LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

Your editor is off on a sabbatical to the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom for the most part of the next twelve months. Unfortunately, this is the last issue as you have come to know it, weekly, late Thursday nights. Perhaps an issue will appear from time to time when there is enough to say. Perhaps there will be no issue until we return. Perhaps this is the last issue forever.

YOU WON’T HAVE ME TO KICK AROUND

You have been a great audience. Most of you are more than an audience; writing, calling, emailing, stopping on the street. We have built a small community you and us, a community dedicated to finding once again the trail representing our values, our economy, our heritage, and our future. You have been a great help and inspiration. Thank you all.

Thanks to our tireless "staff" of seven who have anonymously written articles, done research, and created value. We have endeavored to sell DPR or to joint venture DPR during our absence from Vermont to keep you informed and on edge. We were close but no cigar.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

We have pleaded for money. From time to time, you have responded. Should you think that you have not received your money’s worth, let us know and we will provide a refund. Several of you have sent in a donation in the last few weeks or even the last few days. Just ask and we will return your contribution.

Should any of you miss us so badly and long for your Thursday night or Friday morning fix of unique, interesting and enjoyable reading and wish to send along a contribution, thank you. 

THERE ARE NO CONFERENCE ROOMS?

Emails, phone calls, faxes. WCAX was inundated. We were too. "IBM is going to lay off 1,200 today." Folks tried to reserve one conference room last week but were told they were all reserved by the company. Oh me oh my. Who knows, but it appears serious this time. Some write of 800 layoffs, others write of fear and depression, and others write of not much productive work happening.

Governor Jim Douglas was asked if he had been informed by IBM of any layoffs. He said, "No. They said that they would tell the employees first. I have talked with their representatives weekly."

THE LONG VIEW

Our governor takes the long view. "We need to understand the realities of the microchip business. The softness in demand for their products cannot be ignored. There has been a shift in the economy. One company has dominated employment for almost fifty years here in Vermont. We need to plan for the new economy.

"Jobs are growing in government, health care and education. Overall jobs are up. But IBM lost $100,000,000 in the last three months alone. The company must respond. I do not like to see more government jobs. It would be better if they were in manufacturing or research and development."

When asked if he was concerned about our shrinking tax base and the corresponding growth of education, government and health care, he answered, "Yes. That is why we passed the jobs bill, why we are addressing the competitive disadvantages of doing business in Vermont. I think that the economy will grow, in fits and starts, but the trend line will be positive."

CRASH GOES THE THREE-LEGGED STOOL

Senator George Aiken spoke often of Vermont’s three-legged stool, manufacturing, tourism and agriculture. Crash, manufacturing is in a free fall as is agriculture. Tourism is off as well according to Vermont’s room and meals tax receipts.

The new economy has huge retail shopping never imagined in Aiken’s day, service businesses, captive insurance businesses, tourist opportunities, and entertainment venues. Yes, there is some manufacturing. Dairy still dominates all agriculture but recently at a loss.

The state economists say that our economy is non-resident driven. Vermont leads the nation in second home ownership. They build houses, ask us to mow, plow, and clean, shop, and eat out. For driving our economy, the legislature has created a special tax status, a reward for not sending any children to school. The new category will have their paying fifty-four percent higher taxes than us natives. Thank you very much as the King might say. A bull’s eye on their back as Representative Mark Young, R-Orwell, said. 

COMPETITIVE DISADVANTAGES

Speaking of competitive disadvantages, Vermont unBusiness Magazine presents an editorial, "Developing undeveloped land is always going to be very problematic in Vermont." Great, can't work for change, can't hope for change. Can we only develop developed land? How much of Vermont is undeveloped, eighty percent or so? 

SO LONG, FAREWELL, YOU BIG POLLUTER

The Conservation Law Foundation brought action against the State of Vermont for allowing IBM to pollute the Winooski River. That IBM is well under fifty percent of what is allowed is not their concern. That it looks like IBM will be even a smaller polluter soon is no matter.

