The Three Little Pigs Revisited in 2012

Once upon a time there were three little pigs who were trying to make their way in the world. The first little pig didn't think he was smart enough for college, so he found a job that paid minimum wage. The problem was he didn't make enough to cover living expenses so he lived at home with his parents. The second little pig went to college and got good grades, but when he graduated he couldn't find a job and he owed a lot of money for his student loans. He found even getting a low paying job challenging since now he was "over qualified" or else had the education, but not the experience. He too found himself living with his parents.

The third little pig went into business and made a lot of money. He then decided to go into politics and soon found himself making laws that affected the lives of all the little pigs. He figured out that if he worked it right, he could make laws to benefit his business and make him even more money. Unfortunately, the laws made life more difficult of the other two little pigs. Pig #3 was doing really well when the big bad wolf of depression came to call. Pig #3's business and interests were only marginally affected by the wolf, but the other two little pigs lost the jobs they had and their parents struggled to keep their homes. Pig#1's parents lost their home to foreclosure and they were getting ready to have to live on the streets. The wolf had taken so much from them.

Pig#3 didn't seem to care much about what was happening to the other little pigs in the country. He was busy trying to find ways to cut spending to help the other pigs while enhancing the businesses of himself and all the other business pigs. He, if asked, would rationalize his actions by saying that helping business pigs would be the best way to help the non-business pigs. So, the business pigs got richer and all the other pigs got poorer. Eventually, because the non-business pigs had no money, the business pigs started to not make as much money as before, since, if no one has money to spend, they stop buying. Business pigs started to have their businesses fail. Some of the business pigs were able to get Pig #3 to make laws and to "borrow" money from the National Pig Association to keep them afloat. The sad thing is, while these business pigs told everyone they were having money trouble, the business pigs continued to pay their top business pigs bonuses. The now poor pigs felt so helpless, for they had worked hard and lost everything, yet the business pigs with the right connections were getting bonuses while telling everyone how bad they had it. There were some really angry little pigs, but they also felt helpless to fix things--they didn't have the right connections and now they hear that Pig #3 was trying to pass bills to take away the few things they did have, all the while telling the other little pigs that this is the only option and not to worry everything will be fine.

Politics, Religion and Personal Responsibility

Politics or religion, sometimes it's hard to tell them apart. The fervor with which one views the issues of both serve to blur the lines between them. One argues that abortion is a religious issue while another sees it as political. On both sides, there is a certain amount of leadership playing the puppeteer. It bothers me the number of people who blindly trust others to tell them how to think and vote without weighing the issues personally. Why am I on this rant? I came across one of the opinion polls rating our current president. One could argue that he inherited the country's difficulties from the former administration or on the flip side that he made a bad situation worse. At what point in his leadership is the best place to "take the temperature"? When can you truthfully say that the advice from Congress and his counsellors has been faulty or not? What would you have done in his place? Look at how many people he has to please. Arguably, any CEO has to make decisions that may not be popular with all in his organization. What makes one think that a President would be any different? Of course, he will make some bad decisions, but he will also make some good ones. One's opinion of effective leadership can be colored by whether one expects success or failure. A pre-determination that Mr. Obama, for example, will fail creates the climate that ensures one seeing the negative in a stronger light than the positive. The same works in reverse, regarding pre-determination of success. The law of probability assumes that there will be a percentage of good and bad decisions. How much stress would it be to have the entire world watching while one attempts to solve problems that have so many variables? Perhaps we need to take off our rose colored glasses and consider the outside variables in our pre-determinations.

I am neither condemning nor condoning Mr. Obama, merely asking if anyone could do the job to please everyone. We come out of an election with the "pie in the sky" thinking that whomever we elect will make miracles happen. Maybe it's time we did something in our realm of influence and stop expecting the President or Government to "take care of us". Granted, voting for competent leadership is a step in the right direction, but sitting back and expecting the government to take care of us with little or no personal input is unrealistic and a certain way for the government to disappoint. Where and when have we lost the reality that WE are the government and those in office merely elected representatives? Those representatives are there to set up the framework that the country operates under, not to "do it all" . Government was never meant to be a welfare system and it is a proven fact that those areas in which an individual is personally invested can have the capacity to change the world.

Conclusion: Stop whining and complaining and get out there and change your corner of the world. (This may even mean running for elected office.)