Written by: Tom Sawyer

Have you ever heard someone say something you thought was crazy and/or far-fetched only to have it validated by someone else?  I have this happen on a regular basis; I talk to my wife all the time about something I’ve said that comes to light later on – I also talk to her about some of my (original) dance moves that I see in music videos, but that is another subject entirely.    We are fortunate to have some posters/friends that have opinions that at first seemed absurd, but as time goes on seem to be solid. 

If multiple people from multiple backgrounds are saying the same, or similar things, there must be something to them right?  Where there is smoke there is fire and Peter G. Peterson says some things that I’ve heard before and are starting to ring true in my mind.  Mr. Peterson made his fortune after the company he founded, The Blackstone Group, went public in 2007.  Here we go:

For the first time in my memory, the majority of the American people join me in believing that, on our current course, our children will not do as well as we have. For years, I have been saying that the American government, and America itself, has to change its spending and borrowing policies: the tens of trillions of dollars in unfunded entitlements and promises, the dangerous dependence on foreign capital, our pitiful level of savings, the metastasizing health-care costs, our energy gluttony. These structural deficits are unsustainable. Herb Stein, who served alongside me in the Nixon White House as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, once drily observed, “If your horse dies, I suggest you dismount.” And yet, we keep trying to ride this horse.

Underlying these challenges is our broken political system. Our representatives, unlike our Founding Fathers, see politics as a career. As a result, they are focused not on the next generation, but on the next election. When the long-term problems are large and real, they anesthetize us, mislead us, divert us—anything to keep us from giving up something or having to pay for it. Too often, our political leaders are just enablers, co-conspirators in a disingenuous and greedy silence. Our children are unrepresented. The future is unrepresented. The moment is long overdue for us to become moral and worthy ancestors. So I decided to set up a different kind of foundation, one that would focus on America’s key fiscal-sustainability challenges. The fact is, for most of these challenges, there are workable solutions. Our problem is not a lack of such options. It is a lack of will to do something about them.

Ultimately, I decided to commit $1 billion to the Peter G. Peterson foundation—the vast majority of my net proceeds from Blackstone. Why so much? Kurt Vonnegut once told a story about seeing Joseph Heller at a wealthy hedge-fund manager’s party at a beach house in the Hamptons. Casting his eye around the luxurious setting, Vonnegut said, “Joe, doesn’t it bother you that this guy makes more in a day than you ever made from Catch-22?” “No, not really,” Heller said. “I have something that he doesn’t have: I know the meaning of enough.” I have far more than enough.

Three thing in those three paragraphs stick out:

1. If the horse dies, I suggest you dismount
2. …they are focused not on the next generation, but on the next election.
3. I have something he doesn’t have: I know the meaning of enough.

It seems like there are signs, obvious signs, on a daily basis that indicate we aren’t on the right path.  I hope people like Peter G. Peterson are wrong.  I hope.

Tags: Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Peterson giving away $1 billion

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 10:20 pm and is filed under Current Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.