Notable for its absence
For my many years as a California resident I have voted against every single proposition – these appear about twice annually on the ballot – which asked whether the government should borrow more. These propositions address a gamut of pork barrel issues from school funding (why would you waste money on the worst schools in the nation run by a corrupt cadre?) to – I kid you not – storm drain bonds in areas where rainfall is a few inches a year.
My reasoning is simple. Starve the beast of government and you return money to the people.
Until last week, nearly every such proposition was carried by a two thirds majority yet, ask any voter where he thought the money would come from and your reply would be a blank stare. Something finally happened to shake voters into the real world last week when four tax propositions were defeated but I had long ago concluded that America’s greatest disease was financial illiteracy. Why else would you get workers borrowing egregious sums with no prospect of timely debt service in some pie in the sky belief that their real estate would inflate in value indefinitely? This financial illiteracy, exploited by unscrupulous lenders, has brought America to its knees, a status it’s unlikely to emerge from for at least a decade. If it emerges at all, that is.
So blind ignorance, brought on by an educational system that favors populism and sales over hard work and numerate skill, is America’s Number One disease.
Number Two?
It’s easily seen by its absence in this great 1942 picture by reportage snapper Wegee (Arthur Fellig):
Coney Island, 1942
America’s Number Two disease, which is crippling the finances of the responsible and padding the pockets of the unscrupulous is, of course, obesity. Simply stated, if you are fat, I am subsidizing your medical costs. My responsible behavior and healthy eating habits are penalized by your gluttony. Go to any public place in America and you will see that fully two thirds of the people around you are not just overweight. They are grossly over weight. Obese. And it’s a disease which modern prosperity, pushed by those same sales skills taught in schools, coupled with a constant need for one more fast meal because we are too busy to cook healthy food, has created.
Skeptical?
Can you see a fat person in Wegee’s picture?
The picture was taken 67 years ago. The crowd is from the lowest social demographic and, hence, the least likely to eat healthy foods. Yet there’s not an obese person in sight.
For a daily snap be sure to visit my photoblog Snap!
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