I apologize to those who are still expecting my report on the School Board’s March 4th meeting. I have family visiting. So what follows is something a friend sent with my reply.
Here is a short story making its way around the Internet.
Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House. One is from Chicago , another is from Tennessee , and the third is from Minnesota.
All three go with a White House official to examine the fence. The Minnesota contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. “Well,” he says, “I figure the job will run about $900: $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me.”
The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, “I can do this job for $700: $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me.”
The Chicago contractor doesn’t measure or figure, but leans over to the White House official and whispers, “$2,700.”
The official, incredulous, says, “You didn’t even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?”
The Chicago contractor whispers back, “$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence.”
“Done!” replies the government official.
And that, my friends, is how the new stimulus plan will work.
How did I reply?
That is most certainly the way it would work in many other nations. Why do we have concerns now? In the past, four things promoted habitual honesty in America: Christianity, Capitalism, limited republican (note the small “r”) government, and jail. Of the four factors, jail was once the least important, and Christianity was the most important. Yet, of the four, jail now seems to be the factor we count as most important.
