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Musings Report 2023-51 12-16-23 Austerity Isn't Bad--It's Essential
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Welcome to the Musings Classics Series, in which I occasionally reprint a previous Musings that is still relevant today. This is Musings 2013-51, ten years ago.
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Austerity Isn't Bad--It's Essential
Unsurprisingly, the status quo position on austerity (real or imagined)--that it's terrible, horrible and bad--is precisely backwards: austerity is the one essential motivator of strategic planning, prioritization and decision-making.
By austerity, I mean a broad-based definition: when resources are not up to the demands of the status quo. In other words, austerity is a relative term; for the household accustomed to a lifestyle that requires $15,000 a month, a cut to $10,000 a month is a drastic austerity budget.
For a military machine accustomed to expanding budgets and a $700+ billion annual budget, a cut of $50 billion is viewed as extreme austerity--even though it wasn't that long ago that the Pentagon budget was well under $500 billion.
An insightful article in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs describes how austerity has forced the U.S. military to realign resources with goals via strategic thinking: How Budget Crises Have Improved U.S. Strategy.
When there is plenty of money for every program and every response to every potential threat, money is thrown around without regard to strategic planning, which is the process of assessing and ranking risks and threats and formulating a strategy that prioritizes resources and goals: in other words, smart planning.
the author of the essay neatly summarizes this process:
"In World War II, the paucity of the resources on hand actually forced U.S. policymakers to make tough but smart choices. A combination of austerity and crisis helped forge a core strategic concept, a new threat assessment, an appreciation of the indissoluble links between interests and values, and a calibration of priorities."
In my view, the dynamic of austerity coupled with crisis being the key driver of smart planning is scale-invariant, meaning that it works equally well on small and large scales: individuals, households, communities, organizations, enterprises and nations all need strategic thinking to avoid squandering resources on impractical, low-yield distractions that have been jumbled up with key priorities by muddled, politicized thinking.
Simply put, when you have enough borrowing power to fund everything that every constituency wants, you are ill-prepared for crisis. Muddled strategic planning leads to a mass of competing priorities, none of which are integrated in a grand strategy with clear goals, priorities and planning.
In a previous Musings, I discussed Japan's muddled plan for the Midway campaign, which was a convoluted political marriage of competing Army and Navy plans. Rather than clarify the goal and prioritize the means to accomplish it, the Japanese high command attempted to please every major constituency by combining every power center's ideas and goals into a complicated tactical plan.
The end result was a military catastrophe that essentially ended Japan's hope of prevailing: four aircraft carriers sunk, the cream of the Navy's carrier pilot cadre lost, and a retreat from expansion to defense.
This failure to force clear strategic thinking was the direct result of Japan's string of victories and the hubris of believing available resources could magically accomplish any goal conjured by central command.
That is a precise analogy to the U.S., not just militarily, but in every aspect of its society and economy: "no limits" means no strategy, no priorities, no planning and ultimately, no clear thinking at the top.
This perfectly captures the essence of the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) monstrosity: a program intended to be all things to all constituencies is a muddled, complicated mess doomed to catastrophic failure on multiple levels.
Austerity and crisis are not bad--they are the essential dynamics that force smart thinking and the re-alignment of resources and strategic goals. Trying to do everything for everyone ends up failing everyone in catastrophic fashion.
Highlights of the Blog
A Note of Gratitude to Readers and Correspondents
Do We Even Need a Banking Sector? Not Any More
A Quick Guide to What's Fake: Everything That's Officially Sanctioned
What's Real? What's Fake?
I think my series on what's fake and what's real is one of my better efforts this year. It goes right to the heart of what's wrong with substituting perception (everything's great!) for reality.
Best Thing That Happened To Me This Week
Made it back to Hawaii in one piece.
From Left Field
NOTE TO NEW READERS: This list is not comprised of articles I agree with or that I judge to be correct or of the highest quality. It is representative of the content I find interesting as reflections of the current zeitgeist. The list is intended to be perused with an open, critical, occasionally amused mind.
Many links are behind paywalls. Most paywalled sites allow a few free articles per month if you register. It's the New Normal.
How did nuclear submarine Captain David Marquet take over the worst performing ship with the lowest moral in the US Navy and turn it into the highest graded ship ever? (via G.F.B.)
The surprising truth about what motivates us (10 min. video, via G.F.B.) extremely important program on autonomy, mastery and purpose... when the profit motive becomes unmoored from purpose, things fall apart.
The Agony of Instagram -- Instagram Envy - somebody has something "perfect" that we want--arggh.
Investment Fads and Themes - recent history lesson
The Atomic States of America -- documentary (via Chad D.)
Solving the Shortage in Primary Care Doctors (via Joel M.)
Congress and the hospitals have established a residency system that doesn't train the doctors Americans need most.
Why Are Americans Staying Put? (via Joel M.)
"As with so many cases of inertia, the Internet may be partly to blame...."
How could America initially make the transition to single payer national healthcare funding? what would it initially look like? Here is the proposal from the Physician's working Group for Single-Payer National Health Insurance. (via John D.)
How Slavery Led to Modern Capitalism -- a provocative title for a challenging essay...
The Last Symphony: Today's elite lacks the patience and culture for classical music (I am not so sure about this blanket statement; Asian-American Elites are highly engaged in classical music)
Thanks for reading--
charles |
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