Equality, Relativity and Democracy

The World Record for solving a Rubik’s Cube is 4.73 seconds. My kids can do a 2×2 in under a minute. I have never solved a Rubik’s Cube.

Inequality has existed for as long as we have.

The Greeks developed philosophy, literature and architecture when Britain was filled with “…illiterate tribal peoples, living at a primitive level.”

The Chinese invented “…the compass, printing, paper, rudders and the porcelain plates that the West call ‘chinaware’…” centuries before Europeans (Wealth, Poverty and Politics, by T. Sowell).

Equality

Some use income to measure fairness and morality. High incomes indicate greed and oppression.

Economic egalitarians believe in equal economic outcomes, regardless of effort and circumstance.  Egalitarians oppose meritocracy. Continue reading “Equality, Relativity and Democracy”

Change & The New OMA

People say that they hate change. But it’s not true.

We love babies, weddings and graduation. We love new homes and cars and retirement.

Everyone loves positive change that we control, but we get stressed when other people make us move.

So most of us avoid asking for change. We know it threatens people. Asking for change means we want something better, or different.

Change & The New OMA

The OMA started renovation this spring: a new group of Board members, a governance retreat/renewal and then a major strategy planning session. Now the hard work begins.

Change means we find new and better ways to act. It means we work in concert.

Kotter

Change interrupts usual workflow. We stop doing some things, start doing others and redefine ourselves in the process. Change is scary.  If it isn’t, it probably isn’t real change. Continue reading “Change & The New OMA”

Political Survival in Medicare

Near the end of Wonder Woman, Steve, Diana’s romantic interest, steals a plane full of poison gas.

Warning: spoiler alert.

He blows up the plane, saves the world and dies a hero. Then Diana blows up Ares, saves the universe and grieves her loss, a tragic heroine.

It’s tempting to see life as a battle between good and evil.

Bad political parties make bad decisions, all the time, which is bad. We should fight them, all the time, because that is good.

If bad parties do something good, it probably isn’t good, because they are bad.  If we cannot see the bad in what they do, it is because they hid it, which is bad. So we should oppose them, which is good.

Healthcare is Political

After 50 years of state healthcare in Canada, some people can only see healthcare in black or white. They have watched governments twist healthcare left and right, with each election.

Politicians often twist it just to win elections. So some voters feel justified complaining about everything in healthcare, especially if they hate the party in power.

But no one is wrong about everything all of the time. Even a stopped clock is right two times each day. Continue reading “Political Survival in Medicare”