Month: September 2017

I grew up in suburbia, and have spent various parts of my life in small towns, a Southern city, and in rural Indiana. Moving may be a hassle, but new experiences in new locations provide wonderful opportunities to learn and explore. That’s certainly true as I adjust to life in New York City, a vastly different environment than anything I’ve tried before.

Living in the city, my wife and I have encountered government as never before. We rely on the subway to get around, enjoy strolls through Central Park, routinely see police officers and traffic cops, and have heard about city regulations on just about everything we ask about. Many of the rules and regulations (but not all) make sense.

Because government is so visible in the city, many who live here have a hard time grasping why so many other Americans see government as, at best, a necessary evil. It’s not really a philosophical view or an ideology so much as just the practical reality of day to day life.

But, when I’ve lived in rural settings, the day to day reality was entirely different. People in such settings rarely encounter government and instead see a society guided by community organizations, churches, helpful neighbors, and informal arrangements. When there’s a problem to be solved, people get together and solve it. Government rules and regulations from a distant capital are often mocked as unrealistic and intrusive.

For people in such settings, it’s impossible to understand why some people think government should have the right to intrude on just about anything that involves day-to-day life.

In reality, both imagined experiences are incomplete. The heavy government presence in New York blinds many to just how much the vibrant informal society and business community do to make the city work. And, in rural areas, the reverse is true. While government plays a background role, all the other organizations and neighborhood activity typically obscure it.

A healthy society requires leadership from all organizations and individuals in the community. It cannot survive with an overly dominant government or without any government. It cannot survive without individuals, community organizations, and businesses working together and making their world just a little bit better. But, as should be obvious to all, the right mix of leadership depends upon the community. What works in New York City will not work in rural Indiana.

That bit of common sense wisdom is often missing from our national political dialogue. Too often we carry out national political debates as extensions of our local experience. People who live in cities often expect the government to regulate everything that moves and distrust those who advocate any other solutions. Those who live outside the cities typically see a government that already is doing too much and are equally distrustful of other views.

We can never resolve these differences at the national level. No matter how much some in DC want to believe it, one size fits all solutions can’t possibly work in a wonderfully diverse country like the United States. Instead, we should work to return decision making closer to home. Let every community create the leadership mix and government role that makes sense in their corner of the world. And, then, let people vote with their feet to decide what works best for them

There is a mistaken notion, deeply embedded in our national political dialogue, that society is naturally divided into public and private sectors. The public sector is thought of as the vehicle for governing society and looking out for the common good. The private sector is where people merely look out for themselves.

Not surprisingly, this view is promoted aggressively by those in the public sector. In this false view of the world, governing is the responsibility of government alone. The vast majority of Americans who work and live in the private sector are told they should study the issues, get involved in campaigns, and vote. After that, the political elites want us to get out of the way and let the so-called experts run things.

In the real world, however, every relationship and organization plays a role in governing society. Our spouses, close family members, and friends play key roles in holding us accountable. They also support us, encourage us, guide us, and lend a helping hand when needed.

Moving beyond the family circle, our commitments to employers and community groups play important roles in our lives but also in terms of governing society. They often exercise authority over us and exert a significant influence over our behavior and schedules. These relationships help us to be productive members of society.

That’s true whether the associations we form are community groups in the traditional geographic sense, online communities, or a workplace. Some groups are as informal as meeting co-workers after work for a beer on Friday afternoons or starting the morning on a power walk with friends. Others are more formal, everything from churches and charities to sports leagues, theater groups, and garden clubs. And, of course, we’re just beginning to understand how Facebook groups and other new forms of community fit into this process.

Few think of these ties as having anything to do with governance, but they are absolutely vital to the governing of society. These formal and informal associations are places where people learn about, process, and begin to act upon the news of the day. That includes everything from what the president said the night before to which companies are hiring or moving away and who is sick and needs some help to get through.

When storms hit, these are the groups that mobilize the community by spreading the word and offering a plan of action. It’s happening right now in the aftermath of Harvey and Irma. Following Hurricane Sandy, the Associated Press reported that people were far more likely to seek and receive help from family, friends and community groups rather than government efforts. Obviously, government has a role to play, but it’s just one of many organizations that help make a healthy society work. In fact, the formal government rarely has the lead role.

We need to replace the mistaken view that governing is the responsibility of government alone with a more realistic recognition that that most governing of society takes place closer to home. On a day-in and day-out basis, community organizations and relationships play a bigger role in governing our society than the rules, regulations, and policies of the formal government.

Moving to a new home is an all-American activity. Roughly one out of nine people do it every year. Many stay within the same state, but we’ll be among the nearly 5 million Americans who move across state lines to establish a new home.

Some of our friends have been puzzled by the move. One noted that we managed to pick the only place that has a higher tax burden than our current home state of New Jersey. That’s true, of course, but there are offsetting benefits in terms of career, entertainment, and lifestyle opportunities. It may not be for everyone, but for us right now New York is the greatest city in the world.

Others have wondered how we will be able to tolerate the nanny-state approach of Mayor de Blasio. I’m sure we’ll find many regulations silly and annoying, but I also know that politicians aren’t nearly as important as they think they are. Despite de Blasio’s effort to protect the taxi industry by blocking Uber and Lyft, we’ll be able to use those essential ride-sharing services. The culture leads and politicians lag behind.

This move has given me the opportunity to remind my politically obsessed friends that governing is not the responsibility of government alone. Instead, every organization and relationship has a role to play in making society work. New York is a great city because of all the dynamic relationships between individual residents, small businesses, large companies, tourists, social and charitable groups, entertainers, artists, churches, synagogues, and countless other associations. The mayor and city council have a role to play, but it’s not the lead role.

We are moving to the city knowing full well that our right to vote will not have any real impact on taxes, regulations or other government policies.

But we also know that we possess a more powerful tool to hold the city government accountable. It’s the power to walk away. It works because cities and towns are in a constant competition for residents, employers and jobs.

We are moving to New York because we believe the lifestyle mix of housing, activities, taxes, and services is appealing. That mix has been created by all of the individuals, organizations, and relationships that currently govern New York City.

If for any reason that mix changes and we no longer see value in staying, we’ll leave. We’re not obligated to stay and seek reform through the political process. We don’t have to ask permission or give any explanation for our decision. We can just move to another place whenever we want.

For us and 35 million other Americans on the move this year, our decision is a personal choice. But, collectively, our power to act as consumers highlights the reality that governing is not the responsibility of government alone. We’re thankful for all who have made New York a great city and look forward to being a part of it.