No Man is an Island by Allen Laudenslager, A voice in the wilderness

No man is an island

No man is an island

No man is an island entire of itself; every man

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;

if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe

is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as

well as a manor of thy friends or of thine

own were; any man's death diminishes me,

because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom

the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

John Donne

An emotionally satisfying poem, but what the heck does it mean to business? It means that your business, in too many ways to list, depends on the businesses around it and on your suppliers and customers.

A climate of success helps you to succeed while a climate of collapse makes it much more likely that you will fail. We have uncountable examples of towns that relied on a single economy. The farm and market towns of the midwest that were supported by the small family farms died with the advent of industrial farming.

Those large farms were operated by so few workers that all those support business that made the town exist weren’t needed.

We know of cases where small stores closed thru loss of business diverted to big box stores. Part of the problem is that the profits from a local store tend to stay in the community while the profits from big box stores tend to be aggregated in the financial centers of big cities.

This phenomenon constitutes a cash drain that eventually strips that small town of its cash and unless there is a constant influx of fresh cash then the community goes broke and the residents leave for richer ground.

If the cash is in the financial centers then that is where the cash gets spent and that’s where the jobs are. As the people collect where the money is those small towns slowly die out. Just like the gold rush ghost towns when the gold ran out.

We are witnessing the same thing on a national scale. As more and more products are made in far flung places the cash is being transferred from the developed nations to the developing.

The key here is that people who don’t have jobs can’t buy your product no matter how cheaply you can make it.

I can buy a life jacket for around 12 bucks but what is its value? If I don’t go out on the water I wouldn’t buy it at any price. When the boat sinks I might pay $100 for that same life jacket. If I don’t have even a single dollar, then I CAN’T buy that life jacket even if the boat is sinking under me.

The point to all this is that if you minimize your workers profits to maximize your  own, then they have less to spend with you. While it’s true your workers can’t buy enough of your product to keep you in business that money does circulate.

If your workers can’t buy from the local burger stand, the people who work in the burger joint can’t buy your washing machine or dish soap.

Every job you and your industry transfer to some far-away factory is one less local customer for your product. And when that transfer is to chase that last fraction of a percent of profit but is making your potential customer base smaller, are you really coming out ahead?

Once again, you are absolutely correct when you say that your business can’t make that big a difference and by yourself you are right. Add your choices to all the others making the same kind of decision and we have the current lingering recession.

Living proof that recessions are self-generated self-fulfilling  phenomenon. If business cut employees and/or salary/benefit packages than employees spend less and there are fewer sales.

Reminds me of an old Kingston Trio song, Desert Pete:

“You’ve got to prime the pump, 

you’ve got to have faith and believe

You’ve got to give of yourself 

before you’re ready to receive.

Drink all the water you can hold, 

wash your face, cool your feet,

Leave the bottle full for others, 

Thank you kindly, Desert Pete”

Allen Laudenslager, a voice in the wilderness, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2014

A Physicians last words on money, success, and finding true happiness

Dr. Richard Teo, who was a 40-year-old millionaire and cosmetic surgeon from Singapore with stage-4 lung cancer, spoke to a class of first year dental students about his life experience on January 19, 2012.  He passed away on October 18, 2012.  This transcript is from a video posted here. 

Hi good morning to all of you. My voice is a bit hoarse, so please bear with me. I thought I'll just introduce myself. My name is Richard, I'm a medical doctor. And I thought I'll just share some thoughts of my life. It's my pleasure to be invited by prof. Hopefully, it can get you thinking about how... as you pursue this.. embarking on your training to become dental surgeons, to think about other things as well.

Since young, I am a typical product of today's society. Relatively successful product that society requires.. From young, I came from a below average family. I was told by the media... and people around me that happiness is about success. And that success is about being wealthy. With this mind-set, I've always be extremely competitive, since I was young.

Not only do I need to go to the top school, I need to have success in all fields. Uniform groups, track, everything. I needed to get trophies, needed to be successful, I needed to have colours award, national colours award, everything. So I was highly competitive since young. I went on to medical school, graduated as a doctor. Some of you may know that within the medical faculty, ophthalmology is one of the most highly sought after specialities. So I went after that as well. I was given a traineeship in ophthalmology, I was also given a research scholarship by NUS to develop lasers to treat the eye.

