Economics and the Environment

How much is the world worth? According to a 1997 study, $33 trillion a year.

Say what? Robert Costanza and others wrote an intriguing article for
Nature Magazine that attempted to quantify the value of all of the
services that various ecosystem components contribute to human
welfare. Y'know, things like erosion control and clean water and
plant pollination. It all adds up to $33 trillion.

Before you get all lathered up about how dare we put a dollar value on
scenic views and breathable air and endangered species, pause for a
moment. $33 trillion is almost twice the gross national product of
all of the nations of the world.

Which means that knowing the dollar value, at least roughly,
translates into a more quantitative approach to making policy
decisions, as individual nations and as a planet, that spend money to
protect natural resources. In other words, there's a return on
investment in safeguarding watersheds and predator-prey levels and the
climate.

To put it another way, absent these sorts of cold, hard calculations,
environmental resources are inadequately built into policy decisions,
which depend on cold, hard calculations. So absent a dollar value on
the environment, decisions get made that short-change that
environment: we pollute and strain and otherwise compromise valuable
resources because not enough value has been assigned to them.

Maybe you think enviro-chic is too crunchy green for you. Or maybe
you think the environment should have nothing to do with that other
green, i.e. the color of money. But maybe you should read articles
like Costanza's and understand that an approach that is both economic
and environmental in nature (no pun intended) is what will best enable
the kind of individual, national, and global action that will ensure
sustainability in our lives and in our childrens'.

https://waterportal.sandia.gov/literature/EcologyWater/nature387.pdf/view

Just Add Yellow Bikes

A non-profit in Lexington, Kentucky, is offering unlimited use of 80
yellow bikes sprinkled around the city in exchange for a $10 annual
membership. This would be a brilliant way to encourage biking in
Philadelphia, and a fun adjunct to the proliferation of parallel
car-share programs like FlexCar and PhillyCarShare.

Just like with those services, you would use their website to locate
the bike nearest you, and then you would use an electronic key to
unlock it. Even better, because bikes don't consume gas, you can get
away with a flat annual membership instead of having to hassle with a
per-use fee.

BIke lovers in Philadelphia, let's make this happen! (But maybe pick
a different color than bright yellow!)

http://lexingtonyellowbikes.com/

Confessions

I was hoping to finish my read through the Bible with my daughter just
as our son arrived, so I could start over at the beginning with him.
But I finished a couple of months earlier than I thought I would - or
perhaps I should say the adoption of our son ran a couple of months
longer than I thought it would.

So Jada and I bided our time by working through the Presbyterian
Church USA's (PCUSA) Book of Confessions, a collection of eight or so
confessions written through the years that form the basis of the
PCUSA's beliefs. We just finished this morning, and it's not nearly
as dry of a read as you'd think, although with titles like
"Westminster Shorter Catechism" (which, by the way, is a lot longer
than you'd think anything with "shorter" in the title would be) it
certainly has the potential.

What was most interesting to me is how these confessions responded to
what were clearly the hot issues of the day. They were written, of
course, to be timeless, and indeed it is remarkable how fresh they
are, though centuries old. But they were also written at a specific
point in time, and usually because of some sliding by some in the
faith towards something not quite right.

You can probably guess that there were a few written during the
Reformation, and you'd be right. But there was also one written by
Germans during Hitler's uprising, and one in 1967 as part of the civil
rights movement. Spanning several centuries, these eight or so
confessions are sharp at times in denouncing bad doctrine, and are
always returning the reader to the primacy of Jesus Christ and of the
Bible, a not out of date call for the present day.

Aaron doesn't arrive for another 13 days, so Jada and I will have to
figure out what to read in the mornings until then - besides, of
course, the growing stack of kid books we simply must get through
before breakfast. But I'm surprisingly glad we took the time to plow
through the Book of Confessions. Maybe if there's time between the
time we finish the Bible with Aaron and when child number three
arrives?

