Because Without You, I Probably Wouldn't Be Me...

The majority of self-help books aside, the truth is very few of us would be who we are today without having spent time interacting with some very good people, and no less true, some very bad people. We are shaped by people who come into our lives, some for brief periods, and some for years. Parents, siblings, relatives, teachers, bosses, co-workers, friends, and even enemies all contribute to that unique being that we become because of time spent with them.

I can't imagine printing anything without it looking like my father engineered it, or not comparing every enchilada I eat to my mother's homemade ones. I spent an evening recently with the Los Angeles Philharmonic enjoying a program of Rossini's opera music combined with classical music from Latin composers, amongst which was a piece from Agustin Lara, Granada, which was a favorite of both of my parents, as was Rossini.

The loves, and heartbreaks, in our lives shape us often in equal parts happiness and pain, for nobody can make you feel happier than someone you love, yet few people can hurt you as much as someone you think you love who doesn't love you. The woman I chose to marry keeps my heart young and always makes me laugh, many times even when I don't want to laugh, because she is inherently funny. She helps me be happy and always expects me to keep up my part of the bargain.

My sons remind of days gone by as they stumble across many of the same situations that made me stumble, and somehow still manage to move forward. The journey is not always easy, but they persevere, reminding me to be there for them, yet let them grow at the same time. Watching their excitement during a soccer match rejuvenates me, and even gets me on TV as we watch the US soccer team play in the World Cup. I know their loves of sports reflects my love of sports, and it has always made my life better because they allowed me to share some of their triumphs with them.

Your friends are there to share life with you, and true friends share the end of life you, so they too contribute to the fires that forge the person you are. They call out of the blue just to talk, or to ask trivia questions or financial questions, but they call. They contribute to conversations that wind through myriad subjects, until you remember what you started talking aboutg, each stop along the way providing something, be it funny, touching, poignant, or just plain absurd.

I can remember the advice of a high school teacher to always look for something to challenge me, because if I didn't I would lose interest rapidly, and even though she was a Green Bay Packer fan, her freckled countenance is still ingrained in my memory, because she was so right. Another teacher told my mother to make sure I always had a Dell crossword puzzle book for school because she was tired of me disrupting the class. To this day, I cannot step away from a crossword puzzle, and yes, I do them all in pen.

More later on this thread, but to all the people that recognize something in this passage, "Without you, I probably wouldn't be me."

How Long Has This Going On?

There was a time when medical care was affordable and doctors made a good living out of providing affordable care to people when they really needed it. This wasn't a fantasy world, it was the United States before insurance companies took over the medical system, promising us more access to medical care and to manage the costs.

It seemed counterintuitive to inject another layer of costs onto a system that by and large was already working, but of course deep wallets kept paying for the message to lull everyone into thinking this was a good time.

In the United States today, cash flow, like water, seems to finds its way into only the deepest pockets. What drove most of the frenzy behind the mortgage collapse, besides the insane concept to consume more based on never-ending equity increases? The capitalization of mortgage payments into asset-backed securities so that Wall Street could feed off that cash flow to create even more wealth for the already wealthy, and get towns in Norway looking for a slightly better investment vehicle to pay them for putting together all these asset pools.

Why would towns in Norway do that? Because, prior to the mortgage meltdown, Americans would do almost anything to not get behind on their mortgage. Everyone believed the safest cash flow stream around was American's paying their debts. Most of the world still believes that because we are now by far the world's largest debtor nation.

So the question is why do we owe so much money? Because like a lot of the people caught in the mortgage meltdown, we as a nation have made promises we cannot keep, while somehow convincing the world we would find a solution. Can we keep those promises if we so choose?

The answer is, yes, but at a much higher cost than we currently pay. Higher taxes are only part of the solution. with reduction in entitlements to a more affordable level being even more important. Even if we could find a way to eliminate all government waste and obvious "pork", rein in public employee costs, and reduce the unfunded pension liabilities, it still wouldn't make a dent in our public debt. No matter how much some people may want us to believe that cutting all those items will balance the nation's budgets, they can only nibble away at the margins.

Continuing to improve our national savings rate, already improving from a negative savings rate in 2007-2008, will help too. How do we achieve that? By consuming better, by making every dollar we spend go the farthest. By consuming only when we have the money to spend it, which many have already been forced to do because there just isn't an easy way to get credit any more. This helps because with less debt we are less susceptible to the effects of inflation.

