Charter Water

I am fortunate to live in a hamlet where the quality of the water flowing from my household tap is labeled “superior.”  I know that superior means there are still harmful contaminants, chemicals and bacteria in the water, just not a high enough percentage to downgrade the label.  Regardless, I drink, cook, bathe and wash my car with the local water without thinking twice about it.  My local government provides my water.  I do not really study the annual water quality report because it includes information I do not want to know.  The City has jurisdiction over water production and water treatment and they appear to be spending our tax dollars and user fees wisely on our water.

What if that were not true?  What if you lived somewhere where the water quality was suspect?  The City of Houston has the 4^th worse water quality of large cities in the US based on the number of contaminants and pollutants found in the tap water.  That is horrible.  Something must be done.  This is not just a health issue; this is another example of the overt failure of government to fulfill its required duties. 

So, how do we improve the water quality in cities and burbs where the quality is sub-par?  We could invest more in those governmental services.  That is a rational approach.  So no, we must turn to the private sector to improve governmental services.  We need charter water. 

People should have a choice when it comes to water.  If when everyone turns on their tap the water all comes from the same source then there is no choice for consumers.  The wealthy have always had choice in that they can buy bottled water and install purification systems on the incoming water line.  The poor have no such choice.  We know the poor suffer more from the effects of poor nutrition due to the foods and water they consume.  We know the poor tend to cluster in large metropolitan areas.  We know racial minorities are growing in the large metropolitan areas.  Offering water choice is by definition American, it should be a civil liberty, it is a civil rights issue.  The private sector must intervene to improve this governmental function.  In no way should we consider spending more money in the areas of poor performance.  That only works for defense spending and highway spending and health care and the private sector.  Hence, we must have charter water. 

Here is what we will do.  Private sector companies may sign a charter and seek governmental approval to provide charter water in any given community.  These companies will not be required to have any background or expertise or training in the provision of water or the measurement of water quality.  Once approved, the charter water company will develop an alternative water source, will lay parallel pipe, and will develop an alternative treatment process.  Families who wish to receive charter water may make that choice, but the number of families eligible to receive charter water will be limited.  Further, the charter water company will not be forced to comply with all the state and federal mandates regarding water quality.  We will simply know that charter water is better because it is a private sector function. 

There are a couple of other things we must do.  How will we pay for the new charter water companies?  How will we pay for the installation of a parallel water system in each community?  We will re-direct tax dollars from the city water department to the charter water developers.  We will re-direct collected fees from the city water department to the charter water developers.  This will reduce the city’s ability to continue to fund city water as before, but it will create consumer choice and that makes it worth it.  Not only will it create choice, it will provide jobs and revenue to private sector entrepreneurs in an area that has not been open to them before.  Imagine requiring that governmental revenues be spent on governmental processes when we can create revenue for the private sector from those same governmental revenues.

Admittedly, the money spent on city water will decrease as the money spent on charter water increases. And, admittedly no city water department has too many employees and too much money.  No one in city water departments is making a fortune.  They are public servants.  Charter water developers, however, will make a financial killing because they will not have to follow the same guidelines as the city water department.  Charter water will be cheaper to operate.  Of course, every now and then someone will sneakily test the quality of water from the charter water folks and reveal that it is the same or worse than city water.  That won’t matter because it is choice!  It is private sector production!  It is part of a much needed national water reform effort!  It is civil rights issue!  We must make city water departments operate with fewer funds so that private sector charter water companies can implement their optional water service as a for profit enterprise.  City water departments are now in a setting where they must compete for water consumers.  Of course, they will have fewer funds to do so, and the measures of their successes are much higher, and we are wasting a ton of money duplicating efforts.  None of that matters.  We are busting the monopoly on water production historically held by the local government.  Families may now choose, even though those families probably do not have a clue how to measure water quality.  Further, we can accelerate their selection of charter water companies by continuing to lambast the city water for its poor quality.

This makes so much sense we should consider establishing charter police departments, charter fire departments, charter highway departments, etc., etc.  Why when you dial 9-1-1 should you be stuck with only one law enforcement agency, one ambulance service, one fire department?  Where is your choice?  Everywhere a governmental agency is solely responsible for providing a service we should implement a private sector alternative that provides citizens choice, even if it means the governmental service has reduced funding while measured by higher standards than the charter companies and the charter companies must start from scratch to develop a parallel infrastructure and personnel to provide the service.  When all is said and done, governmental services will decline due to reduced funding and bad press, and charter services will increase making many entrepreneurs incredibly wealthy for providing parallel and worse quality products funded by tax payers.