Summertime

On the first official day of summer, the three of us did as thousands
of other Philadelphians: we went to Penn's Landing. Through my job,
I've gotten to know the folks that run the quasi-governmental agency
that manages this important waterfront space and organizes all the
free festivities, so I have a special appreciation for this
Philadelphia treasure.

Last night did not disappoint. We headed out by subway in the late
afternoon after Jada's nap, popped out in Old City, and grabbed a
sidewalk table at one of the 150 outdoor cafes in the downtown area
(up from zero barely ten years ago!). It was a great place to see and
be seen, and we did just that as we picked at a huge mound of calamari
salad and an even huger mound of crispy fries.

Then, we hoofed it across a pedestrian bridge across I-95 to the
waterfront area. Cypress Hill was on stage for Captain Morgan's Jam
on the River, and thousands of concert goers were bopping along with
them. We leisurely walked up and down the waterfront, looked at old
ships and jet skiers, and pointed out the various attractions on the
other side of the river in Camden: Campbell's Field, the Tweeter
Center, Adventure Aquarium.

Then we headed back over the bridge to an ice cream place near the
restaurant where we had eaten, and then ducked into the subway station
to head home. And apparently, not a moment too soon, because while we
were still waiting for our train, other passengers arrived soaking
wet. It had started raining not two minutes after we had gotten
ourselves underground.

By the time we arrived back in West Philadelphia, it was pouring. The
three of us picked our way through puddles and arrived home absolutely
drenched. It wasn't the funnest end to a glorious day, but it
certainly made the first day of summer that much more memorable.
Here's to many more.

Spicy

Whoever thinks the Bible is boring ought to have another look. To
begin with, Biblical allusions are drenched all over Western
literature, so Biblical ignorance robs you of a huge part of enjoying
good reading. Second, there is enough family dysfunction, brutal
violence, and gripping drama to supply Hollywood with plot lines for
centuries.

But thirdly and most importantly, in my opinion, is the raw
authenticity of human emotion that is captured in the Bible. If you
were to watch most of us Christians, you would think that to follow
Jesus is characterized by living bland, conservative, and
uninteresting lives. Some Christians might even agree with such a
characterization, adding that as long as they don't get into any
trouble, they're OK with God and God's OK with them.

Except that the experience of the faithful remnant in the Bible is
anything but untroubled. The way in which God's people are carried
through the generations is nothing short of epic. The Psalms and
other places record deeply honest and personal cryings out to God in
the midst of such feelings as vengeance and shame and fear and
longing. Conflict is everywhere, whether in terms of weapons and war,
internal struggling with sin, or outward buttings of heads with
enemies physical and spiritual.

In short, the Bible is a spicy little book. Shame on us Christians
for living it out in such bland ways. And shame on all of us for
defanging it to the point of making it boring. Would that we all
recapture the wonder, the vividness, the flavor in these words. For
not only are they the Word of Life, they're a darn good read.

It's Hard to Be #1

I served as a #2 at my previous employer, and it was a hard job. I
had to be ready to be a fill-in for our #1 whenever the occasion
called for it, which meant I had to be able to be just as good as our
#1 at all times. And I had to be the go-to person internally, in
terms of being on top of all things operational. That's a lot of
responsibility.

And yet it was ten times easier than the burden our #1 bore. You see,
when you're the #1, you are the organization. You may get all the
credit, but you also get all the blame. And more importantly, you get
all the headache. Boundaries are much harder to set, because the
expectation is that you are the face, the voice, the incarnation of
the organization. The buck stops at your desk.

And that all is a big burden. Take it from a former #2: it's hard being a #1.

Doing What You Love

There's a saying that goes, "Do what you love for a living and you'll
never work a day in your life." I subscribe to this philosophy, and
thankfully I've been able to apply it to my life.

But not in the way you'd think. For most people, how this works is
that they love helping people, or gardening, or building things, and
so they find jobs where they get to do those things for a living.

