Much of the story of humans and groups of humans, as well as the challenges that face America, can be told with circles. The core of the story is an individual. The first unit of human organization is the…
What We Can Afford
During America’s brief tenure atop the world’s pecking order between the end of WWII and the beginning of the current era, the country enjoyed an unprecedented run of prosperity and abundance. The country was so successful while producing copious wealth…
Ranking America
The United States of America enjoys many riches, inherent capabilities and positive attributes, as well as shortcomings, unresolved issues and a converging set of existential threats. The challenge is to be aware of the upsides of the United States without…
A Perfect Storm
“…our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are … testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so…
The Nature of Change
More than 9 out of 10 patients do not change their lifestyles in response to their doctor’s recommendations. More than 70 percent of corporate change efforts fail. Humans hate change. It’s a simple fact of life. There isn’t any easy…
Getting From A to B
As any school kid can tell you, the quickest way to get from point A to point B is a straight line. However, life doesn’t usually work in straight lines, and just like driving a car, getting anything from A…
Who’s Driving The Bus?
The federal government of the United States of America is divided into three branches: executive (the president and vice president), judiciary (Supreme Court and federal judges) and the Congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate). Of these three, two…
Ever Bigger Boxes
In the posts Show Me Your Budget and Buying Boxes I addressed the components and priorities of the United States government budget and how we as a nation pay for that budget. What I did not address are the components…
Buying Boxes
In the post Show Me Your Budget, I addressed the U.S. federal budget via an illustration that used proportionally sized boxes to reflect spending priorities. What I didn’t cover was how we pay for those boxes, both the overall box…