Dialog

SustainableMiddleClass.com.
Home	Blog	Site Map

Dialog: The Highest Level of Communication

More dialog, please…

In their book, Science, Order, and Creativity," physicists David Bohm and David Peat discuss different levels of communication: dialog, discussion and confrontation. In the case of confrontation, not only do the opposing sides disagree, but also each side perceives the other as a threat. In discussion, the sides each hold firmly to their own pre-established positions. The discussion is civil, but neither side is interested in changing their minds. With dialog, however, the differing sides acknowledge the other's point of view and there is a free and open exchange of ideas - with a good possibility that one or more sides may actually reconsider their own positions.

If you'd care to comment on any of these earlier posts and editorials, just go to the blog.

May 13, 2006 Editorial

NSA Phone Surveillance: Prospects for "false positives" and more power for the President?

Shocked by the news that the NSA has been compiling our phone records? The NSA collects enormous quantities of telecommunications data and they have been for a long time. Should they be allowed to do so? Most people would probably say yes, to protect us from terrorists. After all, as Secretary Rumsfeld and others have assured us, there are no civil liberties for the dead.

The bigger question though is not that the NSA collects the data, but what they do with it. Is it collected accurately? How is it processed? Who does the NSA share the data with, if anybody? Is the data used judiciously and fairly? Consider the following scenario:

You volunteer to coach youth soccer for your city recreation department. You get a list of names of the kids on your team. The list also has their parents' names and phone numbers. One kid's dad has ties to a church bowling league where some other members have past experience with the "patriot movement." You have another kid on the team whose dad works at a fertilizer factory. Your sister, who you are close to, is married to a guy who delivers fuel oil.

You call all the soccer parents up to introduce yourself and let them know when they'll have practice. A couple days later it rains and you call them all again to let them know practice is cancelled. You call later to re-schedule. You call again a couple days later to let them know about team pictures. This goes on for six weeks (you get the idea.)

Now the NSA is sweeping up all these calls to the soccer moms and dads, who you really don't know anything about, accept their son or daughter likes to play soccer. You talk to your sister once a week or more. The NSA has no idea you are a volunteer soccer coach supporting a community activity, but the pattern of your calls maybe looks suspicious to the spies who get paid to be suspicious.

Some months later, you book a flight for a vacation to the Bahamas. As you slowly shuffle through the security line toward the metal detector, having selected a better pair of socks to wear to the airport that morning, you're pulled aside by a TSA officer. You're told you've been identified for additional screening. You go to an office where there are more TSA officers who ask you some questions then tell you you're on a "no fly" list. The vacation to the Bahamas is cancelled. No sense complaining, we are at war after all. Things aren't so bad, you could still drive to Branson.

Does the above scenario sound too far-fetched? I hope it is, but it probably isn't. The bottom line is that this NSA program needs vigorous oversight from the Judicial and Legislative branches of our government. The Bush Administration's position seems to imply that the other two branches can't be trusted to keep state secrets.

My biggest concern is that this may be part of a long-term but steady process of marginalizing the Congress and the Judiciary, and growing the power of the President. This is not what the Framers had in mind. I hope it's not what the voters have in mind, either.

True patriots will vote to protect the Constitution and its provisions supporting civil liberties and the rule of law.

________________________________________________________________

January 9, 2006 Editorial

Newt Gingrich had a prepared piece on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" this morning. I listened to him on the way to work. He started with what sounded like lessons to learn from the Abramoff scandal, chastising members of Congress for devoting all of their time to fundraisers, building war chests big enough to convince all would-be challengers that to run against the incumbent would be a wasted effort. I was riding along, the car was running smooth, and I found myself mostly in agreement with "The Newt-Man."

Then Newt crashed his argument into a pile of nonsense. He blamed the whole affair on "Big Government." The only aspect of government he'd mentioned so far was Congress. What part of "Big Government" does Newt want to lop off? Congress? He did not propose cutting one specific wasteful program, yet the problem was supposedly to be blamed on an abstraction called "Big Government."

Ronald Reagan used the same abstraction successfully in the 1980's. He didn't really define it then either. It was then, and is now, meant for the voter to define. If there is some aspect of government you don't like, you can be sure that Newt, like the Gipper, doesn't like it either. Therefore, Newt's your man, the way Ron used to be.