What is the thing I love doing? Making spreadsheets. Now, there are
no such clubs at your typical high school, no annual conferences that
gather people who are like me. Maybe a couple of years ago, I
wouldn't have told you this is what I love doing, even if I had a
suspicion it was true.

But it's true. A couple of years ago, I decided to make a budget for
our family, which at the time was adding our daughter. This seemed
totally reasonable - having kids introduces all sorts of new financial
issues, like saving for college, and not necessarily being able to
work full-time, and buying diapers and clothes and toys.

Only I soon realized that I wasn't constructing this budget because it
would help our family make good financial decisions. I was
constructing it because it was fun. I ran the budget out to the year
2063. I rigged it so I could plug in different numbers for inflation
and for increases in health care costs. I even fixed it so that at
the push of a button, I could see what my bottom line looked like at
different retirement ages.

In short, I went way beyond the realm of what was necessary for the
stated purpose, simply because it was fun to do. And since I finished
this piece of work, I've maybe looked at it twice - because the point
wasn't to actually use it as much as to enjoy making it. Kind of like
Legos.

So it's been pretty humorous that I've found a job where I do a lot of
financial modeling. And not just for straight-forward things like
personal budgets or business income statements, but for somewhat
unconventional uses, like urban housing and casinos and public
transit. I get to make spreadsheets for a living, and each day seems
to present a new and interesting challenge.

So count me among the lucky ones who do what they love. Even if what
I love isn't the norm.

I Really Am Rich

I had a productive day at work and still got home a tick earlier than
usual. My wife and daughter were still at the park, not to come home
for another 45 minutes, giving me ample time to tend to some chores,
sort through the mail, get things ready for tomorrow, and get a jump
on dinner. I walked around the empty house and marveled at how clean
it was, and then made my way to the kitchen and marveled at how much
food I had to choose from.

And so I could not help but tell my wife, when she got home, that I
felt myself very rich. And I am. Rich with the love of my wife and
daughter, overflowing in tasty foods to eat, even with a relative
abundance of time to decompress after work. I feel rich because of it
all, and I am thankful, and that is a good thing.

Here's the thing, though, and the subject of today's post. These may
seem the right things, rather than material possessions, to consider
oneself rich in. But even in material possessions, I am rich. By the
world's standards, I am unbelievably, extraordinarily, even
disgustingly rich:

* When I got home, I used the bathroom and flushed the toilet, thus
using more water with the flick of a finger than each person in the
developing world has access to each day.

* The $60 I recently spent on books for myself and my wife is more
than most of the world makes in a month.

* The fact that I got a four-year degree means that I have more
education than 99% of the rest of the world's population.

In America, it can be easy to forget just how little most of the world
lives on. Even the poorest of neighborhoods in Philadelphia is vastly
richer than the typical neighborhood almost anywhere else in the
world.

This sort of disparity sobers me. It impels me to learn more, to
contribute where I can in terms of monetary giving, to think about
ways my vocational skills can intersect with making a difference. And
today, when I consider how rich I am in other ways, I remember with
gratitude that I am also rich in the conventional sense.

Just For the Heck of It, 21 Songs That Give Me Goosebumps, Pump Me Up, and/or Bring Me Back

All Together Now - The Farm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz-6Ta_b6YI

Streets of Philadelphia - Bruce Springsteen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L9_8vwx2w8

Forever Young - Alphaville
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMtsnl_UXzs

Dream On - Aerosmith (ESPN montage)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDs4eOO_92c

Star-Spangled Banner - Francis Scott Key (Whitney Houston 1991 performance - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qciWEufZ2xA or Dixie Chicks 2003 performance - http://youtube.com/watch?v=vU5AYcAhvyo)

Sometimes by Step - Rich Mullins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-b7TQMoZsM

Amen Chorus - Handel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1DfenKdgVk

Gittin Funky - Kid n Play
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEL5E6w5XsY

Fight the Power - Public Enemy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jym-RtHHG0s

Lose Yourself - Eminem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6odzCYFOOQ

