Impact on a System

A friend of mine sent me this link (http://www.bornagainamerican.org/ ). Here's what I wrote to her about it:

I saw this guy on a show some time ago. I couldn't agree more. The one line that really sticks with me is, "...I thought I knew the rules of the game..."

None of us know the rules of the game any longer. I have a stock portfolio with which I have no idea what to do. The rules are not settled. You used to be able to make an informed decision about how to invest and be right 60% to 80% of the time. Now, the rules are changing, our social fabric is tearing and no one knows what to do. I worked my butt off as an independent only to be taxed to death. I'm not in to hiding my money from taxation. But really, the middle class now is bearing the brunt of everything and the incentives to do well are getting chipped away, piece by piece. I don't resent change. I do resent bureaucrats changing things without thinking through the market and psychological implications. If they cannot understand those issues, then maybe they should keep their asses out of the kitchen and quit messing with the fundamental architecture of our society. In this song they make the point that jobs go overseas. Well, gee, I wonder why? Tax a corporation to death, impose impossible union restrictions, and hold it up for ridicule for making a profit, and you're surprised that jobs go overseas????? There's a fundamental concept in Six Sigma that comes from Systems Theory. You cannot improve a process by pushing the burden upstream or downstream to another process. It only makes the problem invisible- for a time - and does nothing for the overall system. In fact, it will likely make the entire system worse. Edwards Deming said (yes, I'm paraphrasing - he was a physicist so I'm less precise than the language he used) that those uniformed, uneducated, untrained, hacks can do more damage than good in trying to improve a system. I use a simpler example in my training. Take a gel insert, push your finger in the middle. Does the gel get displaced? Well, maybe you should think about what is being moved "upstream and downstream"!