I don't think we're quite the same country now as we were twenty years ago. Platitudes and gross generalizations don't cut it quite like they used to. Citizens want to know what is going to be cut when the "Big Government" dragon slayers start beating their chests. Who's going to get hurt? How will the states get stuck with the shortfall? Who stands to profit? Are they serious? The Federal government actually grew under Reagan (and shrank under Clinton).

No, Mr. Gingrich, the lesson of the Abramoff scandal isn't about big government, it's about earmarks and how we finance elections. As long as it costs millions to run an American media circus campaign, and campaign donations are considered the equivalent of free speech, we're going to see these scandals. The solution is to have scaled-back, saner, more modest campaigns financed by public funds. When the elected officials no longer have to run around fund-raising, they'll be able to settle down to do the public's business.

___________________________________

December 2005 - Reply to George

I think George is commenting on the proposal to lower the voting age to 16. Time is, according to Einstein and others, relative. Suppose the Federal Government decided to raise the age of eligibility for Medicare and Social Security from 65 to 67. Think anyone would mind? I bet they would. Suppose a politician defended such a move by saying "It's only two years, stop complaining." What would be his chances of re-election? Still, I hear what George is saying. I just believe that, in a democracy, the onus should be on those who would categorically deny a group to vote, to justify their position, rather than on those who would support allowing more people to vote...(jf)

December, 2005 Commentary from George

It's only two years, stop complaining.

__________________________________________

December 2005 - Reply to "Nickleback"

You suggest there is a link between headline news stories and daily stock market performance. When Private Jessica Lynch was rescued during the Iraq Invasion, the Dow jumped over 400 points. The September 2005 Harper's Magazine (Harper's Index, page 11) quoted Brit Hume of Fox News as saying that "time to buy" was one his first thoughts he had after learning of the London bombings. If you understood what kind of stories moved the markets up or down, and were in a position to know what stories would lead the next day's news, such as an media executive, you could, theoretically, use the news to influence the market to your advantage. It's and interesting theory. Not sure how well it works….(jf).

November, 2005 - Commentary from "Nickleback"

Tues,Nov.1 MSN headline 11:00: Bush unveils Bird Flu Plan. Dow, Nasdaq and S.P.500 down 10 year bond up

__________________________________________

December 4, 2005

Reply to J.J.S.

I understand the FSA enabled you to save money by lowering your tax obligation. This is good news from a personal perspective but ultimately bad national policy. Lowering tax payments at this time adds to the federal deficit and prompts additional borrowing and deficit spending. As stated in the "Lower the Voting Age" text, deficits are deferred taxes that will be passed along to the future taxpayers of America. The FSA approach is but one more example of dumping the economic responsibilities of the present onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. I'm reminded of the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children." Are we leaving them an economic world of insurmountable debt?..(jf)

November 2005 Commentary from J.J.S.

The following comment relates to the Sustainable Middle Class National Health Plan page.

Hello, Yes, the ability of saving money through a FSA account can and does result in some mistrust of the system and one's ability to plan ahead. My employer started offering this benefit/option maybe 10 years ago. It took me 2 years to give it a try. I estimated my known expenses such as the co-pay amounts for prescriptions,dental work and hopefully not too may visits to my dr(s). Seems like the older I get(52) the more times I know what's coming. One year I knew that I had a lot of dental work that had to be done.I was able to hold off till Jan. when my new FSA account kicked in. My out of pocket expenses would be about $1500. The account saved me maybe 20-25%...J.J.S

____________________________________________

November 9, 2005 - Reply to J.J.S.

Thanks for your note. There's no cut-and-dried definition for middle class, as far as I know. The middle three income quintiles as shown on the "Income Inequality" page of this website seem reasonable. I've also seen some definitions that are based more on career, use of proper grammar, and other stylistic factors. The New York Times uses four specific criteria. One interesting definition for middle class I saw years ago identified families where the father took an active role in raising the children. The link below to the USA Today article gives a fair look at the kind of people who appear to be middle class now but who are not building financial assets. Rather, they are sinking deeper into debt in order to provide their families with the kinds of opportunities the parents had growing up - good schools, house, etc.