More thoughts on this later, but we need to stop vilifying public employees, because they are not the enemy. They are our neighbors who provide the services that many of us do not have the skill set to provide, nor the desire to work at day in and day out, yet we want all of those services provided without question.

California's Tax Woes

California has been known as the Golden State since the 1800s; however, it turns out that sometime during the last few decades the special interest groups supporting thinly-veiled propositions and our legislators have substituted cheap gold plate for the gold.

While our partisan legislators cannot get out of each other's way enough to come up with an acceptable budget, the state runs out of cash every year now. Why? Because the state's system of collecting taxes is too dependent on income tax collections, which can fluctuate wildly depending on the state's now boom-or-bust economy.

The answer to this problem is a constitutional convention to completely redo the state's financial architecture to create an equitable system that provides cash flow to the state throughout the year. A secure cash flow means California does not have to borrow money each year while it waits for income tax revenues, which may or may not arrive depending on how the state's taxpayers are doing economically.

We as Californians deserve better, so in order to support this new constitution we also need to eliminate term limits, which have only served to create a revolving door of leadership at the state level, and eliminate gerrymandered districts that only guarantee one party or the other will control that district until the district's boundaries are redrawn. Good leaders should be able to serve as long as their voters choose to send them to Sacramento and bad legislators should be voted out by a fair mix of voters.

Speaking of voters, why is voting not mandatory? If everyone is required to vote, then nobody can complain they didn't have anything to do with who got elected. Even if "None of the Above" is a choice on all ballots, everyone should be required to make a choice. Why are we letting a smaller and smaller minority of our population decide what happens to all of us?

Inflexibility - How Will We Survive?

How many times have you tried to accomplish something at work and run smack into a solid wall of institutional inertia?

I have experienced instances where it took over a month to get a one-page letter to customers approved by 7 different departments. Being somewhat of an efficiency expert, this was particularly disturbing, so I wondered if there wasn't a better way. It seems as though the larger a company gets, the harder it is to get it to respond to change, but that is not so surprising when psychologists tell us that over 80% of the population prefers to stay comfortably within their status quo. Please, no change for me, is the mantra of these 80%ers. So it falls to those of us in the remaining 20% to convince the other 80% that change will only hurt a little while, just like the doctor tells you when he gives you a shot. You would think that with change being such a constant in life, that more people would be able to embrace change and learn how to adapt quickly. Sadly, that is definitely not the case in the American corporation or government, for that matter.

California's politicians have allowed the state to run into a financial brick wall that is $21.3 billion-high. They have squabbled constantly for years having only been able to approve a state budget on time once in 10 years. They know California's tax system is irretrievably broken and does not provide enough cash flow during the summer and fall to pay for all the state's operating expenses; so every year they borrow and borrow big. Until this year, there were always large financial institutions to help California borrow the money buy guaranteeing the loans, but now only the federal government remains in position to do so. I don't know how taxpayers in Kansas or Ohio are going to feel about spending money to support California...

California, much like the federal government, suffers from the fact that its government is held hostage by two political parties in polar opposition, both of which want to spend as much money as possible to keep their contributors and constituents happy. Unfortunately, this means all Californians have to pay to keep this system going. As long as neither political party in California is willing to step up and say enough is enough, we have to cut spending and streamline government operations, California will not recover.

We cannot even cut the salaries of these elected officials during this crisis because they enacted a law that prevented any pay cuts from happening during the middle of an elected term. Even while the governor puts all state workers on mandatory furloughs and has cut numerous positions, the elected officials do not have to share the pain.

The media has uncovered many examples of appointed officials milking the system to pay for commuting expenses between Southern California and Sacramento, just because they did not want to live in Sacramento. Most corporate employees do not get that luxury, so why should political appointees be able to feed at the public trough at the taxpayers' expense? If someones accept a position in government, why can't they find a place to live where they are going to be working or find a way to telecommute, so we don't have to pay for their commute? I wouldn't expect you to pay for my commute to work, so why do we have pay theirs?

To me, this all falls under the heading of arrogance, an arrogance that is virulent amongst many of those who have chosen to run for elected office or have chosen to run corporations. There are exceptions, but there are also too many examples of individuals who decided to put their interests ahead of the common good. We must improve our vigilance and we must decide that we have had enough of self-serving leaders.

