Reparation proposals must be focused on wealth to put a dent in financial inequality, which is one reason why the former are so hard to construct. (WSJ)

*In 2021, the United States government had revenue of $4.1 trillion (about 17% of GDP, typical for the last four decades) and spent $6.8 trillion, which meant a deficit of $2.7 trillion. Since 1980, there has been only one year when there was a slight surplus. (USAFacts)

*The Four Immeasurables of Buddhism: loving-kindness, compassion, equanimity, and mudita — sympathetic joy, the antidote to envy. (The Book of Joy)

*Be careful, users of Course Hero (a platform for students and professors to share documents); a business law professor is suing a bunch of collegians for copyright infringement. (NYT)

*Assistance for young people, especially those who are first generation earners of diplomas and typically lack network advantages, is available from sites like Braven, Handshake, and COOP Careers. (WSJ)

A new game that is destined to go viral … or not.

Step One:     Identify an acronym known to at least a dozen people.

Step Two:     Create an alternative set of words using the same initials as the popular acronym. This new combination of words must be reasonably close in meaning to that of the acronym in common usage.

Step Three: Think of a way to monetize this harmless diversion.

Step Four:    Add some initials of your own. This is a ridiculously short list.

Step Five:     Return to doing something meaningful with your life.

BIPOC:           Beautiful iconic people of culture

BMW:            Big man’s wheels

COVID:          Concern over various individuals dying

CRT:               Challenging revisionist text

CIA:                Cleverly accumulated information

DEI:                Differences equal individuality

DOD:              Death or destruction

ESG:               Extra social gratification

FBI:                 For better information

FOMO:          Fatalistic over many options

FUBAR:         Failing unusually big and random

GDP:              Genuine dramatic purchasing

ICE:                 Intimidating civilian entrepreneurs

INS:                Interesting new society

IPA:                Imbibing premium alcohol

LGBT:             Latent grit beneath topography

LOL:                Large overlooking liquidity

MIA:              Many into agony

NBA:              No babies allowed

NFL:                Noted for legwork

ROFL:             Relaxing over funny limericks

SEL:                Strategic educational language

SPAM:           Super product afforded military

SPAM:           Substantially problematical awful material

TBA:               ‘Til bureaucrats articulate

TBC:               This begins contact

TBD:               Try being decisive

The following piece of writing is satire. It is fiction. Any resemblance to living or dead people or a particular Hollywood movie or a political philosophy or anything that is streaming is completely intentional.

Contemporary Creative Cinematography: Take One

Two nicely dressed women in their upper twenties are sitting at a nicely dressed table in a nicely dressed restaurant. They are staring at their cell phones, hardly looking up when the androgenous server arrives and with a big smile proclaims that his name is Richard, “although some call me Richie, and, uh, a few just call me Dick.”

The women barely lift their eyes from their addiction.

“Would you like to order lunch?”

“I’ll have the healthiest thing on your menu,” says anonymous female number one (AFNO for now as a casting decision has not yet been made as to whether she will be a BIPOC), laughing loudly while keeping her head glued to her screen.

Richard is not amused, undoubtedly thinking of how he would like to be back in his cramped studio apartment writing something he tentatively has titled “Contemporary Creative Cinematography.”

This very morning, over cold pizza and left over coffee, barely awake after a long day of serving nitwits and spoiled brats of all ages and identifying labels at the restaurant, his breakfast inspiration had been to add a major DEI twist to the plot of his screenplay, although his current thinking has not progressed past the idea stage. Unrelated to DEI, he wants to maximize expansiveness of language, adding nuance to what he sees as uninteresting current trends in dialogue.

Snapping back to reality and working hard to suppress a smirk aimed at AFNO, he responded, “I will bring you the organic, fair-traded – or is it locally grown, not sure which — kale with whatever other salad mixings are politically correct and in the kitchen today.”

Engrossed in her digital explorations, she seemingly does not even hear him.

Anonymous female number two (AFNT is her placeholder designation as a casting decision has not yet been made as to whether she will be LGBTQX), without looking up from her phone, simply says, “I’ll have the same, but with a piece of farm-raised salmon on top.”