Jackin' for Beats - Ice Cube
http://youtube.com/watch?v=36OwSXbrUeI

Rhythm Nation - Janet Jackson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5vLoNHUNxk

Microphone Fiend - Eric B and Rakim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dPPiLE5ieo

Ladies First - Queen Latifah feat. Monie Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0uPRjLo0VQ

Summertime - DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_PDns23RWY

Motown Philly - Boyz II Men
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHzkICG47LU

100 Years - Five for Fighting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmoE8_U-JTw

At the Beginning - Richard Marx / Donna Lewis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKiXTMHqdok

Without Us (Family Ties theme song) - Jeff Barry and Tom Scott
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuzUgy-R1jY

Linus and Lucy - Vince Guaraldi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTTrgENXHQA

Beautiful - Christina Aguilera
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOLg0id-oKY

Stress Test

I have a confession to make: butterflies freak me out. When people
hear this somewhat embarrassing fact, they often amusedly ask me if I
had a traumatic incident in my past involving butterflies. I shake my
head no and explain that there's no logical explanation, I just find
butterflies creepy, suspicious, and downright scary.

There may be no explanation for my disdain for butterflies, but there
is an explanation for why my heart skips a beat when I hear a fire
engine. Several years ago, I did have a traumatic incident that
involved a fire engine, the details of which I won't go into here.
And so to this day, the sound of that siren fills me with a tiny pang
of panic, as I recount that dreadful incident.

Given that you hear sirens a lot in the city, you'd think that I'd die
a little almost every day. And you'd be somewhat correct, but not
totally. For that visceral seizing of fear is matched by an equally
strong remembrance of God's steady hand through those dark times. And
so I am left, not with a constant debilitating reminder, but a steady
rejuvenating one.

To use a medical analogy, doctors will often stress a patient's heart,
to see how that heart will respond. Healthy hearts recover from the
shock, enabling the doctor to get a sense of the patient's physical
resilience.

I believe God is acting as our Great Physician in this regard. He
will "shock" our system at times, to bring us to a greater place of
rootedness in Him, or to demonstrate to us that we are not as rooted
in Him as we ought to be.

And in fact, my stress test gave me a good prognosis of where I stood
in my reliance on and trust of God. It was laid bare for me to see
where I doubted, where I had conveniently and shallowly covered up
spiritual weakness, and where I truly trusted the goodness and power
of my God to the core.

And so I find myself strengthened by every fire truck reminder of my
stress test, because my faith passed - not because of the strength of
my faith, but because of the strength of the One in whom my faith is
placed. I still get that pang, but my heart is simultaneously
reminded of the reliance my God has refined in me through it all.

On the Campaign Trail

I spoke with a co-worker of mine about a mutual friend of ours who
recently lost in our city's primary election. I told him our friend
ran a good campaign and asked him how our friend was doing. He told
me our friend was in good spirits, and didn't doubt he'd give it
another go the next time around.

Not surprising to me, partly because I know this friend of ours, that
he truly seeks to serve the public and not himself. It made sense to
me that the campaign life, devoting oneself 100% to a message and to a
plea to have the chance to serve, would so energize him that he
couldn't think of not trying again.

For those of who follow Jesus, we too are ever on the campaign trail,
not for ourselves, but for our God. We too have a message, and we too
are pleading for the opportunity to serve. We too, then, should be
similarly jazzed each morning as we arise, for whatever our occupation
or position, we have a part to play in a campaign that's guaranteed to
win, no matter how bleak the polls or fierce the opposition.

And so even as I admire my friend who gave it a go and is raring to do
it again, I am stimulated to put myself on the campaign trail, as an
ambassador of Jesus and a broadcaster of His good news. Sounds like a
great reason to wake up tomorrow morning.

Drivenness, Leaving Me

Anyone who knows me well knows that the sin I struggle with the most
is drivenness. Practically a positive trait in the world, drivenness
is a sin because it tells God that by sheer force of will, we can get
the kind of stuff done that we ought to be trusting in God's help for.
And for a God who is uniquely honored among His people for meeting
our needs instead of the other way around, that is indeed a high
offense.

