The Future

 

It’s About Time

It's about time we begin to turn the world around
It's about time we start to make it the dream we've always known
It's about time we start to live the family of man
It's about time, it's about changes and it's about time
It's about peace and it's about plenty and it's about time
It's about you and me together and it's about time.

That time is NOT only the present, it is the present AND the future.

Republicans are supposedly conservatives and Democrats are supposedly liberals.  Conservatives are supposed to seek the lowest total cost associated with an action.  However the lowest total cost at the moment, may not be the lowest total cost over the life of that action. Case in point, a story when I was an appointed government bureaucrat serving in a conservative Republican administration.  The manger, to whom I reported, had been upset by one of the mangers who reported to me.  She thought that the manager, who reported to me, had been insubordinate to her and as punishment wanted him fired.  That manager, who reported to me, had Civil Service status.

I pointed out to my manager that if I fired the manager who reported to me, that manager would revert to his Civil Service status and be transferred to another office in our department.  I also pointed out that his salary as a Civil Service employee was higher than the salary he was receiving as a manager who reported to me. Thus if I fired him, the long term result was that he would receive a pay raise.  Upon reflection my manager thought about this long term impact, reconsidered, and directed me to tell him that as punishment, she was directing that he NOT be fired.  Since I did not agree that the manager who reported to me had been insubordinate to my manager, I was more than happy to follow this direction.  When I explained the conversation to the manger who reported to me, he could not stop laughing. As punishment, he was not to be fired?

There is a reason that the popular sayings are "Look before you leap", "Marry in haste and repent at leisure",  "A stitch in time saves nine", "For want of  a nail..", etc. It might be conservative to seek the action that has the lowest cost.  But it is the TOTAL cost associated with that action, now and in the future, not merely the cost at the present.