Blog — Society

Posted 5/3/13 by Common Good

Make It Simple

A crisis of complexity is wreaking havoc on business, government and finance--and there is a pressing need to simplify society. That's the central message of the new book Simple, written by Alan Siegel and Irene Etzkorn.

In 1980, the authors point out, the typical credit card contract was about a page and a half. Now it's 31 pages. Other practical examples of how complexity and lack of clarity waste money and time abound:

• One study found that landline phone customers spent more than $2 billion a year for unauthorized charges largely because the bills were so confusing most customers didn't even know they were being overcharged.

• Because of the complexity of insurance contracts, one survey found, as many as one-half of policyholders are misinformed about their coverage.

• The U.S. Constitution, written in the 1790s and the basis of the entire American government, is 0.1 percent of the length of the current income tax code, which runs 14,000 pages. Figuring out the ins and outs of the tax code costs American taxpayers billions.

In a world where there are over 425,000 iPhone apps, 241 selections on the Cheesecake Factory's dinner menu, and 454 lotions at Sephora, complexity is an issue that touches every aspect of modern life.

"One of the great misconceptions  about the complexity," writes Siegel and Irene, "is the belief that the people who made things so complicated--the bureaucrats, the technocrats, the lawyers--are the only ones who can get us out of this mess." They continue: "It's time for us to demand--of, if in leadership positions, to develop and put into effect--new ways of borrowing money, of paying taxes, of accessing government, of purchasing products, of communicating." This can be done, they argue, by transforming the way we do business and reinvent everyday practices and processes plagued by complexity.

Philip K. Howard, Common Good chair, recently hosted an event in New York featuring Siegel and Etzhorn and a discussion of the book. Howard pointed out that simplifying government, law and regulation is the central mission of Common Good's agenda--which is key to reinvigorating America's economy and reducing federal budget deficits.

Posted 3/12/13 by Common Good

Walmart vs. birthday party parents: Who’s got the most hysterical overreaction?

By Lenore Skenazy

Readers--Here's a story from the NY Daily News that highlights two of the things that drive me craziest about our culture:

A family in Maine was serving a Walmart cake at their 2-year-old's birthday when they found a paring knife baked into it, on the bottom, clearly left there by mistake. Said the traumatized dad, the incident "put a dampener" on the party and people started to leave.

As if folks usually stick around for hours after the cake. Nothing more fun than the dregs of a party with over-tired toddlers! But the dad, sounding weepy, added, "We're not going to get that second birthday back ever."

Ohmigod--he’s right! How is anyone expected to recover from a blow like that? The family will NEVER get back a non-paring-knife-marred-cake-cutting-moment when their kid is two again! Naturally, that kind of thing is so unfair, so deeply disruptive to the natural order of things, that the dad said he may sue.

If he does, I hope he is thrown right out of court, and into a cake. (And if, ironically enough, there's a pointy thing in there, well...)

For its part, Walmart sounded almost sane and strong for a second, offering the family only its apologies and a replacement cake. Right on! But then a spokesman added that the chain was "now banning the use of pairing knives at its bakeries across the country."

Wha!? Just because ONE person in ONE Walmart screwed up ONE time with a paring knife--not an AK47--now the chain is banning ALL paring knives at ALL times in ALL Walmart bakeries? Are apples going to peel themselves for the pies? Is the store going to ban cleavers from the meat department, too?

What's disturbing about Walmart's response is how quickly and cravenly the corporation was willing to pretend that the problem was X, and now it is solved forevermore, by X banishment.

But the problem is obviously not paring knives. The problem is that human beings screw up sometimes, and this shouldn't be a sue-able offense unless there was gross negligence or malice, or some really unconscionable filling, like prune pudding. If a minimum wage bakery employee spaces out, it's time to talk to that employee, not issue an across-the-board edict.

So my ideal punishment for the Walmart legal team? Send them a cake. Prune pudding filling. No one goes home till it’s eaten. - L.