“Broiled or grilled?

“Whatever.”

Before Richard, aka Richie, sometimes aka Dick is out of earshot, AFNO exclaims, staring at her screen, “Look at this fg guy, I would so like to do him.”

“Let me see” says AFNT. “Oh yes, I would definitely do him.”

“Would you want to have a fg baby with him?”

“F yes.”

“You would want a fg kid getting in your fg way, crying his fg head off when he does not get his fg toy!”

“Yeah, I want a fg kid, give some meaning to my fg life” says AFNO, lifting her head for the first time and calling for Richard to take an order: “Get me a Cosmopolitan … and make it a double.”

AFNT orders a glass of white wine, which Richard assures her is recommended as an accompaniment for fish, particularly if it is whatever salmon.

Richard is not sure that one can double a Cosmopolitan. His bartender friend Bruce is polishing the glasses in front of him with more passion than ever suggested by “How to become a terrific bartender and pick up partners of whatever label,” the manual he had to study when his extra bit on “Law and Order” came to an end. He listens to Richard’s drink request with one of those “are you fg kidding me” looks, then pours the nearest relevant ingredients together and hands it over. The white wine is poured from a bottle imaginatively called, “house white wine.”

Meanwhile, back at the table, AFNT asks, “Are you going to text the fg guy? Nice of him to provide his fg number to the whole fg world.”

“F yes.”

“Hey Richie, where’s our fg food?”

“It’s being prepared by our fg chef,” he replies without a hint of sarcasm.

AFNO, “I have to get back to my fg job.

AFNT: “Have you slept with your fg boss yet. Are you still doing fg legal work but being paid as a fg paralegal?”

AFNO: “The fg guy is gay; can you imagine, a fg gay corporate lawyer! I thought they were supposed to be fg studs. As for money, hey, I’m all in favor of DEI, but how does it apply to Jewish people being promoted when WASPS are better suited for the positions.”

AFNT: “Hey, you want fg studs. Come to the football stadium; they’re all over the fg place. I’m in my fg cubicle wondering if I could trade my fg unemployed boyfriend for a fg halfback.”

AFNO laughs, “Maybe I can get my fg boss to file a lawsuit, claiming that the halfback of your fg dreams is discriminating against you.”

They attempt, with their drinks in hand, to high five this intellectual insight but fail to notice that Richard has quietly arrived with their food, the consequence being a collision that results in two plates of suitable calories being deposited on a gleaming wood floor.

Richard looks down at the mess, then up at AFNO and AFNT.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the two women rise from their chairs, “Sorry about your carelessness, but we have to get back to our fg jobs.”

“Hey, would you at least pay for your fg drinks.”

“Later, Dick.” AFNO and AFNT laugh as they begin walking toward the exit door.

“We’ve got more identifying personal labels to discover and apply to people we don’t know anything about and more cursing to do in place of language diversity and appropriateness of word choice.”

Richard is stunned at their closing comments, not even sure they could have come out of the mouths of  these two women who, on reflection, he knows very little about, except the obvious, their fg language.

“Maybe what they said has some merit,” he says quietly to himself.

“Yes, I can include those thoughts in Contemporary Creative Cinematography.”

RESTAURANT PROTOCOL

We have this unusual environment. Lots of indications that the economy is moving ahead nicely, regardless of the empty storefronts which dot the landscape. Most germane to this modest tutorial is that restaurants seemingly have ceased training their servers, apparently out of gratitude that the latter have graced the establishment with their sheer presence.

Into this void I offer a few observations and suggestions.

*My little group, typically four, has arrived a touch later than the lunchtime rush or a touch early for the evening crowd. Of, let’s say, 20 tables, there are only four occupied, all in the same section. The hostess attempts to see us in that area. I say “No, could we please sit over there.”

We know what is going on – seating for the convenience of the server and/or to keep servers from complaining to the hostess about fairness in seating. However, I believe that as the paying customer who keeps both server and hostess employed, I get to choose where we sit.

