Someone I knew from communist Hungry worked for many years in the office of a vineyard. Everyone was paid the same,and no one could get fired. As a result of the drudgery and banalness, they held contests. At noon, everyone was surveyed. One would say I looked busy all morning and wrote two paragraphs. Pretty good would say another, but I wrote only one paragraph. Then another chimed in saying I wrote only one sentence this morning. They were declared the winner and everyone else chipped in and bought them lunch.
A goodwill tour of the Moscow shocked an American transit official (he was also a retired Air Force colonel and should have, to my mind, known better). All their buses had short life spans and sloppy maintenance. He expected Communism’s puritan quality to lead to a very different outcome. But there was no bottom line or Judgment Day. (Stalin did have a puritan streak. He edited out the milk maid scene in Dovzhenko’s Earth as too exotic.)
People like to achieve. If they didn’t we’d all be living in caves and wearing animal skins. To those of faith this achievement is often more inner than outer. But the desire to achieve, to take pride in one’s work, is often about the inner peace of contributing more than merely wealth or fame. If one were to criticize my perspective, they may point to the great scientists of Soviet Russia. Fortunately, there are always individuals like that. However, that doesn’t relate to the vast majority of everyday people and their sense of satisfaction.
But tragedies like the massive cave-ins of apartment buildings in Soviet built Armenia during an earthquake brutally affect everyone. When there are no checks and balances it becomes the short term solution of all participants to cover up. Socialism, or one party rule in much of America, bases itself on these unitary or cohabiting institutions. Many people on both the Left and on the Right agree that we live in an oligopoly. Apologists for our current arrangement point to our abundant consumer choices. We shop at Walmart instead of Sears. We stream movies rather than wait in theatre lines. But is this just an illusion of control while real power lies elsewhere?
While the FAA may finally correct shoddy Boeing software, why did they approve it in the first place? Our Public Utilities Commission allowed PG&E’s negligent maintenance. The Left is now proposing a government takeover of PG&E. This may be as efficient as California high speed rail construction.
I wonder if people really understand what they are getting into. Some time ago it was suggested that the giant public pension funds buy large corporations with annuity like income streams. This came closest to fruition when the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan proposed buying Bell Canada. What if all the telephone line workers got cancer from PCB’s in the equipment? Normally the stockholders lose as the company is liquated to pay the injured their claims. How would a situation of the school teachers vs. telephone line workers play out? Would the teachers have their pensions threatened? Would there be an incentive to cover up? Would the union movement’s slogan of solidarity take on a new meaning?
Are these predicaments a parable of our present day and especially in California?
Copyright 2019, Mark L. Bennett
