Category: Flourishing Article

Death: From Mystery to Solvable Problem?

by Helping Families Flourish, posted in Flourishing Article

Originally Published in Flourishing December 2011

Elsewhere in this newsletter, I mention the fact that when I was born, human life expectancy in the United States was 62.9 years.  When my father was born in 1917, it was about 56 years.  A white male born in 2004 had a life expectancy of 75 years, and a white female had a life expectancy of more than 80 years. Do you detect a trend here?  This essay is a thought experiment, but not just a thought experiment:

Robert Freitas of the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing in Palo Alto,California estimates that eliminating a specific list of 50% of currently preventable conditions would extend human life expectancy to …yes, 150 years.

Now, let me really freak you out:  A laboratory at the University of Arkansas has managed to genetically alter worms to extend their life expectancy more than tenfold.  As a result of similar experiments, Dr. Cynthia Kenyon at the University of California now says that “People have always thought that, like a car, our body parts eventually wear out.  But we found out that over time, when one gene was manipulated, the worm remained youthful – in all ways – so that age-related diseases were also postponed.” 

Obviously, we’re not worms, but like worms we are DNA-driven organisms. The first Human Genome Project, completed in 2000, cost $2.7 billion.  At about the same time, Dr. Craig Venter sequenced his own genome for $70 million.  By 2009 it was possible to get a genome sequenced for less than $5,000, and like computing power, the cost and time required for genomic sequencing are accelerating toward zero.  How long will it be before treatments and cures and manufactured human organs are genetically tailored to each individual? I don’t know, but Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity is Near, points out that AIDS drugs that cost $30,000 per patient per year fifteen years ago, now cost about $100 per patient per year; and they work more effectively now, too.

The struggle against aging and death has been going on for a long time.  Because we value life, that struggle is the most natural thing we could do.  I expect that most of us will fight against aging and death to the very end of our lives; I know that I intend to do that very thing.  This is not intended as a religious statement, but I have never believed, as some do, that the purpose of life is death. The purpose of life, I believe, is to live it. And maybe, just maybe, it’s time to start thinking about the death of—or at least the radical postponement of—death.

My purpose in this essay is not to hold out an unreasonable hope for radically extended life expectancy for those of us already well past our physical prime.  But, as we close the old year, I would like for you all to think about what it might mean for your financial plan, if you were to live just 15 years beyond your current life expectancy. You might then want to ask yourself what it would mean to your financial plan, if your children or your grandchildren could expect to live to 150 years.  I freely confess, I don’t have the answers – or at least not your answers – but I’m convinced that these are becoming important questions.

And now, since the rest of your life starts today, take good care of yourself; and please—have a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!  mh

Save The Children

by Helping Families Flourish, posted in Flourishing Article

Previously published in Flourishing November 2011.

You’ve probably heard (or read) about Amy Chua, the perfection demanding “Tiger Mother”.  This essay is not about her.  But it is about how to get your teenager to clean her room, to take responsibility for setting her own goals, and to get her homework done well and on time.

Parents all over the world, regardless of political, economic, racial, or religious views, love their children; and they want them to become happy and successfully independent adults.  The trick for most parents—perhaps especially, affluent parents—is to provide their children with everything they need, and some of the things they want, without creating a sense of entitlement; in short, without spoiling them—and without nagging or threatening them.  How can today’s parents instill the critical values that will help their children stand on their own two feet as adults and become active, contributing members of society?  Where can today’s parents find answers?

We all know about Dr. Spock, though I myself never read him.  When my children were growing up (1968-1994), I relied on PET (Parent Effectiveness Training), as taught by Dr. Thomas Gordon.  I was hardly the perfect parent—Linda was much better—but all four of our children are independent, successful adults; and I’m grateful that I had PET.

But, the world has changed.  Today’s young parents have far more resources available to them than we had, but they also face more and greater challenges.  I love my grandchildren, and though I can project an incredibly bright future for them, I worry about the temptations and distractions they face in today’s fast-paced world.  I don’t envy my children’s parental challenges and responsibilities.

I try to mind my own business, too, but I’ve just read a wonderful little book—a twenty-first century Dr. Spock or PET—and I’m passing it along to all my kids.  Some of you may want to do the same.

The book is The Entitlement Trap, by Richard and Linda Eyre, and it was just published on September 6, 2011 by Avery (Penguin).  It’s subtitle is How to Rescue Your Child with a New Family System of Choosing, Earning, and Ownership.  In truth, the term rescue may be an overstatement, but it effectively communicates the urgent need for solutions that many of today’s parents feel.  The Entitlement Trap lays out the principles, strategies, and tactics—with suggestions for practical and tactile tools—today’s parents need to move beyond nagging to counseling and inspiring.  It applies specifically to ages 4-16.  It’s available at Amazon for $10.98, a discount of $7.02.  I recommend it for every parent—and every grandparent, too.  mh

The Half-Life of the Welfare State

by Helping Families Flourish, posted in Flourishing Article

Originally Published in Flourishing August/September 2011

Social Security is projected to exhaust its trust fund in 2036. Medicare will be out of cash in 2024. Technically speaking.