Indeed, the most intractable kinds of sins are often the ones that
masquerade as positive traits. I can justify my drivenness in so many
ways that make me look good to Christians and non-Christians alike.
It can come across as strong work ethic, devotion, maximization of
resources, even piety. And in doing this, it makes repenting - a
fancy Christian word that basically means "to turn around" - all the
more difficult.

But I think, slowly but surely, drivenness is leaving me. This week
had more than its share of deadlines at work, but while I worked hard
and stressed a little, I also experienced some peace about being able
to deliver on time, and more importantly about being able to keep my
head above water throughout. By and large, despite juggling 15
different projects at work, when I get home I can leave them until the
next morning so that my mind is clear to give my daughter my undivided
attention. Our second child is on the way, but instead of fretting
about jamming a bunch of stuff into our schedule now while before it
becomes harder to do stuff, I'm chiefly concerned that my wife and I
get some rest and some relaxation in.

Maybe I'm just chilling out in my old age, not as much sweating the
small stuff because I've had my share of big stuff to sweat and have
done just fine. Maybe I'm fooling myself and am actually still just
as driven, just better at hiding it. Or maybe, just maybe God is at
work in me, answering my prayers and the prayers of those who know me
to trust Him more deeply, to laugh more easily, to not always feel so
under the gun to perform and to strive and to accomplish. Whatever it
is, if God is being glorified, may there be more of it.

Letter to Congress

Dear [Elected Official]:

On the subject of immigration, I'm sure you've received your share of
letters. Some have xenophobically called for measures that run
antithetical to the way in which this nation was built and continues
to grow. Others have scolded any sort of hard stance on the law and
law-breakers as un-American. I'd like to propose that a more moderate
approach to the subject is the correct one.

To begin with, I reject those who would seek to keep low-skill and/or
high-skill immigrants out for fear that "they" will take "our" jobs.
This sort of protectionist sentiment is short-sighted and
self-fulfilling. It is short-sighted because in the long run, the
introduction of new labor and new competition necessarily spurs
greater economic growth, resulting in more opportunity for all. It is
self-fulfilling because in fearing that the economic pie will have to
be cut into more slices with smaller pieces for all, rather than
seeking to make the pie bigger, the pie will in fact not get bigger
and people will indeed be left with smaller pieces than before.

Whether it is those who are desperate for any sort of work and willing
to do the most menial of labor, or high-end engineers and researchers
wanting to be where the global action is in terms of cutting-edge
technology and science, we all do better and not worse as a nation if
we are welcoming. Spain is a good example of an economy that has
thrived due in large part to a willingness to accept immigrants who
will work low-paying jobs, freeing up local human capital for greater
productivity. And the Silicon Valley would not be what it is today,
with resulting economic and employment opportunity for many, without
the stimulation and innovation provided by immigrants.

Nevertheless, making legal immigration easier does not necessarily
also mean making illegal immigration easier. The "stick" of continued
border vigilance and penalties for law-breaking must be offset by the
"carrot" of higher caps and streamlined citizenship processes, but the
stick must be wielded nonetheless. We may be a nation of immigrants,
but we are also a nation under law, and that law must be upheld and
not allowed to be flouted without recourse. We have also tasked our
elected officials at the national level with the increasingly complex
task of ensuring national security, of which border patrol is
certainly a component.

I hope, then, that you will consider saying yes to the contributions
of immigrants who desire to obey the law, work honestly, and take part
in our market economy, and no to responses to the immigration topic
that either disturbingly jingoistic or naively cavalier. Thank you
for your efforts in this realm. I look forward to further
correspondence with you on this and other subjects.

Competition is Good

I've now had three conversations in three days with three people I
respect on the subject of immigration. Specifically, the notion that
immigrants, all things being equal, are a net gain to a local economy.