From the 2000 data provided, IBM was polluting 24 pounds per employee that year. The second largest polluter was Rock-Tenn of Sheldon Springs but they were dumping 172 pounds per employee into the Missisquoi River, six times the IBM rate. So why is CLF not at their door or perhaps that of Tivoly of Derby Line which was the next biggest? Don’t they equally care about the Missisquoi River and Lake Memphremagog? Or is it about bigness, or publicity, or politics, or fundraising? Or even all of the above? 

THERE THEY GO AGAIN

So said Jim Douglas answering a question about another new CLF lawsuit, this time to stop job creating construction and permanent employment with the new Lowe's store in South Burlington. 

HOW TO EARN A MILLION A YEAR

Mr. Young, president of Central Vermont Public Service, was paid over a $1,000,000 last year. A new business just signed up with CVPS. On their first bill they were charged a reasonable six cents per kilowatt-hour. From this modest beginning, their bill increased five hundred percent. There was a demand charge here, a demand charge there, an energy efficiency charge, and so forth.

Dividing the kilowatts hours used into the total bill, their rate was thirty-two cents a kilowatt. Statistically, Vermont has the third most expensive electricity behind ocean-bound Hawaii and inept California. Statistically, Vermont's cost per kilowatt-hour is around ten cents.

By somehow convincing the Public Service Board to allow all these bogus extra charges on business, Mr. Young earns his fee. He did not earn it for creating jobs, adding customers, or inventing new products, successes which might lead normal businesses to thrive. No, he was able to manipulate or cajole a government body to allow him to rip us off. So he makes a million. Businesses are all rich so who cares. Manufacturing is in a "free fall." But businesses are all rich so who cares.

And then he has the gall to say to the Pubic Service Board, "We will agree to hold prices this year."

IBM says that they "spend $12,000,000 to $15,000,000 more on electricity in Essex than either its competitors or comparable IBM plants in other states," according to IBM. Bye bye IBM. 

WE’RE NOT TELLING THE TRUTH

After a previous diatribe about the high cost of energy, a representative of CVPS contacted DPR. We were not telling the truth they said. The real story is that our power bills themselves are about average in the country because our energy efficiency program is so effective that Vermonters do not use as much electricity as folks in other states.

Jeff Couture of IBM claims that Vermont’s rates are "fifty one percent above the national average." He must have got it wrong too.

Well, maybe we do not use as much electricity because we are poorer and do not have as many electrical toys. Maybe that is because not many Vermont homes have central air conditioning, as do many in other states. Maybe it is because we do not have a manufacturing base demanding power as in many other states. Maybe it is because many Vermonters are frugal by nature. Drive out in the rural areas. There may only be the blue glow of a television and one other light. Waste not want not and all those forgotten virtues. 

CHEERLEADING

Vermont Business Magazine editorialized, "Electricity is expensive here, but we use it more wisely." Sure. 

THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULDN’T

In 1945, Vermonters owned thirty-three of the largest thirty-five businesses. By 1960, only five were locally owned. A generation did not come home from war to lead, many dead, others lured to the golden beaches of California.

Vermont was poor. Flatlander C. V. Starr came to ski and poured millions into the Mount Mansfield Ski Corporation and skiing blossomed. Others followed suit up and down Route 100. The State built roads. Tom Watson came skiing, loved it, and caused IBM to build a factory in Essex. 

THE BECKONING COUNTRY

In the 1960’s, Al Moulton, Governor Phil Hoff’s Director of Tourism, developed a marketing campaign for Vermont: the beckoning country. It was so successful that it had to be stopped. People began pouring into Vermont. Vermonters who had left for greener pastures wrote tear stained letters saying how they wished to come home, were there any jobs? There had been more cows than people in the 50’s. By 1970 all that had changed. To cope, Act 250 was passed. 

FLATLANDERS

Flatlanders arrived by the carload. They brought ideas, energy, money, and connections. They fixed up old houses, started new businesses, and brought their friends. Vermonters watched with joy and trepidation, glad for the work, worried about being shoved out of the way. Taciturn and laconic, the Vermonter was an easy target for the more assertive Flatlander. 

CHARACTER

Maria von Trapp often told the story of her arrival in Vermont. She exclaimed that she was comfortable here as it reminded her of home in Salzburg, Austria. People assumed that she was referring to the scenery but no. She was referring to the character of the people. Kind and independent, with a wry humor, dependable neighbors, Vermonters, the salt of the earth.