In reality, both systems are already in the red, because there are no actual assets in those trust funds; only government IOU’s. As Social Security and Medicare begin to pay out more than they take in from payroll taxes, they’ll scarf up virtually the entire federal budget and guarantee a steady increase in our already dangerous national debt. Add to that the current low interest rate environment (0-2%), and ask yourself what happens when we’re paying a more normalized 5% rate on upwards of $17 trillion.  Why else do you think the Federal Reserve is determined to keep rates so low?

Everyone already senses this, of course, but most people don’t yet understand that the current budget crisis heralds the beginning of the end of the Era of Entitlements.  Though Social Security has been around since 1935, the growth of cradle-to-grave entitlements accelerated in the 1960’s and ’70’s, when we decided that we  could subsidize everything for everybody. From education, to housing, to medical care, to food stamps, to the arts and entertainment, to retirement; a consensus of Americans decided that a policy of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” would be a fine thing. The wealthiest among us would somehow pay for it all.  Or most of it, anyway.  But it was an illusion. The 2009 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act  (PPACA) was the last gasp grasp of that philosophy, and because the American people—having finally realized who would really pay—overwhelmingly opposed PPACA, it had to bullied through Congress in the dark of night.  That Act, following hard upon the government-led bums’ rush into housing (1995-2006), and the subsequent $trillions wasted on bailouts and stimulus packages have pulled back the curtain.

So, we’re now intimately acquainted with the life cycle of the entitlement hoax. Benefits, bailouts, and tax breaks are passed by the Congress and millions rush to claim them.  Marginal taxes rates can never be raised fast enough to keep up with an unending stream of entitlement promises without triggering a recession, so Congress makes up the difference with massive deficit spending and an ever-increasing debt burden—and we get a recession, anyway.  The Federal Reserve sops up the government’s debt with an increasing supply of inflationary electronic dollars—until we reach the point where we are now.  Over a (pork) barrel.

The task of our generation, and perhaps the next, is to preside over the dismantling of the voracious entitlement monster we’ve created.  We can now see that it was the unprecedented wealth created by the entrepreneurs, savers, and investors of our parents’ generation that made the welfare state seem plausible. In particular, the post-World War II boom in Americaand Europesupported the fantasy that we were rich enough to afford such an immoderate system of cradle-to-grave entitlements.  But, despite the incredible wealth creation of the past sixty years, the Age of Entitlement is now kaput.  We are living in the Age of Recompense.  Without explanation—since none should be needed—let me just assert that that’s a good thing.  It means that working, saving, and personal responsibility will soon be in vogue, and not just for those formerly willing, but for everyone.  Well, I guess that is the explanation, isn’t it?

The science of Physics tells us that a radioactive isotope decays perfectly according to first order kinetics.  For example, the half life of the Carbon 14 isotope is 57.3 centuries, which means that in 5,730 years, one half of any given quantity of Carbon 14 will have decayed into its surroundings.  By its nature, Carbon 14 is physically unsustainable.

As an extreme, and, therefore, educationally valuable case, consider the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greeceand Spain).  Over the last forty years, they were all built on the self-same ideal of cradle-to-grave entitlement; and here they are, begging the world for bailouts.  The entitlement philosophy is economically unsustainable, because compound interest, being mathematically akin to radioactive decay, guarantees that sooner or later entitlements will consume all of a country’s capital, and then destroy its credit, too.  With the demonstration and dissemination of that knowledge provided by the sad spectacle of the PIIGS, the remaining half-life of our own welfare state will not be measured in centuries, perhaps not even in decades.  mh

Adolph and Me

by Helping Families Flourish, posted in Flourishing Article

Originally Published in Flourishing August/September 2011

About a year ago, I wrote an article for this newsletter about the 45th reunion of my high school graduating class.  In that article I mentioned that, during my high school days, I’d worked for A. A. (Adolph) Reisig,  “…but that’s a story for another day.”  Well, that day has finally arrived.

I don’t know what made me think of Adolph again just now, any more than I can excuse the fact that I haven’t seen him since 1996, when we were both in Russell to witness Bob Dole’s announcement of his vice-presidential running mate.  We had spotted each other onMain Street, and the first thing he wanted to know, “What business are you in now?”  That was sooooo Adolph!

I told him, and he replied, “You know I have some investments, too.” 

“Yes,” I said, “I do know that.  You were the first person who ever talked to me about the market.” 

“Well, how are you doing?” he asked, but before I could answer, the national media had spotted him, and I slipped back into the crowd.  I never saw him again.

I was fourteen years old, when Adolph first knocked on our door.  He and his family lived just a few houses down the street, and he’d come to ask my dad, if I might like to earn some money that drizzly spring day; and my dad assured him that I would.  So, I climbed into Adolph’s pick-up, an aging but well-maintained Dodge, proudly emblazoned with the name A. A. Reisig Oil Co.  Among his many small-business enterprises, Adolph owned the local Texaco Bulk Plant.  He distributed gasoline, diesel fuel, motor oil, kerosene, anti-freeze, and dozens of other products to the farms, ranches, and Texaco service stations in and around Hays,Kansas.  He also provided and maintained both underground and above ground storage tanks.

So, that first Saturday on the job, my assigned task was to climb down a ladder into a mud pit—I’d guess that it was about twelve feet deep—to wrap a chain around a ten thousand gallon gasoline storage tank.  For $1.25 an hour (and my dad’s approval), I would have done almost anything, and compared to some things I’d done, this was a walk in the park.  The reason I had the job, incidentally, was simply that I was the skinniest kid—if you can believe it—that Adolph could think of that day.  Despite the wet weather and the dirty job, I had some fun and made some money.  I wasn’t too proud to ask Adolph if he had anything else I could do.