*We still have mouthfuls of the entrée in our mouths when the server asks if we will be wanting anything else. Impolite on one count, absurd on a second count considering the timing, and self-defeating on a third count as it reduces the chances of ordering dessert. Which means a lesser check and a proportionally lesser gratuity.

*Adding insult to the above error is actually putting the check on the table at that time, usually with the silly verbiage, “no hurry, whenever you are ready.” Don’t hurry the customer and deny you are doing so simultaneously.

*On occasion, I pay for my meal in cash. The cashier would assist the server and the customer at the same time by giving change which recognizes the expectation of a gratuity being left on the table. If the check is $29.50 and a $50 bill is used in payment, the cashier should not return a $20 bill and two quarters. They should return a $10, a $5, five one-dollar bills and two quarters. This way the customer can leave a gratuity anywhere from four to nine dollars (ignoring less likely combinations) without having to flag down the server for the run to the cashier to break the $20 bill.

*It is not unusual for a meal to have a portion beyond the reasonable capability of an ordinary sized person to consume it comfortably. Which means a box for carry-out is in order. The server should not make any suggestion about said box until it is crystal clear that a need exists.

*One way for a server to understand the dynamics of each table is to have rotating eyes when walking through their section, even while on their way to a specific table. This observation technique simply gives them a fast picture of where each table is in their unique combination of eating and conversing.

*A contemporary twist on serving is the couple, or more, whose attention is their phones, not the food or the conversation. Bring their food as fast as possible. They are not there for a relaxing meal.

*Unless there is a specific signal from the customer, do not clear their dishes while others at the table are still eating. It is another silent indication that the server would like to move the table along; the common verbiage of, “it will give you more room” is nonsense, unless of course the customer feels the need to put both arms up to their shoulders on the table.

AN INCREDIBLY SHORT PRIMER

You must be conversational about professional sports. Here are some succinct descriptors:

The Jets are perpetual losers

              The Giants are always better than their record

              The Yankees must win the World Series or the season is a failure

              The Mets suck

              The Knicks are better than the Jets

              Nobody cares about the Nets

              The Rangers last won something called “The Cup” a hundred years ago

              The Devils play somewhere else

              The Islanders likewise play somewhere else, but nowhere near the Devils

              The area’s various soccer teams have names nobody remembers

A Few General Things to know:

              Instead of gifted and talented programs, everybody gets a trophy

              Nobody reads

              Adults do not return phone calls

              Everybody laments income inequality and buys the next new phone

              Everybody hates Facebook and uses it constantly

              A progressive is somebody who reaches into an affluent person’s wallet to retrieve money

              A conservative has a security guard for his wallet

              A moderate is conflicted: do I hire a security guard or do I voluntarily cough up my wallet

              Diversity = DEI = BIPOC = an increased number of African Americans being hired

              Immigration = Hispanic = Mexican = illegal

              N …. cannot be said or spelled out, unless you are African American, in which case it’s fine

If you are the contemplative sort, these are some interesting questions. What if —

              Moms spent as much time reading with their daughters as doing their hair and nails

              Dads spent as much time reading with their sons as working on the former’s car

              Big churches were open to the community seven days a week

              Playgrounds were unlocked sun up to sun down

              The 40 acres and a mule program had been implemented

              The number of workers fixing the roads was proportionate to the number of cones

**

In time, probably faster than you expect, you will be adding multiple entries to the above list.

You might even have a thought or two about why you decided to move to the “Big Apple,” its nickname that involves some story about New Orleans.

Most significantly, you will come to realize that understanding New York City is not synonymous with knowing America, with all its greatness, warts, and beguiling unfilled promises.

*As has been widely reported, Russian computer geeks under the control of dictator Putin are playing games with all kinds of (mis)information to screw with peoples’ minds and perceptions of the world. According to a deeply troubling analysis of QAnon (“Pastels and Pedophiles,” by Mia Bloom and Sopia Moskalenko) Americans are nine times more likely to fall for Russian nonsense pertinent to QAnon  than their counterparts elsewhere in the world (15.3% versus 1.7%). “One cause … is that U.S. education lags behind Europe in teaching critical thinking and social media literacy.”

