More thoughts about - A New Day

I trust you recognize the name of George Gilder, author of the book "Knowledge and Power: The Information Theory of Capitalism"  (Regenery, 2013)  I will admit, I have not read this book, but when I hear of George Gilder, I stop and listen and have never regretted the time spent, reviewing his thoughts.  I trust you will feel the same after reading the following:

"In 1966, the eminent management sage, Peter Drucker wrote about government regulation in his book, "The Effective Executive" that "at a guess, at least half the bureaus and agencies in government regulate what NO LONGER NEEDS TO BE REGULATED."   (My emphasis - SM).  He added, "There is a serious need for a new principle of effective administration under which every act. every agency, and every program of government is conceived as temporary and as expiring automatically after a fixed number of years - maybe ten, unless specifically prolonged by new legislation following careful outside study.

When Drucker wrote, the U.S. was by far the leading force in world capitalism, and most regulatory bodies were relatively new.  Today, the U.S. is falling behind Asian leaders in capitalistic vitality.  Not only is the U.S. less free than Hong Kong, it is less capitalistic by many measures than China, allegedly a Communist country, China now boasts of government revenues of just 17% of GDP, compared to U.S. revenues of 26% of GDP.

The key problem is the same one that Drucker identified in 1966 - a glut of regulations and programs that that no longer serve their purposes, but which constitute a nearly insuperable barrier to creative new enterprise.  Twenty years ago, initial public offerings in crucial technology domains exceeded mergers and acquisitions by a factor of 20.  Today, there are eight mergers and acquisitions for every IPO.  Large companies that can deal with the mazes of government rules increase their dominance by purchasing potential rivals.

Most efforts focus on making regulations more efficient.  But efficient performance of futile or obstructive functions make the problems worse.  What we need is what Peter Drucker recommended, expiration dates for regulations."

I have to ask, do you - as a voter, as one who serves to elect the people who will - hopefully, go to Washington to heed Drucker's counsel, do you think it will ever happen?  Personally, I doubt it as I have spent far too much of my time attempting to counsel potential voters.  To most, a job is merely a paycheck and the success of their employer hardly ever enters their mind.  When they go to vote, it is far more easier to vote for the Party that seemed to impress the "father/mother" figures at home and they have no concept of the expanding economies that provide the revenues on which our economy is based.

Case in point, many, many years ago, I heard that the government was considering replacing many of the people in their "Department of Employment" offices. as they were known in those years.  The problem as I saw it was the fact that the local employment offices were staffed with people who knew where all of the jobs existed in their area.  They did not need to know the names of the people seeking a job, all they needed to know was their skill and they could identify that by referring to their copy of the D.O.T, a Dictionary of Occupational Terms.   By comparing the individual's code to the codes that were part of every employer's 941 report that was sent to Washington, every fiscal quarter, they could tell whether the job prospects were good or perhaps, not so good.  All they to do was call the employer and inquire about the possibilities.   I went to Washington armed with the suggestion that the applicant could do that and reduce the cost of having employees carry that burden.

What I did not realize was the fact that the people in Washington wanted to do was increase their stature (their incomes) by having "high tech" equipment available in all of their offices - that told them what the applicant's name was, but paid no attention to the D.O.T. knowledge that I understood could be used to facilitate an applicant's job search.  I cannot speak for other areas, but I can assure you that no one in the local Human Resources offices have a clue as to what I am referring to and if they did, nothing could be done until it was forwarded on to Washington and probably be lost in the maze of computer information that has little or nothing to facilitate putting people to work.

For decades I have searched for just one candidate for Federal office who would take the time to sit and listen, with no results.  And I happen to believe, my example is merely one of the thousands that float around only because we prefer to have politicians to represent us rather than skilled technicians. 

A Flawed Legacy - 7a

I am going to interrupt my chronological "journey" for a day as I review a couple of incidents that happened while I was stationed at Itazuke.

The first occurred when four of us who were new to Kyushu decided to take a long weekend and travel around the island and view life as a Japanese native.  We started by walking down the rows of street side "stalls" out of which they peddled their wares and more often, their fruits and vegetables.  We had a blast teasing one another, urging the others to buy a sample - which never happened.

Then we came upon a beautiful hotel in Kokura and walked in to see how much it would cost for a night and discovered for "G.I.'s" it was more than reasonable.  We paired off and spend most of the day walking through the beautiful gardens and we also discovered the bathing pool.  It was divided by a sheet hanging the ceiling and barely touching the water.  It was there to separate the men from the women.  My roommate and I decided to try it out and no sooner was he in the water and he began to "test" the curtain.  Immediately, there were screams and a guard came to warn us - "No touchee!"

It was my first time ever in a pool and I was really enjoying myself when my buddy came up from behind me and whispered, "We are going to have lots of fun this evening."  With that I was out of the pool and looking for the others.  When I found them, they asked if I did not know about the other guy, that almost everyone knew he was a "queer".   Innocent me, I did not know.  Back in our room, he was quick to undress and sat on the floor, buck naked, inviting me to join him.  When I told him that such things were an abomination in the Bible, he laughed and ordered more Saki from room service.   That incident ended any relationship we had ever enjoyed.

The next day, I separated from the others and was eating in a restaurant when a Japanese man came over and asked if he could join me.  What a fascinating guy, we would become fast friends, not only with him, but also his family.  I learned he had been a Colonel in the Japanese army and his last station was on Iwo Jima, had also served in Korea and China and with that, I asked him about the pictures I had seen of Japanese soldiers throwing babies into the air and stabbing them with their bayonets.  He acknowledged that such things had happened, but also told me of the drugs and alcohol his superiors had ordered for his troops, telling him it helped the men become even more brave.

There were many such incidents that we discussed and finally, I asked him about Iwo Jima.  It was, as he told me many times, "...real Hell attempting to endure the constant bombardment."  Then, came a real bomb shell.  Many of the men turned to homosexuality, believing they were going to die and nothing mattered to them anymore.  In fact, he claimed, his Adjutant and another high ranking officer, held him down and tried to rape him.  They forgot about his pistol and he shot the Adjutant, killing him, and the others fled.  When the American forces finally landed, my friend and hundreds of others surrendered believing they would get better treatment than they were receiving from their own.

And that was true, but my friend also had to stand trial in a Japanese court for the murder and they took his pension away from him.  It wasn't until the courts heard of the atrocities committed by their own, that he got his pension restored.   One day, he asked me to join him as he was going to be "tried" by a Samurai court and I was about to be amazed by the court's attitude toward homosexual acts in their ranks and I was able to obtain a transcript that later was confirmed by translators who had it written in English.  I have always wished that I could have kept that so that others might know more about the so-called "disease" of homosexuality,  As long as I was in the military and involved with personnel who could possibly be involved in such acts, the more I needed to provide the evidence presented in that Samurai court 

Shortly after I became a Staff Sergeant and could join the Non-Com club, I was approached by three other, higher ranked Sergeants with more service than myself, asking if I knew a certain Colonel in HQ, asked if I knew of any of his Section 8 fixations.  Turns out they were "queers" in the eyes of the military and subject to Section 8 discharges, loss of rank, privileges and immediate discharge, so they needed a "heads up" if the Colonel started asking about.  Since his office was a few doors from my own, they asked me - as a Sergeant,  to keep them advised.  Nothing ever happened.

To me it merely more evidence of the efforts will make just to exposes others who are "different" than them and it goes on today, except that it is much worse.