Can We Afford to Grow Old?

Screwed ... by Polaroid

150 years ago, in 1855, there was really no concept of retirement pay, at least for the American masses. If you were well-to-do, you could live off inheritance or investments. If you had an adult child, you could (and probably did) move into his home. Grandma had the front bedroom or a place by the hearth. People died in their 50's, so it wasn't so great of a burden on adult children. In the 20th century, we've come to expect longevity which is buttressed by some combination of:

Social Security
Fixed pension benefit
Medicare, Medicaid
401K distributions
Life Insurance

Of course, there are many other instruments that amount to personal savings -- certificates of deposit, mutual funds, annuities and such. These will provide additional benefit for people who had the money to set aside each month for the future. What presents a problem is that all the above-listed government / corporate programs are nowadays at some kind of risk. This week's TIME magazine has a cover story about underfunded pension funds in America's Fortune 500 companies. It seems many companies are digging into pension funds for capital, and when it's time to pay the piper, turn the mismanaged pension trust over to PBGC (pension benefit guarantee corp). Some companies, notably Polaroid in 2001, have declared bankruptcy to shed their pension obligations only to regroup in short order as a profitable company again. Other corporate-sponsored obligations such as stock funds and 401K can also be savaged by unscrupulous raiders and bad management (think Enron).

Many on the conservative side of the aisle would like to privatize Social Security. It's an 'unfunded mandate' to quote some. Now, fixed pensions are in their twilight -- new companies avoid them like the plague and old companies are trying to dump them however and as quickly as possible. If Social Security were privatized, the bulk of your retirement income would be based on speculative investments. 401K's can take a nose-dive with or without Enron style management. Speaking only for myself, I'd like my old age income to be more than a crap shoot. I don't want to go horse racing with the money in my rainy day jar. But now it seems business and government want us to do exactly that. How much does it cost an enfeebled old person to live out his life, in the last decade or so? It costs a lot, let's be upfront about it. Ordinary living expense combined with nursing care and medical care is actually thru-the-roof expensive. For proponents of private accounts, are you so gung-ho about your current portfolio, that you think it will see you thru all the way? Again speaking for myself -- I give the maximum amount to 401K and profit-sharing and make careful fund selections. I don't think my 401K will even pay for covered parking. I suppose a GOP argument is that tax money given to Social Security could just as easily be invested privately. An unspoken objection is that Social Security is a redistribution of funds -- part of it goes to people who never paid in or live too long.

Here, I become a blue-state Democrat, all the way through. I don't think Granny should have to sleep on your couch and eat Vicks cough drops when she actually needs hospital respiratory care. I think that every man and woman in America should have food, clothing, medical care, a roof over his/her head and in final life stages, death with dignity. Nobody should have to beg and scrape at a county hospital. Nobody (as the woman in TIME) should have to collect aluminum cans in their elder years. If you say "each man for himself" you hark back to 1855. "I'm strong, I'm smart, I went to college -- I'm fiscally responsible". Well, old age is the great equalizer. You can find out at 75 what it's like to be on the losing end of the stick. Another translation for "I can't afford it" is "I don't think it's important". My Social Security contribution is the most important slice of my payroll taxes. Can America afford to grow old? If we figure that it's important, the answer is "yes".

Does Laura Miller Hate Dallas?

I have no problem with the Hunts

Laura Miller has generated lots of controversy over the years. She’s the mayor of Dallas, a bastion of conservatism. She’s also a very intelligent ex-journalist, of liberal bent, and that certainly sets the stage for some Dallas Council fireworks. Laura has accomplished several things over her tenure that I actually agree with. Those include the panhandler ordinance, smoking ban, and human rights clause for city employees. Agree – agree – agree.