“Need a doctor but don’t want to miss the Rutgers game? Call Telemed.” Let’s see, if you suddenly need a doctor, that would imply something – uh, like important. Do you think a quickie before kick-off suffices. Or is it that maybe the pending game is not expected to excite you enough and you want doc to write a scrip for some enhancement.

*If you had a class of 100 minority future engineers, you could reasonably hold out the prospect of something close to 100 really good jobs, such is the shortage in this country. If you had 100 minority high schoolers majoring in football, basketball, or soccer, holding out the prospect of more than one of them earning a living from their sport does a disservice to the data. The advertising and messaging comparison is just the reverse, of course, as all the glamor accrues to the sport, not the engineer.

Perhaps this is another trick by which white America gets to be entertained without fearing that the people on the stage will become serious competitors for jobs, money, power, recognition.

*Not to be a doomsayer, but can any amount of communication, workshops, public chest beating, and mea culpas rectify the historical chasm between what the country said it was/is in its wonderful Declaration of Independence and what it was/is. If I am worth ten-to-twenty times what you are in part because of our historical hypocrisy, and there is no difference in our weekly paychecks or prospects (which in reality are skewed against the lower net worth individual), the chances of our net worths becoming equal are equivalent to the odds of winning the lottery. Reparations anyone?

*Once upon a time, it was assumed that college students had limited financial means, excluding of course those members of the lucky sperm club, equipped with fat wallets from birth. Dorm rooms or nearby apartments, rented out by not the most avaricious landlords, were closer to being described as “spartan” than they were to “fancy.” The affordability of college remained an issue, as it always will, but a reasonably remunerative job (and absence of silly spending) in the Summer could take a student or their family a long way toward paying tuition and room and board.

In the ensuing years from the above baseline, taxpayers – through various federal financial aid programs — were happy to provide modest grants and immodestly-sized loans to aspiring collegians. Whether the students were net ahead on the college cost equation is unfortunately not clear. It seems that tuition increases soaked up the availability of incremental student funds.

What was clear is that students were willing, persuaded, cajoled into being oblivious to the mounting discrepancy between the historical punch line – “a Bachelor’s means a million dollars more of income in your lifetime” and what that means in terms of after-tax, after-debt, after-stress happiness.

Now, flat screen televisions, spacious suites, and other amenities are part of the sales pitch of universities attempting to survive in what has become a market share battle for the declining number of students in the college pool. None of this basically non-academic stuff comes free of course, producing the oddity at some state schools that room and board can exceed tuition (alert notice: keep this in mind when people start talking about free tuition). In all cases, the high cost of college housing enables off-campus landlords to lift their rents. 

The economics of owning said housing have not been lost on Wall Street or corporate America, both of whom have increased their portfolios of barely off-campus student housing.

If you do a flyover of this story, you see that students are borrowing from taxpayers to pay investors (who typically know every legal and tax advantage in the books) for the ability to pursue a degree which no longer has the catchet of former days. In fact, a diploma is increasingly simply a means to the end of a job, the irony being that a lengthening list of employers do not even require it from an applicant.

Is it any wonder that a thorough examination of the business known as higher education is inevitable in the real world, not simply in barely read treatises from think tanks. A flattening of high school graduating seniors, changing demographics, and increased reflection on this thing called “the meaning of life” all contribute to the angst felt by small private liberal arts colleges with light endowments.

*It appears that at my apartment complex, there is an unwritten rule: every person who takes a leisurely walk must be blabbing into a cell phone, pushing a stroller with a munchkin in it, or hanging on tight to a leash that a rambunctious dog is trying to stretch past his owner’s patience. Breaking the code is an old guy with a basketball tucked under his arm, apparently focused on getting past this traffic in order to simply shoot some hoops.