They came early, stayed, and worked hard scrabble farms. They built lovely homes and barns, villages and churches, meeting halls and town greens. They invented and created. Factories and mills grew up, incomes rose. The character of the people, the villages, and the landscape were appealing to Flatlanders.

Soon though, these Vermonters were not to be trusted with their lands. The Flatlanders knew better. Attracted by this character, charm and history, ironically they set about making Vermont more like where they came from; rules, laws, boards, committees, NIMBYism, fear almost. Common sense, tradition, respect, and Yankee character were all forgotten. 

THE COUP

By the new millennium, Flatlanders controlled all the positions of power: the Supreme Court, four Flatlanders and one Vermonter; the other courts as biographies were available, sixteen to eight; the administration’s secretaries and commissioners, twenty-two to five; the speaker and the senate pro tem, three of four legislative money committee chairs; and a legislative staff balanced twenty-four Flatlanders to one Vermonter. This while fifty-two percent of Vermonters were native born.

The press which reports and describes all this was even more Flatlander. Peter Freyne, Ross Sneyd, the changing heads of the Vermont Press Bureau, the editorial writers for Vermont largest daily, the owners of the St. Albans Messenger, the Addison Independent, the Bennington Banner, the Brattleboro Reformer, the Valley News, and even Marselis Parsons, Flatlanders all. 

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

You might think it necessary. Vermonters are underrepresented in the halls of power. How about a quota system or affirmative action which the liberals love to bring diversity into government and the media. 

THERE IS LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Jim Douglas, though a Flatlander, went to school here, married here, raised and educated a family here. His "top guns" are all Vermonters. His Secretaries of Administration and Human Services and others all Vermonters. We may yet have diversity without legislation. 

THE MOOSE IS LOOSE

Your editor was recently required by a medical emergency to drive from Newport Center to Randolph at 1:00 AM. All the way along, terror reigned, when would the moose be in the road?

Last year the Washington metro area was terrorized by random killings. Why is Vermont not terrorized by random moose related killings. Ten in Washington metro area with a population of 8,000,000. Eleven random moose-related traffic deaths in Vermont with a population of 610,000.

It is not that we have built in the moose habitat. The moose has moved into our habitat. The first moose-vehicle altercation was in 1981. Last year there were 180 altercations leading to 145 moose deaths.

The moose comes near the road in May and June to drink the salt-water residues left over from winter road salt. They come again in the fall in search of the fairer sex. Either way it is random terror, random death.

The moose population is growing. Why is there not an effort to reduce this terror threat? Perhaps increasing the moose permits would help. 

CHARGE IT!

According to RAM Research, Vermonters lead the nation in credit card debt, over fifty percent higher than South Dakota which came in third. Keep on shopping. 

SUPERWOMAN

Doctor Melinda Estes is coming to Burlington to save Fletcher Allen. She will only be paid $625,000 plus $75,000 a year for her retirement, plus benes. The Free Press claims that she will "earn" that amount. Time will tell whether she earns it. 

HOW TO GET THE GIRLS: TEACH

Teachers this month in Essex and Milton admitted to sexual relationships with students. "But they were of age." But they were students. Ah well, the president can have sexual relations with interns. What is the difference?

Vermont Business Magazine proclaims that Wayne Nadeau, the philandering teacher from Lamoille Union, is a "champion for school employees." Was that in reference to the one he was sexually engaging in his classroom? 

LOOKING BACK

The first official issue of what was then called the Dwinell-Sternberg Report was published on October 3, 2000. That first issue reported that the head of the Vermont Teacher's union had made an anonymous, threatening phone call from his office to the president of For the Children. As the Civil Unions backlash raged, Howard Dean stated at a gubernatorial debate, "The court ruled, so it was out of my hands." The first Media Watch, not yet so named, described cartoons from the Rutland Herald/Times Argus in which Ruth Dwyer was depicted wearing a Neo-Nazi uniform.

We needed this report. Vermonters needed to hear the news and views that just didn't seem to make the papers, or sounded different when they did. So it is fortunate that since that first issue, 138 more weekly issues have appeared. The newsletter became the Dwinell Political Report in January 2002. In addition to an ever-growing subscriber list, an average of 1,000 "lurkers" downloaded pages from the DPR website every week (this is not the "hit count", a less meaningful statistic that has averaged nearly 10,000/week all year).