Why, if this works as well as I think it will for water, police, fire, etc. we could even consider starting charter schools along the same principles and cast the rationale as providing choice!  Well, that may be going too far. 

No Victories, Just Wounds

I am amazed this week that Republican Senators banned together to block a Democratically supported set of tax breaks.  They did so in protest of the way Democrats are running the Senate.  Once more, political perspective has resulted in revenge, retaliation, and competition.  I wonder if Democratic Senators are feeling a sense of victory this week for their ability to alter the historic senatorial traditions of filibuster and proposed bill amendments that led to the Republican backlash?  I doubt it.  I wonder if the Republicans are feeling any sort of victory for stopping legislation that they have traditionally and philosophically supported forever?  I doubt it.  I suspect both sides are feeling a sense of frustration and revenge and retaliation and righteous indignation.  And I know that once again competition has brought us to a point where everyone loses.  Neither political party won this week.  The American people surely did not win.  The legislative branch of our government has been ground to halt for years now due to bipartisan competition.  We are all losers.

Let us make it official:  There is no longer any chivalry, any gallantry, any code of gentlemanly or gentlewomanly conduct.  There are no more political statesmen and stateswomen, at least not in the Legislative branch.  Politics is war.  Politics is competition.  Politics is a spectator sport whereby those in the bleachers are the ones who get injured.  And at this point the only organization capable of making the rules of engagement and the rules of play are the very people who are on the field playing.  We do not have an NCAA or an NFL for Congress.  We did.  We had a noble tradition of respecting the honorable opposition.  But the wounds inflicted by the competition have abolished those rules and the game continues with no outcome in sight, nothing but minor victories for each team, each victory wounding the country as a whole, and each minor victory contributing to the sum of a greater loss. 

I want to scream “grow up!”  Act as men and women in a civilized state.  This is not the little leagues where fathers explode on sidelines if they perceive their child was wronged.  This is the major leagues.  We must demand better behavior.  There should be penalties for excessive celebrations and unsportsmanlike conduct and personal fouls.  There should be rewards for fair play, good sportsmanship, and at least effective and polite listening to the alternative view.  Though each elected representative reflects the majority view of those who voted in his or her district or state, they must be able to work together for the good of the nation.  They must be able to rise above competitive notions, personal wounds, and righteous indignation.  They must operate as a body politic, a body of distinguished gentlemen and gentlewomen all of whom are dedicated to improving the life of all Americans. 

Some bills must pass.  Others will fail.  One party or another will hold the majority in each house.  And that majority must practice alignment with a basic American tenet:  power must be limited, power must be checked, and power must not be abused.  Power must not result in trick plays to temporarily defeat the other side.

It is time to forgive the other side.  It is time to heal the wounds and get on with improving America.  It is time for Americans to know that their government will operate in ways that we can all be proud of rather than ways that generate temporary sound bytes on the 6:00 news.  As fewer and fewer Americans actually vote, and more and more see themselves as “Independents” we must make it clear what the basic differences are in the philosophy of each party and encourage our people to know and understand those differences before going to the polls.  And when they do so, it must be time for the American voter to know that progress is not based on religious or political fundamentalism and zealotry.  It is based on compromise and team work.  We do not have to always agree.  But we must agree to work together.  Without teamwork, without goals of the common good and a willingness to work together, we will continue to experience the homegrown political war where all of us become wounded warriors in a losing campaign. 

When Automatic Isn’t

I drove to visit my Mom yesterday (Saturday) for Mother’s Day.  It was a beautiful day, nice weather to and fro.  I set the climate control in my truck to AC with a temperature setting of 72.  In 10 minutes I was still hot.  I lowered the temperature to 70, and the AC continued to blow luke warm air.  I cranked it down to 60 and finally got cold air blowing out of the vents.  Somewhere some engineer decided it would be cool, pun intended, if my truck decided the amount of coolness to blow out of my vents rather than allowing me to do so.  I remember previous vehicles that had a manual sliding control knob that slid from all blue cold to all red hot and I simply placed the knob where I wanted it.  Worked all the time.  Now I have to circumvent, pun intended, the automatic climate control to get the temperature I want.  I guess auto engineers think I do not have enough sense to know when I am hot and when I am cold and they must make that decision for me.  Drives me nuts.

