I'm full of ideas, however, these ideas often crap out before they get too far. I once had an idea that I was going to be an NBA basketball player. This dream was fueled by my dominance of other kids on the blacktops of Northern CA. The essential mistake here is not of ambition but of scale. It's hard to understand when you are nine that the pond you are swimming in is considerably smaller than the ocean that you'll be shortly entering. Of course, the other mistake is one of something along the lines of user bias. Ie, if the rest of the world was indeed comprised of a couple billion people who were just as talented, or not talented, as the people at my elementary school, then I would have in fact become an NBA basketball player. I suppose the mistake is then both understandable and twofold. But how to predict the greatness of others that you can never possibly know?
Luckily for literature fans some books have been passed down for generations or centuries, and thus, unlike something like greatest fisherman or boxer, we can actually compare the writing of Tolstoy and Henry James to Stephen King and Philip Roth and make an informed decision about who knows their shit. In this case shit is meant to connote something along the lines of humanity with a capitalized h. James and Tolstoy mop the floor with those two random contemporaries, though, to be fair, James and Tolstoy sort of mop the floor with almost any other prose writers that have been around. The same can be said confidently of Shakespeare, of Dostoevsky, and of the author of Ecclesiastes.
This wasn't really supposed to devolve into a literature discussion, though that's a thing I put a great deal of stock in. It probably ties back in to my love of sport and competition. I can read War and Peace and then watch it, metaphorically speaking, beat the shi- out of paltry modern offerings like Peter Carey's latest book or Kiran Desai's clap trap book disguised as poetry or J.M. Coetzee's particularly abhorrent novel, Disgrace. I keep the other books on shelves upstairs, so they don't get too bloodied from the beating.
Anyhow, this was supposed to be a list of failed ideas, not failed novels. I forget what my next dream was. Things were nebulous for a number of years. Teacher's often told me that I was intelligent and could "do anything." I'm now inclined to say that the advice, "reach for the stars" is best given with a telescope and a compendium of all the known astronomical objects in the galaxy. Not to put too fine a point it, but hard work tends to beget more useful results than catchy slogans. It doesn't hurt to define the stars.
Large step away from what I've been writing about.
Do millionaires create jobs? I mean, I don't actually know the answer to this question. Is there any way to get some hard data on whether these people are creating massive amounts of jobs due to tax breaks? I haven't seen anything compelling from either side at this point in time, just finger pointing. Listen, I love Robin Hood, mainly because the Errol Flynn version was filmed in my small Northern CA city, but I'd like to see some hard data to support the theory that higher taxes actually help us all out. I sincerely mean this, figure this shi- out and give me some compelling data. I've run out of interest in listening to both sides debate about the middle class vs. the wealthy. Caveats apply, I know data can be skewed et al, it just seems like it might be a good idea to come up with something a bit more concrete than we've got.
Secondarily, obviously I'm biased because I live in a big city and my wife works for the federal government. However, why exactly is the fed being demonized? I can tell you that for a number of people, S included, a job in the private sector would net more money per year. The added benefits might make the two a bit closer in true salary, but hell, we don't want people unemployed do we? In my, admittedly limited experience, people working in the government are normal people with normal jobs like the rest of us. Why exactly are they now deemed evil? Because of the debt. Well, private corporations and individual households still harbor a great percentage of debt than the government. I'm all for creative solutions, some changes need to be made. But why the fu-- does it have to be so one-sided. GD we have to be smarter than that. Right? Aren't we?
I'd take Tolstoy over Flaubert in a second, but I don't know what he'd do against Dostoevsky. It seems like it would be a twelve rounder.
Sometimes I want to remind people that downsizing government means unemployment will rise. Come on, people.
ReplyDeleteBoy, do I love an unimpeded bash of contemporary literature.
ReplyDeleteI don't think people hate government workers. I think they hate Congress.
They also hate bureaucracy as much as I hate one line paragraphs.
Which is to say, hypocrisy exists, but it still has good points. The Fed is bloated, and I bet private companies could do a better job.
But I don't know how. So sometimes I spit ideas and contradict myself. Very well then.
I am thankful for the many federal and state government employees that I know. I know they work hard and I know that they do the best they can to make our tax dollars count for something.
ReplyDeleteThat said, having lived in a "government" town (Sacramento)and having worked for the state department before, I see several problems.
1. Inefficiency in the government and the lack of financial discipline for many (not all) departments. Unlike a business, which can be instantly analyzed by looking at the bottom line, most government departments are run the opposite way. If you look at a government financial statement, the expenses come first and then the sources of income are presented. This means that their focus is first on what they want to do (spending), and second on coming up with how to pay for it (revenues).
This problem is further exacerbated by the fact that a lot of the individual department budgets are based off of the prior year. This means that efficiency (spending less than your allocated budget) typically results in your budget being cut for the next year. This often leads to wasteful spending in order to protect the department budget.
2. An additional problem (at least with the State) is the fact that the majority of workers are unionized, leading to a more seniority-based workforce (not always bad, but doesn't necessarily reward hard work or standout employees). An additional side effect is the much higher costs to terminate an employee. True story - While working for a department as a student intern, a long-time employee became disgruntled when he didn't get promoted just for being around a long time (he was quite lazy). He got transferred to a less desirable location, where he complained about air filtration (causing an unnecessary $20k upgrade to the office), and eventually threatened to bring a gun into the office and kill his supervisor (both verbally in front of witnesses and in an email). As a result, he was forced to resign from his position, but not before receiving two years pay as severance. This would never happen at a private company. He would have been fired, possibly with criminal charges filed.
Don't really have a clue on fixing the government inefficiency - maybe working on rewarding efficiency and not just looking at prior years for budgeting concerns. It just concerns me when we see a huge shift in jobs migrating from the private sector to the public sector. We need more production jobs, not more service or regulation jobs.
There are plenty of problems with corporations as well, with ridiculous compensation structures for top management, all the tax games that have them paying tons of taxes in other countries and none here, taking advantage of causes (like breast cancer), and more. But at the same time a lot of their issues are a result of government actions (writing a complicated tax code, caving to special interests, writing regulations that basically drive jobs overseas). It is a huge mess.
With regards to literature, I am increasingly stymied in my search for decent modern authors. I absolutely agree that the writers of the classics wipe the floor with anything being written now.
Anyway, sorry for the long rant. I read your posts often, just haven't posted before.
yes, competitive...
ReplyDeletei have never seen nor read where literature
and authors are compared to a fight!!
bloodletting?? 12 rounder?? knockout??
one more example of govt. inefficiency..
in order to purchase a certain text(100 copies)
i was forced to purchase 100 copies of a
second text which was horrible
"pretty in pink" lil s