How the Mighty have Fallen

Moribund Fascination: The Utah Runnin’ Utes

Fear

I listened to a speech given by Sherron Watkins, who worked at Enron for several years leading up to the company’s bankruptcy and who is generally credited for being one of the first to blow the whistle on the fraud that was occurring. It was interesting to hear her view of how the general company-wide incentives were the ultimate cause that led people to abandon their morals. But what interested me the most was the upper management’s ability to manipulate employees’ fear of being fired into making them keep their mouth shut. It made me think a lot about why it is that people are so afraid of being fired. Personally, I know that if I were to lose my job, I could rent a smaller apartment, live on rice and beans, and survive. It is an unappealing scenario, for sure. I would much rather live in the apartment that I am living in now and occasionally be able to go out to eat than the alternative. Relatively speaking though, going to the smaller apartment and living on rice and beans is a much smaller fall for me than for most people. Perhaps the degree of fear that one has in being fired is directly correlated to the level of lifestyle they are living. So, for someone with a nice house, a couple of nice cars, and a few toys, it would be much harder to live in that small apartment and live on rice and beans than it is for someone like me. How much harder would it be for someone who lives in a mansion, owns a 30-foot yacht, and has a second home in Vail? And, how much more apt would a person with that lifestyle be to abandon their morals then the average Joe in order to maintain their lifestyle? My train of thought led me to a verse in the Bible, Matthew 19:24. And perhaps in order for a person to be able to avoid the temptation of abandoning their morals to maintain their lifestyle, they would need to live in a modest house, and maintain a modest lifestyle, so that they neither have the fear of losing it nor the pressure of maintaining it.

Flat Tax

I hear arguments for a flat tax rate and think that such a system would never work. Sure, you can ask a rich person to pay more taxes and they will probably be just fine, but I just can’t imagine the poorest of the poor suddenly being burdened with a tax bill that will cut into their food and gasoline budget. However, I belong to a faith that requires its members to pay a flat donation, regardless of income. It has made me wonder, why does a flat rate work in the one setting, but probably wouldn’t in the other? I have thought of a couple of things it could boil down to.

One, people in my church are relied upon to be generous with their donations above and beyond the flat tax rate. These other donations are given in the form of donations for the poor in their neighborhoods, donations to help our missionary efforts, donations to help build meeting houses, donations to help educate the poor of our faith in other countries, etc. Sure, you can be held in good standing in our faith by simply paying the flat rate, but many pay much more in the additional optional donations. As a country, if our tax rate were flat, I doubt that anyone would voluntarily pay a cent higher than what is required. Maybe it comes down to whether a person is forced to do something or if they are able to do it of their own free will.

The second could perhaps just be a matter of perspective. With taxes, we do everything we can not to pay them. And when we do pay them, we expect to receive something in return for them in the future. We pay income taxes, so that we can have new roads, be protected from our enemies, and generally have our country function. We pay social security, so that one day our kids will pay social security for us so that we can retire. We pay other taxes so that we can receive healthcare in our old age. Everything is paid with an eye to getting that money back in the future. The donations that we pay in my faith are viewed as paying back from what we have already received. We believe that everything we have was given to us from God, including our food, clothes, homes, the air we breathe, the sun that warms our face, even the very bodies we are walking around in. When you think of it that way, it really isn’t that hard to pay back a flat rate of what we have already received. Who wouldn’t give 1 dime back if someone gave him 10?

There are probably other reasons. Can you think of any?

Great Report on What to be Grateful For

Zakaria: U.S. problems are not economic, but political

The Entitlement Trap

I was able to go to a presentation and Q&A session tonight that was given by Richard and Linda Eyre, authors of The Entitlement Trap. It was a wonderful evening of insight and I thought I would write down some of my thoughts before I forget them.

1. Entitlement: This is the number one concern of most parents. They had statistics that approximately 80% of parents fear that their children will become entitled more than any other thing. Because this discussion was also given at BYU it had some religious tones to it and the authors argued that Satan’s plan was a plan of entitlement.