*White America’s in-grained, not necessarily articulated, life narrative is no longer operative – all the thrashing about is centered on that uncomfortable truth. Add the power of social media and the physical isolation of the pandemic and you have QAnon able to stay alive even as its various conspiratorial predictions come to naught. (Forgot to mention that clever people have monetized aspects of QAnon.)

*Note: obviously these observations are random; otherwise, seemingly related thoughts would be logically grouped, perhaps with bullets to emphasize whatever verbiage ensued. Not happening.

*If “track is black,” as is sometime said, then suburban cross-country meets on a Sunday morning are a predominantly white activity. Twenty towns with tents and lawn chairs and little diversity, Volvos and Subarus and Beemers in the parking lot, wine undoubtedly being chilled at home (not allowed in the park) for Mom and beer for Dad when he drops into his NFL chair for eight hours of watching football.

*Is there a course somewhere that pounds into a respondent’s head that the first words out of their mouth must be, “that’s a great question.” I mean at least there could be some distinctions made: some questions are totally inane, some suck for other reasons, some are incredibly brilliant – especially those which include “why” in the query. Enough with the default response.

*”She is serving really well.” “He is the high scorer.” “The Lions are doing a great job on defense.” Inevitably these statements by sports broadcasters are followed by “so far.” Uh, they have to be so far unless there is a tricky way of inserting the future into what has already happened.

*I have always fantasized that Clint Eastwood would regard Facebook with total disdain, shooing its presence off his lawn and out of his daily life. Now the “Wall Street Journal” has published a four-part series that is summed up thusly by the authors: “Facebook’s own research lays out in detail how its rules favor elites; its platforms (especially Instagram) have negative effects on teen mental health, its algorithm fosters discord; and that drug cartels and human traffickers use its services openly.” The most charitable description comes from a Facebook executive: “We created the machine and we can’t control the machine.” (Aren’t there great sci fi movies and futuristic novels about good ideas run amuck. Wait, that frequently describes politics as well; there might be more dead bodies from implementers of seductive philosophies than there are from outright criminals.)

*For a long time, I have noticed that in small towns or mid-sized cities, the two biggest buildings belonged to a college and a hospital. But only recently did a bright observation occur to me, namely that the two institutions had several characteristics in common: the service they provide is terribly overpriced, the outcomes they deliver are disappointing by any reasonable metric, and structurally their entire systems – higher education and healthcare—need to be taken apart and put back together in a more customer-friendly manner.

*Speaking of commonality, what is shared by shared by discussions of abortion, charter schools, and immigration?  One can win the debate on merit and not change a single person’s mind. Maybe vaccines belong with the above trio of topics. And QAnon.

*Once in a while, it’s useful to look up from the daily negativity – you know the long list of American transgressions, both home and abroad – and mention a handful of rather unique characteristics:

a nation of multiple minorities is evolving in front of the world’s eyes, the same nation is one which consistently heads the list when people from elsewhere are seeking jobs, it is quite possible in that place for people to call the President or the cop on the block an idiot and suffer no real repercussions.

P.S. Even those in the United States who delight in the trashing their country are not exactly rushing to airports to cling to airplane wings in an attempt to go live elsewhere.

*Any grant-seeker knows that mentioning the word “community” evokes nothing but positivity. Ditto for any reference to “collaborations.” Maybe “bonding” should be on that short list of – ‘whatever the non-profit leader is saying must be good; let’s give them some money.” Does anybody think of the relationship between a drug dealer and an addict as bonding or a collaborative effort or involving a community, even though the descriptors fit. The point? No word should be accorded a characteristic without some thought.

*The stock market soars, regardless of how many financial historians claim that our nation’s printing press economics makes no sense or that we are incurring debt payable by future generations or that we are increasingly beholden to trading “partners” like China. P.S. If debt is meaningless, do I still have to pay my mortgage?

Anyway, we’re not smiling. In “We Weren’t happy before the Pandemic” (New York Times, 8-22-21), author Esau McCaulley suggests we were previously reluctant to recognize what we were giving up in the pursuit of whatever. Now, “the pandemic has disabused us of the illusion of time as a limitless resource and of the false promise that the sacrifices we make for our careers are worth it.”