Can the society stand on two of the three legs of sustainability? Which one would you want to do away with? Consider equal opportunity. It is in society's best interest to have a large pool of talent from which to choose for various career fields, regardless of the applicant's social status. To do otherwise is to risk a kind of inbreeding and stagnation. For example, look what happened to professional baseball when Jackie Robinson, Roy Campenella, and others finally broke the color barrier and joined the Big Leagues. We got a better brand of baseball. If you think about it, the three E's are tied together both from a pragmatic standpoint, and from a point of principle. -(jf)

__________________________________________

Plight of the Middle Class-USA Today

October 31, 2005 Commentary from J.J.S.

Hello, Please let me know what your benchmarks are as to be considered of the middle class. Are you of middle class or hoping to reach that desirable station? Can the three legged stool of the three E's stand on two legs and still be viable?Is it all or nothing? Thanks, J.J.S.

__________________________________________

October 21, 2005

The Libby-Rove-Plame Case: Why is it important? Security.

Over the past two years, the "outing" of CIA employee Valerie Plame has waxed and waned in the media and at times seemed as though it would fade into obscurity. But not last week. Karl Rove apparently spent four and one-half hours of Q & A with Judge Patrick Fitzgerald's legal team.

It seems that Plame's association with the CIA was leaked as a form of retaliation after her husband, Ambassador Wilson returned from Africa and refuted President Bush's assertion that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium "yellowcake" from Niger.

A lot of attention has been paid to the question of whether or not reporters can protect the anonymity of their sources. The bigger issue that has been missed is the protection of our intelligence officials. The protection of our intelligence officials is crucial as they go about gathering information to protect us. In short, this is a national security issue.

I hope Judge Patrick Fitzgerald and others working on the case talk to some of the CIA agents who were outed in Phillip Agee's book, Inside the Company, published in 1975. What sort of problems did those agents have after that? I hope the prosecutors talk with the friends and family of Richard Welch, former CIA Athens Bureau chief, whose operations were revealed in a newspaper article.

What about contacts the intelligence agents make with people inside hostile governments? Once it is known that a government official has been spending time with a CIA agent, life could get treacherous for that official. Revealing the identity of intelligence agents has a chilling effect on the entire intelligence community. Who would want a career in covert operations if they thought they might be betrayed if they provided information that was not what the boss wanted to hear? How can agents build trust with those in hostile governments or with ties to terrorist cells if they are likely to have their identities revealed?

Again, this is about security. The question now is whether the American system of justice is prepared to send a strong message to those who play the dirtiest kind of politics with the identities of our intelligence officers: you don't mess with the lives of our intelligence community, period. If you do, you go to jail.

__________________________________________

October 9, 2005

Nervous about 401k

A cold front moved through our area last Wednesday night and Thursday morning was dark and the house had the kind of chill we expect around Peal Harbor Day in December. I flipped on the radio while making coffee to a news summary that said the Japanese Nikei average dropped over three-hundred points. The U.S markets had been down all week and I was seriously considering bailing out of mutual funds for the relative safety of a money market. My portfolio would be OK if I were thirty, not fifty, but it is still enough that I don't want to lose it. Oil is way up, heating fuel, especially natural gas, is headed the same way. The Gulf Coast is in shambles, weather forecasters predict a cold winter, and the deficit is soaring. It is as though our government in Washington doesn't even keep track of it any more.

China is fast moving into position to control our economy, and the War for Iraq is a mess with Iraqi forces nowhere near ready to take over that country's security. With that kind of news, it seems logical to pull my lousy 401K out of the Great Casino that is Wall Street and stash it in a sensible CD. I decided to let it ride.

I'm not in the business of giving anybody financial advice, but with all this trouble facing us, I just have to believe there are some opportunities out there. We've known at least from the 1970's when President Carter called on Americans to pursue an aggressive energy policy with "the moral equivalent of war" that the day of energy reckoning was near. As President Reagan scoffed and wrinkled his nose at "liberals" and the whole notion of "limits", a few free thinkers and innovators continued to plan for the ultimate end of cheap oil.

President Reagan was partly wrong and partly right. With respect to America's dependence on fossil fuels, he was absolutely wrong and should have followed President Carter's lead and pursued a realistic energy policy. However, with respect to human knowledge and innovation, Reagan was right.