Obviously, this was a labor of love, and yet a labor nonetheless. Now the DPR is taking a rest. What will fill the void? Who will "report, and let us decide?" Will the Editor be able to cope with his empty Thursday evenings? We'll see. --MailGuy 

ALL THE NEWS THAT IT FIT TO PRINT

The New York Times, that paper of record or perhaps as the New York Post calls it, that paper of wreckage, writes about gay adoption. "Children raised by gay parents are not significantly different from those raised by straight parents. If anything, gay parents might do better, having gone to considerable trouble to become parents and being determined to raise children who respect themselves and others while remaining tolerant of diversity."

There you have it. Straight, so to speak, from the Times. 

TWO COPIES OF THE DPR

»» Scott Berkey: Don't know if it was just me or everyone, but I received two copies of the DPR. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: It was such a great issue I guess the webmaster thought that we should read it twice!!

WEBGUY'S NOTE: Oops... The Editor is correct, of course, but it's also true that I let my daughter push the "send" button and she double-clicked! 

FREE FALLING

»» Bob Hardy, Vergennes: Sometimes in spite of all good intentions, the forces already set-in place cannot be deterred from eventuating. Several cases prominent in your report last week exemplify this tendency:

1. THE WOODFORD PACKERS vs. Vermont case is a confirmation of the fact that Vermont is a state which is "unfriendly to business to the extreme". When the Act 250 bureaucracy wakes up and finds "zero" applications for development then they will know the "stop growth" advocates have succeeded. Of course successful examples abound such as in environmentally pristine Switzerland which leaves the final "go/no go" decision to "home rule" by the involved municipality. Maybe we could afford to send a planeload of officials over there to study just how they do this.

2. Fletcher Allen daily costs exceeding comparative daily/patient revenues by approximately two times far into the future as far as the eye can see: Of course if somebody had asked Dartmouth Hitchcock what they learned from their experience of relocating out into the country from Hanover, there might have been something to have been learned from their experience. But, I guess nobody bothered to ask.

Too late for that now. But exorbitant healthcare costs at our premier healthcare institution do nothing for we poor slobs who have to come up with the near $1000/month for health insurance in this non-competitive state! (and also coming up with the income and property taxes to pay for the full healthcare benefits of two of Vermont's largest employers - The State and the Supervisory Unions.) If this were a business which it obviously is not, it would be forced into bankruptcy wiping out the debt... The hole in the ground might make a great new "private" parking garage for downtown and a shuttle terminal for taking patients out to a new campus on "89", perhaps operating as an annex of a joint venture with Dartmouth Hitchcock - if they would have us.

3. IBM. It would be a hope that the DPR is not sent up the food chain to top management at IBM. If it were, I doubt that there would be any delay in winding down things in tax and regulatory friendly Vermont. Where is the public/private group forming now as to what to do "just in case" Chittenden must deal with a large vacancy in Essex. Perhaps some of the people in Plattsburgh could offer some suggestions but maybe they really would not want to. Good luck to us all. 

ONLY ONE LEFT?

»» L.A. Leonard, Rutland Town: Rumor has it that Mutual of Omaha will no longer be selling major medical health policies in Vermont as Fortis Insurance has taken control. Fortis will not be selling here either unless there are state changes made to their satisfaction. This may entail enacting new legislation. With this latest development we are left with what, only Blue Cross/Blue Shield selling individual health policies in the state? Nothing like having a captive market. Are you listening legislators and Governor Douglas? 

FREE MARKET?

»» Steve F: If the state would allow some competition to the Fletcher-Allen monopoly to exist, perhaps they would get better at cost containment. Didn't HealthSouth make a move towards opening a hospital in Chittenden County that was firmly squashed by the state under Emperor Dean? 

"HEY MOE, LARRY!"

»» R. Spreeman, Indiana: I lived in Colchester Vermont for about a dozen years, returning to my native Midwest in 1997. I am employed at a hospital not far from Chicago. I have read of Fletcher Allen's assorted problems with profitability, nursing, and the Renaissance project.

