Treating symptoms instead of core problems

Right now I'm taking a grad class on how CEOs make decisions. One of the first steps is to accurately define the problem statement. It might be something as simple as "Do we buy computers, or lease them?" or as complicated as "How will we meet our 4th Qtr projections?"

One of the common traps that a manager will fall in to is that they don't identify the real problem that needs to be solved. They just look at the issues that are right in front of their faces and solve them instead (the symptoms).

Well, more and more lately I feel like our government does this. Or at least important people in the country try to do it.

1. In the past couple of days, a 9 year old boy in delaware was attacked by 2 pit bulls on the street. Now all these interest groups are proposing legislation to ban pit bulls from delaware. But that's not the real problem. What they need to do is crack down on who can own certain dogs and make sure that they are trained and housed properly. When someone is shot you punish the shooter, not the gun. Well this is the same. A dog will act how you train it to act.

2. Right around the Inauguration, there were a lot of stories about some groups trying to get a US law passed that would ban all cell phone use while driving. They say that cell phones cause distractions and cause accidents. Well here's a reality check - people cause accidents. Instead of wasting time on this law, let's put some money into actually teaching kids how to drive before we throw them on the road. I am constantly amazed at some of the bad decisions I see from drivers on the road. It should be much harder to get a license - and it should be hard to keep one. If we put better drivers on the road then we'll have fewer accidents.

3. How about safe sex? How many schools aren't allowed to teach anything but abstinence because they would lose their government funding? How many pharmacists refuse to dispense birth control because it's against their beliefs? How can a teenager make an informed choice about sex if they aren't given all the facts? Abstinence really isn't a choice if that's all you show them. If they want fewer teen pregnancies and STD-issues then teach people how to be safe. You can still tell them to not have sex if you want... but let it be their choice.

I guess the real point of my rant is that I'm tired of regulation before education. We spend so much time punishing people who do something wrong, and not enough time teaching people how to do something right.

ok I think I'm done.

Why we have laws - Part 2

Read the previous post first HERE

After talking with a friend last week, I wanted to add a thought. This is only partially related to the whole pro-life / pro-choice argument.

Let's look at this hypothetical situation:

I meet a girl. we go on a few dates. We sleep together. We break up. She finds out that she's pregnant. Now, let's back up to the part where we broke up.

After a month I found out that she had a part-time job and no motivation to do anything better in her life. She was lazy and just wanted someone to take care of her forever. She was basically a gold-digger. And so I left her.

Now she's pregnant. The common belief is that she has all the power when deciding whether or not to have the child. Because this is part of her body and I have "nothing to do with it".

But that really isn't true. Because if she decides to have the child then I will get sued for child-support for the next 18 years.

So let's summarize this: We both made a choice to have sex. Then she gets pregnant and SHE gets the choice to have (or abort) the child. But if she has the baby then I have no choice whether or not to support them financially (or in other ways).

Where's my choice? Why does she get all the power? It doesn't just affect her.

I think that there should be some forms out there where if we break up and she gets pregnant then I can sign a form saying that I am protesting the pregnancy. Then if she wants to have it she can do it herself.

Obviously, this is a much more complicated situation than I am getting in to. AND I'm looking at the specific situation where the woman chooses to have the child simply to screw me and continue her lazy habits. AND I'm not even getting into a "custody battle" discussion.

My point is that I think men deserve a choice in the matter. We're past the age of "It's all the man's fault"... 2 people choose to have sex - so 2 people should choose to keep or abort the child.

So, women readers (I have at least 2 or 3 of you)... any thoughts?

Why we have laws - a personal revelation

Every now and then, I surprise myself.

Sometimes it's because I'll be having a conversation with myself in my head, and ask myself a question (that I think I don't know) and then provide myself with the answer. That doesn't happen often but when it does I get all weirded out.

Lately, in the past few years, I surprise myself when I realize that I've changed in some way. Mainly this has to do with my belief system (general beliefs, not necessarily religious beliefs).

A few years ago I realized that I had become a firm supporter of the separation of Church and State. I have nothing against someone expressing their religious belief... it's not that. What I am against is the smaller things like celebrating christmas and easter (christian holidays) and saying "one nation under god" in the pledge of allegiance. I am against a public school system doing things that alienates children of different beliefs (or no beliefs). Strangely enough, what really made me realize that I felt this way was an episode of the West Wing. One of the jewish characters had a short monologue about being the "odd kid out" when he was growing up because he didn't share the same beliefs. And that just isn't right.

But that's not what I'm talking about today.

A little while ago I realized that I was Pro-Choice when it came to the abortion issue. I feel that there should be no federal law telling a woman that she can't have an abortion EXCEPT if they one day prove that it is the equivalent of murder.

Now, this has nothing to do with my personal beliefs about abortion. I believe that sex has consequences and you have to live with them. But that's my own personal belief and I don't think that anyone else should have to follow it.

Laws should be made to stop people from hurting other people (or property). Laws should be made to keep people from doing bad things. We shouldn't make unnecessary laws that could help prevent other laws from being broken.

For instance, when I was in college they passed a new law preventing bars on campus from having drink specials after 9PM. They did this because they felt there was too much "drinking and driving" going on (and general binge drinking by students) and they wanted to suppress it. They penalized the majority instead of focusing on the minority. It really infuriated me. Why couldn't they just increase penalties for those that drive drunk? Or put out a few more check points?

Anyway, that's a total side point.

So ending with a question...

I know very little about the difference between republicans and democrats. With these beliefs, which way do I lean? And feel free to reference libertarians in the answer (because I like the sound of them).