So in the process, I was given 2 patents, one for the medical devices, and another for the lasers. And you know what, all this academic achievements did not bring me any wealth. So once I completed my bond with MOH, I decided that this is taking too long, the training in eye surgery is just taking too long. And there's lots of money to be made in the private sector. If you're aware, in the last few years, there is this rise in aesthetic medicine. Tons of money to be made there. So I decided, well, enough of staying in institution, it's time to leave. So I quit my training halfway and I went on to set up my aesthetic clinic... in town, together with a day surgery centre.

You know the irony is that people do not make heroes out average GP (general practitioner), family physicians. They don't. They make heroes out of people who are rich and famous. People who are not happy to pay $20 to see a GP, the same person have no qualms paying ten thousand dollars for a liposuction, 15 thousand dollars for a breast augmentation, and so on and so forth. So it's a no brainer isn't? Why do you want to be a gp? Become an aesthetic physician. So instead of healing the sick and ill, I decided that I'll become a glorified beautician. So, business was good, very good. It started off with waiting of one week, then became 3weeks, then one month, then 2 months, then 3 months. I was overwhelmed; there were just too many patients. Vanities are fantastic business. I employed one doctor, the second doctor, the 3rd doctor, the 4th doctor. And within the 1st year, we're already raking in millions. Just the 1st year. But never is enough because I was so obsessed with it. I started to expand into Indonesia to get all the rich Indonesian tai-tais who wouldn't blink an eye to have a procedure done. So life was really good.

So what do I do with the spare cash. How do I spend my weekends? Typically, I'll have car club gatherings. I take out my track car, with spare cash I got myself a track car. We have car club gatherings. We'll go up to Sepang in Malaysia. We'll go for car racing. And it was my life. With other spare cash, what do i do? I get myself a Ferrari. At that time, the 458 wasn't out, it's just a spider convertible, 430. This is a friend of mine, a schoolmate who is a forex trader, a banker. So he got a red one, he was wanting all along a red one, I was getting the silver one.

So what do I do after getting a car? It's time to buy a house, to build our own bungalows. So we go around looking for a land to build our own bungalows, we went around hunting. So how do i live my life? Well, we all think we have to mix around with the rich and famous. This is one of the Miss Universe. So we hang around with the beautiful, rich and famous. This by the way is an internet founder. So this is how we spend our lives, with dining and all the restaurants and Michelin Chefs you know.

So I reach a point in life that I got everything for my life. I was at the pinnacle of my career and all. That's me one year ago in the gym and I thought I was like, having everything under control and reaching the pinnacle.

Well, I was wrong. I didn't have everything under control. About last year March, I started to develop backache in the middle of nowhere. I thought maybe it was all the heavy squats I was doing. So I went to SGH, saw my classmate to do an MRI, to make sure it's not a slipped disc or anything. And that evening, he called me up and said that we found bone marrow replacement in your spine. I said, sorry what does that mean? I mean I know what it means, but I couldn't accept that. I was like “Are you serious?” I was still running around going to the gym you know. But we had more scans the next day, PET scans - positrons emission scans, they found that actually I have stage 4 terminal lung cancer. I was like "Whoa where did that come from?” It has already spread to the brain, the spine, the liver and the adrenals. And you know one moment I was there, totally thinking that I have everything under control, thinking that I've reached the pinnacle of my life. But the next moment, I have just lost it.

This is a CT scan of the lungs itself. If you look at it, every single dot there is a tumour. We call this miliaries tumour. And in fact, I have tens of thousands of them in the lungs. So, I was told that even with chemotherapy, that I'll have about 3-4months at most. Did my life come crushing on, of course it did, who wouldn't? I went into depression, of course, severe depression and I thought I had everything.

See the irony is that all these things that I have, the success, the trophies, my cars, my house and all. I thought that brought me happiness. But i was feeling really down, having severe depression. Having all these thoughts of my possessions, they brought me no joy. The thought of... You know, I can hug my Ferrari to sleep, no... No, it is not going to happen. It brought not a single comfort during my last ten months. And I thought they were, but they were not true happiness. But it wasn't. What really brought me joy in the last ten months was interaction with people, my loved ones, friends, people who genuinely care about me, they laugh and cry with me, and they are able to identify the pain and suffering I was going through. That brought joy to me, happiness. None of the things I have, all the possessions, and I thought those were supposed to bring me happiness. But it didn't, because if it did, I would have felt happy think about it, when I was feeling most down..

