Lies – The Price of Discrimination

On 3/14/07, I published an article titled “Why Did America lie to my generation.” I promised more and I am promising more yet. It’s important and is yet another issue our politicians should be paying attention to but are not because they are too busy trying keep themselves in office.

This article outlines some of the costs of discrimination of various kinds. Knowledge of the cost forces us to ask ourselves if maintaining prejudice is worth the cost. You may think this is a no-brainer in 2007 and if so, good for you. Unfortunately, that is not everyone’s reality as some discrimination is still widespread despite its lack of affordability and stress level increase.

The price of discrimination is that you lose the unique contribution of the class of people that you discriminate against. The price of lying about discrimination is that you lose the contribution of the class of people you are pretending not to discriminate against, plus you further alienate them, plus you will eventually have to eliminate discrimination for real, resulting in at least a double-billing of the investment required to accomplish real non-discrimination.

Sometimes the price can be counted in dollars. Sometimes the price is that we just feel like crap because we know we did the wrong thing. That is a valid cost because that’s what dollars do for us too. Dollars make us feel better because we can bask in the financial security they provide. Either way we, as humans, need to feel good regardless of the feel-good dimension or cause.

Race – we instinctively know it’s wrong to discriminate on the basis of race (at least most of us do). In terms of dollars, we are deprived of the perspective and ideas as well as the maximized economic and tax contribution of about 13% of the U.S. population. We also deprive ourselves and our children of the fruits of our labor as we pour tax money into a welfare system doomed to failure from the beginning, hated by both those who fund it and its recipients.

Gender – Again, we know this type of discrimination is wrong. Discrimination against 50%+ of the population is no longer discrimination; it’s civil war. We also know it’s futile because women will have their revenge no matter what. They always have; they always will. They also see things differently than men, which makes them invaluable in businesses where reaching out to women is essential, which includes every business worth mentioning.

Disabled persons – We are inspired by seeing the disabled being productive in much the same way that we are inspired by putting a human on the moon. There are, obviously potential downsides, hence the word “disabled.” However, these are the people who point out the mistakes we make in taking people and things for granted – the things we never thought about before we allowed them to contribute – ramp access on sidewalks replacing curbs, for example.

Sexual orientation – About the only way to understand anyone who discriminates on this basis any more is that we all know that it’s annoying to have homosexuality thrown in your face, just as it is to have anything thrown it your face. I am not suggesting a “don’t ask, don’t tell” scenario. I am suggesting an “I don’t care, don’t bother me with it” scenario. This is almost totally within the control of the affected class. Having said that, we welcome the creativity and other contributions brought to the table by these community members and miss them when they are absent.

Veteran Status – It doesn’t seem right to be discriminated against because you defended your country. It is currently popular to give war veterans a break. Well, I’m one of them and I don’t remember any breaks, mainly because my war was very unpopular. In fact, I remember some pretty crappy treatment courtesy of Jane Fonda and Jane Fonda wannabes. They are currently at it again, so beware active veterans. The tide can turn on you quickly. For what it’s worth, you’ll always have me. From a dollar perspective, there is the potential for a substantial loss of experience – and not just any experience. We throw away the dogged determination, thorough-training, and crisis-seasoned experience that we need in the business world of 2007 and beyond.

Religion & National Origin – Let’s face it. The problems we face in today’s world – the important problems, the issues of survival – are foisted upon us through the vehicle of religion, and implemented through the tools of state (nationalism). It is time we resurrected a basic truth. Your freedom ends where my space begins. That having been said, no serious person in America believes in this type of discrimination. Profiling is a different matter. That being said, it is the members of these classes who, by attempting to protect the few bad seeds or by rubbing our noses in a known dimension of danger (like the Minnesota Imams did), make the rest of us wary of them all. The vast majority of us want to give you opportunity and benefit from your unique culture. Help us.

Age – We don’t want to go quietly into our golden years. We weren’t raised in quiet times; we didn’t grow up in quiet times; we didn’t foster quiet times; we don’t see quiet times ahead; we aren’t ready for quiet times. We also don’t relish the idea of draining the Social Security system and depriving our children of this valuable resource. This is the dollar cost of age discrimination. If the Social Security is depleted, it will be through the discriminatory actions of those who put us out to pasture.

The common thread through all these elements of discrimination is expressed in a very old, very good book – the best-selling book of all time, in fact.

“…for whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Galatians 6:7)

Why Did America Lie to My Generation?

America lied to my generation. America lied about a lot of things. America lied about discrimination. America lied about diversity and still does. America lied about how it valued experience and still does. America lied about economic security and it still tries to, though the lies are becoming more transparent every day. America lied about competition and still does. America lied about what it valued and still does. These lies are embodied and promoted by political correctness and enforced by the Politically Correctness Police.

This is not a condemnation of any presidential administration or party. It is not a condemnation of America; the United States is still the greatest country this planet has ever seen. It is, however, a comment on how we, as a people, lie to ourselves and, more to the point, how segments of the American society lie to each other. It is a prediction of the penalties we will pay for those lies. It is something that I cannot possibly address in one article, so there will be more to follow.

When I first began my career, we were told we could count on cradle-to-grave employment. There were good things and bad things about that. The good thing was that we were more secure, were able to avoid the stresses that we deal with today, and planning for the future was relatively easy. The bad thing was that people sometimes got too secure, and tended to get arrogant and lazy. That drove employer costs and product prices up while driving productivity down. So we all understood when things began to change, that life by definition is not static. The cradle-to-grave concept faded away, and that was OK.

We were told we could count on the social security system, and now we are told that that may not be the case after paying increased amounts of money into it for all these years. That’s less OK, but in and of itself, bearable.

We were told that we would all be living longer, and, in general, we do because of the excellent health care system we have here in the U.S.A. Then the prices went up, and we were told that we would need to pay part of it. Some of us couldn’t really afford the higher cost of that excellent health care. When we retire (or are retired prematurely) many of us can’t afford the cost of that excellent health care, which remains excellent only as long as we can afford it. The consequence is the current national health care crisis that will play a role in determining at least the next two or three presidents of the United States. This is not OK on many levels.

Government has 3 missions: to protect its citizens from wrongdoing from outsiders, to protect its citizens from wrongdoing from one another, and to provide a stable and viable currency to facilitate economic transactions. Health care fits it where? It depends on how you define wrongdoing, but by my definition – nowhere.

We were given 401K plans to take the place of the traditional pension and social security. How is that working out? Not that well.

The result is a huge number of boomers that have lost most or all of the traditional pension they were promised, may lose much of the social security they were promised, and have had inadequate time to make their 401Ks and IRAs robust enough to make up the gaps. Despite these lies, we have tried to help out by resigning ourselves to working longer. We are not anxious to begin draining the social security system and bankrupt it for our children, and since as we have been promised that we will be living longer, why not work longer? I’ll tell you why not. You won’t let us.

There is now age discrimination in the U.S. toward the generation that worked so hard to eliminate all types of discrimination. I’m not saying that we solved it all, but we did a lot to make the situation a whole lot better. We did much more than enough on that score that we don’t deserve this treatment.

The result of this is that our children, not us, are causing the draining of the social security system prematurely, and will bankrupt it for themselves. The laws of mathematics demand retribution for the lies of any discrimination. We learned the lesson early in our lives. The current generation in power seems not to have learned it yet. The options in dealing with age discrimination are to let us contribute and help you save the future or bankrupt your own future – your choice. More to come.