Makes sense to many of us who are recent immigrants, but those who
nay-say have another opinion. One more immigrant, to them, means
competition for the same size pie. And whether that pie is jobs,
power, or social services, competition means less for them or even
none at all.

That would be true if life were a zero-sum game. If that were the
case, competition does hurt you, because the gain of new entrants
necessarily means the loss of existing players.

The irony is that life is only a zero-sum game where there is no
competition! In other words, stagnant places are indeed zero-sum
games, as different players over time shuffle through resources like
deck chairs on the Titanic.

Contrast that to vibrant, welcoming cities whose influx of immigrants
has juiced the local economy with flavor, ideas, sweat, and
production. Be welcoming enough and you'll find the pie's gotten so
much bigger than before than everybody has a bigger slice than before,
even though there are more around the table than before.

It's simplistic, maybe even obvious, but it is no less true.
Certainly, some have their own, xenophobic reasons for wanting to keep
others out, and those reasons are to be lamented. But the reasons
that are resource-based, and that seek to limit or ban competition,
are truly short-sighted.

The irony, as mentioned above, is that those cities and regions that
wall themselves off from others will get what they imagine to be true:
a zero-sum game. And those cities and regions that throw open the
doors and juice their status quo with the competition of outsiders
will find their pie growing, with more than enough to go around.

Authenticity, Really

None other than Jack Welch, CEO of CEOs, wrote in last week's issue of
Business Week that the most important skill to possess if you want to
climb the corporate ladder is authenticity. "Be real. As in not
phony." He goes on to list other traits, but the core is
authenticity. As in, be smart, curious, and collaborative, but not as
a phony, but as yourself.

As a Christian, I have a unique perspective on this kind of advice. I
believe that God made each of us as a unique being with unique
strengths and unique viewpoints. It sounds corny, but God has a
special purpose for each of us, a purpose that is best fulfilled by
being no other person but ourselves.

What if we quit all attitudes that stemmed from not trusting the
distinct way we are, not trusting the distinct path we've been given?
We'd no longer be jealous, cruelly ambitious, or insecure. We'd
experience a profound peace about ourselves, a simultaneous soberness
and levity about our role in this world. We might very well become
extraordinarily productive, but would not fret long spells of
inactivity and recharging and simply being. And whether resting or
striving, we'd be people of courage, of conviction, and of compassion.

In short, we'd be all God made us - uniquely - to be. Nothing more,
and nothing less. Now that would be some kind of lifestyle and some
kind of witness to the world. Really.

When Business is Better Than Government

You'd think with all the hurricanes the southeastern part of the US
has been hit with lately, that insuring the area would be pricey.
You'd be wrong, according to the latest issue of Business Week, which
offers two reasons why premiums have actually gone down. I couldn't
help but respond, because one of the reasons is a good one and one is
a bad one.

First, the bad one: governments have artificially capped rates, in the
spirit of protecting the consumer. Sounds good, except that in order
to do this, they've exposed themselves to having to bail the insurers
out if a truly catastrophic event occurs. Some say this is a good
thing - that the government should be the insurer of last resort - and
while I don't totally disagree, I think it's an inefficient way to do
it, since what'll happen in that event is that current taxpayers will
be getting over on future taxpayers, who'd have to pay if there was a
bailout.

In contrast, the second reason rates are low is that those whiz-kid
financiers from Wharton and other places have figured out creative
ways to move money around. In business terms, it's called liquidity,
and while you may sneer at richy-rich hedge fund managers and
investment bankers, they play an important role in putting every
dollar to its best use, and giving people with dollars, like insurance
companies, effective ways to provide the same coverage at lower rates.
The upshot is that, despite a slew of hurricanes, the southeastern
part of the country can still be a place that economic development
happens, and isn't priced out of the market because of exorbitant
interest rates.

This story reminds me of two things I believe: one, that there are
some areas in which business is fundamentally better than government
at achieving something in the market, and two, all of this financial
wizardry that has proliferated in the last generation or so is not
only not a bad thing, but can be an awfully good thing. And you can
take that to the bank.

