Most people who know me know that I despise talking about the weather.
I know it’s all part of the small-talking social game we all play but I have to think that we could find something better to talk about than statements of the obvious. Yeah it’s hot/cold/raining/snowing. That’s life. Move on.
That being said, I’m writing this from my house because I have bought into the weather reports that seem to indicate that the New York area will soon be hit with the most blizzardiest blizzard we ever did see. So far I’m unimpressed.
Of course, if I lived a bit further south in the D.C. area, I might have a different perspective. Evidently those folks have seen 14 inches of snow or something like that and it’s obviously a bit of a hassle as these Gawker photos from D.C.-area supermarkets last week can attest. Even mail delivery has been suspended. “Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these courageous couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” indeed. Not that I blame them, mind you. You don’t see me out there.
But what I did find interesting is this column from the Washington Post’s Steven Pearlstein. From the unique perspective of someone who evidently has gotten a little tired of being snowed in, he talks about how ineffective snow cleanup is indicative of the disconnect between what we want from our government and what we are willing to pay for.
You’re sitting at home for the third straight day, unable to get to work because of the snow. Your kids are on the fourth day of a snow vacation that is likely to last through the end of the week. How much would you have been willing to pay to guarantee that the streets and sidewalks were clear and things could have run pretty much as normal? $10? $25? $50?
Or imagine that you own a business with 50 employees that is closed for three days because of the snow, but you still have to pay ,000 in salaries for work they didn’t do. What would you have been willing to pay to have things running normally this week?
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Now, says Pearlstein, what if the government could offer you a little “snow insurance,” a sort of guarantee that snow would cause little to no disruption to your everyday life?
To pay for the extra manpower and equipment, the politicians proposed raising taxes and fees by an average of $25 per household each year, and $2,500 for the average business.
Although the politicians’ offer would be the effective equivalent of “snow insurance,” I can assure you that the reaction to it would be quite different. Republicans would immediate call it “the biggest tax increase in history” and declare unequivocally that it would send the economy into a tailspin while radically expanding the government. Chambers of commerce would issue news releases warning that the tax would particularly hurt small-business owners, who as we all know create every new job and would now be forced to cut their payrolls or close their doors. Virginia’s House of Delegates would move immediately to kill the proposal, thereby dooming consideration by all the other jurisdictions.
As Pearlstein goes on to say, with a small investment we could save a significant amount on lost productivity costs. But as soon as you say the word “tax” or present someone with a bill, they immediately lose sight of the big picture. I’m sure any risk manager who has had to appeal to his or her CEO for more money to fund a new ERM initiative or a new safety program knows exactly what that feels like. It’s the same idea that seems to be at the center of many of the political debates in this country from health care to terrorism protection. We want all the benefits without any of the costs.
Personally, I don’t mind snow days. They always make you feel like a kid again (that is until the back pain from shoveling reminds you that you aren’t that young anymore). I don’t think “insurance” for something that will be gone in a week is all that appealing.
But I’d like to think that when it comes to something more important, like providing for, say, fire departments, garbage collection or even health care for my family, I would have no problem opening my wallet to pay my fair share.