Making it easy for people to take money from their 401(K) plan - a company called Reserve Solutions, Inc has a brilliant idea, a line of credit for your 401(k) plan in the form of a debit card that allows you to "borrow" directly from your plan for a mere 2.9% plus prime. Borrowing from your 401(k) plan is just a bad idea any time, this just makes it easier to be dumb.
Sticking it to your health insurance company - recently a women won an arbitration against Health Net because the Company canceled her health insurance based on the fact she lied on her application for coverage. In fact, the broker changed her application, so clearly her coverage should have been valid and all of her medical bills covered. However, the result was an award of $9.3 million making her attorney rich and creating yet another reason for Health Net subscribers to pay higher premiums.
Blocking free trade and denying globalization - the world is changing, the U.S. is no longer the big dog in the world economy (down to about 20%), to grow we need the world market, to enhance competition in the U.S. we need the world market. Trying to preserve the past is like trying to preserve the jobs of buggy whip makers, pilots who are only qualified on prop planes or the guy who designed Pac Man. Unions who try and block free trade agreements are trying to hold back the tide and in the long run doing their members a great disservice.
Not understanding the law of unintended consequences or that everything is related and linked – this is not complicated but often overlooked. For example, encourage use of corn for bio fuel and less corn will be available for human consumption, prices go up and the impact reverberates throughout the world. Maintain high corporate taxes and business seeks alternatives in international markets, jobs and revenue are lost. Insulate people from the cost of something and they won’t care what it costs.The examples are endless, the lesson profound…but generally ignored.
Underestimating the power of religion for good or evil - throughout time religion has been used as the excuse for war, for terror and persecution, it is the root cause of many problems of today with roots in the middle ages, yet religion gives solace and peace to billions of people. Religion may be organized or disorganized and easily subject to corruption because by its very nature it facilitates the control over many by a few or a single person. People seek answers to questions for which there may be none through religion and in that quest may find it easy to blame others or other religions, religion is often the outlet for frustration. Great art, great architecture, great beauty and hope come from religion, but the vulnerability of religion to evil remains.
Political parties - the founding fathers feared, today them politicians have come to depend on them often to the detriment of good decisions for Americans.
Lying - never a good idea and yet we continue to believe it will not come back to haunt us, yeah right, good luck.
