522 Counting

522 Counting

Having lived though 17 presidential elections, it's possible to conclude that America is a nation that can't count.  

Inaccurate?  Unfair?  Maybe.  But there's an awful lot of evidence, especially around election time.  As of this writing, they still haven't figured out who will represent Minnesota in the US Senate, for example. Here's another:  was the Bernie Fraud $50 billion or 20 billion or 17 billion or -- and this is a relatively new version 65 billion?

Why can't we count?  Maybe it's because we rely on perfectly good people and often perfectly good machines, well meaning folk and hardware that break down under critical conditions.

In a nation larded with bean counters, we still don't know how many beans there are.  Especially when there's more than one variety of bean to count.

Alright, how does this happen.  Elementary school kids can count.  By the age of four, most kids can count to at least five.  Often, they can count in fractions.  ("I'm NOT four.  I'm FOUR AND A HALF!")  By age ten, they have the whole thing down pat.  There's probably something in the child labor laws that would prohibit ten year-olds from counting ballots.  But if it weren't illegal, they'd probably do no worse and probably do a whole lot better than what we have now.

Or maybe we should try outsourcing.  We outsource everything else, after all.

If your "Detroit" car was made in Mexico or Canada or Japan or Korea or Germany or Sweden, why not your vote count?  They can count is Australia and Europe and Asia and South America.  In Greenland and Iceland and all those other lands.

Well, there's a move afoot to keep American jobs in America.  So how about this idea:

Bookies can count.  Hire bookies.  Or family farmers, such as there are of them, where an inability to count is a life-threatening condition?  Or seniors on Social Security.  They can divide a bunch of small numbers into a larger one.  Failure to do so also is a life-threatening condition.  It's a matter of survival.  As it is with piece workers in sweat shops.  They know exactly --exactly!-- how many shirts or shorts or dresses or pants they've sewn or cut.  It's a matter of survival.

Or toll takers on the country's highways.

Or maybe the IRS should take on the responsibility.  Who argues with an IRS count, argues at his peril.

What is truly amazing about this is that the so-called most advanced nation in recorded history can't get it right the first time.

Sure, it's more complicated than using fingers and toes.  But it's STILL just counting.

Shrapnel:

--To bad about Bernie.  He pleaded guilty to eleven charges.  One too many for Letterman's Top Ten List.

--Light at the end of the tunnel or just a glitch?  GM says it doesn't need it's March feeding, two billion federal dollars.  See how long that lasts.

--Note that you can link to John Wydra's website from here and from the right side of the page.  Note also that the site is again active after a brief absence.  Note also that the guy makes a lot of sense and we need more more more of that.

I'm Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own, but you're welcome to them.®

©WJR 2009