Four Ways to Financial Stability

I know that Rotary is supposed to be apolitical, but there is nothing that says my blog has to be. My comments are non-partisan. But they are provocative.

I believe the financial crisis in our country is a result of a bad side of human nature run amok. Greed invaded our government and society and metastasized without restraint. Neither political party was willing to take the steps needed to forestall this disaster. Also to blame are the many people who took on debts they knew they could not repay. More greed.

Seems to me our society has lost a good deal of its moral compass.

I've been thinking if any of the schemes put forth to solve the problem would pass the Four-Way Test. Without going into the gritty details you can pick up in the news, let's take a look.

Is it the truth? An emphatic no! I do not believe anyone has the guts to tell the American people the extent of the crises and what effect these measures will have on the prosperity of future generations. Moreover, has anyone truthfully answered the question of where all the money will come from? The dollar printing presses will be rolling day and night, making every one of ours worth that much less.

Is it fair to all concerned? No again! I don't think I need to explain this one. Let's just say that if you have played by the rules, if you've worked hard and saved money, you become the big loser in all of this as the value of your assets is inexorably diluted. On the other hand for the few at the top....well, I need say no more.

Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Can't see how! If anything this will divide our country more between the haves and have-nots.

Will it be beneficial to all concerned? No, no, a thousand times, no! The argument that the players at the top are too big to fail and that society will suffer more if they do, is specious. All of the remedies enacted or proposed thus far are window dressing. They will only delay and exacerbate paying inevitable price of a much poorer society with a much lower standard of living.

Perhaps many will think I am idealistic, over-simplifying, and naive by applying the Four-Way Test to this most serious and potentially catastrophic problem. You may say we cannot be bound by such high-minded ethics at a time like this.

I say this is precisely the time a strong and true ethical compass is needed. If we do not follow it now, then when? Was not the whole crises caused by people who failed to heed a clear moral direction, who put greed and superficial personal gain before the good of society and country?

What do I propose? Tell the truth. Do not protect and reward the few at the expense of the the many. Do not paper over the extent of the problem. Do not try to wriggle out with band-aid schemes.

The ethical values that were missing must now be applied with vigor. If the consequences are another Great Depression, remember, from that our country emerged stronger and as a moral beacon to the world.

Small Change

I'm sorry for the brief hiatus in blog entries. Many of you know I was in Costa Rica for about ten days and I am just now catching up.

However, while I was away our club accomplished a wonderful thing of which we all should be extremely proud. I'm referring to the Community Build, our new project of helping to rebuild and renovated a home on West Hill for a low or moderate-income family.

Over the period of one week in early September, twenty-four members and one guest used their hands--and probably some skills they didn't even know they had--to change the world.

That probably sounds a bit grandiose to you--a bit of an exaggeration, to say the least. But I don't think so.

Why? First of all, because there is no question that this project to rebuild one little house, on one little street, in one little neighborhood, in one little town...will create an opportunity for one family in all the vastness of humanity to live a better life. "Small change", you may say.

Not so. My mother always told me a penny--a one-cent piece--was a lot of money. (It was definitely worth a lot more in those days!) Her point was--and this is still true today--if something costs a dollar and you only have 99 cents, that one cent is now crucial.

And so it is with our club's work. Helping to renovate one house may not seem like much in the grand scheme, but by not doing so that one family's opportunities will diminish. Maybe the children will not grow up in a stable household, in a stable neighborhood with a good school system.

So that small "change", if you will, is not only crucial. It is making all the Community Builders quite a bit richer in seeing the immediate results of their labors. How, and to what extent our world will be enriched cannot be estimated or foreseen.


The Community Build is an ongoing effort of our club in partnership with Community Building Works and the Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services. Sign up sheets will be circulating at our meetings for the next work opportunity in early October.