It’s hard to take the needle from the addict’s arm.

Perfection is a worthwhile ideal to aspire to. It is failure GUARANTEED as a goal. There are finite limits to resources…available manpower, physical and mental; and available capital. That’s why so many undertakings are done in “stages” and, in some cases, the success of the first making undertaking the second possible, etc.

Priorities are why you don’t sit down to eat before lighting the fire and cooking the food. I think CPM (Critical Path Method) and PERT should be a mandatory high school course.

These crucial “success skills” are what such people “bring to the table” that (most) others lack (and don’t know they need). Politicians seem congenitally deficient in these skills!

With so many of these specialists we may someday have more employees than students. We need to simplify education.
More teachers. Smaller classes. Everyone else leave.

You appear to be referring to Bill Gates…?

One thing most rich people have in common (especially when it comes to business executives like Bill Gates) is that they know how to manage money. Whether you’re administering charitable funds or business resources, it helps if you have a frenetic attention to detail, and a dogged refusal to sign off on expenses you don’t understand.

I agree with the general spirit of the article though!

They were probably saying the same thing about the idea of America in Britain in the 1700s. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and many of the founding fathers were part of the gentry – rich, landowners who had an idea of how to do things in a better way.

America is an experiment by the ultra wealthy that has benefited many over the last 200 years. Now it’s 2011 and we need another reform. So be it.

We need to dump our system and get a parliamentary system with proportional representation. We need to dump lifetime judges not answerable to the victims they rule. And we need to limit military spending to a maximum percentage of GDP. Our whole system has been corrupted and the only thing solid in our legal system is the doctrine of sovereign immunity. They like immunity. They like not being answerable, ever.

side note: “President Obama is a centrist” …now that is funny. President Obama is 100% politician…. he ran as a ‘Leader for change’ and in his heart he may in fact want change. But in action he is a political figure pandering and spinning his way through the maze of Washington DC.
President Obama has good poll numbers because that is what he focuses on rather than leadering this country during this difficult time. Sadly there is no one on the DC stage that will do much better…..time for complete change.

The splintering of politics by additional parties has always been temporary and adverse to the interests of those who join them. In this example I am amazed that “wealthy individuals” would rush to shoot themselves in the foot as you suggest. Two steps, neither likely or simple, would “fix” our broken system.

First and foremost, we need a national dialogue to consider, adopt and properly fund those goals as will define America as a nation in the years to come. Then, and only then can we move forward as a people to responsibly review all present and future for classification as a “need” or a “want”.

Human nature being what it is, the “wants” will largely be those expenditures not associated with the constitutional purpose of our federal government or that on their face are clearly NOT a “need”. We must then agree on a single, fixed and absolute estimate of government revenue to be “budgeted”.

Only then is it possible to allocate and prioritize the funding thereof. It is our failure to do these necessary things that results in the pushing and shoving of partisan political influence that has proven itself utterly incapable of governing in any meaningful manner. It is not enough to “kick the can” We must, instead, open the can and empty it or fill it as appropriate; yet we do neither.

By this process will “we, the people” decide whether a majority of want a welfare state that cannot support itself (effectively what we have now, inasmuch as current federal spending is known to be “unsustainable” by those serious in both parties) or whether we want a country with a strong economy sustainable into a future ever uncertain.

Our second challenge is to rid America of the “political class”, our professional politicians. In the beginning Congress was comprised of successful, full-time citizens.

It was our “best and brightest” who could afford to leave their enterprise or estate and serve without pay for brief periods to discuss and transact the nation’s business. These brought with them “real-world experience essential to doing this well on behalf of all Americans.

By making the transaction of the nation’s business a full time job, we attract and elevate those who know only how to schmooze; and thus are themselves easily schmoosed. Is it any wonder they then reward themselves with lavish salaries and benefits far beyons those of ordinary citizens and send us the bill? ENOUGH! Out with the lot!

Of course, the only way to get rid if them is for an “informed electorate” to rise up and “do the deed”. In today’s reality I fear it easier to organize the 50+ percent that pay no income tax to vote to increase their own numbers than to arouse a majority seriously interested in putting this country back on the road to sustainability.

The splintering of politics by additional parties has always been temporary and adverse to the interests of those who join them. In this example I am amazed that the “monied” would rush to shoot themselves in the foot in this manner (if it be true and serious). Two steps, neither likely or simple, would “fix” our broken system.

First and foremost, we need a national dialogue to consider, adopt and properly fund those goals as will define America as a nation in the years to come. Then, and only then can we move forward as a people to responsibly review all present and future for classification as a “need” or a “want”.

Human nature being what it is, the “wants” will largely be those expenditures not associated with the constitutional purpose of our federal government or that on their face are clearly NOT a “need”. We must then agree on a single, fixed and absolute estimate of government revenue to be “budgeted”.

Only then is it possible to allocate and prioritize the funding thereof. It is our failure to do these necessary things that results in the pushing and shoving of partisan political influence that has proven itself utterly incapable of governing in any meaningful manner. It is not enough to “kick the can” We must, instead, open the can and empty it or fill it as appropriate; yet we do neither.

By this process will “we, the people” decide whether a majority of want a welfare state that cannot support itself (effectively what we have now, inasmuch as current federal spending is known to be “unsustainable” by those serious in both parties) or whether we want a country with a strong economy sustainable into a future ever uncertain.

Our second challenge is to rid America of the “political class”, our professional politicians. In the beginning Congress was comprised of successful, full-time citizens.

It was our “best and brightest” who could afford to leave their enterprise or estate and serve without pay for brief periods to discuss and transact the nation’s business. These brought with them “real-world experience essential to doing this well on behalf of all Americans.

By making the transaction of the nation’s business a full time job, we attract and elevate those who know only how to schmooze; and thus are themselves easily schmoosed. Is it any wonder they then reward themselves with lavish salaries and benefits far beyons those of ordinary citizens and send us the bill? ENOUGH! Out with the lot!

Of course, the only way to get rid if them is for an “informed electorate” to rise up and “do the deed”. In today’s reality I fear it easier to organize the 50+ percent that pay no income tax to vote to increase their own numbers than to arouse a majority seriously interested in putting this country back on the road to sustainability.