I suggest this quote from the movie Titanic:
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Ismay: (President of White Star Lines): Most unfortunate, captain!
Captain: [perspiring and trembling] Water fourteen feet above the keel in ten minutes. In the forepeak, in all three holds, and in the boiler room six. That’s five compartments! She can stay afloat with the first four compartments breached, but not five!
Captain: (thinking) As she goes down by the head, the water will spill over the tops of the bulkheads at E deck from one to the next. Back and back. There’s no stopping it.
Smith: The pumps… if we opened the doors…
Captain: The pumps buy you time, but minutes only. From this moment, no matter what we do, Titanic will founder.
Ismay: But this ship can’t sink!
Captain: She’s made of iron, sir! I assure you, she can and she will. It is a mathematical certainty.
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I think most people believe that our country can’t sink, no matter what laws or policies are implemented. But, the iron laws of incentive, energy, and economy cannot be abolished. People will not work hard if their income is taxed away. Investors will not risk their money if they cannot make more money. Great doctors will not work in a profession that requires half of their time to be devoted to paperwork at no benefit to the patients.
Caring and Reality
A conversation in San Francisco.
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I pointed out that California and San Francisco were both hemorrhaging money, destroying jobs, and were fundamentally unsustainable systems.
She said “I know, I know. I’ve heard all that. But, you know, I just love it here so much and I don’t want anything to change. Something will come up and it will get fixed. I just have to believe it.”
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