That was the first day.  Over the next three years, always for $1.25 an hour, I wrapped a lot of chains around a lot of tanks for Adolph.  I unloaded boxcars filled with 55 gallon drums of bulk oil products and anti-freeze, and thousands of cases of motor oil.  I delivered them to Adolph’s warehouse on a flat bed winch truck and unloaded them, using a small hydraulic lifting platform.  You might think that a skinny teenager can’t or shouldn’t do that kind of work alone, but I could and I did. I developed a strong sense of pride in my work, too.

I scraped and brushed old paint and rust from pipelines and tanks, and repainted them.  I painted warehouse floors and mended fences. I filled delivery trucks with gasoline from overhead storage tanks. 

Adolph was a sportsman, so, on the land that’s now home to the Ramada Inn of Hays, I launched clay targets, so he and his daughter could practice their shooting skills.  When you’re being paid, you don’t get to shoot.  But, I just thought I was a lucky kid to have a dad who knew Adolph, and to have a job that paid so well; and, of course, I was.

Did I mention that Adolph was virtually deaf?  Well, he was, and that made him hard to talk to; not that I had much to say.  What the heck did I know?—about anything?  So, I listened a lot.  Adolph was my dad’s friend, and I learned that he was also a good customer of the lumber yard my dad managed.  I learned that he had a collection of mid-range rental properties, and I painted most of them before my time was up.  He owned a couple of aging motels. With Hays being equidistant fromKansas CityandDenveron Highway 40 (and later on I-70), they each provided him an agreeable income.  Adolph had started his business career with a one-man auto body shop, but it had been closed long before.  I never asked why.

I’m sure that Adolph thought of himself as my mentor.  He told a lot of stories—the kind a kid’s expected to take a lesson from—but there were two things in his life of which he seemed especially proud.

First, he was a lifelong friend of Bob Dole, who had by then become a U.S. Congressman.  They had grown up together in Russell, and Adolph had been instrumental in helping his friend recover from war injuries.  He had also helped raise money to pay for Dole’s reconstructive surgeries.  In fact, that’s how Adolph and my dad had become friends:  In the late 1940’s, cigar boxes stood ceremoniously on the counters of businesses throughout Russell.  In effect, they were collection plates to help Dole and, doubtless, many other young men, who had come home from the war with serious injuries.  

Adolph was about thirty-eight years old when I went to work for him,  and I remember how very proud he was, when he earned his business degree from Fort Hays State University in 1961. That degree meant a lot to him, but I had no idea why.  I wonder, now, at how little I knew about Adolph.

Fifty years later, when I finally was curious enough to google “Adolph Reisig”,  here’s what I learned:  Adolph was born in Russell, Kansasin 1923, and graduated from RussellHigh Schoolin May of 1941.  Two days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.  As a nineteen year old member of the First Marine Division, he went ashore on Guadalcanalon August 7, 1942, where he served under Lt. Ray Davis. (Lt. Davis was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service inKorea during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, and he eventually achieved the rank of General.) 

While defending Henderson Field onGuadalcanal, Adolph was wounded numerous times, and suffered the permanent loss of his hearing.  He was evacuated to hospitals inAustralia, until he could be safely transferred to theOaklandNavalHospital, where he spent eleven months, recovering from his injuries.

Back home on the packed-sand prairie of westernKansas, Adolph soon became a successful businessman; which I already knew, of course, and that would have been more than enough for him to have an impact on his community.  But, he also co-founded the Ft. Hays Historical Society, and served for many years as Executive Director of the Ft. Hays State University Endowment Association.  He co-founded the Butterfield Trail Antique Auto Club, and he was active in theMethodistChurch, Lions Club, VFW, Toastmasters, American Legion, the First Marine Division and the Marine Corps League.  With a group called the Rooftop Riders, he made an annual horseback crossing of the Great Divide.

Adolph Alexander Reisig died three years ago, on Saturday, September 27, 2008.  Typically, I didn’t know.  And now, when I finally do know that I’ll never again listen to his queries and admonitions, I miss him.  mh

Age of Rand?

by Helping Families Flourish, posted in Flourishing Article

First published in Flourishing May 2011.

Ayn Rand, born Alisa Rosenbaum in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 2nd, 1905, was one of the 20th century’s foremost voices for human freedom.  Some of you, no doubt, have read some of her work.  Recently, her most famous work, Atlas Shrugged, was adapted for the silver screen, and Atlas Shrugged, Part 1, was released to more than three hundred theaters in eighty U.S. cities on April 15.  Rand was not just one of the 20th century’s most famous and articulate champions of freedom, she was also the most misunderstood and most slandered.  Since I’m a great fan of her work, and having just seen the movie, I want to share with you a little of what I know about Ayn Rand.

After living through the Bolshevik Revolution, and the economic chaos and political repression that ensued, young Alisa fled the Soviet Union for the United Statesin 1926.  Already conversant in French and able to get around in English, she began her career in the movie industry working for such notables as Cecil B. De Mille.  She later became an accomplished playwright, most famously authoring The Night of January 16.  (My sweetie played Magda Svenson in the Beloit High School Junior Class Play, c. 1963.)