You know the classical Chinese New Year that is coming up. In the past, what do I do? Well, I will usually drive my flashy car to do my rounds, visit my relatives, to show it off to my friends. And I thought that was joy, you know. I thought that was really joy. But do you really think that my relatives and friends, whom some of them have difficulty trying to make ends meet, that will truly share the joy with me? Seeing me driving my flashy car and showing off to them? No, no way. They won’t be sharing joy with me. They were having problems trying to make ends meet, taking public transport. In fact i think, what I have done is more like you know, making them envious, jealous of all I have. In fact, sometimes even hatred.

Those are what we call objects of envy. I have them, I show them off to them and I feel it can fill my own pride and ego. That didn't bring any joy to these people, to my friends and relatives, and I thought they were real joy.

Well, let me just share another story with you. You know when I was about your age, I stayed in king Edward VII hall. I had this friend whom I thought was strange. Her name is Jennifer, we're still good friends. And as I walk along the path, she would, if she sees a snail, she would actually pick up the snail and put it along the grass patch. I was like why do you need to do that? Why dirty your hands? It’s just a snail. The truth is she could feel for the snail. The thought of being crushed to death is real to her, but to me it's just a snail. If you can't get out of the pathway of humans then you deserve to be crushed, it’s part of evolution isn't it? What an irony isn't it?

There I was being trained as a doctor, to be compassionate, to be able to empathise; but I couldn't. As a house officer, I graduated from medical school, posted to the oncology department at NUH. And, every day, every other day I witness death in the cancer department. When I see how they suffered, I see all the pain they went through. I see all the morphine they have to press every few minutes just to relieve their pain. I see them struggling with their oxygen breathing their last breath and all. But it was just a job. When I went to clinic every day, to the wards every day, take blood, give the medication but was the patient real to me? They weren't real to me. It was just a job, I do it, I get out of the ward, I can't wait to get home, I do my own stuff.

Was the pain, was the suffering the patients went through real? No. Of course I know all the medical terms to describe how they feel, all the suffering they went through. But in truth, I did not know how they feel, not until I became a patient. It is until now; I truly understand how they feel. And, if you ask me, would I have been a very different doctor if I were to re-live my life now, I can tell you yes I will. Because I truly understand how the patients feel now. And sometimes, you have to learn it the hard way.

Even as you start just your first year, and you embark this journey to become dental surgeons, let me just challenge you on two fronts.

Inevitably, all of you here will start to go into private practice. You will start to accumulate wealth. I can guarantee you. Just doing an implant can bring you thousands of dollars, it's fantastic money. And actually there is nothing wrong with being successful, with being rich or wealthy, absolutely nothing wrong. The only trouble is that a lot of us like myself couldn't handle it.

Why do I say that? Because when I start to accumulate, the more I have, the more I want. The more I wanted, the more obsessed I became. Like what I showed you earlier on, all I can was basically to get more possessions, to reach the pinnacle of what society did to us, of what society wants us to be. I became so obsessed that nothing else really mattered to me. Patients were just a source of income, and I tried to squeeze every single cent out of these patients.

A lot of times we forget, whom we are supposed to be serving. We become so lost that we serve nobody else but just ourselves. That was what happened to me. Whether it is in the medical, the dental fraternity, I can tell you, right now in the private practice, sometimes we just advise patients on treatment that is not indicated. Grey areas. And even though it is not necessary, we kind of advocate it. Even at this point, I know who are my friends and who genuinely cared for me and who are the ones who try to make money out of me by selling me "hope". We kind of lose our moral compass along the way. Because we just want to make money.

Worse, I can tell you, over the last few years, we bad mouth our fellow colleagues, our fellow competitors in the industry. We have no qualms about it. So if we can put them down to give ourselves an advantage, we do it. And that's what happening right now, medical, dental everywhere. My challenge to you is not to lose that moral compass. I learnt it the hard way, I hope you don't ever have to do it.

Secondly, a lot of us will start to get numb to our patients as we start to practise. Whether is it government hospitals, private practice, I can tell you when I was in the hospital, with stacks of patient folders, I can't wait to get rid of those folders as soon as possible; I can't wait to get patients out of my consultation room as soon as possible because there is just so many, and that's a reality. Because it becomes a job, a very routine job. And this is just part of it. Do I truly know how the patient feels back then? No, I don't. The fears and anxiety and all, do I truly understand what they are going through? I don't, not until when this happens to me and I think that is one of the biggest flaws in our system.