Meanwhile, as supporting evidence (or confirmation bias) Anna Lembke (Wall Street Journal, 8-14-21, “Digital addictions are Drowning us in Dopamine’) notes that new cases of depression worldwide were up 50% from 1990 to 2017 (the biggest increases in areas with the highest incomes) and Americans self-reported as being less happy in 2018 than in 2008. Again, pre-pandemic.

*If you draw a line to show the techno/social media penetration of American life, let’s say at a 45-degree angle, and then draw a line to show happiness or educational accomplishment or median income, you would see no such lines in the vicinity of that of techno/social media. In fact, all three lines of possible outcome metrics are flat. If you knew nothing, you might say that the techno/social media boom has been a waste (except to a relative handful of incredibly enriched venture capitalists and investors). Or you might say this is a case of meaningless non-correlation. From a high-level standpoint, it is hard to make the case for its benefits, which is a totally crazy statement given the ease with which we can find out …. stuff. So pick your metric. If I can build a house faster in a factory than on-site, does not the house still need a satisfied occupant to give the thumbs-up to the revised process.

*I was thinking the other day that reacting to the pain in my infected finger was analogous to coping with a weird noise in my car.  You walk into the fix-it place and you immediately owe the proprietor a fee for simply having crossed the threshold of his or her enterprise and asking for some degree of analysis. In the case of my finger, it was a mere $315. Not to worry, taxpayers en masse provided $210.56 through a Medicare adjustment, and that same payor sent $83.79 to the insurance company. Don’t cry for the latter; they make it up elsewhere. I was on the hook for only $20.65.

The procedure itself, a somewhat painful lancing of an infection, was less expensive than walking in, specifically $245. Of this, the Medicare adjustment took care of $90.78 and the Medicare payment to a Big Insurance Entity was $123.73 I had to cough up $30.49. (Hope all these numbers add!).

Do you wonder why everybody from a neophyte financial analyst to a public health policy wonk to an aging frequent user of medical services regards this convoluted billing approach as, uh, rather strange. What is the actual cost of what took place! With my car repair, I know what the hourly labor rate is for the mechanic who fixes everything and I have a fairly good idea as how much of that rate finds its way into his or her paycheck. Impossible with the purchase of healthcare services.

*Let’s see – alcohol, cigarettes, gambling; marijuana – the latter two on their way to full, “controlled” availability.  What is the underlying message? “Please don’t engage in these terrible sinful pleasures, but if you do, be careful not to overdo it – call an 800 number if you have a sudden understanding that your excess is about to cost you — let’s see, your health, your family, your house, whatever.”

What nonsense buried in a truth, like the saying in a Chinese fortune cookie that is otherwise edible. Each of these purveyors of the above quartet relies in their economic model on people overdoing it, and government is quite happy to collect its taxes without doing any accounting for the remedial costs involved; those show up in somebody else’s budget. Will prostitution eventually be legalized and join this happy collection of no-nos.

*To be continued on another day of high wattage inspiration!

*Does it seem that Summer has just begun but some people are already thinking September really is not far away. Maybe the reason, for me, is that the Hispanic Resource Center of Northwest New Jersey is supposed to open then, and we need to identify and train committed volunteers for this groundbreaking initiative, of which I am Chairman.

Maybe you are looking ahead, because September means the beginning of another semester. Whether you love your school or not, whether you have the typical concern about life after graduation, you probably want to get the diploma as rapidly as possible.

We like that idea too. As always, our grant check gets issued when you send a copy of your class schedule and your college bill.

*Without going into a deep discussion of the tax code, an exercise every bit as headache producing as listening to a group of teenagers where every other word is “like,” it is worth noting that the screaming headlines about income tax rates paid by different people are more than a touch misleading. For example, taxes on capital gains are only applicable when an underlying asset is sold. Other than that circumstance, the appreciation of an asset, whether your house or a billionaire’s stockholdings, does not hit the annual tax return, so mixing apparent wealth and income tax rates is shoddy analysis.

