The Road Here

“It was not their irritating assumption of equality that annoyed Nicholai so much as their cultural confusions. The Americans seemed to confuse standard of living with quality of life, equal opportunity with institutionalized mediocrity, bravery with courage, machismo with manhood, liberty with freedom, wordiness with articulation, fun with pleasure - in short, all of the misconceptions common to those who assume that justice implies equality for all, rather than equality for equals.”
― Trevanian, Shibumi

After my recent ramblings about economics, and in the course of several vacations (to say nothing of having 'news' inflicted upon me pretty much every day), I'm thinking more and more about the United States in decline. And we've done it to ourselves.

My summer included such things as trips to Hoover dam. And riding the gondola from the shores of Lake Tahoe up to Heavenly. On various occasions, CB noted how remarkable it was that humanity was capable of building things like that, notwithstanding that most people on the streets cannot be trusted to tie their own shoes. To a large degree, America's creation of great works comes from allowing the best and brightest to succeed, by giving them means and resources to rise above the staid masses of mediocrity.

But somewhere along the way, we've turned into Ayn Rand's America from Atlas Shrugged. At some point, the balance of power changed. Rather than all of us benefiting from the capability and industry of the unleashed best and brightest, we've shackled the best and brightest, barring them from rising above the mediocrity. The Hoover dam represents one of the greatest investments ever made by the United States. Yes, $50 million was a lot of money in the 1930s. But that bad boy has been providing vast amounts of cheap electricity, uninterrupted, for SEVENTY YEARS. It would NEVER be approved for construction in America today. No way. Would never even make it out of committee. Hell, even the gondola at Heavenly; can you imagine the paperwork, environmental impact studies, and Sierra Club lawsuits that would be involved in building a chain of chairlift towers and machinery over several miles, from the heart of a California municipality up to a Nevada ski area on the other side of a mountain ridge? Civil building permits. State approval from both California (where the downtown lodge is in South Lake Tahoe) and Nevada (where the slopes are). Federal approval, since you've got a business enterprise spanning state lines. No way you're going to get all that; the construction costs would be dwarfed by the "campaign contributions" you'd need to make just to get permits and approvals from local, state, and federal politicians.

Doesn't matter that the end result (either Hoover dam or the Heavenly gondola) is a veritable cash cow, with returns vastly exceeding start-up costs. Regulations have been enacted. "Interested" parties need opportunity to voice their concerns and to be appeased. The ambitious and capable who might get the job done will not be allowed to do so, because power has shifted into the hands of the lesser minds, who's primary concern is and has always been the maintenance of the status quo.

Once upon a time, kids in American schools were convincingly told that they could grow up to be anything. And they could. Then. Do well in school. Start a business. Make millions.

These days, our educational system is more interested in pretending that kids of different intellect and capabilities are all the same, and as a result focus their efforts on the lowest common denominator. They're not allowed to leave a child behind. No matter that some such children are disinterested, delinquents, or just simply fucking morons, they MUST be nursed through the system. Sorry; we're going to have to cancel the AP programs. We need that money to triple the size of the remedial programs, which are not going to be able to squeeze blood from stones regardless. The government has So Ordered.

Starting a business used to be the American dream. Be your own boss, and do what you love. For the most part you can forget about that. You need permits. You need to adhere to the regulations. Face the inspections. Hire the requisite demographics, regardless of their qualifications. And even if you do all that, you can forget about making the millions. Our government has taken the overt position that small businesses are a good thing (never mind those issues listed above), but big businesses should bear the costs of public healthcare, welfare, and payment of the national debt, whether they like it or not. The government has So Ordered.

Existing "big businesses" will never face this in any meaningful way. They can simply move their operations overseas and/or exploit tax loopholes crafted especially for them. Your business, as a NKOTB graduating from "small" to "big," is unlikely to have those options. Should your "small" business be successful, and then become a "big" business (in the discretion of a government strapped for cash and free to change its arbitrary classifications pretty much at will), you will be ripe for plundering. At that point, taxes will come crashing down, and make you wonder if maybe you should ELECT to cut back your productivity, to stay a "small" business. Thus, and amazingly, American politics and economics dictates that if you own a business, it's in your interest to KEEP IT SMALL.

All in all, it's probably easier to work for somebody else, and let them deal with that bullshit. Or better yet, you should try to get a government job, which doesn't pay all that well, but from which it is pretty much impossible to be fired, regardless of your productivity/incompetence ratio. (See, e.g., United States Department of Energy.)

In the end, even the best and brightest these days are steered into middle-management jobs in "industries" that produce nothing but paperwork (I'm not passing judgment, since I'm in such an industry), where they expect grand salaries (again, not passing judgment, since I have such expectations). Those less than the best and brightest will have the same expectations (they're just as good as anyone else! Their parents, teachers, and politicians all said so!). Even they can rest assured that - just like in school - the government will make sure that they get the same benefits and treatment as everyone else. The government has So Ordered.

Given this situation, the sad result will be ongoing plundering of the capable by the mediocre. We see incompetent employees kept on, riding the coat-tails of their more capable co-workers, because The System won't let them be canned for their bullshit and incompetence. We see bosses who's primary job is finding employees smarter and more capable than they are, and taking credit for those employees' efforts, while convincing the employees that they're lucky to have a job at all. We see a national tax system where less than half of the populace actually pays taxes, and were politicians talk not about getting more of the populace to contibute, but about getting the contributing populace to CONTRIBUTE MORE.

Makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it?