We’re being trained to be healthcare providers, professional, and all and yet we don't know how exactly they feel. I'm not asking you to get involved emotionally, I don't think that is professional but do we actually make a real effort to understand their pain and all? Most of us won’t, alright, I can assure you. So don't lose it, my challenge to you is to always be able to put yourself in your patient's shoes.

Because the pain, the anxiety, the fear are very real even though it's not real to you, it's real to them. So don't lose it and you know, right now I'm in the midst of my 5th cycle of my chemotherapy. I can tell you it’s a terrible feeling. Chemotherapy is one of those things that you don't wish even your enemies to go through because it's just suffering, lousy feeling, throwing out, you don't even know if you can retain your meals or not. Terrible feeling! And even with whatever little energy now I have, I try to reach out to other cancer patients because I truly understand what pain and suffering is like. But it's kind of little too late and too little.

You guys have a bright future ahead of you with all the resource and energy, so I’m going to challenge you to go beyond your immediate patients. To understand that there are people out there who are truly in pain, truly in hardship. Don’t get the idea that only poor people suffer. It is not true. A lot of these poor people do not have much in the first place, they are easily contented. for all you know they are happier than you and me but there are out there, people who are suffering mentally, physically, hardship, emotionally, financially and so on and so forth, and they are real. We choose to ignore them or we just don't want to know that they exist.

So do think about it alright, even as you go on to become professionals and dental surgeons and all. That you can reach out to these people who are in need. Whatever you do can make a large difference to them. I'm now at the receiving end so I know how it feels, someone who genuinely care for you, encourage and all. It makes a lot of difference to me. That’s what happens after treatment. I had a treatment recently, but I’ll leave this for another day. A lot of things happened along the way, that's why I am still able to talk to you today.

I'll just end of with this quote here, it's from this book called Tuesdays with Morris, and some of you may have read it. Everyone knows that they are going to die; every one of us knows that. The truth is, none of us believe it because if we did, we will do things differently. When I faced death, when I had to, I stripped myself off all stuff totally and I focused only on what is essential. The irony is that a lot of times, only when we learn how to die then we learn how to live. I know it sounds very morbid for this morning but it's the truth, this is what I’m going through.

Don’t let society tell you how to live. Don’t let the media tell you what you're supposed to do. Those things happened to me. And I led this life thinking that these are going to bring me happiness. I hope that you will think about it and decide for yourself how you want to live your own life. Not according to what other people tell you to do, and you have to decide whether you want to serve yourself, whether you are going to make a difference in somebody else's life. Because true happiness doesn't come from serving yourself. I thought it was but it didn't turn out that way.

Managers vs. Leaders by James Colvard

We often talk of management and leadership as if they are the same thing. They are not. 

The two are related, but their central functions are different. Managers provide leadership, and leaders perform management functions. But managers don't perform the unique functions of leaders.

Here are some key differences:

·       A manager takes care of where you are; a leader takes you to a new place.

·       A manager deals with complexity; a leader deals with uncertainty.

·       A manager is concerned with finding the facts; a leader makes decisions.

·       A manager is concerned with doing things right; a leader is concerned with doing the right things.

·       A manager's critical concern is efficiency; a leader focuses on effectiveness.

·       A manager creates policies; a leader establishes principles.

·       A manager sees and hears what is going on; a leader hears when there is no sound and sees when there is no light.

·       A manager finds answers and solutions; a leader formulates the questions and identifies the problems.

·       A manager looks for similarities between current and previous problems; a leader looks for differences.

·       A manager thinks that a successful solution to a management problem can be used again; a leader wonders whether the problem in a new environment might require a different solution.

Multiple functions, limited resources and conflicting demands for time and resources, require management. It involves setting priorities, establishing processes, overseeing the execution of tasks and measuring progress against expectations. Management is focused on the short term, ensuring that resources are expended and progress is made within time frames of days, weeks and months. Leadership, which deals with uncertainty, is focused on the long term. The effects of a policy decision to invest in staff development, for example, might never be objectively determined or, at best, might only be seen after many years.

Management involves looking at the facts and assessing status, which can be aided by technical tools, such as spreadsheets, PERT (program evaluation and review technique) charts, and the like. Leadership involves looking at inadequate or nonexistent information and then making a decision. Leaders must have the courage to act and the humility to listen. They must be open to new data, but at some point act with the data available.

Management's concern with efficiency means doing things right to conserve resources. Leadership is focused on effectiveness - doing the right thing. For example, the military must manage its resources well to maximize efficiency. But in waging war, the military's critical responsibility is to be effective and win the war regardless of the resources required. Getting a bargain does not reflect effective leadership if it means losing the war. Good management is important, but good leadership is essential.