A few months ago, I read in the online Vermont media of how the FAHC nurses were doing an hour of 'garbage and housekeeping' detail at the end of their shifts. My job at the hospital where I work is in Info Services, but as a practical Republican conservative, the idea of using nurses to do laundry and trash seemed ridiculous to me. Since Con Hogan had begun serving on the FAHC hospital board, and he and I had corresponded a few times during his run for governor, I wrote him about this. I asked him if it was true that well-paid, short-staffed nurses were being wasted on performing unskilled labor, even if for 'only' an hour per shift. He checked and responded that yes, it was in fact true, but the practice was being changed.

If this is any indication, it seems to me that past poor management has gotten FAHC into its current financial bind. No financial oversight or budget approval committee is going to resolve that. The hospital where I work has no government financial oversight (this is Indiana, not socialistic Vermontsk) and by virtue of being well-run, we are in the black even in these tough times as we upgrade our computer systems and renovate the entire hospital a few departments at a time. We have no need of anyone looking over our shoulder.

For that matter, some of the things I have seen from Vermont's financial oversight of FAHC will likely result in higher costs, not cost savings - to wit, that committee's derailment of FAHC's computer system upgrade, a system which is almost certainly necessary for improved patient care, efficiency, and HIPAA regulation compliance. The cost of halting this project which had already started, is going to add greatly to its final tab.

Too much emphasis and importance can be placed on dollars - whether they represent the budget of a hospital, or the allotment to something such as education - and insufficient emphasis can be placed on getting full value for those dollars. FAHC demonstrates that fact. I am hopeful that with new and better leadership, the Renaissance project can be completed and the hospital made to operate on a better financial basis. The ills of FAHC will be cured from within, and neither cured nor prevented from recurring by any government oversight committee.

There are those who feel that the government can, should, and will provide us all with better healthcare at greater efficiency and reduced cost. I do not believe it. 

READY OR NOT

»» Paul Chandler, Newport: Elizabeth Ready apparently thinks that the position of Auditor is one of policy making. Why else would she constantly comment on bold moves spoken of by Jim Douglas. Well, maybe they are not bold moves yet, because they have to be acted upon. If she really wants to have a voice in the process, she should run for the legislature.

Oh, wait, she already did that and was part of the reason we have these problems our Governor is speaking out against. My mistake. 

READY TO WRITE

»» Robert Maynard, Williston: In your last report, you mentioned that, "Shay Totten, formerly of Vermont Times, the Burlington Free Press, and the Barton Chronicle and now of the Auditor's executive assistant, is out talking of raising money to start a statewide weekly newspaper."

I hope that you will keep us posted, as we could REALLY use a statewide weekly newspaper. Perhaps you could send some contact information, if Shay does not mind, so that we know where to point interested parties who would like to help? 

LOOKING FOR EVEN MORE

»» Martin Harris, Addison: Congratulations on publicizing the decision of ANR to override the very same Flood Hazard maps it requires all applicants for permits to respect. Like many other state agencies, they've sandbagged an applicant, in your quote, "at the 11th hour." I've written on this in my column in the Addison County Eagle, in an occasional series I've labeled "The Sandbag Chronicles", and would like to request of all your readers that they pass along instances of sand-bagging by local or State officials so that the sand-baggers may receive proper public attention. So far I have two yet to write on in detail: one in Salisbury and one in Manchester. 

READY, SHOOT, AIM!

»» Jason Gibbs, Press Secretary for Governor Douglas: [Regarding "WIP Update"] Perhaps the Water Resources Board should have considered the science in the first place? 

WHERE ARE THE FACT-CHECKERS?

»» Jim Daley, Colchester: A lot of the frustration suffered by conservatives these days can be attributed to a lackadaisical news media. I don't know how many times I have yelled to some TV reporter: "Ask him/her to verify that statement".

They and their print friends seems to accept every cockamamie statement by the CLF, VPIRG, every homosexual organization, most liberals, and all progressives as matters of fact.

The most recent episode occurred on, believe it or not, O'Reilly's "Factor" program when some Episcopal bishop told him: "Most Episcopalians support the election of Bishop Robinson (self-admitted homosexual) and gay rights."