2. Ownership: The way to combat entitlement is to give children a sense of ownership. This ownership is given to children in several ways.

a. Strong Family Culture: This is developed through setting up easy to understand Family Laws that each member of the family must live by. They also suggest building a family Mantra that each member of the family should live by.

b. Stop being Managers and Start Being Consultants: This was a great way for me to think of this principle. Too often parents try to manage their kids in every way. Instead, we should try to become more of a consultant to them as they work things out for themselves.

c. Set up a Family Legal System: Rather than taking ownership in an argument between children, set up a family legal system ahead of time that everyone must live by. The authors, for example, had a repentance bench that the children had to sit on if they got in a fight until they could admit what they had done wrong and ask for forgiveness.

d. Set up a Family Bank: Rather than giving children an allowance, make them earn their money, learn how to spend it, save it, and give to charity. The authors go so far as to set up a family bank that their children can make deposits into after they have earned their money through chores. Then, they have family checks that they must use to purchase things. And their children must purchase everything for themselves through this system, including even their own clothes.

3. The power of Case Studies: The author is a Harvard alum, so he obviously loves case studies. However, I liked how he used case studies with his children. He would set up detailed, specific case studies that he would go over with his children and then at the end ask them what they would do in such a situation. Then, later in life when they are faced with a similar situation for real, they will better know how to react.

Those are the points I remember for now. I asked my friend for a copy of her notes, so if I forgot something when I get her notes I’ll add it later. One last thing that they suggested is a blog from one of their daughters that gets over 10k hits a day. Check it out here.

PIIGs Crisis Made Easy

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/23/sunday-review/an-overview-of-the-euro-crisis.html

Cool article about the Utes! Go Utes!

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/27577/pac-12-announcement-give-utah-a-break

How do you know when your baby is hungry?

Our Little Guy Doing His Exercises

Some Challenges of Today's Church

I just listened to Clayton Christensen give a great speech on why we can’t create jobs in America. It dealt with some deep rooted paradigms in our business culture. He also gave three concerns he has with the current direction of the church to which I belong. I’d like to give a summary of those three concerns before I forget them. Maybe you’ll enjoy his perspectives as much as I did.

1. The church gives too much emphasis on the number of baptisms. Clayton suggested that instead of baptisms, the church should focus on church attendance. I couldn’t agree more. I had a very good friend who fell in love with a girl and she wouldn’t marry him because he wasn’t a returned missionary. My friend is the best Mormon that I know and is currently serving in his bishopric. Girls who are dating guys should look at if that guy is doing his home teaching rather than if he served a mission several years ago. What have you done for me lately? I think that is what the Lord is going to ask us and it is something we should ask of our members too.

2. Clayton put it this way, “Parents outsource too much”. A generation or two ago, children worked in the house, helping to make bread and can food and put oil in the furnace. Not only did they have to work hard, but they had to work hard for their parents. Today, much of the manual labor in running a home has been simplified and automated through modern conveniences. With our extra time, parents are now running their children around to different activities thinking that they are creating well rounded adults to serve. In reality, they are just working for their kids and their education isn’t as valuable as good hard work.

3. The Church’s capital is its members. And the Church’s capital is migratory. The members of the church make the mistake of looking for the “best” ward when they move to a new neighborhood. This is a mistake, because moving to the “best” ward often means moving to a ward with an abundance of capable people and the amount of service that any given individual has to perform is diminished. In contrast, they should look for a ward that needs good people so that they can give the amount of sacrifice and service that they need to give to grow and improve and help others.

Anyway, I thought they were great insights into the current affairs of the church and the challenges it is facing in today’s world. I hope they are as insightful to you as they were to me.

NBA Lockout

Here is a great article about the NBA lockout. Bill has some great ideas on how to fix the league.

Explain That

The other day I volunteered at the local cannery. I spent the morning watching countless open cans of chile pass in front of me on a conveyor belt. My job was to watch the level of chile in the cans to make sure they were filled to the correct level. I didn't eat any of the chili. I haven't eaten chili for months and probably won't eat any chili for a while after staring at it for a few hours that morning. Yet, that night I had gas that was laced with the pungent aroma of chili. How is that possible? Did my body actually absorb the aroma of chili from the air? Did thinking about and watching chili for a full morning transfer the smell to my GI track? Weird!

It's in your blood

ARUP called me today and told me that I have rare blood. For whatever reason my blood can be used in transfusions for infants and babies. It's kind of cool to think I can help save babies. However, I do wonder if my blood is what makes me such a wussie.

New Website

I have entered a web building competition at school. For my website I'm building a page for my brother's father-in-law who owns a lamp shop in Salt Lake City. Check it out at Custom Lamps Direct.