The public sector develops a lot of good managers, but very few leaders. Government focuses too much on abstract or formal education, rather than experience. The Senior Executive Service has provisions for mobility and development through experience, but they are rarely used.

Developing Leaders

Developing managers and leaders involves stages of understanding, not prescriptively, but conceptually.

Phase 1 is higher education or academic training that focuses on abstract learning, in which solutions to problems are provided in textbooks.

Phase 2 applies that abstract process to the actual workplace, in which there are often no right or wrong answers. This is the critical phase in which a future manager or leader develops the confidence to make decisions without knowing the right answers. This requires attempting tasks that are challenging, so that success will demonstrate competence.

Phase 3 involves social and political dimensions, as a performer moves from working independently to working with others as a supervisor or member of a product or process team. It is no longer enough to simply know the facts, since the process now includes others and involves subjectivity.

Phase 4 replaces simpler tasks that involve teams or small groups with complex tasks that involve independent, but often interrelated, large groups. In this pivotal stage, managers accept responsibility for things outside their expertise and rely on someone else to provide the facts. The manager may have more authority, but has become more dependent upon others. This might be the time to get more formal training, such as seminars or academic programs in management, to develop skills that weren't addressed in earlier education. There is no turning back after this transition from performing objective tasks to subjective decision-making and problem solving.

Phase 5 separates leaders from managers. The management role changes from maintaining an organization's values to creating them. Leaders establish the principles upon which their subordinates formulate policies.

Building on Strengths

Becoming a leader requires understanding oneself. There are many tools available, such as the Meyers Briggs profile, to help with that assessment. Recognizing personal characteristics is important in learning how to deal with others, recognizing strengths and weaknesses, and adopting an appropriate leadership style. An extrovert must learn to listen more and talk less. An introvert must speak up more and get heard. A manager who is more comfortable knowing all the details and giving explicit orders should not adopt a participative management style, but rather recognize the limitations of an authoritative style. Adopting a style that is inconsistent with one's personality not only creates stress but it often leads to failure.

Leaders also must understand their professional traits. One useful tool is the 360-degree feedback survey, which allows managers to get the perspectives of their bosses, peers and subordinates. Such a total view is valuable because managers tend to assess their behavior in terms of their intent, not the effect.

Today the federal system, both its structure and processes, is changing. New agencies, such as the Homeland Security Department, are being formed. The federal personnel system is being modified significantly. Outsourcing has become a household word in the government. Civil servants are going to a new place, and it will take leaders - not just managers - to get them there.

Article was printed in Government Executive, July 7, 2003

James Colvard, deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management under President Reagan, later was associate director of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He teaches at Indiana University.

The Textbook Answer

In business school, they teach you there are basically four ingredients you need if you want to produce something of value: land (or raw materials), capital (or money), labor (or work), and entrepreneurship (or know-how).

For example, if you want to make a car you're going to need things like a big factory, raw materials like steel for the body and rubber for the tires (land); you're going to need a lot of money to buy these things (capital); you're going to need workers (labor) and money to pay them (more capital); and you're going to need to know how to make a car (entrepreneurship).

If you want to open a barber shop, you'll need things like a store, barber chairs, scissors, electric clippers, razors, and shaving cream (land); you'll need money to buy all these things (capital); you'll need licensed barbers (labor) and money to pay them (more capital); and you'll need to know how to run a barber shop (entrepreneurship).

It's a little more complicated than this, but in business you basically try to control these four ingredients of production in order to produce your product or service at the lowest possible cost, then you try to sell your product or service at the highest possible price.  If your sales exceed your costs you'll make a profit (you're in the black); if your costs exceed your sales then you're losing money (you're in the red); if you continue to operate in the red you risk bankruptcy so you try to control the four ingredients of production in order to get yourself out of the red and into the black.

And it's not easy for a business manager to control these four ingredients of production.  For example, it's not easy to buy the raw materials (land) at the lowest possible price.  The cost to build a factory or the rent on a store are pretty much set in stone.  Once you've built a factory or signed the lease on your store that money is gone (it's a sunk cost).  The utilities to run your factory or store are also pretty much set in stone too.  You're going to have to pay your light bill if you want to stay in business.  The electric company doesn't care if you're losing money; they want to be paid at the end of the month.  Your know-how (entrepreneurial idea) won't make you a dime until your idea pays off and that could take awhile.  The only thing a business manager can really control is the amount and cost of labor which is why most businesses try to hire the fewest number of workers at the lowest possible salaries.

