MY ALTRUISM IS BIGGER THAN YOUR ALTRUISM

(c) 4/28/10
All rights reserved.

Altruism. It is a wonderful quality we hope to find in others that is usually so sorely lacking in ourselves, despite the contrary self-images we carefully nurture. It is frequently manifested in our disgust at professional athlete and entertainer compensation, union-worker benefits and business behaviors. Altruism is the Holy Grail of self-denial. We expect--NO! We DEMAND that the aforementioned groups forego their filthy lucre so that the imaginary society we envision will be better off. That is about as realistic as the likelihood we will refuse an offered raise at the workplace.

The most frequent complaint heard these days is about the predatory behavior in the marketplace of businesses gobbling profits and paying out huge salaries and bonuses. The public outrage against such notables as Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and others is stunning. The perennial complaint against union workers is also frequently aired, with their presumed featherbedding, shoddy workmanship and excessive retirement and healthcare benefits which are ruining otherwise-profitable businesses and contributing to the inflation that is surely eating us alive.

What nonsense!

FIRST of all, it is patently absurd to demand of others a self-denial that we would never employ for ourselves. It is ludicrous to expect athletes, entertainers, union workers and businesses to piously refuse the money and benefits spread before them. I know of no one who would be so stupid as to do such a thing.

The answer is GOVERNMENT REGULATION. Businesses are SUPPOSED to be profit-seeking. That is their sole reason for existence. Any business that operates otherwise is doomed to fail. Therefore, the only remedy for any overreaching is to REGULATE the marketplace in which those businesses operate. That is why antitrust laws were enacted. That is why Glass-Steagall (revoked in the late 1990's with the connivance of Pres. Bill Clinton) was originally adopted. An unregulated marketplace is NOT going to address the problems of overreaching if all players are allowed to overreach. It is patently stupid to think otherwise.

As for union benefits, it is well to remember that unions did not gain a thing not agreed to by management. If union benefits are excessive, then it is up to management to refuse. The threat of a strike does not provide an excuse to abandon shrewd negotiations, as self-pitying management types would have us believe. It reminds me of the slogan of a used-car dealer that used to operate in Richmond, Virginia: "I would GIVE 'em away, but my wife won't let me!" Or, perhaps more apt, the late comedian Flip Wilson's Geraldine Defense: "The DEVIL made me do it!"

We must abandon the expectation that others should manifest altruism "for the good of society" and start regulating excessive conduct. Corporate management must re-learn the meaning of "no." Businesses should be wrest from the control of MBA's and IT-types who are inflicted with tunnel vision, so that the big picture of how businesses truly operate can again become the dominant philosophy.

LEES vs. JACKSONS

{The following was published by the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch on April 16, 2010 in response to an earlier letter from L. H. Ginn, III criticizing the decision of his alma mater, St. Christopher's School of Richmond, Virginia, to change the names of the two school debating societies from "Lees" and "Jacksons" to "Reds" and "Grays," relating to the school's colors.) 

L. H. Ginn, III, of the St. Christopher's School Class of 1951, expressed his indignation on April 7 that the School had dropped the names of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson for its Literary Societies, changing them to the "Reds" and "Grays," of which I approve. There is simply no point any longer in attempting to commemorate loser Confederate generals these days and times. It is past time to "get over it." 

 Now, as one who thinks the Arthur Ashe statue is out of place on Monument Avenue (placed there as a cheap sop to "racial balance" and an offense to the memory of Arthur Ashe), I must also acknowledge that the decisions of Lee and Jackson to resign their US Army officer commissions are understandable, as neither wanted to take up arms against their native state, Virginia. BUT--their actions did not stop with mere resignation. 

Both men, as US Army officers and graduates of West Point, apparently had sworn oaths numerous times to oppose all enemies of the United States, "foreign and domestic," but they each affirmatively chose to violate the last part of that oath by foolishly becoming Confederate combat generals.  I simply do not understand how an honorable person can do such a thing, and I have not found in the writings of either an explanation of this seeming contradiction. Their respective questionable Civil-War records are irrelevant to this point, as are the "Vietnam [undeclared] War" and the "Gulf [undeclared] War" and so forth. Much ado about nothing. 

I am well aware of the various local controversies about the Flood Wall images and Monument Avenue, but none of that should allow any assumption that the opinions of Mr. Ginn are shared by all graduates of St. Christopher's School. 

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The writer is a 1964 graduate of St. Christopher's School in Richmond and a 1973 graduate of the School of Law at Washington & Lee University.