But now it’s time to disagree. As mayor of Dallas, she needs to shed her yellow journalistic tendencies and put on the hat of civic promoter, champion of all things that increase tax base, tourism and the profile of our fair city. A common thread of Laura’s testiness is that the wee people (and she isn’t one) shouldn’t be subsidizing the projects of uber-capitalists. In principle, I would agree, but city governance is only loosely allied with principles. The fact is, large-scale urban projects almost always call for up-front tax abatements. Companies can pack up and go if we don’t play along. The long range benefit to tax base and city development more than compensates for the give-away to rich people. In city governance, we don’t select absolute good versus absolute evil – we select the lesser of evils. Now where has Laura given me pause? Let me count the ways.

1) American Airlines Arena – as a council member, Miller fought vociferously with Ron Kirk over this. The Arena is now a prime moneymaker and beautiful addition to Dallas. It forms the hub of Victory Plaza, which is now getting multi-use developers as well as a new “W” hotel. Please note: the ONLY crane on our skyline is this hotel being built.

2) The Dallas Cowboys Stadium at Fair Park – Technically, Dallas County dropped the ball on this one, but Miller damned it with very faint praise – in fact mild condemnation. A champion mayor would have seen this through. It would have helped revitalize South Dallas, Fair Park and even Downtown. Now Arlington gets the jewel.

3) Reunion Arena/Hunt Building – This is the same song, third verse. Don’t give money to those nasty Hunts or those greedy Perots. Problem is, the only development opportunities we have are with these Devils of capitalism. I say give them their money now, and let God judge their selfishness later on. In the meantime, the citizens of Dallas get a new Office tower on Woodall Rogers; the tired ugly 70’s prefab looking Reunion Arena gets replaced with a Trinity Entertainment complex.

4) George Bush Library – Laura Miller has recommended that it go to University of Dallas in Irving. The obvious choice for Dallas (of which she’s the mayor) would be SMU, across from Mockingbird Station. The Hunts are closely allied with SMU. Reportedly, she has such a grudge against the Hunt family, she’ll do anything to thwart their goals including this one.

In sum, Laura has let Ivory Tower fantasies and personal grudge matches confound her logic. Dallas has a lot of potential right now. We have several adjacent areas that leverage off one another: Victory Plaza, Downtown, Uptown, Fair Park and Old East Dallas to name a few. Make one area shine, and others will enjoy the reflection. Build it – and they will come. Do you hear me Mayor Miller?

Flush These Thoughts

Warning: following topic is scatological and gross

Am thinking of an old saying, "Cleanliness is next to Godliness". A room with clothes strewn on the floor is unsightly; a kitchen stacked with dishes is a sad thing to see. But nothing is as gruesome as a dirty bathroom. The bathroom can be an attractive place of refuge, but that depends on a few things. Am considering some of the extremes I've seen in public restrooms:

- The model public restroom. I used to work at an engineering firm and the public men's room was so clean, you could have had a picnic on the floor. The facility was dated, built in the 1950's. The fixtures sparkled and shined; it usually smelled of Pinesol or Lysol. Maybe with a little bit of cherry deodorizer thrown in. The towel dispensers were fully stocked and the soap dispensers always full of pink liquid soap. The janitors must have had the room on an hourly maintenance schedule. Another such example is Crate & Barrel where they offer potpourri and aerosol spray freshener for your excreting experience.

- Now to the other extreme. There's that Texaco where the door doesn't close well and a second latch has been added. The combination of stale and fresh urine makes you wonder if maybe the management just uses urine as the cleaning agent. The toilet has greasy handprints and other fixtures are either falling off the wall or missing. Your dilemma is that the next rest stop is 100 miles up the road. You can probably line the toilet seat and make do. But yuck. The service station operates at a low profit margin with few employees, so maybe you can cut them some slack. You say, "My bad for not going at the last stop".