The textbook answer on how business works sounded really convincing didn't it?  When I went through business school I was convinced too, but as a grew a little older and wiser I saw a big hole in the textbook answer.

Workers (labor) are people, they're not units of production like land and capital.  People are made in the image of God.  They have hopes and dreams, spouses and children, and lives outside of work.  When you, as a business manager, follow the textbook answer of how a business should run and treat people like a line item on a spreadsheet or a unit of production, you're ethically running your business in the red and risk moral bankruptcy.

Henry Ford the Epitome of American Capitalism

Henry Ford was the epitome of American Capitalism.  His rags-to-riches success story of entrepreneurialism is an inspiration to all of us.  Born and raised on a rural farm in Michigan, Ford only achieved an eighth-grade education, but he was a mechanical and industrial engineering genius.  His greatest achievement was the implementation of industrial mass production which created an economy-of-scale to build the automobile.  This made the automobile very affordable to the general public.

But working on an assembly line is repetitive, back-breaking, boring, and de-humanizing.  There was a huge turn-over in the labor force.  If the company needed one-hundred workers, they would have to hire 1000 due to attrition.  So Ford came up with another ingenious idea: incentive pay.  Workers could earn as much as $5 a day for an eight hour work day, more than double what the typical worker earned.  Paying workers more would decrease attrition and enable his workers to buy his automobiles, a win-win solution.  After it was announced, 10,000 people showed up the next day to apply for a job.  The work still sucked, but hey they were earning $5 a day!

But earning that $5 a day came with a huge price.  Workers would have to jump through ridiculous hoops to get it.  For example, the company engaged in social engineering where they demanded emigrant workers learn English and become Americanized.  The company would send their social police to their employees homes to ensure they were living wholesome American lives and not engaging in vices like smoking, drinking, or gambling.

In addition, workers were not allowed to talk while on the job.  They weren't allowed to sit down or take potty breaks.  They would have to be productive all the time even if they were ill.  And the company's security force would brutally enforce Ford's work rules.  It was classic management by fear, intimidation, and brutality.  Latter, when automobile workers tried to organize a union, Ford, through his hired thugs, brutally fought the unions tooth and nail.  The only reason Ford finally capitulated to the union's demands is because his wife Clara threatened to leave him.  Henry Ford had, in fact, become a greedy, power hungry, obsessive-compulsive control freak.

Yes in-deed, Henry Ford epitomized the best and worst in American Capitalism. He epitomized the best because of his rags-to-riches story, his pioneering implimentation of the assembly line to make automobiles affordable, and his $5 dollar a day wages. And he epitomized the worst because of his love of money, power, control, and oppression of workers. Since then, working conditions in America have improved quite a bit through legislation, unionization, and evolving social norms and mores. But the dark side of American Capitalism is still alive and well and living in the hearts of many business managers today who, like Henry Ford, still try to earn a profit at any price.

  

The Virtue of Responsible Citizenship

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior…”  (St. Paul, 1 Timothy 2:1-3)


Every year or two in the U.S. we are asked to go to the voting booth and choose someone to represent us in local, state, or federal government.  Both mainstream political parties try to convince us why we should vote for their candidate while at the same time disparaging the other party or candidate.  Issues range from moral issues to fiscal issues, that is, how we should live our lives and how we should spend our money.

I chose several years ago to become a political independent and vote according to my conscience guided by my Roman Catholic beliefs.  Often times this is not easy to do as there's hardly any candidate that completely meets all the criteria. But I try to keep an open mind.  So I wanted to share with you the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishop's voting guide.  It's in PDF format so you can print it out or save it to your hard drive for future reference.  I realize that many of my readers are Protestant Christians, Jewish, or People of Good Will, but I think you'll discover we have much in common.

Finally, I urge all my readers not to disparage our political leaders but hold them up in your prayers.  And don't engage in political one-up-man-ship with others who may see the world differently than you do.  Just agree to disagree, keep them in your prayers, and continue to be cordial.

Bitcoin by Allen F. Laudenslager

The following article is by Allen F. Laudenslager who writes a Blog A Voice In the Wilderness

A voice in the wilderness

A lone voice against conformity.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014

Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a full on fiat currency supported only by the user’s faith that someone else will accept it at what they paid for it. Looked at one way it is a fraud since there it has no intrinsic value supporting it.

