In Maneuver Warfare or a culture of 3rd Generation Warfare, one of the principles is to reinforce success vice what many 2nd Generation militaries do, which is reinforce failure. The old adage is using the reserve to avoid defeat by attacking enemy success head on. A commander in a maneuver warfare force views warfare as biology instead of a engineering project. His plan is prepared to deal with unexpected changes while always looking for ways to reinforce success by pushing reserves to his subordinates that are being success based on the commander’s intent three levels up.
I was watching my University of Tennessee football team get beat by Georgia by reinforcing failure with its attempt to run old style smash mouth football and its defense playing soft on receivers. I was at one of my best friend’s house Allen Gill. Al and always have great conversations about the state of the nation, leadership, military and otherwise. He has given me some great ideas that I have translated in books Raising the Bar and well as my forthcoming book, Manning the Legions of the United States and Finding Tomorrow’s Centurions. I trust Al not only because he has become one of my good friends, but because I got to view his leadership of Georgetown ROTC over four years, and he did an outstanding job making it into an outstanding program.
Of course, I had to ask Al what he thought of the current economic turmoil and our government’s reaction to it. He, like myself, are very angry at our government and the people that made bad decisions based on greed that got us into this mess. Worse, as I have said before, there has been ample evidence indicating that we were heading for a “train wreck” but was ignored as long as those at the top were getting rich. “Screw everyone else” was their likely remark to their fellow CEOs, lobbyists, and politicians in closed door sessions.
So, Al suggested his plan to fix it, which was why reinforce failure, giving our billions (it is our money by the way, and we are the one’s paying the credit card debt when it comes due) to people that have already proven they care nothing for our nation’s strength, only how to make themselves wealthier (already wealthy, but they want more-Al calls this process “strip mining” our nation), and the government, influenced by the wealthiest lobbyists is only going to “reinforce failure.”
I am paraphrasing Al’s idea here, and I am going to try to talk him into writing an article on it (he is an excellent writer).
The current bailout by our government is doing exactly that, reinforcing failure. And what is worse, it is punishing the majority of use citizens who have been doing the right thing-paying our mortgages on time, paying for the house we can afford, taking responsibility for our action; while it is rewarding irresponsibility.
AIG executives going on their big expensive retreat while their ship is sinking, CEOs of Wall Street investment banks keeping their jobs and golden parachutes for millions for acting irresponsibly and politicians getting reelected based on false promises (lies) and contributions from these very same people whose greed is shameless. These are all great examples for our children future generations. Make poor decisions and act unethically, while millions of the middle class work hard to do what is right, so reward the bad–exploit failure!
Also, many of the people who are doing the right thing are getting punished not once, but twice. Not only are they paying their bills, but they have lost a lot in their retirement accounts, and it is they who are going to have to pay the tax bill on reinforcing failure when it comes due.
Why not give the billions to homeowners who pay their mortgages on time? Or at least pay them down a lot more. Give the majority of the middle class who made the right decisions, or if they did not, but are taking responsibility for it by still making their mortgages on time vice those homeowners who bought more house than they could afford (while there was much shady business practices going on by lending institutions, we must also begin holding those responsible for not reading the fine print or just realizing they could not afford that big home they bought). The key is to reward responsibility, exploiting success, put our money into the hands of people who are doing the right thing not only for themselves, but for their fellow citizens by paying their bills and taxes on time.
Then, this would allow responsible people to go out and buy the homes that are on auction at the reduced prices the banks are trying to sell them for. In turn, the new owners, would then rent them out to the people who do not have a home, could not afford the mortgage, but could rent, at a fair rent of course, and managed by people who are responsible.
Now, instead of the government reinforcing failure, we strengthen success, the middle class who have been doing the right thing. We also put strengthening the housing market in the hands of those who will be responsible for its success-the middle class. We use our own money to strengthen the segment of the society that needs to be strengthened-the middle class, and not the wealthy class (trickle down economics has proven it does not work). We would also regenerate jobs for people when the owners would have to fix up their new properties prior to anyone moving in. A bottom up solution to a problem is always better than a top down, big government solution, but in this case, the government, using our tax dollars on credit, would be exploiting success, or at least putting it in the hands of people that have been doing the right thing.
More on this in later columns as I continue to try to convince Al to write his article.
Don
The reason – The irresponsible and unethical make up a large percentage of voters, who of course only vote for what is best for me right now and for who promises to make it easy for me. There are many in the country who thinks “the ends justify the means” and we need more who make decisions based on a set of values and moral character. Right now both parties with different names will do anything to keep or gain power. If people are not allowed to fail and held accountable for their actions, their actions will be come even more dreadful and more costly. Go Dawgs!
Responsibility seems to be a forgotten word in our country.
No one wants to make the hard choices in this country, tighten the belt and make things right again.
Those reponsible people in the middle class seem to fall farther and farther behind.
Don, did you ever think about running for office?
Go Gators!
You cover only a single aspect, and in a matter that’s far away from your expertise.