We need more leaders willing to share the benefits of prosperity a lot more equally with those who have helped create the properity. Hard-working employees create value by being efficient and providing good customer service, so they do contribute to profitability. Why not share more of the profits with them instead of concentrating so much of them in the corporate leadership?

We have a long way to dig ourselves out the financial hole we have slipped into, so why don't we start by agreeing to share the wealth at least a little more equitably from now on. This means more people on the payroll and more people contributing to strengthening America. We also need to realize each of us has to be more responsible in our spending and saving, so that as we progress we do not create another potential disaster.

Life... Part Deux

I sit here typing this blog with heavy heart; I have one less great friend in this world. A life full of laughter, love, and music has been extinguished. My friend Jon joined all the great artists that went before him, passing away at 2:25 p.m. on Tuesday after an excrutiating battle with cancer.
His wife, sons and extended family are devastated; he was only 46 years old.

His many friends will also miss this unique man, who always tried to make everyone's life better by sharing his personal brand of humor and love of life. He expressed his love for life in many ways and left us an incredible standard of a life well-lived. He had no enemies and left no debts; he cared for those in need and worked hard to know he'd always done the best job he could.

He was a tough competitor who loved to play golf, so we spent many an afternoon in Mission Hills playing his favorite El Cariso course. He loved his brand new swimming pool and watching his kids play in it. He loved having people over to barbeque, even when it was 110 degrees and the power failed. It didn't stop him, he set up a generator and brought a truckful of ice, so the party continued unabated.

I hope each of you reading this have at least one friend in your life like Jon. If you do, then treasure them, because we are all only here for so long.

Friends like Jon are the family you get to choose.

Life...

I sit here reading about the death of Wayman Tisdale at 44 years of age from cancer. I remember when he was a star at Oklahoma and in the NBA, where he was just somebody else to cheer against since I am a diehard Laker fan. Overall, he seemed like a very nice person, and he actually went on to become a noted jazz musician after his basketball career ended. I even liked his music, so I am saddened and very surprised by his passing. I don't know what it is about turning 50 that suddenly loosens the floodgates of people passing away, because we've had more deaths and serious illnesses in our friends and families this year than pretty well all of my previous 49 years combined.

Now my best friend, Jon, lies dying in his bed from bone cancer that has spread throughout most of his body, even after losing a leg and half his pelvis. Last night, my son went to visit Jon after not seeing him for about two months, he was shocked. "Uncle" Jon has been a big part of his life and he knew it was most likely the last time he would see Jon alive.

Because we are such good friends, this week I got to share the "privilege" of telling him he had lost the battle with cancer and probably had no more than a month to live. I cannot begin to tell you how hard that was; I wouldn't wish that duty on anyone. I was touched by his bravery in the face of such pain and how much he cared for his wife and young children, but most of what I felt was heartbreak.

We have written many songs together over the 23 years that I've known Jon, but they are few compared to the hundreds of songs Jon has written. I have made him a promise to make sure his music lives on, so my sons and I are going to record a benefit album of covers of Jon's songs. We are hoping to complete it before Jon passes away, but now it is a race against time, which always seems to be a losing race these days.

More and more I am reminded that every day is a gift and we should try to make every day special for those we hold most dear. Apply Love Liberally!

Why This Economic Stimulus is Different

Well, there has already been a lot written about the Democratic economic stimulus plans, but as my wife reminded me yesterday, this time it's different.

Why is it different? Because unlike many other stimulus packages of years gone by this one actually puts more money in your pocket or presents some opportunities to some money in your pocket, if you are one of the lucky few that still have a job and can spend money. Never mind it was your money in the first place before you paid it to the government in taxes and it would have made so much more sense to not take it from you in the first place, but a large part of this package is coming back to you.

As my previous posts stated, there are some who hold the American people as being one of the causes of the financial system collapse because the American people spent every penny they had. I would say there are some Americans guilty of that, spending more than they should have on discretionary items they really did not need; but, there are so many others that were forced to spend everything they made and then borrow more just to keep from sinking. So, if you are one of those people who spent everything they had on stuff you did not need, this is your chance to learn from your mistake and actually save some of the money the government means to give you. If you were one of those people who did their best and still had to spend everything you made, then hopefully these government funds will give you a little breathing room and a little bit of money to save. The government will be grateful for the additional tax revenue from taxes on the miniscule interest we receive on our savings instruments.

Yes, the tax system will be the subject of tomorrow's post...