Much is happening quietly on the energy front. Danes are turning the sea breeze into light. Cattle men on the High Plains are turning cow shit into gold. These are interesting times we live in and they're going to get better provided we have the courage to look at things a little differently, think clearly, and act. Have a great week! …jf

__________________________________

October 2, 2005

Another rough week at the gas pumps: after coming down a little after Hurricane Rita spared Galveston and Houston, gasoline prices climbed again. So why have gas prices risen so much? Apparently there are many factors: strong demand in the energy-inefficient United States, fast-growing economies of India and China that like driving, too, and instability in the Middle East.

In the run up to the Iraq Invasion, the White House assured the country that the cost of going to war would be paid out of a liberated Iraq's oil revenues. Then it became obvious that the war would cost a lot more than what Iraq could pay for with its crippled oil exports.

The good news, if we can think of it that way, is that oil prices have more than doubled since the start of the war, which means the oil Iraq does manage to sell is fetching well over twice the dollars it did prior to March 19, 2003. Iraq oil revenues may soon start to put a real dent in the cost of the war - something we Americans can feel especially good about.

So, next time we fill up, we should all remember, we're not just paying through the nose, we're helping to rebuild Iraq and bring peace and stability to the Middle East. …jf

_______________________________________

September 25, 2005

Last Friday evening I heard economist Glenn Hubbard interviewed on the NPR program, On Point. The program host Tom Ashbrook asked him about the disproportionate increase in high-income earnings compared to those in the middle and lower income brackets. Glenn Hubbard responded with the claim that the problem of income growth disparity had to do with "training." Evidently, the high-end earners were raking in more money because of their superior training, while others lacked the training needed to get ahead.

According to Glenn Hubbard, the reason for this inferior training was due to the lack of competitiveness in our public schools.

I have a few questions for Glenn Hubbard:

1. Is George Bush a millionaire because of his superior training?

2. Does sending manufacturing jobs overseas have nothing to do with lowering wages on middle and lower end wage earners?

3. Are we losing jobs to China and Mexico because the Mexicans and Chinese are better trained?

4. Does the loss of union jobs have nothing to do with declines in real earnings for workers?

The truth is, corporations have been able to weaken or eliminate unions and suppress wage growth by threatening to send operations overseas to cheaper labor markets. There are other factors at work, as well, but Glenn Hubbard did not address them in the interview, either.

Many predict that Glenn Hubbard will be the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve, succeeding Allen Greenspan when he steps down next Janurary. I recommend we contact our Senators and urge them to do a very thorough vetting of Glenn Hubbard. From what I have heard, his confirmation would not be good news for the middle class. jf

Update: Hubbard is still a Dean at Columbia University, Ben Bernanke's the new Fed Chairman.

______________________________________

August 20, 2005

Regarding the proposal to lower the voting age to sixteen, I've been told, through dialog, that this is "a tough sell." Evidently, there's not exactly a ground-swell of support for this new initiative. That's fine with me provided the following conditions:

1. The government stops taxing wage earners who are too young to vote.

2. The government pays off the budget deficit, which commits youth to future taxes without giving them the opportunity to vote on them.

3. The "age of consent" be raised to eighteen.

Sound reasonable? Thanks for the comments! jf

________________________________________

QUOTES

"A higher share of income for the middle class and lower ethnic polarization are empirically associated with higher income, higher growth, more education, better health, better infrastructure, better economic policies, less political instability, less civil war and ethnic minorities at risk, more social 'modernization' and more democracy." - William Easterly. 2000.

"Thus is it manifest that the best political community is formed by the citizens of the middle class and that those states are to be well-administered, in which the middle class is large…where the middle class is large, there are least likely to be factions and dissension." Aristotle 306 BCE (Quoted in Easterly, 2000 Middle Class Consensus and Economic Development).

"There is an extent of riches as well as an extreme of poverty, which, by harrowing the circles of a man's acquaintance, lessens his opportunities of general knowledge." …Thomas Paine, Common Sense

__________________________________________

REFERENCES

Bohm, D. and F.D. Peat. 1987. Science, Order, and Creativity: a dramatic new look at the creative roots of science and life. Bantam Books, New York.

Keywords: dialog on sustainability, sustainable policies, levels of communication