That’s why the proposal is imho a poor one. To prefer it over the actual actions based on single aspect would be a bad decision because dozens if not hundreds of aspects are relevant.
One example: Homeowners who cannot pay their mortgage live beyond their means, fall into the greedy category (greedy for a own house, not for more money) and their problem is the result of their own poor decision-making. To help them would mean to reinforce failure.
If someone wants to reinforce success instead of failure, (s)he should imho rather look at the economic recovery after the crisis. A nation can put its effort into dampening the crisis and/or into reinforcing the recovery.
To address the root of the problems (which can be summed up as insufficient domestic economic output) and to lay the foundation for success in the medium and long term instead of trying to make the crisis more comfortable/short would be an example of “reinforcing success”.
I don’t contend to be an expert on anything Sven. I am always trying to improve myself. I am confident in my leadership abilities, especially on how to evolve an organization (made a big stride weeks ago on evolving how the Army develops leaders and trains its soldiers. The top general in the Army, the Army Chief read an excerpt from my next book, liked it enough to pass out to every 2 star in the Army, and so the demands on Adaptive Leader Methodology (ALM) have been overwhelming).
I make my proposal or idea off someone’s elses (who is a pretty smart fella)in order to get responses like your’s. In turn I hope expand the idea into a concept or get rid of it and start again. But, it appears to me being a military historian (focused on leadership, and the generations of warfare) that the country keeping reinforces failure as well as dumbing down to the lowest common denominator?
I still like the idea, one negative response, two positive ones (here), and three other positive responses as well from outsiders.
Thanks, Don
Well, the response was not so much about you as about a general problem that I believe to know.
It’s all about the diagnosis of the roots for the crisis.
I don’t care much about the symptoms like the mortgage crisis. There were seeds for disasters all over the place.
Most seeds have a common ingredient:
A mismatch of income and consumption/investment on private, government and national levels.
The consumers/citizens who lived beyond their means by buying a house with a mortgage that they couldn’t pay for (once the situation changed) failed to make proper private economic decisions – just like the government failed to keep budgets balanced and like the nation as a whole failed to defeat the chronic trade balance deficit (since decades).
The bankers and insurance people aren’t the only ones who failed. That’s why I told you that your proposal reinforces failure; exactly what you wanted to prevent.
I mentioned ‘expertise’ only because I suspected that you didn’t look at this economist-like enough to see the pattern.
I was unnecessarily harsh, sorry – that was in part an unjust fallout of a discussion with another person about a similar issue.
http://defense-and-freedom.blogspot.com/2008/10/lethal-diseases-that-didnt-kill.html
Sven,
Well said in your last message. I love the word mismatch, but the American people have also been convinced by the politicians that the good life will continue to get better in light of growing population and resource constraints. They just don’t want to hear the truth. They proved this summer that they can adjust to economic reality, gas usage this year is down 10 percent from last year.
Now, if a leader will step up and lead.
Don
Don : Major, sir. Everyone wants to live in la – la land… where all dreams come true. Comes with ponies for little girls as well.
Everyone wants a pony….
A.E.
“Everyone wants a pony….”
Paraphrasing Winston Churchill,
“Some pony ! Some clock !”
“Some Bush ! Some Legacy !?”
When does Dubya get HIS name on
an aircraft carrier ?
It’s all over but for the cry’n baby.
MaX
http://tinyurl.com/4y5n6e
NEW YORK: A watched clock never moves – unless it’s the National Debt Clock. In fact, the digital counter has been moving so much that it recently ran out of digits to display the ballooning figure: $10,150,603,734,720, or roughly $10.2 trillion, as of Saturday afternoon.
The clock was put up by the late real estate mogul Seymour Durst in 1989 when the U.S. government’s debt was a mere $2.7 trillion, and was even turned off during the 1990s when the debt decreased.
It will be replaced in 2009 with a new clock, said Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for the Durst Organization.
The new clock will be able to track debt up to a quadrillion dollars, which is a ‘1’ followed by 15 zeros.
“It’s a shame,” the 60-year-old Manasquan, New Jersey, restaurant manager said, anger and disbelief in her face.
“It’s an absolute outrage. It may be the end of the United States as we know it today. We haven’t seen the worst of it. Everybody should stop and look at this clock. It affects all of us. I’m worried.”
Svet Stauber paused in front of the sign and held his camera up to snap a picture.
“It’s symbolic,” Stauber, a 40-year-old pilot from Switzerland, said of the counter’s lack of space.
“It’s a very big symbol. It’s a complete failure of the system. It’s the most powerful country in the world with a conservative government for the last eight years, and it’s running the biggest debt ever.”
The reaction of Stauber’s wife, Roberta, to the escalating debt was more pointed: “It’s good for the United States,” the doctor said, adding that maybe the country’s current predicament would deflate its “ego” and “arrogance.”
Kary Perez, an 18-year-old freshman at Rutgers University, said, “I think it’s sad how bad we’ve fallen as a nation,” as she watched the clock, which features images of $1 bills in the background.