I have a new string trimmer with automatic line advance.  Really?  My old weed eater was bump and go; every time I bumped the head of the trimmer on the ground more line came out.  It was great, never failed me, until I burned up the motor.  The new trimmer is more powerful and lighter, but the trimmer decides when I need more line, I don’t.  It has some kind of centrifugal force mechanism that senses when the line is too short and releases the gear that keeps the line wound on the spool.  Problem is, of course, this automatic mechanism is not the one trimming weeds and edging driveways.  I am.  If I leave it alone the line will eventually get so short I cannot cut, or worse, breaks off altogether and I must stop, remove the cover, pull off more line manually, push it through the hole in the housing and put it all back together again.  Or, I can rev the motor and let it stop when the device releases a quarter inch of line.  I must tell you I feel pretty stupid standing in my yard, revving the motor, letting it stop, revving the motor and letting it stop 8 times to get 2 more inches of line.  Or, I can turn the trimmer over, manually release the spool and pull out the line I need one little click at a time.  None of these steps is nearly as efficient as bumping the head on the ground while I am trimming and never miss a beat.  I have no idea why this automatic line advance system was implemented.  Sounds great, it just never works.  I guess the trimmer engineers think I do not have enough sense to know when I need more line or not.  Drives me nuts.

We had big thunderstorm Friday night and it not only knocked out the power, it fried my DSL modem.  Fortunately computer, printer, etc. are all OK.  I happened to have a back-up modem and I unplugged the old modem and plugged in the new one.  I attempted to connect to the internet, but no such luck.  The lights on the modem let me know it was not connecting.  I went to my control panel (also a misnomer as I really do not control this at all – it is the computer’s control panel) and clicked on “install new hardware.”  After many searches, clicks and troubleshoots my computer informed me I had no new hardware to install.  Everything is fine, it told me.  All network connections were connected and I was both sending and receiving information bytes to and from the internet.  Great!  So why can’t I get on the internet via either Explorer or Firefox?  I guess the computer knows more than I do about whether I just plugged in some new hardware or not.  Drives me nuts.

I am a believer in trying all the latest and greatest.  I am not of the digital generation but I am a well-established immigrant.  I am not totally stupid.  I can read directions and follow them.  With new devices I always do so.  (I am one of those nerds who will not leave the dealer parking lot until I have read the owner’s manual for a new car.)  I support innovation, change and improvement.  I love not having to manually fill ice trays anymore.  I love setting my coffee pot to brew the coffee before I get up.  I love punching a couple of buttons on the microwave to get food warm.  I love the back-up camera in my truck.  I love answering machines, automatic redial, smart phones, computers, etc.  All these and many more are labor saving devices that have improved my life. 

However, It appears to me that some of the engineers who are designing some innovations have held a secret meeting to conclude that we are all idiots and we must have our devices make decisions for us.  And that drives me nuts.

Such design innovations that do not work, such newly installed automatic features that in fact are less efficient and effective than the previous model should somehow be banned.  None of the innovations I have struggled with recently were in any way labor saving or more effective than the previous model.  Did anyone complain about their bump and go weed eaters?  Did anyone complain about setting the coolness of the air in their vehicles using an analog sliding control knob?  And how in the world does my computer have the audacity to tell me I have no new hardware when I just took it out of the box and plugged it in?  I have yet to find the control panel application that allows me to say, “Windows, it is you who are stupid, not me.  Do as I direct you.  I own you.”

Such decisions remind me of legislative decisions, made by lay people, regarding how to improve schools.  Such decisions do not work, such decisions are engineered to fill a need that does not exist, and such decisions make things worse.  Such decisions assume the users and practitioners are idiots and must be controlled and directed by others.  Schools cannot be improved via mandated automatic innovations and measuring devices designed by billionaires and politicos any more than my truck is now better at keeping me cool with an automatic AC. 

When I cool off, finish the yard and reconnect to the internet I will post this.  Until then know I have been driven nuts by the automatics that are not.  Up to you to decide if my trip to “nuts” was long or short.