In another sense it has exactly the same value as an ounce of gold. The trust that someone else will accept the value and exchange it for something we both agree is an equal value.

I remember once when I was about 13 (1958) and traveling with my parents, we stopped for gas in a small town in western Pennsylvania where my father tried to use an American Express Traveler’s Check. That was a matter of trust - this small town gas station had never seen one and didn’t know if he could trust it or not. He did know and expect that he could trust a 5 or 10 or 20 dollar bill!

Back to that ounce of gold you trust so much. In the depths of antiquity certain types of sea shells drilled and strung like beads were a medium of exchange. They were rare and hard to get, at least far from the coast, and people accepted them in return for goods and services. As travel became easier and the shells lost their rarity they were supplanted by other mediums. Iron, copper, silver and gold coins for a long time were the standard and later were replaced by paper that could be exchanged for set amounts of the actual metal.

Gold, silver or any other metal has only the value we give it. Each of these has a use in manufacturing. You can build things from iron and steel or even copper. Gold and silver have industrial uses beyond their use in jewelry. But if you are in the wilderness, and need a meal, that ounce of gold will not feed you unless someone else has food AND is willing to exchange that food for the gold.

So why might they give up an immediately useful thing like a meal for an immediately useless thing like an ounce of gold? Because they trust that someone else, somewhere else will want to trade what they have for that ounce of gold. So in a very real sense, that gold relies on exactly the same “value” that a Bitcoin does - trust!

For good or ill, Bitcoin is now a permanent part of the financial landscape and will be a permanent part in some form or another from now on. So before you start wailing and moaning about Bitcoin being worthless and the ultimate fiat currency; remember that it rests on the same foundation as gold, US dollars or a can of soup. We expect that someone else will accept gold or soup as unit of storage of value. And that they will be willing trade whatever they have for that gold, US dollar or can of soup.

If you think this is a new concept think about this, approximately 800 years ago St. Thomas Aquinas said, "Men could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one another." 

The Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church

III. The Social Doctrine of the Church

2419 "Christian revelation . . . promotes deeper understanding of the laws of social living." The Church receives from the Gospel the full revelation of the truth about man. When she fulfills her mission of proclaiming the Gospel, she bears witness to man, in the name of Christ, to his dignity and his vocation to the communion of persons. She teaches him the demands of justice and peace in conformity with divine wisdom.

2420 The Church makes a moral judgment about economic and social matters, "when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls requires it." In the moral order she bears a mission distinct from that of political authorities: the Church is concerned with the temporal aspects of the common good because they are ordered to the sovereign Good, our ultimate end. She strives to inspire right attitudes with respect to earthly goods and in socio-economic relationships.

2421 The social doctrine of the Church developed in the nineteenth century when the Gospel encountered modern industrial society with its new structures for the production of consumer goods, its new concept of society, the state and authority, and its new forms of labor and ownership. the development of the doctrine of the Church on economic and social matters attests the permanent value of the Church's teaching at the same time as it attests the true meaning of her Tradition, always living and active.

2422 The Church's social teaching comprises a body of doctrine, which is articulated as the Church interprets events in the course of history, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, in the light of the whole of what has been revealed by Jesus Christ. This teaching can be more easily accepted by men of good will, the more the faithful let themselves be guided by it.

2423 The Church's social teaching proposes principles for reflection; it provides criteria for judgment; it gives guidelines for action:

Any system in which social relationships are determined entirely by economic factors is contrary to the nature of the human person and his acts.

2424 A theory that makes profit the exclusive norm and ultimate end of economic activity is morally unacceptable. the disordered desire for money cannot but produce perverse effects. It is one of the causes of the many conflicts which disturb the social order.

A system that "subordinates the basic rights of individuals and of groups to the collective organization of production" is contrary to human dignity. Every practice that reduces persons to nothing more than a means of profit enslaves man, leads to idolizing money, and contributes to the spread of atheism. "You cannot serve God and mammon."

2425 The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modem times with "communism" or "socialism." She has likewise refused to accept, in the practice of "capitalism," individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human labor. Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds; regulating it solely by the law of the marketplace fails social justice, for "there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied by the market." Reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good, is to be commended.