Now THIS,
http://tinyurl.com/4oy92d
Stocks plunge anew as data points to recession
By TIM PARADIS, AP Business Writer 1 hour, 25 minutes ago
NEW YORK – Investors agonizing over a faltering economy sent the stock market plunging all over again Wednesday after a stream of disheartening data convinced Wall Street that a recession, if not already here, is inevitable. The market’s despair propelled the Dow Jones industrials down 733 points to their second-largest point loss ever, and the major indexes all lost at least 7 percent.
“…but the American people have also been convinced by the politicians that the good life will continue to get better in light of growing population and resource constraints.”
Well, the German experience is that the severe loss of territory, agricultural area and other natural resources per capita after 1945 was no long-term problem at all. Wealth doesn’t depend on such things in a highly developed society.
Japan, Singapore, Netherlands and South Korea had very similar experiences.
Germany had de-coupled electricity production/consumption from economic growth decades ago. There were famous books/studies about “factor 4”, twice the economy with half the natural resources consumption/damage in the future.
It IS possible.
The key is that you need to have a decent savings rate (enough to finance the renewal of the economy~depreciations), your government debt should really not go beyond 70-80% of the GNP and the trade balance (including services) must not be strongly negative.
The financial system had to crash, foreign faith in the USD and U.S. debtors had to crash and the real economy had to suffer sometime.
That’s not really related to population growth or natural resources.
As I have said for years, where have all the leaders gone?
Don
“The financial system had to crash, foreign faith in the USD and U.S. debtors had to crash and the real economy had to suffer sometime.
That’s not really related to population growth or natural resources.”
Exactly correct Sven.
Once again, and even here, we see Americans
not willing to accept RESPONIBILITY for the choices, decisions, and actions they’ve taken.
Pass off the market and global financial crisis as someikind of a natural disaster.
Instead of the conciquences of tottaly inept inane leadership, with a vested lunatic agenda, and ultimately behaviour on the part of Americans, as if to play perfectly into the 9-11 masterminds plans all along.
Americans just don’t get it.
Go look in the mirror, there’s the problem, right there.
MaXimillian
MaX: “Instead of the conciquences of tottaly inept inane leadership, with a vested lunatic agenda, and ultimately behaviour on the part of Americans, as if to play perfectly into the 9-11 masterminds plans all along.”
You know, some of us would say that statements like this are a classic evasion of responsibility. “Oh, it’s all due to the illuminati, who happen to be our political enemies. If only they had voted for my party, things would be better.”
What total, unmitigated bunk.
There is no illuminati. Control of a system as big as an economy is beyond the capabilities of the people within in (that experiment has been run, Max). That’s why adaptive leadership is necessary in the first place.
And as it happens, there were plenty of people across the aisle who were very happy to take Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign money so they could fuel the current crisis, with zero accountability. Why was cessation of those organizations’ lobbying activities a condition of their bailout? Why wasn’t it done before? The questions answer themselves – and demonstrate that the failures span many domains, and all political actors.
So yeah, look in the mirror. Just make sure it’s a mirror that lets you see yourself in it, and not just a glass pane that looks out on “others”. There’s a word for those – and it isn’t “mirror.”
Regarding your friend’s proposal, Don. Sometimes speed has virtue in chaotic situations. If banks had stopped trusting each other’s balance sheets, and would not lend to each other, thus raising rates on all productive businesses and individuals and threatening a confidence/liquidity crisis that could melt down far more deeply than it has… there’s an argument that a fast stop now is better than a slow cure that lets the whole system come down. Even if that fast stop is less than optimal, as you explain.
Especially given that a wider, deeper meltdown would probably hurt the responsible actors you’re trying to reward as much as your program would help them. If not more. While the less responsible lose totally. That’s a net lose/lose – you didn’t help the people you wanted to, and others remain hurt.
The questions then become whether the system as a whole was that close to disintegrating, how long your proposed fix would have taken to flow through the system, and how severe the consequences would have been if a slower fix had continued to let things slide on the macro scale.
Those are opinion questions, but they’re opinion questions that need to be grounded in a deep base of empirical knowledge. I don’t claim to have it, and you’re honest enough to say you don’t either. But those are the key questions I’d be asking about Al’s proposal.
” There is no illuminati.”
Exactly !
Treat the economic crisis as being Nobody’s fault,
like a natural disaser.
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2008/nov/17/00014/
“Control of a system as big as an economy is beyond the capabilities of the people within in”
http://abcnews.go.com/InternationalwireStory?id=4418698
http://brillig.com/debt_clock/
http://www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.htm
http://mwhodges.home.att.net/nat-debt/debt-nat-b.htm
“Why Reinforce Failure?”
http://english.sina.comz/080923USfinancialcrisisindex.shtml
Joe, Max : o.k., no conspiracy theories please. You’re both correct. It was simply a matter of dynamics + FLAWED PLANNIN’.
“there is no illuminati. Control of a system as big as an economy is beyond the capabilities of the people within in”
Please explain.
M
http://tinyurl.com/56trw4
WASHINGTON – The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.