Musings at Altitude

While I was in the Washington DC area this week, I found myself late at night pondering the burdens of the world and watching C-SPAN (that’s how overwhelming the burdens were).  On one particular night, the leaders of the major finance institutions in this country were being grilled by Congress over their compensation and use of the TARP funds that their individual companies received.  I felt enormous empathy while I watched, but not for the legislators who were ruthlessly and sometimes recklessly grilling, nor for the CEO’s of the finance institutions who were being called to the carpet for the questionable spending of tax payers money. 

Instead, I felt empathy and sympathy for those working so hard to provide revenues to this country that then have to listen to the theatrical performances and the scrutinizing questions.

So I had a thought.  Any elected or hired individual in a policy making or governance role must spend one week a quarter doing revenue generating or revenue supporting jobs in the operations side of companies or in the districts that they represent.  Also, anyone who has a role in prioritizing investment or directing where operating capital goes must also do “real work” so they can see first hand the affects of their decisions and directions as well as experience in a very real way the affects of their actions on both the lives and the attitudes of those affected by anything they do in that bureaucratic role.

I grow tired of those at the top of bureaucracies (and that certainly applies to both companies and governments) who pompously question and scrutinize without understanding, or confidently and adamantly vector money without any practical experience in the areas or issues with which they are dealing.

Proverbs 14:25 says, “A truthful witness saves lives, but a false witness is deceitful.”

That seems to apply to any public or private debate in companies or Congress right now.  We save (or at least enhance) lives if we truthfully, knowingly, and understandably debate issues.  But those debates seem rare today.  Instead, we see false or non-knowing witness in the debates and critical decisions being made without accurate data or without relevant experience in the areas where actions need to be taken.

So, once again, let’s take a bureaucrat to work and challenge them to deliver the awesome performance that most folks are heads down delivering today while ignoring those very bureaucrats.  I wonder how many assumptions now taken as fact would be overturn with just a little bit of knowledge replacing the oh so clear ignorance.