What we know for a fact is that 62 out of 105 Bishops at the 2003 Minneapolis conference voted for the homosexual bishop. I seriously doubt that the vote reflected the clear opinion of the nearly 3,000,000 members of the Episcopal Church. 

CLARIFICATION

»» Ben Golnik, Vermont GOP: Regarding Fundraising - The Capitol Plaza event *DID* bring in about 35K; the FEC report you referenced was our State Account (generally, money from lobbyists and corporations, with a max of 2k per year per entity), which was filed on July 15. Donations from individuals are deposited in our Federal Account (the majority of the money from the event was deposited in this account, with a max of 10k per year per individual).

A quick look at the FEC Federal Reports for the first six months of 2003, which were filed on July 31, shows the Republicans' total for that period at almost 94K and the Dem's at about 87.5K.

Hope this clarifies matters a bit. 

THEY LIKE US

»» Jack McMullen, Burlington: The DPR does such a great service providing another point of view on the Vermont scene -- a point of view now coming somewhat more into fashion because of your good research, keen eye for the true take on a situation -- and for blatant spin by the other point of view, and, not least, because of your always good writing.

»» Robert Chernin, Kilington: I enjoy the reading. Glad to know that not everyone is asleep at the wheel in Vermont politics!!

»» Jeff Morris, Monroe, NH: I watched Vermont Public Television and was so sickened that I decided to help you. Please keep up the good work. 

CAPTAIN AMERICA’S LAST WORD

With DPR going on sabbatical, Captain America has been asked to pen a few final words, in the hope that they might be of interest to the DPR readership. Appropriately, Captain America is writing this discourse on an airplane somewhere over the central United States.

Captain America chose his nom de plume as a reaction to what may be the fundamental societal and political problem which afflicts Vermont; that America and American society are regarded as somehow evil and unpleasant, and thus must be kept out of Vermont at all costs. This is a vision of Vermont as a "hermit kingdom," a fortress wedded to the notion of implacable hostility to the "rest of America." This viewpoint is, in Captain America’s humble opinion, not only grossly wrong; it is also self-serving, unjustifiably arrogant, and ultimately suicidal.

Captain America is pleased to report that the United States of America is (and remains) a great and good nation. Virtually unique among nations, it is the home of technological progress, entrepreneurial zeal, boundless optimism, a high standard of living, and a long-term growth in prosperity which has left older, stagnant societies in the dust.

WHAT ABOUT VERMONT?

Vermont was granted participation in this civil society as its birthright; yet for at least a quarter of a century has effectively rejected this gift as somehow beneath its dignity. A society which regards underachievement as a civic virtue is doomed. Captain America remains continually astounded not only at how much more prosperous the rest of the country is and by how much happier people are in the rest of the country. Handed a "free pass" to the wonders of American society, Vermont has stubbornly chosen to follow an alien path, one more in tune with the stagnant and decaying societies of "old" Europe.

That leads us nicely into three cautions which Captain America wishes to leave to the DPR readership.

EUROPHILES

First, we must beware of the "Europhiles" among us, those who try to tell us that American society is bad, and that the "European" social model is kinder and better. These claims are simply wrong; the "European model" is failing. Over the last 20+ years, the American economy has grown by leaps and bounds, and the American standard of living has continued to rise.

During that same time period, the "European" economies have gone nowhere, standards of living have not improved, high unemployment (and underemployment) has become permanent, employment opportunities are confined almost exclusively to a large and bloated "public" sector, and anyone with a gram of skill, energy, or ambition is forced to flee. Vermont readers, of course, will recognize many of these maladies closer to home.

It must be recognized that these ills are a direct and present threat to basic freedom in Europe. As economies stagnate, populations age, and societies droop in exhaustion, the European Union is becoming a larger manifestation of this alarming trend. The pontifications of the "Europhiles" are self-serving. The soft, kind-and-gentle "European" model has implemented all of the wishes of the impractical, utopian, misty-eyed left; that all good things can be guaranteed and all bad things can be banished merely by fiat.

