(Friday’s Populist Capitalist Blog Post)
So I was standing in line the other day watching one of those ubiquitous TVs that are supposed to make the time seem less onerous. Up popped the question for the day for a dial-in poll:
“Who do you feel is most to blame for the delays at Ground Zero?”
1. Elected officials
2. The Port Authority
3. Developer Larry Silverstein
It felt like one of those Kafkaesque multi-choice questions from a bad dream where the right answer is never given. How about this answer?
4. The American people and their expectation of perfect solutions in an un-perfect world.
We have met the enemy and he is us.
When we insist on solutions that make everyone happy, that every interested party must agree to, then what we get is gridlock. Fairness is an admirable goal as is finding the perfect solution. The challenge is finding the balance point, not allowing those goals to become momentum killers. Personally, I often pick the 80% solution that consumes only 20% of my resources. I figure in the overall scheme of things I cover a heck of a lot more ground and get a lot more accomplished.
The Empire State building was built in less than 18 months. Would be nice to re-capture the “can-do, will-do” spirit of those earlier Americans.
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