OH, THE BURDENS WE BEAR

There are many frustrations facing us in this modern world. Practices that are simply annoying but defy any attempt to change them.  Procedures which have become so ingrained in the way we function that, even though we hate doing them, we seemed doomed to continue under their burden until something more onerous and aggravating comes along to take their place.  I make a short list: 

• Computerized answering services.

         "Press 1, or press 3, 
or press 7, or press 9, or possibly press 0. Oh you did all that twice? Well I'm sorry. All of the human beings who sometimes frequent our company are probably busy right now doing something, so stay on the line and listen to music you can't stand while we ignore you as long as possible in the hope you will get upset enough to hang up.  Call back later for even more frustration and just remember we appreciate your business."  

•  Insurance companies of multiple varieties.

        AUTO--"As a truly caring company, we want your money, so pay us on time or we will cancel your policy. Come to think of it we might just cancel your policy if you file any claim that would force us to live up to the agreement we made when you took out the policy. Be sure to understand that if we have to pay you or someone else because of what you did there is a high probability we will cancel your policy and if we don't cancel it we will surely raise your premium. After all we have to recoup the money we paid."
      HEALTH--"In order to be financially responsible as an insurance company, we won't insure you if you have a preexisting sickness. We don't want to pay out money for people who are too ill. It could be a drain on our profits. After all, we want money from healthy people who will live a long time and faithfully pay premiums without needing us to pay anything to keep them healthy. Should you need medicine just remember to get generic even though its quality can vary greatly from brand name medicine. You can still get the brand name but it will cost you considerably more. Don't even think about visiting a doctor we don't approve because it will cost you as much as 700% more for the visit.
    HOME--"Our company strongly suggests you don't read the fine print of your policy because you may then discover that we won't pay for damage caused by many hazards unless you buy a rider for them: floods, earthquakes, black mold, etc.  If you buy the riders and there is a subsequent claim we will most assuredly increase your premium to recoup our loss."
      LIFE--"The older you get the more your have to pay to keep your policy in force because there is a greater chance you will die. Then we would have to pay out our agreed upon amount. We want to put that off as long as possible don't we? We won't even take you on as a policy holder if you can't pass the health questions we ask in order to eliminate those who might die too early." 

• Congress, State Legislatures and local governing bodies that pass innumerable laws and statutes each year. (I won't talk about judicial fiats)

     We prize ourselves as a free country but in reality we have become the most legislated people in the world: Traffic laws, food and drug regulations, home construction and improvement regulations, educational mandates, health laws, banking and investment regulations, radio and TV regulation, federal, state and local income, outgo, property, death and if they could there would probably be resurrection taxes.

• Presidential elections that seem to go on forever. 

It never seems to end.  One primary election after another with complete disregard for states with small populations because you can win the presidency by garnering the electoral votes of 12 large populated states. (NY-29; Penn-20; FL-29; TX-38; CA-55; IL-20; OH-18;Mich-16; GE-16; NC-15, Vir-15. Total 271. That is one more than the 270 needed to win.)

     Why not have a four month process. No one could announce as a candidate or campaign before two months previous to the national primary election held by each party two months before the Constitutionally mandated presidential election in November. 

The winners of the national primary election could then campaign for two months and the popular vote in November, instead of the current electoral college vote in January, would determine the next President. It might lead to a proliferation of parties in the primary election but only those whose candidate managed to gain a pre-determined percentage of the total vote (say 30 percent) would be allowed to continue on in the campaign for the presidency. Imagine that. Everybody's vote would count and we wouldn't have a year and a half of accusation and innuendo, just four months.

This blog entry has also gone on for too long but you get the picture.