A Crisis of Competence
As we enter the third year of this economic mess, I am more convinced than ever that this isn't a crisis caused by greed or a failed system.
It is a crisis caused by a lack of competence.
This is a short list of people or organizations who just simply haven't done their jobs in recent months. It is not a complete list. It isn't even a well-researched list. These are just the ones I recall--in no particular order:
The FAA-- massive delays, an antiquated air traffic control system
TSA- need I elaborate?
Immigration authorities
Every banker who OK'd a 110% loan
Every financier who agreed to bundle, buy and sell packages of 110% loans
Consumer Product Safety Commission-- how many lead-based toys does it take to kill a generation?
Toyota-- record number of recalls
GM, etc-- for decades of crap cars
FEMA
CIA-- for Iraq, for starters
Congress--both sides of the aisle
The Army personnel who ignored/didn't see the Fort Hood situation develop
The list goes on.
Consider your day-to-day transactions. How many clerks do you run in to that have no idea what they are doing? How about the "customer service reps" you talk to on the phone?
Watch the news for a few days--you may find yourself asking, as I do: "Is anyone around here doing their job?"
The one underlying theme that ties all of these together-- incompetence. If people simply did their jobs, many of the crises we've seen should not, would not have happened.
Is it that American workers don't care anymore?
Or is it that our education system has produced decades of students incapable of performing basic functions--and now those failures are coming home to roost?
We have heard warnings about our failed education system for decades. Yet little has changed. We are stuck in a system that fails. Even our best and brightest are coming out with an education that pales against the education learned men possessed in years gone by. (And if you don't believe that, read a bit about our Founding Fathers, or even a speech by FDR-- literate writings and speeches meant for the "common man" reflecting a breadth of knowledge that should shame us-- it certainly shames me-- and I hold an advanced degree).
We have acted as a society as if the issue of whether the schools are "good" or not is equivalent in its effect to whether the movie we just saw was a "good" one or not. We have ignored, at our peril, that the result of turning out generations of poorly prepared students is this: a society that ultimately fails, often in catastrophic ways.
Economies collapse.
People die.
It's time for a change. Real change.
It is a crisis caused by a lack of competence.
This is a short list of people or organizations who just simply haven't done their jobs in recent months. It is not a complete list. It isn't even a well-researched list. These are just the ones I recall--in no particular order:
The FAA-- massive delays, an antiquated air traffic control system
TSA- need I elaborate?
Immigration authorities
Every banker who OK'd a 110% loan
Every financier who agreed to bundle, buy and sell packages of 110% loans
Consumer Product Safety Commission-- how many lead-based toys does it take to kill a generation?
Toyota-- record number of recalls
GM, etc-- for decades of crap cars
FEMA
CIA-- for Iraq, for starters
Congress--both sides of the aisle
The Army personnel who ignored/didn't see the Fort Hood situation develop
The list goes on.
Consider your day-to-day transactions. How many clerks do you run in to that have no idea what they are doing? How about the "customer service reps" you talk to on the phone?
Watch the news for a few days--you may find yourself asking, as I do: "Is anyone around here doing their job?"
The one underlying theme that ties all of these together-- incompetence. If people simply did their jobs, many of the crises we've seen should not, would not have happened.
Is it that American workers don't care anymore?
Or is it that our education system has produced decades of students incapable of performing basic functions--and now those failures are coming home to roost?
We have heard warnings about our failed education system for decades. Yet little has changed. We are stuck in a system that fails. Even our best and brightest are coming out with an education that pales against the education learned men possessed in years gone by. (And if you don't believe that, read a bit about our Founding Fathers, or even a speech by FDR-- literate writings and speeches meant for the "common man" reflecting a breadth of knowledge that should shame us-- it certainly shames me-- and I hold an advanced degree).
We have acted as a society as if the issue of whether the schools are "good" or not is equivalent in its effect to whether the movie we just saw was a "good" one or not. We have ignored, at our peril, that the result of turning out generations of poorly prepared students is this: a society that ultimately fails, often in catastrophic ways.
Economies collapse.
People die.
It's time for a change. Real change.
posted by A Red Mind in a Blue State at 6:21 AM
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