Effeciency of Business vs the Government

I spent twenty years in the Air Force where I worked as a procurement officer, and subsequently I served for twenty years as a supply manager in industry. As a procurement officer I worked with US Government civilians. There were some excellent civil servants, but there were also some incompetent and unmotivated ones who blamed their lack of productivity on labyrinth of rules in the Federal Acquisition Regulations. There was no profit motive to encourage efficiency. Although industry is driven by the profit motive, I would not call it the bastion of world class management, but the market did discipline management to strive for best practices or, else, perish. The two worlds provide me with a clear picture of where we should focus our efforts to grow the economy. Based on my experience I have little confidence that government has any business doing anything industry can do. The U. S. government should structure tax laws to facilitate commercial growth and, at the same time, shrink government whenever possible.

We Use Less Than 10% of Our Brain

We have extras space in our brains, so let’s fill it with another language. In “Lessons From My Roots” by Edward Baca, we learn of a man proud of his diverse ancestry which formed the foundation of his bilingual command of the Spanish and English language. He points out how impressed he was with Roger Federrer who accepted trophies in French and English. I, too, have been awed by multilingual Europeans. We have all heard of people who command five and six languages.

This goes to show that brain capacity is not so small to be limited to one language. Studies show we use less than 10% of our brain’s capacity. So why are so many Americans protective of the English language as if it will disappear if we don’t designate it as the “official” American tongue? When I moved to Texas twenty years ago I began to build my Spanish skills through independent study (tapes, CDs and books) and group and private lessons, and now I speak what I call “street” Spanish. I have fun each time I have a chance to communicate in Spanish so I try it as often as I can. When I traveled to Spain, Argentina, and Mexico, I communicated solely in the local language to practice my skills. Most people tolerated my poor Spanish, and many openly appreciated my efforts.

As a high school student I took Latin that I recall to this day as a basis of many English and Spanish words. We can and should learn to speak as many languages as time and resources permit. Obviously, some language will be more useful than others, but one side effect of being multilingual is that we begin to appreciate our native language and its significance to our culture.