Lincoln, Roosevelt, . . . Schwarzenegger?

In his blurb on Arnold Schwarzenegger for Time Magazine's 100 Most
Influential People in the World, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. likens the
Governator to none other than my idol, TR. And while I haven't
followed Ah-nold close enough to weigh on the assessment, I agree he's
in the ballpark.

Reading the piece reminded me of what kind of Republican I am:
fiscally conservative and pro-business, yet open-minded, socially
progressive, and environmentally conscious. TR, after all, was a
prudish moralizer who loved it when the media tagged along, not just
because he craved the limelight, but because he was above reproach and
thought politics should be out in the open like that and not dirtied
by back-room deals.

And yet he was the first president to invite a black man to dine at
the White House (Booker T. Washington, in 1901). Many of the consumer
protection regulations on business that we now take for granted were
signed into law by his pen (like the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906).
And perhaps his greatest presidential legacy will be his commitment to
conservation (creating the Forest Service, setting aside more almost
200 million acres for national parks).

Kennedy writes that Schwarzenegger likens environmental
irresponsibility to deficit spending: "loading the cost of this
generation's prosperity onto the backs of our children." Pro-business
and anti-tax, and yet not flinching when the Bush administration
wanted him to step down his aggressive state emissions standards . . .
this is the sort of Republicanism that has done this country proud,
that I hope to see more of in the years to come.

Spice of Life

Our little Jada adds quite the spice to the church we attend. She is
usually the most spirited member of her toddler class, eagerly
participating in whatever craft or game is put before her, and never
too far from cutting a rug if music is provided. When it's time for
communion, she practically sprints down the aisle, giddily bouncing
her way to the front as we all should. And whenever she hears me say,
"amen," she has to chime in with her own "Amen!"

I'm glad we belong to a congregation that has so many kids and is so
kid-friendly. It makes perfect sense that Jesus, when others were
tsk-tsking bothersome kids who were distracting his lesson, replied
that the children should be allowed to come forward "because the
Kingdom of God belongs to such as these." It is my hope that as I and
others observe our spicy little girl flit about in the sanctuary, we
remember that to draw nearer to God means to be more like that, not
less like that.

What a Gas

With apologies to my mother-in-law, who forwarded me the message, I
have to respond in the negative to the "don't buy gas on May 15th"
message that's been circulating lately. So many things to say, I'm
practically tripping over my fingers trying to get everything out.

Where to start? First, there doesn't appear to be anything in the
message about actually consuming less gas, just not buying it on one
day. Oil companies don't sweat a one-day dip in sales, especially if
they know consumers who didn't buy on May 15th will just have to buy
later that week if in fact they're not actually reducing their gas
consumption.

Second, a major contention of this "don't buy gas" sentiment is that
gas is too expensive. We really are addicted to cheap gas in this
country. Bush the Elder cut a deal with the Saudis over 25 years ago
that Clinton and Bush II have kept, and so it's been a generation
since gas prices have truly been painful to our pockets.

Most of the world pays double or triple the price we pay, not because
they're stupid but because that's the true price of gas, when you
factor in the social, infrastructural, and environmental cost of
consuming it. They then use some of those proceeds to encourage other
forms of travel that aren't nearly as costly, like transit lines and
bike paths.

So you'll have to forgive me for being riled up about complaints about
"expensive" gas when our region's transit system is perennially
under-funded and is again forced to consider fare hikes, which will be
disproportionately borne by the poorest among us. But I guess people
would rather pay less than they should at the pump and screw the poor.

Besides, when gas spiked through that mystical $3 per gallon barrier,
guess what happened to consumption? It kept soaring. Sure, we
complained more, but wouldn't you complain about a good whose price
was posted in big font along the roadside, and that when you paid for
it, you watched the dollars and cents roll up as you pumped it into
your car? As we complained, we continued to drive just as much, and
so we had to fill up just as much.

