Both Oars In New Year’s Resolution: Cooperate More

Jan 1, 2010

For starters, our beloved politicians in Washington should consider cooperating more. Here is a thought to help them get in the right mood. Ask not what you can do for your party; ask what you can do for your country. It is time to stop the end fighting and bickering. It is time to leave the lifeless poles and head to the center where most of America lives. It is time to cooperate and lead the country in one direction—a positive one.

Forget crossing the aisle at the eleventh hour merely to exchange gifts at the expense of efficient government and the taxpayer. What we need now is true, honest cooperation. A household faced with serious debt needs all its members cooperating to bring down spending and increase revenue. At every level of government, the focus needs to be increased productivity [GNP] and cost trimming [Deficit Reduction]. We need all legislators focusing on making this nation great again, not reelection or satisfying special interests. To this end, let’s hope Mr. Obama keeps cooperation on his New Year’s list, specifically in the form of a Bipartisan Deficit Commission.

We’re at war. But, who would know given our national behavior. Since there is no draft and no steel or butter rationing, most of the nation goes about its business and life without much change. Even the Nobel Committee seems to have missed the fact that we are a nation at war. It is time to bring the war front and center. We ought not to do as a nation what we do not agree to do as a nation nor pay for as we do it. It is time to join the war effort as a nation, or end it.

We are also in the midst of a recession brought on in part by years of labor driven “pie-in-the-sky” benefits packages and out of touch management decisions. The auto industry failure is a prime example of where non-cooperation leads. The cow not only got out of the barn, it fell down and died while labor and management fought. It is going to take the full cooperation of government, investors, management and unions to bring back this cornerstone industry.

We can blame the banks for our credit woes; but, as we learn in It’s a Wonderful Life, it is the people who have the power to bring an end to a financial crisis. We need to use credit responsibly and increase our saving rate. We need to pay back what we borrowed—after all it’s our neighbor’s money. Going forward, we need to put more money into stock and less into our oversized houses and lifestyles. It is time to pay down, save and invest. It is time for creditors and debtors to cooperate, not feed off each other like junkies and pushers.

It is also a time for parents, teachers, and school districts to work cooperatively. We have gained what can be gained from throwing more money at education. It is time to ask more of parents, students and teachers and less of the taxpayer. The U.S. is the biggest spender on secondary and elementary students in the world. On average, we are spending $9,000 per student. Money cannot buy discipline, studiousness, or commitment. People have to be moved to give these things. It is amazing how much a little cooperation can inspire everyone to work harder.

It is obviously going to take more cooperation to get through the airport, now, too. We can grouse at the daily victims of terrorism—TSA workers—or just decide to cooperate. There is nothing that is more clearly for our benefit than airport security. And, nothing will make terrorist stand out more than our cheerful, cooperative response to the request to remove our jackets or stand still for a full body scan or a pat down. Cooperating with a TSA agent is no different than cooperating with our doctor during a physical exam. It is just a little more public.

Let’s make the next decade something really radical—let’s make it a time of unprecedented working together uninhibited by ideology or individual interests. We have tried Conservatism and Liberalism, let’s give Cooperativism a try.