Thus, the "Europhiles" are in a self-imposed trap. Whether or not they believe their own pontifications is not the key issue; the problem is that they HAVE to believe them. If the "European model" demonstrably fails (as it is now doing), then the worldview of the "Europhiles" will be proven to be bankrupt, and they themselves demonstrated to be no better than hucksters pedaling social and political snake oil.

HISTORY

This leads into the second caution. We must beware of anyone who would try to convince us that "history" has ended, that we have entered some sort of "new age" where all of the principles of society, economy, and governance, developed and validated over several thousand years of human civilization, are now neither valid nor necessary. History is a long and ongoing story of big issues, and of those who rise to meet them.

FOR PROFIT OR FOR NON-PROFIT?

This leads to Captain America’s third and final caution, which applies specifically to Vermont. Vermont appears to be possessed of a disproportionately large number of "non-profit" organizations. Don’t get Captain America wrong on this; there are plenty of worthwhile non-profit organizations in this world. The best non-profit organizations are led and staffed by those with considerable real-world experience, who have an understanding of the tensions, trade-offs, and balances inherent in the world’s marketplaces of business and ideas.

At its base, the conduct of business is about service to customers, listening to their wants and needs, and developing an understanding of both immediate needs and future needs. As such, the conduct of business is the ultimate social service, and the ability to generate a profit is only possible when one is able to exceed expectations.

Unfortunately, too many of Vermont's non-profits are run of, by, and for people who, having no experience of business, do not understand these principles. Instead, they smugly present their "non-profit" status as proof of their superior virtue; that their "non-profit" status differs from that of "for-profit" businesses only in that they magnanimously refuse to squeeze out profits.

When Vermont has an increasing number of profitable, for-profit businesses and a decreasing number of egocentric, smug, self-serving "non-profits" and non-business businesses, we can finally look for improvement; socially, politically, and economically.

DEVELOPING THE UNDEVELOPED

That last point allows for some final comments. For too long, Vermont has been a crazy world, in which simple mathematics has been declared to be invalid. We have watched as walls were put up to keep out the modern world. We have watched as Vermont has allowed its "old economy" to crumble away, while neglecting to build (and even actively opposing) the creation of its "new economy" replacements.

We have watched as our various infrastructures have wasted away, leaving Vermont with, for example, a communications infrastructure which is now noticeably inferior to much of the so-called third world. At the same time, we allowed ourselves to believe that while we could thusly abolish the entire commercial sector, we could have a large and lavish welfare state. The numbers clearly can't be made to add up, but this obvious mathematical reality seems yet to have fully sunken in. When we have people who can cheerfully claim with a straight face that Vermont can have an economy based on government, non-profit organizations, hospitals, and schools, we should be very, very worried.

And that leads us to our final consideration of Vermont’s problems; the people problem. Between the absence of a meaningful economy and the continual harassment by various smug, intrusive, activist busybodies, Vermont has been increasingly unable to retain or attract strong, independent people who have genuinely positive contributions to make to our economy and society. Instead, that environment causes Vermont to attract and retain weak, dependent people who use the word "community" frequently, as code language for "I want someone else to be obligated to take care of me."

And that may be the ultimate statement of what we need to focus on, and how we'll know that we've truly turned the corner. When, on our streets and in our restaurants, we hear people of energy and worthwhile vision saying with excitement, "I have a dream, and I’m coming to Vermont to make it happen!", then we'll know that better days are, finally, just ahead. 

REMEMBER WALDO'S PRE-ELECTION ACT 60 REFORM PLANS? 

"[O]ne of the problems with our party is people will say anything to get to be president of the United States..." --Howard Dean on MSNBC's "Buchanan & Press," 8/12/03 

EARTH TO LEAHY! 

"Conservatives and libertarians who once viewed the judiciary as the final bulwark against government tyranny must now accept that no branch of government even remotely performs its constitutional role. ...It's time for the executive and legislative branches to show some backbone, appoint judges who follow the Constitution, and remove those who do not." --Ron Paul 

The Dwinell Political Report was published weekly by JDLS Publishing, LLC, but publication is currently suspended while the editor is on sabbatical. Portions of the Dwinell Political Report may be reprinted with attribution.

Contact the Editor at: Dwinell@adelphia.net

The mission of the Dwinell Political Report is to give readers another view of the news that is refreshing, provocative and sometimes irreverent.