Finally, the tone of this message is that the oil companies have
gotten over on us, and so we should take special delight in getting
back at them. Last I checked, gas prices behave like every other
product in a capitalist system: changes in supply and demand cause
changes in prices.

As former Philadelphia Inquirer Andrew Cassel once wrote, if you think
the oil companies are gouging you, then the next time you think about
selling that house of yours that has appreciated considerably since
you bought it, you should give the buyer a healthy discount, because
it's just not fair that you should be able to sell something for a lot
more than you bought it for, even though it's the same house. Never
mind that that's exactly the point of supply and demand.

I'm probably not going to buy gas on May 15th, just because my family
drives our car an average of like 10 miles a day. But if you're
boycotting gas stations intentionally that day, I hope you'll redirect
your efforts in other, more productive directions. Because going a
day without buying gas isn't the solution, nor is the problem you
think the real problem.

More is More

Paul Levy likes to quote another guy in his speech about Center City
that in the suburbs "more is less," while in the city "more is more."
What he means is that in the 'burbs, more people means more
congestion, more wear and tear, more crowding - basically less quality
of life. Whereas in the city, more people means more vibrancy, more
electricity, more action - basically more quality of life.

Nowhere is this more evident than the proliferation of sidewalk cafes
in downtown Philadelphia. Already a walkable, parkified, historic
downtown, Philly had practically no sidewalk cafes as recent as ten
years ago, and now it has hundreds.

And with people out seeing and being seen, it makes for a fantastic
street buzz. More really is more in this case, because more sidewalk
latte sippers and cuisine indulgers make for more pedestrians, and
more pedestrians means safer streets, and safer streets encourage even
more milling about, and so on and so on in a virtuous cycle.

I used to go to other parts of the country and marvel at how wide and
spread out the streets are, and it did feel good to feel like you had
more space. But the flip side of being densely packed together in an
old, laid-out-before-the-invention-of-the-car sort of city like
Philadelphia, is that it is easy to walk from Point A to Point B, and
there's plenty of human contact in between.

So all the axioms are in effect here. People are attracted to people.
There's safety in numbers. And, in this case, more is more.

Do-Gooding in Your Thirties

I got a nice email this week from my former college advisor, with whom
I enjoyed a wonderful relationship while at Penn and with whom I've
been able to keep in touch with since. He was the only Penn person I
met with when I visited Penn my senior year in high school, and his
warm and welcoming spirit was one of the bigger reasons for coming all
the way from California to Penn way back when.

One thing I appreciated about my college advisor was his willingness
to help me synthesize my Wharton experience with my desire to do good
in the world. He even encouraged me to write my senior thesis on the
integration of Christian discipleship and business, and often had me
come back to speak to his students about my inner-city non-profit
work.

So it was nice to hear from him this week, nicer still to know that
while I don't work for that non-profit anymore, I'm still trying to
bring together my faith and my vocation. My employer, though a
for-profit, has become a vehicle for me to both explore and utilize my
strengths in such topics of importance and interest as urban economic
development, minority entrepreneurship, and the nexus of the public
and private sectors. Plus I've been able to contribute to other
social causes via non-profit boards, church leadership, and political
campaigns.

It's hard to be a do-gooder when your job is demanding, and you have a
wife and kids to invest in, and you lack the physical bounce-back you
had in your twenties. But I guess there's still some do-gooding left
in this thirtysomething guy.

I remember when I turned twenty, thinking to myself that when I turned
thirty, God would be the same God, and even if I had changed, I could
still rely on Him and follow Him with all I had without regret or
hesitance. I remembered that thought when I turned thirty, and
reminded myself that when I turned forty, God would still be God and I
could still be a do-gooder for His sake. I hope to get to forty and
to be able to say I am living that out, and that I'll still be raring
to do the same when I'm fifty and sixty and seventy and eighty.
Because no matter the age, there is always a way to mix your work with
your values.