Lets pretend. Visualize five theaters side by side in Boston or New York City, maybe the size of the Radio City Music Hall or the Wang Center. Its a Saturday night and all five theaters have advertised free admission heavily for a month. And as a special bonus, you will get to meet and receive an autograph of the appearing celebrity.
At theater one is John McCain. At theater two is Barack Obama. At theater three is Manny Ramirez. At theater four is Brittany Spears. And at theater five is Warren Buffett.
Heres the dilemma-you can only attend one event. Which one do you choose? Youd love to hear John McCain talk about his five years as a prisoner of war and how he plans to win the current war against terror. You would love to meet Barack Obama and hear how he is going to change Washington into a place that actually allows the common peoples problems and concerns to be dealt with without interference from money interests. Youre an avid baseball fan and would love to meet the Hall of Fame-bound Manny Ramirez and experience a Manny moment. Youre a music fan and would be ecstatic to see, hear and meet Brittany. Or, you are a serious businessman, have followed the no-miss career of Warren Buffett and cant wait to hear about his next investments and why. So who do you think would have the best attendance? And I hope the answer wont surprise you. Here are the results: Brittany, Manny, Obama, McCain and Warren a distant fifth.
What does that tell us about the average citizen? It tells us what we dont want to believe, think about or face. Your vote isnt worth anymore weight than someone who is ill informed and under educated...In a democracy does the best man/woman rule? The truth is that the best people who are most qualified dont bother to run. Where does that leave us? It leaves you in a free country that allows you to succeed or fail and that is the way it should be. Thats what the soldiers in all the necessary wars fought and died for.
Can we have a say in what goes on in the government that knows little about economics? I suppose you can write or even email your senator and congressman. Ever tried? How many can tell me who your senators and congressman are? Raise your hand. Oops! Thats not very good. I did once and got two replies out of the four. I think they were form letters.
Believe it or not, one of them from from a man named Ted Kennedy. From what Ive heard hes been one of the better senators for his many years of service-a man who could have gone sailing for the past 40 years.
So that brings us to which Kennedy was best suited to run the government. No contest! The father Joe, of course. He was the only one who ever ran a successful business-a vastly successful one. (I wont mention what he sold). The U.S. is the largest business in the world and we found out earlier that the one man who was most qualified, Buffett, finished a distant last in our little pretend game.
In January, we will have a new president. Do you think if I send him my ABCs of Success book hell read it? Do you think Ill get a reply? Ill do it and tell you the result.
By the way, have you ordered it yet? You can read the first five chapters on www.rejournal.com/abc. Good reading.
Roland Hopkins is the founder of the New York Real Estate Journal, Norwell, Mass.
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