In 1936, Ayn Rand’s first novel, We the Living, which she said was the nearest to an autobiography as she would ever write, was published by McMillan.  It has since sold more than 3 million copies.  Remarkably, in 1942 it was adapted for the movies inItaly.  Though it was censored only a few weeks after its introduction, a digitized version is now available with English subtitles.  I own the 2-DVD set and it is a beautiful film, which one would expect, since it stars Alido Valli and Rossano Brazzi, two ofItaly’s movie legends.

Ayn Rand’s first financially liberating success came in 1943 with the publication of The Fountainheadby Bobbs-Merrill. The book has now sold 6.5 million copies.  Fourteen years later, Atlas Shrugged was published by Random House, championed by that firm’s Chief Executive, Bennett Cerf. Atlas Shrugged has sold over 7 million copies; more than 500,000 in the last year.

The success of her novels enabled Ayn Rand to devote the remainder of her life to building a system of thought – a philosophy – that she would call “Objectivism”.  She wrote and edited several periodicals containing philosophical essays, and cultural and political commentaries.  She played a critical role developing new advocates for laissez-faire capitalism, including, as you may have guessed, moi.  Her influence on American culture has, likewise, been profound. A 1991 survey by the Library of Congress and The Book-of-the Month Club placed Atlas Shrugged second only to the Bible in influence among American readers; admittedly and appropriately, a distant second.

Ayn Rand owed much of her success to the power and directness of her writing style. She was a master of reducing an idea to its clearest and most effective formulation.  For example, she wrote that, “If some men are entitled by right to the products of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labor.”  Or, when challenging the view that human perception is unreliable, because it’s limited by the nature of our sensory organs, she would write satirically, “Man is blind, because he has eyes — deaf, because he has ears.” 

Ayn Rand called big business “America’s persecuted minority”, so she is often characterized as a naïve apologist for crony capitalism; but nothing could be further from the truth.  She vehemently condemned the “type of businessmen who sought special advantages by government action.”   

The most controversial aspect of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, ethical egoism (not to be confused with psychological egoism), is also one of the most misunderstood. The point of her egoism was not to advocate the pursuit of one’s own interests at the expense of other people.  Rather, she rejected the model of conflicting interests. She rejected not only the subordination of one’s own interests to those of others, but also the subordination of others’ interests to one’s own.  Though her ideas were original, in practice they were not a radical departure from what most of us regard as mere “common sense”.  In everyday parlance, she was an advocate of “win, win”.

Ayn Rand identified the roots of the 18th century Age of Enlightenment—the philosophical movement that led to America’s founding—in the rediscovery of Aristotle by St. Thomas Aquinas.  She always insisted that Aristotle was the greatest of all philosophers, and that St. Thomas Aquinas was the second greatest, her own atheism notwithstanding. For Ayn Rand, as for Thomas Jefferson and others among our founders, the Aristotelian recognition of the fact that rational human interests, however diverse, are naturally harmonious was (and is) the proper moral foundation of human relationships and a free society.  Preserve that thought.

Human progress is often driven by creative and controversial people working outside of the so-called establishment, and Ayn Rand was certainly that.  But, her philosophy is in many ways an extension, clarification, and moral defense of the principles that guided our founding fathers; and thanks to the popularity of her novels, her inspiring vision of the majesty of the human mind, and her defense of the ethical necessity of human liberty Ayn Rand has already affected and improved the lives of millions.  I think it’s very likely that in fifty years her ideas will be the foundation of America’s predominant secular philosophy.  Unfortunately, I won’t be there—well, I might not be there—to see how it all works out.  mh

Of Pawns & Kings

by Helping Families Flourish, posted in Flourishing Article

First published in Flourishing May 2011.

Louis XIV was King of France for seventy-two years, and though he was not the worst of Kings, he did lead France to the brink of bankruptcy through his lavish and self-congratulatory spending. Mark Twain famously said that history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.  Indeed.

We Americans are about to begin a national discussion of that vast, unfunded taxpayers’ liability known as Social Security.  (The discussion is bound to include all entitlements, but for the sake of simplicity, I’m focusing on Social Security.) For that discussion, we can thank President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform1.  Even the Social Security Administration confirms that sooner is better than later. (See inset p.2)

For the better part of seventy-five years, most people have believed that their Social Security contributions were being set aside for their retirement.  Not for one second did my father believe that his pension checks came from his children’s pockets. But in fact, they did.  The money he had deposited into Social Security had been spent for programs and projects designed to assure an abundance of goodies to a mixed assortment of voting blocks. That process continues unabated and enhanced today.  And, in that process and others of equal deception, we have become a collection of political pawns, bribed and manipulated with our own money.  

Unlike in my father’s time, virtually everyone knows today that there is no Social Security “lockbox”.  There is, instead, an unfunded liability awaiting the American taxpayer of this and succeeding generations in excess of $7.7 trillion2.  That’s just for Social Security, which is itself dwarfed by the unfunded liabilities of Medicare, etc.  I know what Dad would say about that: “Holy smoke!”  But, he was a better man than I am.

