THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM…

Three quick picks from around the blogosphere for a busy Saturday:

Business Loses Interest in New Ideas: Management guru James Champy tells Fast Company that corporate America has lost its appetite for innovation and its ambition for greatness. The ‘idea recession’ is not news to me, but maybe when Champy says it someone will listen.
Democrats Need to Reframe Liberalism as Pragmatism and Common Sense: Matthew Miller writes in the NYT (now behind PPV firewall, but still free at Common Dreams) that the Democrats need to reinvigorate their ideas and ideals, not as ideology, but as simple common sense, and by staking out that pragmatic ground make the Republicans look ideological and unsensible by contrast. Example:

Can’t we agree that anyone who works full time should be able to provide for his or her family? That every citizen should have basic health coverage? And that special efforts should be made to make sure that poor children have good schools? Fixing these problems will take federal dollars, an amount of cash that is mistakenly viewed as “unaffordably liberal” under existing terms of debate. In fact, an agenda that covered the uninsured, subsidized a new living wage of $9 an hour and adequately compensated teachers would cost less than 2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.

Tom DeLay the Hero of Affirmative Action?: First, we had the brave but futile effort of Alabama’s conservative Republican governor Bob Riley to increase state taxes and make the tax system less regressive. Now, a Texas women’s group that advocates equal opportunity for women and minorities, gay rights, and reproductive rights is praising the notorious Tom DeLay as a champion of affirmative action and quotas. Must be a full moon in Dixie…

3 Responses to THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM…

Bryan says:

September 13, 2003 at 22:34

thats a beatiful picture.
Amanda says:

September 14, 2003 at 08:32

beautiful picture… :)hey Brian, you were thinking what I was =p *punches Brian in the arm*
mrG says:

September 14, 2003 at 09:04

Democratic pragmatism. Once upon a time it was called “The New Deal” and it worked marvelously, and it’s worth remembering the public education is a new concept, historically speaking, brought in when economists illustrated how the bulk of our civil law-enforcement, corporate insurance and general health-impact costs are directly traceable to the then non-existant education among the lower casts — taking a longer-range view than the next quarter or even the next election, quality education and encouraging prosperity among the poor is cheaper, even for those whom Bush has granted his tax breaks.

Several decades back, GM (I think it was GM) was embroiled in a bitter labour action, and they asked Buckminster Fuller’s advice. His economists crunched some numbers and recommended granting the largest pay increase in the automaker’s history. They took Bucky’s advice, and that year turned the highest profit in their long history — think about that: Happy employees, with more cash in their pocket … happy employees do better quality work, and what do people buy when they’ve hit on good times? A new car … and where do you suppose they bought that car?

Now, while universal healthcare, fair labour practices and education may make sense to thinking cultures such as (some) Canadians, the Dutch and Scandinavians, just try explaining it to your average voting Republican. You can always tell a Republican, you just can’t tell ’em much.