Fired Humvee whistleblower wins $990,000

Fired Humvee whistleblower wins $990,000

• Article by: RANDY FURST , Star Tribune 
• Updated: September 17, 2014 - 5:33 AM

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David McIntosh alerted the Army to a design change in an armored Humvee that he feared could have fatal consequences for soldiers in Iraq and it cost him his job, his home and was a "significant factor" in the collapse of his marriage. Tuesday, the U.S. attorney's office announced the 49-year-old whistleblower from Stacy, Minn., would receive nearly $1 million as part of a $5.5 million settlement.

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David McIntosh’s fight to expose a design change in a Humvee gun turret that he feared could have fatal consequences for soldiers in Iraq cost him his job and his home, and was a “significant factor” in the collapse of his marriage.

Tuesday, the 49-year-old whistleblower from Stacy, Minn., was awarded nearly $1 million as part of a $5.5 million settlement with the companies that produced backup batteries for the Humvee’s turret.

“It was never about the money,” McIntosh said Tuesday. “It was about doing the right thing and protecting the people who protect us.”

McIntosh lost his job that paid him “about six figures,” struggled for years to find work and now is employed as a laborer and truck driver on road construction projects.

The sealed acid batteries turn the turrets on the Humvees if the engine gives out, but unbeknownst to the Army, the manufacturing process was changed, cutting the battery’s life span by as much as 50 percent, McIntosh said

“Worst-case scenario, if the troops in a Humvee were in a firefight … they may have only half the power the Army was promised, which could mean life or death,” McIntosh said.

McIntosh was a regional sales representative for M.K. Battery when he tried to persuade top company officials to alert the Army, but after 14 months, they still would not do so, he said. So in 2007, he called the Defense Department. Three weeks later he was fired.

“They told me I was being terminated for insubordination,” he said.

Design changed

On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Andy Luger announced the settlement agreement with M.K. Battery and several other companies, resolving allegations that they had violated the False Claims Act. It settled a suit brought by McIntosh’s attorneys, Clayton Halunen and Susan Coler of Minneapolis.

M.K. Battery, with offices in California and the company that owns it, East Penn Manufacturing, located in Pennsylvania, declined requests for an interview, but issued a statement Tuesday saying they “denied that the batteries at issue did not meet the required specifications and the settlement with the government acknowledges that denial.”

Still, the two firms said they “were pleased to resolve these claims with the government in order to demonstrate their commitment to supplying the government with high quality batteries as well as to avoid the expense, distraction and uncertainty of protracted litigation.”

McIntosh said he was first alerted to a potential problem by an e-mail from a company engineer saying that the design and manufacture of the battery had been changed “and he didn’t know how it would affect my accounts.”

McIntosh said he tested the batteries to measure their performance. “Many times” they had half their previous capacity, he said. The new manufacturing process, he said, was designed to reduce costs, but he worried about the impact.

‘A strange call’

Over 14 months, he corresponded and spoke with top company officials about his concerns, according to the lawsuit, and warned them if they did not contact the Department of Defense, he would. When he learned the company did not plan to disclose the results of his tests, he said he contacted the Defense Department on April 24, 2007.

“It was a strange call to make,” he said. “I know these agencies. I never thought I would be contacting them in my life.”

On June 13, 2007, the company fired him. “I felt alone,” he says. “I knew these individuals quite well.”

He struggled for six years to find full-time work, he said. “Battery companies tend to know each other,” he said. “I don’t know if I was blackballed, but it felt like it.”

So he did house remodeling for friends and families and tried some private ventures that did not pan out. “It was very difficult to get full-time, gainful employment,” he said, and the resulting stress was a factor in his divorce.

‘Classic … corporate greed’

A second part of the suit, dealing with McIntosh’s termination, is expected to go to trial next spring before U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank. “We are not interested in settling that case,” said Halunen, McIntosh’s attorney. “He wants to tell his story publicly at trial.”

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office said it was unaware of any lives lost because of the batteries, but Chad Blumenfield, the assistant U.S. attorney in Minneapolis, issued this statement: “The Department of Defense relies on companies it deals with to be honest about the products they provide, especially when those products will be used on the battlefield. Inaccuracies about such products cannot be tolerated.”

Halunen offered a harsher assessment.

“From Day 1, it is a classic example of corporate greed,” he said. “Profit was more important than protecting human lives, in this case, the men and women serving our country, which is particularly repugnant.”

Randy Furst • 612-673-4224 Twitter: @randyfurst

This article can be found at this link: http://www.startribune.com/local/275386301.html?page=all&prepage=1&c=y#continue