I don’t need to tell the readers of this newsletter that one of the most important motivations for private saving and investment is the need to provide for—you’ll forgive the anachronism—old age.  As in my father’s case, one “unintended consequence” of Social Security has been to create the illusion of saving and to reduce the apparent need for disciplined investment in IRA’s, 401(k)’s, and other retirement savings opportunities. Not surprisingly, the rate of saving in the United States has declined precipitously over the past seventy-five years.

The Social Security system has not only served to undercut the motivation to provide for old age and retirement by means of private saving and investment, there is a second “unintended consequence”.  It has also impaired the average American family’s ability to actually do so.  OASDI withholding (7.65% of wages and salaries) is nearly double what the average family spends on gasoline3; and I’m not counting employers’ contributions to Social Security.  Each of these two “unintended consequences” were entirely predictable—and were predicted by free-market economists4—but it gets worse.

Ask yourself this question:  “What if the money paid into Social Security had actually been invested in real, physical capital assets—American business enterprises, for example—instead of taxpayer-backed IOU’s?”  The answer is that in a relatively free economy, that investment really would have been the source of future financial security, just as private savings and investments are today.  Instead, three generations of King Louis wannabes have created a promise to levy unfathomable taxes on future generations, while they consumed the Social Security tax revenue that should have gone into saving and investment.  Now, the future has arrived; and it’s us.
At the most basic level, the coming debate about entitlement reform will serve to highlight a conflict of philosophies.  America was founded on the philosophy of Individualism; of the unalienable right of each individual to pursue his own happiness in his own way, asking only that he use neither force nor fraud in that pursuit.  Social Security—and Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare, as well—are premised upon the philosophy of Collectivism or Social Contract6; of subordination of the individual’s freedom to a presumed and so-called “greater good.” 

The scarcely concealed premise of collectivism, though, is that the average individual is too stupid or too lazy to plan and manage his own life; and therefore, he must rely on the government to rescue him.  In practice, we now know, when the power of government intervenes between the real providers—the people whose work, savings, and investments are ultimately to be taxed—and the receivers, “to rely” becomes “to demand”.  This is amply illustrated today by the European PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain).  Are we next?

The first step in any recovery is to recognize the problem.  With the report and recommendations of President  Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, we can now see clearly that the consequences of lavish entitlement programs—not just in Europe, but here, too—are the eventual economic destruction of the nation through the undermining of real saving and the compounding of the national debt.  The bond rating agencies have issued their warnings, too.

There is also, I’m sorry to report, the potential for geriatric holocaust.  That will be the result when millions of elderly people—the Baby Boomers, most likely—without savings of their own, wake up to find that their children and grandchildren have grown tired of supporting them; or are simply unable to do so.

So yes, just as the doomsayers tell us, we do face a growing debt threat of runaway inflation and/or worldwide deflationary collapse. But, the doomsayers underestimate the American people.  We’re only beginning to see the nature of the game that’s been played by our King Louis wannabes, and we don’t like being pawns.  Moreover, we won’t submit to the indignity of stealing our grandchildren’s future.  We’re better than that!

The history of American free enterprise informs us that for every human need and desire, a free-market solution will sooner or later emerge, that is better and cheaper than anything that government can provide. And, with the report of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to prompt and guide us, we’ll soon begin the tortuous process of dismantling and replacing Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, Obamacare, and other bankrupting entitlements with free-market solutions.  In that process, which will take a generation or more to complete, we’ll reignite the entrepreneurial flame that defines America, and put every adult citizen back in charge of his or her own life.  ….Now, I can hear someone asking, “But, what if…?”

Call me an incurable optimist, or just call me stubborn—I see myself as a student of history: If the federal government defaults on its debt, or if the Federal Reserve creates a runaway inflation, or both;  history tells me that I will—more than ever—want to rely on myself, and on the earnings and resources of America’s great companies, to secure my livelihood and protect my family’s future.  mh

  1. http://www.fiscalcommission.gov/
  2. http://www.heritage.org/budgetchartbook/unfunded-liabilities-entitlements
  3. http://www.creditloan.com/infographics/how-the-average-consumer-spends-their-paycheck/
  4. Man vs. The Welfare State, Henry Hazlitt, Arlington House, 1969.
  5. Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes, 1651.

Ideas Having Sex

by Helping Families Flourish, posted in Flourishing Article

First published in Flourishing April 2011

In his 1987 classic, The Gift of Fire, Richard Mitchell compared thinking to sex:  “From the point of view of the species, if a species could have a point of view, the great advantage of sexual reproduction is the endless variety of possibilities to which it leads.  Every creature born of sex is absolutely new and unique.  Our thinking, on the other hand, is often amoebic, born only of itself.  If it is to be continually renewed, it needs new seed.” 1 

 In his most recent book,  The Rational Optimist, the geneticist Matt Ridley writes that the “…secret of the modern world is its gigantic connectedness.  Ideas are having sex with other ideas from all over the planet with ever-increasing promiscuity.  The telephone had sex with the computer and spawned the Internet. …The camera pill is an idea that came from a conversation between a gastroenterologist and a guided-missile designer.” 2

Ten thousand years ago, the earth was populated with about 1 million human beings.  Given that the human genome has changed very little (if at all) in the intervening years, it seems likely that those people shared our capacity for creative genius.  But, ice age thought leaders had a couple of problems that, thankfully, we do not share.  First, very few lived beyond the age of twenty, and most of their time and energy were consumed in foraging for food.  And, second, the poor devils rarely had co-workers, business partners, or venture capitalists with whom they could share their best ideas.  They may have been as smart as we are, but they were intellectually amoebic.