- In the middle -- places like your workplace, Fryes, Target, Wendy's. They have a schedule posted on the wall of when they come by. A guy named Jim checked it at 10 this morning. So why is one toilet overflowing and the other is a disgusting mess? Toilet tissue on the floor, sometimes sewage material too plainly visible. I've sometimes wondered about who leaves a stall so nasty. Talking about cases where it's more than a backed-up commode -- a case of slovenly, gross ineptitude. Have conjured one of these categories:

a) A small, immature child -- sometimes children (boys) think of bad potty habits as a form of potty humor
b) The elderly -- perhaps someone has such bad gout or arthritis they just can't reach the flush handle or the toilet paper that missed the bowl
c) The disabled -- mentally or physically -- they can't navigate the particular configuration of toilet, toilet paper and a flush handle

Now, that can explain McDonalds or CVS Pharmacy. It does little to explain why my workplace has the same disgusting phenomena on a frequent basis. Not that I have, but if I did have some type of accident, I'd clean it up. There's not all that much that separates man from the animals -- humans at least in theory, should not treat fecal matter lightly. We don't want to be full of it, we don't want it to hit the fan -- and we don't want to see it or sit in it! S**t happens, but let's handle it appropriately. I sympathize with women, who have little choice but to sit for every bathroom occasion. Women should carry handy-wipes and spray Lysol in their purses. Do that, or risk a Hellish restroom visit. In Paris, my Mother had to use a filthy unisex bathroom with no toilet seat -- you had to sit directly on the fixture. Didn't ask, but hope she had that handi-pak of Kleenex tissues on hand.

Is everyone sufficiently grossed out? I have a lot more to say, but that last cup of coffee has kicked in. Must visit the facility. Am hoping that it's clean and has plenty of towels. Don't make me call building services.

Miers in the Mire

Not Wild About Harriet

Bush's nomination of Miers has created a political hurricane that could rival Rita at the least. In what is an extremely odd alignment of the planets, the liberals and conservatives on "McLaughlin Group" were equally dismayed with the choice. Pat Buchanan sees Miers as a potential Trojan Liberal, voting pro-choice at the first opportunity. Eleanor Cliff sees Miers as a sycophantic Bush aide that helped him rationalize many things, including his Iraq policy.

Miers gives me pause for thought, somewhat like the thoughts of Eleanor Cliff. I'm not particularly on board with things promoted by Evangelical Christians. People insist that personal opinion has nothing to do with judicial decisions, but that’s nonsense. There will be a very strong propensity for any justice to rule in the direction of his own personal bent. Abortion is the bogeyman discussed by many, but I think church-state separation is what should be watched above all. Evangelicals are one of the groups seeking to erode the wall between church and state. Once you have state-sanctioned religion, you beg the question "whose religion?". Do we pay respects to Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Krishna, Zeus or merely God? What if I worship Gods (in the plural), or my God demands that I kneel to the East? What protects school children from the verbal abuse they receive if they "voluntarily withhold" from the prayer spoken by all the other children in the class? Pandora's box -- opened wide. Perhaps we can have the orderly society of Arabia, where Muslim sects compete bitterly for influence and firebomb each other. I sometimes hear, "My God tells me to witness". Well my friend, please witness on private property, on someone else's dime and someone else's time.

Another bugaboo with Miers -- she thinks Bush is one of our greatest thinkers, one of the greatest men who has ever lived. This hyperbole is questionable coming from anyone. It especially has the taint of yes-woman brown-nosing coming from his legal staff. That judgment alone is kind of frightening. Bush is one of the world’s great thinkers? It boggles the mind. How beholden is she to Bush? I cannot help but ponder how she would pander (couldn’t resist that phrasing). In sum, I have to agree with heinous conservatives – what are we getting? Maybe a pig in a poke is better than a highly trained, judicially experienced ahole like Scalia. At least Miers’ viewpoints would be worth a coin flip. If Bush picked Molly Jackson from the Albertson’s checkout line, it would be preferable to Scalia, who comes down wrong on every issue.

Now, I read that the White House is taking very deliberate aim at every GOP senator who’s publicly expressed dismay at the Miers choice. Apparently, coercive threats and strong-arm tactics haven’t gone away with Tom Delay, the Hammer. It’s hammer time, and rogue GOP senators who balk at Miers may be punished for their roguish ways. So Miers may come out of the mire after all. Pat Buchanan and I – we’ll be worried.

