What is the proper role of leadership?
One would hope that leaders are able to not only pursue the aims of their constituents, but be able to tell then when their goals are unrealistic.
1. Dr. Thomas Sowell, in “Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One,” challenges individuals to analyze not only their short term (Stage One) impact but to also think ahead to their long term (Stage Two, Three, etc) impact. Politicians do not think beyond Stage One because they will be praised (and elected) for the short term benefits but will not be held accountable much later when the long term consequences appear.
2. Sadly, there is a brand of leadership that is the very opposite of " Thinking Beyond Stage One,”....it is Far Left, Progressive leadership, and it tends to function via the view that whatever anyone has, everyone should have. It is called 'income equality,' or 'social justice.'
a. Yesterday, on my local cable station they revealed the percent of NY'ers who don't have cable TV under a banner "INTERNET INEQUALITY"
b. How long must we wait before we address "PATENT LEATHER SHOE INEQUALITY"????
3. " Progressives like to think big. Working out the details is usually someone else’s problem.New York City mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced a $150 million initiative to renew troubled schools that is explicitly modeled on Hillary Clinton’s “it takes a village” philosophy."
In the Name of Progress by Seth Barron City Journal 5 December 2014
4. Schools, under this de Blasio proposal, actually become villages..".. schools as community hubs where dental students can check children’s teeth and immigrant parents can learn English. As a particularly “creative” solution to what he apparently sees as a pervasive social problem, one Lower East Side school “got Lowe’s to donate a washer and dryer for parents to use.” The washer and dryer, he said, “helps ensure that even the poorest parents can send their kids to school in clean clothes they’re proud of.”
5. " Details are scarce regarding the implementation of the washer/dryer program, but some obvious questions emerge at once.
Who buys the detergent?
Where do parents wait while their clothes are in the spin cycle?
Is machine use restricted to kids’ clothes, or can parents do linens and towels as well?
What if there is a line, but someone wants to run separate loads for whites and colors?
In sum, how well will one free laundry machine really serve hundreds of families?"
a. ".... but why sweat that detail? When so much of progressive argument consists of scrappy anecdotes or soaring rhetoric, it isn’t cynicism to inquire where all this forward-thinking is actually going.
b. ... progressive legislators frequently address economic and business concerns with what seems like total innumeracy."
Exactly as Dr. Sowell stated.
One would hope that leaders are able to not only pursue the aims of their constituents, but be able to tell then when their goals are unrealistic.
1. Dr. Thomas Sowell, in “Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One,” challenges individuals to analyze not only their short term (Stage One) impact but to also think ahead to their long term (Stage Two, Three, etc) impact. Politicians do not think beyond Stage One because they will be praised (and elected) for the short term benefits but will not be held accountable much later when the long term consequences appear.
2. Sadly, there is a brand of leadership that is the very opposite of " Thinking Beyond Stage One,”....it is Far Left, Progressive leadership, and it tends to function via the view that whatever anyone has, everyone should have. It is called 'income equality,' or 'social justice.'
a. Yesterday, on my local cable station they revealed the percent of NY'ers who don't have cable TV under a banner "INTERNET INEQUALITY"
b. How long must we wait before we address "PATENT LEATHER SHOE INEQUALITY"????
3. " Progressives like to think big. Working out the details is usually someone else’s problem.New York City mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced a $150 million initiative to renew troubled schools that is explicitly modeled on Hillary Clinton’s “it takes a village” philosophy."
In the Name of Progress by Seth Barron City Journal 5 December 2014
4. Schools, under this de Blasio proposal, actually become villages..".. schools as community hubs where dental students can check children’s teeth and immigrant parents can learn English. As a particularly “creative” solution to what he apparently sees as a pervasive social problem, one Lower East Side school “got Lowe’s to donate a washer and dryer for parents to use.” The washer and dryer, he said, “helps ensure that even the poorest parents can send their kids to school in clean clothes they’re proud of.”
5. " Details are scarce regarding the implementation of the washer/dryer program, but some obvious questions emerge at once.
Who buys the detergent?
Where do parents wait while their clothes are in the spin cycle?
Is machine use restricted to kids’ clothes, or can parents do linens and towels as well?
What if there is a line, but someone wants to run separate loads for whites and colors?
In sum, how well will one free laundry machine really serve hundreds of families?"
a. ".... but why sweat that detail? When so much of progressive argument consists of scrappy anecdotes or soaring rhetoric, it isn’t cynicism to inquire where all this forward-thinking is actually going.
b. ... progressive legislators frequently address economic and business concerns with what seems like total innumeracy."
Exactly as Dr. Sowell stated.