With the receding of the ice age came agriculture and more or less permanent community settlements.  As Matt Ridley points out 3, in settling into communities, human beings could specialize and develop a division of labor economy.  This led to the voluntary and mutually beneficial trading of goods and services.  With the expansion of trade, ideas could mate and multiply more readily.  Ideas could finally have sex.

Then, two hundred years ago, with the discovery, mining, and processing of fossil fuels, the stored energy of extinct species began to power the Industrial Revolution that dramatically extended human life expectancies and improved living standards.  Indeed, the decline of slavery owes as much to James Watt and the coal-fired steam engine as to Bishop Wilberforce and Abe Lincoln; and we owe as much to John D. Rockefeller and his entourage of chemists as to Louis Pasteur for our health and longevity.

In the 1950’s, my grandparents’ home west of Valley Center, Kansaswas still endowed with an outdoor, long-drop toilet.  And, I remember when my grandmother’s “crank” telephone and her wood-burning cook stove were in daily use.  Perhaps you recall, as I do, when the coming of electrification to rural Kansaswas a big deal.  But, in 2011, you’re probably “texting” your grandchildren on your Blackberry; or maybe you’re watching your granddaughter play her piccolo in an auditorium halfway across the state, or even across the globe, in real time, on your iPad.  As my Grandma used to say, “Who woulda thunk?” 

Or, who could have imagined—even a decade ago—that Asmaa Mahfouz,  a 26-year-old “Facebook Mom”, sporting a degree in business administration and armed with an iPad, would help lead a revolution to overthrow the Egyptian tyrant, Hosni Mubarak?4   The tools of communication and exchange are growing exponentially, both in efficiency and in their power to effect change.  So omnipresent are the new tools of communication and exchange, that we often forget to take them into account. 

Surely, it’s possible—and I believe it’s inevitable—that we’re currently witnessing the serial extinction of the world’s petro-fascist dinosaurs, as the most liberating ideas of Western Science and Civilization are mating with willing young partners in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, et al.  Ditto, our own andEurope’s Jurassic bureaucracies.

Therefore, I invite you to plant a seed of positive possibility.  What kind of world will it be when today’s crises are forgotten?  When today’s problems are resolved or simply disappear?  When technologies not yet conceived are ubiquitous?  When benevolence and optimism dominate our daily conversations?  mh

 ****************************

  1. The Gift of Fire, Richard Mitchell, Fireside, 1987, p. 172.
  2. The Rational Optimist, Matt Ridley, Harper, 2010, p. 270.
  3. Ridley, p. 352.
  4. 2011 Egyptian Revolution, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Egyptian_Revolution

From Slavery to Significance

by Helping Families Flourish, posted in Flourishing Article

Originally published in Flourishing February 2011.

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born a slave in his grandmother’s shack east of Tappers Corner, Maryland in February of 1818.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.  He was separated from his mother, Harriet Bailey, when he was still an infant and lived with his maternal grandmother Betty Bailey. His mother died when he was seven. Like his birthday, the identity of his father is uncertain.

When Frederick was about twelve years old, his master’s wife, Sophia Auld, started teaching him the alphabet, despite the fact that it was against the law in Maryland to teach slaves to read. Frederick later described Sophia as a kind and tender-hearted woman, who treated him like one human being ought to treat another. When Sophia’s husband discovered her activity, he strongly disapproved, saying that if a slave learned to read, he would become dissatisfied with his condition and desire freedom.  Mr. Auld was certainly right about that.

Those remarks made by his master told Frederick that education was his ticket to freedom.  He continued his studies, learning to read from white children in the neighborhood, and by observing the writings of the men with whom he worked.

When Frederick was hired out to William Freeland, he taught other slaves on the Freeland plantation to read the New Testament at a weekly Sunday school. As word spread, the interest among slaves in learning to read was so great that in any given week, more than 40 slaves would attend lessons. For about six months, their study went relatively unnoticed. But, soon enough, area plantation owners became incensed that their slaves were being educated. One Sunday morning they burst into the gathering armed with clubs and stones to disperse Frederick’s congregation permanently.

Later, he was hired out to Edward Covey, who was widely regarded as a “slave breaker”.  He regularly applied a whip to Frederick’s back, until Frederick finally fought back—apparently with some success—as Covey never threatened him again.

On September 3, 1838, Frederick successfully escaped his slave masters by boarding a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland.  He carried identification papers provided by a free black sailor. He crossed the Susquehanna River by ferry at Havre de Grace, then continued by train to Wilmington, Delaware. From there he went by steamboat to Philadelphia.  He arrived in New York City within twenty-four hours of boarding the train to Havre d Grace.  And, soon after arriving in New York, Frederick married Anna Murray, a free black woman he had met in 1837.

As a runaway slave, Frederick continued his studies, and was soon giving lectures on the living conditions, attitudes, and hopes of those still held in bondage.  As a fugitive slave, of course, Frederick’s own freedom and safety were much at risk.  He traveled to England for a time, and there he found sponsors who purchased his freedom from his previous slave masters in Maryland.