Lenore Skenazy is the author of the book and blog “Free-Range Kids,” which launched the anti-helicopter parenting movement. She’s going to be posting here from time to time on issues of interest to Common Good supporters. As Lenore puts it, she’s ready to make “America the Home of the Brave again, not the Home of the Bureaucrats So Stupid that a Hazmat Crew Gets Called to a High School When a Student Brings in a Mercury Thermometer. (Which really happened a few months back, in Florida.)” And here’s her outrage of the week. Chime in!

Posted 2/27/13 by Common Good

Lenore Skenazy’s Outrage of the Week

Lenore Skenazy is the author of the book and blog “Free-Range Kids,” which launched the anti-helicopter parenting movement. She’s going to be posting here from time to time on issues of interest to Common Good supporters. As Lenore puts it, she’s ready to make “America the Home of the Brave again, not the Home of the Bureaucrats So Stupid that a Hazmat Crew Gets Called to a High School When a Student Brings in a Mercury Thermometer. (Which really happened a few months back, in Florida.)” And here’s her outrage of the week. Chime in!

Hi Common Good Readers! Here’s a letter that may remind you of “safety” measures being taken in your own neighborhood. If so, we’d like to hear from you. There’s strength in numbers, and if enough parents, teachers, principals and plain old citizens feel that the new rules aren’t doing any good, we can push back together. So read this, then write us!

Dear Lenore: I took my kids to Sunday school a few weeks ago and the door we usually go in had a sign on it saying that we could no longer enter there.  Everyone needs to go in the door on the other side of the building.  Never mind that to get there, people now have to walk their children through the entire parking lot, which was already congested. (So much for “safety!”)

As I was walking my son to his classroom, I saw the woman in charge of Sunday school guarding one of the doors, waving away the people hoping to be let in.  I asked her about the new rule and she said, "I implemented it for safety.  Before, we had people going in and out of six different doors.  It just wasn't safe."  As we walked away from her, my 7-year-old son whispered, "Why is that not safe, Mommy?"

I couldn’t answer.

Then I picked up my 11-year-old daughter from her Sunday school class across the street.  She told me that instead of a normal lesson that day, they had a police officer come talk about personal safety.  “Personal safety” evidently means telling the kids details about several child abductions that have happened over the last 30 years.

As we were picking up my son from his class, I told my daughter that we must now walk around the building because they want everyone to go in and out of the same door.  She asked, "Won't that make it easier for someone who wanted to shoot or bomb people, because everyone will be in the same place?"

No answer.

Monday morning, I headed to the elementary school to change the marquee, as I have done for the past seven years.  I pressed the buzzer and instead of just opening the door as usual, the secretary asked me who I was over the intercom.  Never mind that there was a video camera and she could see me!  She let me in and I saw that she had a woman standing over her who’s evidently a security advisor.

I walked back to get the marquee letters in the office and she told me I needed to sign in, even though I do not even enter the main part of the school.  I do the marquee outside.

The only ray of hope came when I was leaving and overheard the office manager, principal, and secretary complaining to each other about how the new safety rules they are being forced to implement don't even seem to make anyone safer.

I keep thinking about the schools of my youth that had all of the doors open all day, every day, with no one monitoring who came or went.  The schools today have all implemented locked doors and buzzers and signing in, yet school shootings still occasionally happen.  Why does anyone think more and more "safety" rules are going to stop them?  If all of the safety procedures so far have not stopped these incidents, why will more safety procedures work? – Puzzled in Plano

P.S. The school district just voted to put armed guards at each of its 72 schools.

Posted 10/26/12 by Common Good

Defining “Big Change”

Common Good Chair Philip K. Howard, in a new article for The Huffington Post, outlines a bold platform of eight structural reforms to address the unsustainable waste and inefficiency that plague government. "These changes would balance the budget, end government paralysis, and begin to transform America's public culture," he writes. "Americans know we need it. Are any leaders bold enough to say it?"

Howard’s proposed reforms include radically simplifying regulation, freeing schools from crushing bureaucracy, cleaning out obsolete laws and programs, and ending tax subsidies for the rich. Read the rest of his proposals here.