Having said that, it is still nauseating to see how tax code loopholes can be manipulated by wealthy people and their highly-paid accountants/lawyers. It’s equally sickening how influential lobbyists can be in making adjustments to proposed taxation legislation that would tend to more fairly balance competing interests. And it’s really upsetting how incestuous the whole situation is, with many individuals who formerly had federal government positions, both elected and appointed, immediately becoming lobbyists upon leaving their prior jobs.

Relatedly, Richard Wright, most known for the classic Native Son, said it well in his The Man who Lived Underground: “Excessive wealth enables one to live psychologically distant from the realistic processes of society.” He also observed a similar psychologically distancing is involuntarily imposed on those at the other end of the wealth spectrum, those affected by persistent unemployment and oppression.

I do know one ultra-wealthy individual; in fact, we have an annual lunch. Whatever the particular conversational subject was on a recent occasion, his comment was stunning, “You know, I have not been in a store in ten years.” Maybe advanced age was a factor, maybe he had already bought everything he needed, maybe he is exclusively an on-line customer. But what struck me was simply that despite being a good and generous guy, he did not live in the “realistic processes of society.”

P.S. Rich does not equate with bad nor of political persuasion: read the “Mansions” section of the Friday Wall Street Journal: you will see well-known individuals on both the political left and the right. To tar everybody with a singular brush provided by the loudest mouths of the moment is always perilous.

*On admittedly a different subject, but as further evidence of the need for deeper thoughts than available through twitter (or twits), which person went to Guatemala and told the people there not to come to the United States? A Trumpian statement made by Vice-President Harris. Ah yes, the world is trickier than a campaign stop in Oshkosh or a 140-character summation of policy recommendations.

*Demographics, long a favorite topic of the undersigned (reflected years back in our Project 2050, which at the time of formation was the anticipated year when there would be no ethnic majority in this country), is now a consistent topic of conversation. The bottom line is simple: the population of the United States is barely growing in total. Coupled with replacement level birth rates (per women of child-bearing age) for the major ethnicities, this portends a period of slow economic growth, regardless of the money supply that keeps ballooning courtesy of the Federal Reserve.

A further data point concerning demographics is that for the first time in the country’s history, there is a slight decline in the population aged 20-64. This leads to a labor force that is expected to grow at half its historical rate; already, there are widespread shortages of workers, and not simply because of decisions fostered by the stimulus checks. Simultaneously, there is an opportunity for poorly educated individuals to acquire specific skill credentials that can double their incomes.

*Coming back to the slow population growth scenario, the way to alter that outlook is to institute a proactive immigration reform plan.

Perhaps there could be multiple components with clear start dates and sunset provisions where relevant for transition reasons: (1) a clear and doable path for those with specific skills to enter the USA and immediately be put on the road to a green card (2) a clear set of tighter rules on family-based immigration, (3) a fixed percentage of the country’s total population allocated to the total of those with temporary protected status and those who are asylum-seekers (using an overall percentage permits negotiations within that limit), (4) a fixed percentage for work visas, (6)) the issuance of green cards to all DACA individuals, (6) a one-time opportunity for those deemed undocumented because of overstayed tourist visas to pay $10,000 per visa-holder to be put on a green card path, (7) a change from six-month tourist visas to three months, and (8) strong enforcement of border rules and widespread communication that the above set of rules cannot be changed for 20 years.

Amnesty will be the scream of those on the right. The left will pick on a couple of things it finds distasteful. Compromise anyone!

The equation is, in one sense, simple: this country’s growth is dependent on “importing” people.

It was only two days until August when I realized that I had not begun the creation of my monthly birthday card.

Maybe that’s why I awoke at a ridiculously early hour. Or perhaps it was envisioning a mom and two kids navigating the chaotic highway system of Houston. Or the spectre of mandatory masking returning to our lives.

But enough about me, what about you – have you figured out a strategy for staying reasonably sane in these unprecedented, challenging, mentally draining times.

Thank goodness that no planning is necessary for today: it’s okay to simply let loose and have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Peace, Bob