Early in his studies, Frederick had been a Constitutional skeptic, but as he continued to grow and learn throughout his life, he came to agree with Lysander Spooner (1808 – 1887), the great American libertarian writer, that the United States Constitution was an anti-slavery document. This reversed his earlier agreement with William Lloyd Garrison (1805 – 1879), another prominent abolitionist, that it was pro-slavery.  Garrison had famously burned a copy of the Constitution in protest of slavery. 

President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, declared the freedom of all slaves in Confederate-held territory.  Frederick described his emotions as he waited:

We were waiting and listening as for a bolt from the sky…we were watching…by the dim light of the stars for the dawn of a new day…we were longing for the answer to the agonizing prayers of centuries.1

The Constitutional question of slavery was settled by the post-war (1865) ratification of the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery nationwide, the 14th Amendment (1868), which provided for citizenship and equal protection under the law, and the 15th Amendment (1870), which protected all citizens from being discriminated against in voting because of race.  Sadly, it was another hundred years before black Americans in much of the nation would truly be free and equal citizens. 

Yes, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey became Frederick C. Douglass, the famous American social reformer, orator, writer, and statesman.  (The name Douglass was taken from Sir Walter Scott’s 1810 poem, Lady of the Lake.)  As Frederick C. Douglass, the former slave became famous throughout the world for his glittering oratory and his insightful and inspirational writing.  Frederick C. Douglass was living and irrefutable proof that a black man is fully capable of functioning as a self-possessed, self-actualizing, and self-sustaining American citizen.

At the unveiling of the Emancipation Memorial, during the presidential term of Ulysses S. Grant, Frederick C. Douglass was the keynote speaker:

Can any colored man, or any white man friendly to the freedom of all men, ever forget the night which followed the first day of January 1863, when the world was to see if Abraham Lincoln would prove to be as good as his word?2

The crowd, roused by his speech, which was candid in its assessment of “Honest Abe”, gave Douglass  a standing ovation. Lincoln’s favorite walking stick, given to him by Mrs. Lincoln, still rests in Douglass’ house known as Cedar Hill3, as both a testimony and a tribute to the effect of Douglass’ powerful public speaking.

On February 20, 1895, Frederick C. Douglass, the former slave who was taught the alphabet by his master’s wife, was invited to a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C.  During that meeting, he was brought to the platform and given a standing ovation by the audience. Shortly after he returned home, and as he recounted the day’s events to his wife, he died of a massive heart attack.

Today, the legacy of Frederick C. Douglass is still with us. By the example of his life, lived in pursuit of freedom for all people, he literally changed the world.  mh

Biographical information used in this essay was drawn from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass# Life_as_a_slave

1 A Biography of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Sandra Thomas, http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/douglass/home. html#contents

2 Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln, http://www.teaching americanhistory.org/library/index.asp? documentprint=39

3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass_National_ Historic_Site

What’s In a Name

by Helping Families Flourish, posted in Flourishing Article

Originally published in Flourishing January 2011.

Fred Harvey was seventeen years old when he arrived in New York City in 1853.  Following his father’s business failure in London, he had left his family and friends to seek his own fortune in the land of milk and honey.  Fred began his business career humbly, as a “pot walloper” in a New York City diner; but while washing dishes, he learned some valuable lessons about business management from his employers.

Hard-working Fred advanced quickly with his employers in New York, and he soon married and had children.  He saved some money and moved his family to St. Louis, where he started a restaurant near the site of the present-day Gateway Arch.  In the 1860’s, St. Louis, like the country itself, was divided over the issue of slavery.  Fred was staunchly anti-slavery, but he wasn’t confrontational; his partner was a Confederate sympathizer.  Fred’s silence offered little protection, however.  His restaurant was burned to the ground during a riot, and his partner skipped town with all their cash.  Uninsured, and just as broke as the day he landed in New York, Fred set out for Leavenworth, Kansas to begin again.  He was twenty-six years old.

In Leavenworth, Fred found a way to put food on the family table, selling advertising for newspapers in cities and towns along the new Santa Fe Railroad.  He had to ride the train a lot, traveling as far east as Chicago, Buffalo, and Boston; and west to Santa Fe.  Fred befriended several senior railroad executives along the way,  impressing them with his work ethic and his honesty.  With his food service background, Fred soon realized that railroad passengers would pay well for good food and courteous service, both of which were in short supply along the Santa Fe line.  His next opportunity was knocking, and Fred was ready.

A part of Fred’s idea was to provide elegant, well-cooked meals for railway passengers in clean restaurants on white tablecloths with napkins cut from white Irish linen.  He hired trained chefs from Chicago, New York, and even from Europe, to prepare the food.  One of his first chefs relocated from Chicago’s Palmer House to tiny Florence, Kansas, and soon became the Fred Harvey food service director all along the Santa Fe line. 

Perhaps Fred’s greatest innovation, though, was the Harvey Girls, who were single young women recruited from good families and good schools.  They were trained in the “Harvey Standard” of service before they were sent west on the rails to their assigned Harvey House restaurants.  From the 1870’s until World War II, Harvey Girls were easily recognized by their clean – that is to say, spotless – starched, black and white uniforms, and they were renowned for their disciplined adherence the “Harvey Standard”.  Fred demanded that discipline, and he enforced it with strict inspections. In return, he respected the girls’ dignity and the risks they were taking.  The young ladies all lived in chaperoned dormitories near their Harvey House restaurants. 