Interviews from Hell

We have several other applicants

Life offers many forms of "Hell Lite". We have illness, injuries and faded love. We have taxes, speeding citations and the occasional dental crown. Speaking only for me, nothing strikes quite as much terror as the job interview. My brother, who is a Human Resources manager, knows all about it. "It's basically an adversarial situation" he says. Do tell -- he's on the other side of the desk. Those of us who are interviewees in front of the desk will squirm from all that adversity.

Speaking again just for myself, there is what my nervousness will do to my interviews. At UT Austin, in the placement center, I scheduled several interviews in one day. Taking a heavy course load, studying for finals and rushing to interviews is not a good mix. Talking to a Shell representative, I became confused -- midway through the interview I started referring to the company as "Chevron". I knew it was an oil company that started with the "sh" diphthong. Had a 50% chance of getting it right. Pity. Here in Dallas I interviewed a (now-defunct) bank called MBank. During the interview, my mouth went dry. I started to sound like Donald Duck. The woman interviewing me became concerned for my health. A coworker was dispatched to get me a glass of water, and the hiring manager was seconds away from calling 911. I regained my composure somewhat, but not my credibility for that interview. They didn't need any raspy-voiced Disney characters it seems. Not every faux pas will cancel you from the running. One interview went well, so well that I was laughing heartily at their jokes. I leaned back and my head crashed into a shelf of plastic figures that fell to the floor. Ooops. We laughed some more, picking up the mess -- nothing broken. They even hired me for the job! There is hope sometimes.

When my nervousness doesn't sink my ship, the interviewers can themselves turn Satanic. They now like to ask "situational" and "psychological" questions that have nothing to do with your line of work. "Describe a conflict you had with a coworker, and how you resolved it". In retrospect, this is a softball question, and it should be easy to answer. Tell them how Ghandi-esque and diplomatic you are. I wasn't that smart; I told the smug woman at Frito that I "stick to my guns". Wrong answer. She seemed to not like me anyway and was pleased that I answered it wrong. Another time I was asked, "If you see a hole, how do you fill it?" A hole in what? Your head? If you wanted to give humorous but interview-killing answers, you could have so much fun with some of these.

Last of all, there are the unsubtle communications that the interviewer gives you. In an interview with the IEF group at TI, a manager forgot he'd scheduled an 11AM interview with me. He kept looking at his watch and rushing through the questions. That same day, I interviewed another man in the IEF development group. I did have some of the experience they'd been looking for, and my resume was presumably screened beforehand. But he looked with disgust and disdain at my resume, as if it were used toilet paper. "I see absolutely nothing on this resume to recommend you for this job." I was kind of in shock and didn't even know how to come back. Think it ended with me mumbling an apology for taking up his time. In retrospect, that interview should've ended with a bang, not a whimper. "Why the Hell didn't you screen the resume before bringing me in? Try these birds out for size!" Zales Corporation also competed for the kindness Olympics. I was given a technical interview where I did OK, but not spectacular (nervousness you know). Rather than be forthright and tell me the reason for ending the process, they walked me out and said that the hiring manager remembered he had a meeting that day. Such rudeness is unforgivable, especially from a professional HR office. All I can say is "Karma". What comes around, goes around.

Now in closing -- here are the signs you don't want to see: a yawn, a checking of the clock. You don't want to hear, "We have many other applicants to talk to". Also, if you haven't broken through the veneer of platitudes and superficial pleasantries, you probably also haven't secured the job. It's not enough that nothing goes wrong -- something needs to go right. Basic chemistry 101 is at work. If they like your face, your voice and your personal demeanor it will obviously work to an advantage. Some of these factors are out of your hands -- God made your face and it's not readily redoable, Joan Rivers and Cher notwithstanding. So for future interviews you need to study, research, prep and pray. Interviews combine luck and pluck in the most interesting ways; if you do it right, you might even escape from "Interview Hell".