It’s hard to imagine how difficult that innovation was to establish.  That was the era of Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody, and Bat Masterson. There were precious few women in the work force anywhere, let alone in the southwest; but Fred Harvey and the Harvey Girls became a civilizing influence from Kansas City through south central Kansas and Oklahoma to Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and southern California.

Expanding rapidly alongside the Santa Fe rail, Fred Harvey soon owned and managed a small empire. In addition to the Harvey House restaurants, there were classic hotels, a few of which are still in use, and vast cattle ranches in Kansas and New Mexico. By the time Fred Harvey (the man) died in 1901, Fred Harvey (the company) was the most recognized brand in America.  Fred Harvey was Ray Kroc before McDonald’s, Willard Marriott before Marriott Hotels, and Howard Schultz before Starbucks.*

But the story doesn’t end with Fred Harvey’s death. Fred’s oldest son, Ford; Ford’s wife, Judy; and David Benjamin, a key executive in the company, continued to extend the Fred Harvey brand.  There were Fred Harvey newsstands, drug stores, bakeries, soda fountains, and much more.  Fred Harvey owned virtually every Santa Fe depot restaurant from Chicago and St. Louis to southern California. Fred Harvey became the exclusive concession operator for the Union Stations in Kansas City, St. Louis, and Chicago, among others.

After World War II, though, people  traveling to and from the western United States no longer depended on rail service, and it became more difficult for Fred Harvey to maintain a competitive advantage and generate a profit.  Never in debt, the company just slowly ceased its operations, and by the mid 1960’s it was gone. 

One never hears the name Fred Harvey these days.  Though I’m frequently asked whether I’m related to Henry or Paul, no one has ever asked me about my relationship to Fred.  (At least as far back as 1794, I’ve found no familial connection to any of them.)  Yet Fred Harvey not only helped define business in the United States, he helped in no small way to define the United States itself.  To tell the truth, I’m disappointed that I didn’t learn anything at all about Fred Harvey in school!

And that brings me to the point of this little essay: You really should read Appetite for America, by Stephen Fried, published by Bantam in 2010.  It is a masterfully researched history of Fred Harvey—the man, the company he created, his family—and the development of the American southwest from before the Civil War to the end of World War II. 

Under Stephen Fried’s caring hand, the taming of the wild, wild, west becomes a series of lessons in business strategies and practices, old world courtesies, historic preservation of native artifacts, environmental awareness, architectural innovation, and family and business continuity across multiple generations. Appetite for America is the story of America becoming America; a paean to America’s entrepreneurial soul—and implicitly, at least—a conduit connecting America’s past with its future.

You will appreciate, too, that there are almost one hundred pages of appendices and notes. These include a tour of the Harvey sites that still exist. You’ll even find recipes for food served at the Harvey House restaurants. You might want to try one of Harry and Bess Truman’s favorites, Cream of Wisconsin Cheese Soup.  I think you will just love Appetite for America. mh

* Appetite for America, by Stephen Fried, Bantam, 2010, from the author’s introduction.

10th Annual Legacy Thanksgiving Banquet

by Helping Families Flourish, posted in Flourishing Article

Originally published in Flourishing December 2010.

Legacy: a Regional Community Foundation is a public charity established in 1996 by local people to meet a wide variety of charitable needs.  Shortly after its founding, I was invited by the founders to suggest ways to help the foundation grow. You know I’m a slow study, so it took a while.

But, during a staff meeting in the early months of 2001, it occurred to me that we could help the foundation by sponsoring a public event. I met with Legacy’s Executive Director, Pam Moore, and we decided to have a Thanksgiving celebration.  Our objective was raise $300,000 by the end of that year to qualify for a matching grant from the Kansas Health Foundation.  We invited KAKE News Anchor and Winfield native, Larry Hatteberg, to keynote that inaugural event. Larry was magnificent!

That first Legacy Thanksgiving Banquet was so successful, we decided to make it an annual event.  On November 18 of this year we were proud to sponsor the 10th Annual Legacy Thanksgiving Banquet. During the past ten years, Legacy has increased its endowed and operational funds by a factor of more than ten.  The credit for that, of course, is not ours, but we are immensely proud to be a contributor to Legacy’s growth, and we’re looking forward to at least another ten years.

In addition to Larry Hatteberg, our keynote speakers in past years have included Kansas native and A&E producer, Bill Kurtis, Inc. Magazine “Entrepreneur of the Year-2004”, Jack Schultz, and highly acclaimed Kansas historian, Craig Miner.  This year, we were very pleased to have David Rebein, a well-known victims’ advocate from Dodge City, who spoke about living a passionate life.

David is one of seven farm-family brothers.  He credits the famous television show, Perry Mason, for igniting his passion for the practice of law.  David shared several instances of courtroom drama that were illustrative of his conversion from defending corporate clients to his passion for seeing that right be done.  David didn’t just talk about his passion, it was on display.

We were also quite proud this year to feature the very talented Sarah Stevens, who performed a medley of Aaron Copeland’s most popular works.  Sarah was accompanied on the piano by Southwestern College student, Joanna Woon.

Pam Moore, and Legacy’s current board president, Marcia Stultz, also spoke to the group, and displayed a regional map showing the names and locations of the foundation’s 2010 grant recipients. mh