On Changing One’s Mind, Or, Saturday Morning at 9:05am

I don’t know when exactly I decided that government was “inefficient.”

Prior to 1978 I had no political opinions, really, more like an emotional characterization of the world that I inherited sans reflection from my family of origin. So I’m guessing our 1980s president, whose names began with “R,” might have had planted a seed. Could also have been the experience of waiting in line at the DMV, driving being so important to a teen. And then of course, that MBA. Free markets forever. Oh, sure, we learned about market failures, the Tragedy of the Commons, the Prisoner’s Dilemma, etc. but still.

Don’t worry. I’m not about to launch into a screed on political economy. I’m wholly unqualified and besides, it’s Saturday. Nor am I urging any wholesale change to the American political or economic system. Again, unqualified. But as you probably guessed, over the years I’ve changed my thinking about government in the same way I formed it in the first place. I listened to experts and paid attention to the world.

My sister threw the the first punch to my belief structure.. I mean, not literally, we haven’t hit each other since I was 12. We can both still remember flinching before getting thumped on the back. But, maybe 20 years ago, we were sitting around my dad’s pool and I said something like, “government should be run like a business,” and very calmly she explained to me how and why that would not be possible or even advisable. I don’t even remember what she said, exactly, but she’s an expert on the delivery of social services and I very clearly remember my gut response.

I understood I’d made assumptions with insufficient knowledge.

Then when my mom died, while legions of private businesses treated me like a receipt, the Medicare staff said they were so sorry and stayed on the phone until we had everything sorted out. Later, when I fretted about Social Security and finally got hold of a representative, they were warm, funny, fully humane if understaffed. And told me what I needed to know without insisting I give my cell number so they could text me every day insisting I buy ceramic frogs or wrinkle reducer or sneakers.

You can see where this is going. Either things have always been so and I was ignorant, or, private sector delivery of products and services has gotten more annoying while government agencies have become more efficient.

A final anecdote.

I  take Spanish and weight-training classes at our local community center. Given that they happen weekday mornings, all participants are over 60. The staff, however, is young, 20s and at most early 30s. So the other day I asked the young woman behind the desk, “What’s it like, I mean, we’re all old!”

And she lit up. “I love it,” she said. “And we get the homeless people too. There’s one guy, he sits there most mornings,” she pointed to a bench by the front door. “There’s one woman, she’s here every day, and one week she didn’t show up, and when she did she came with her daughter and I said to let me know if she wouldn’t be coming in because we worry.

And, in the evenings we get all the little kids,” she waved around the the lobby and I could see through her eyes the flock of preschoolers dressed for dance class. “Totally different vibe.”

All of this with an enormous, true smile.

“Well thanks,” I said. “I guess that’s the point. Community.”

She nodded, my eloquent summary far less moving than the people she deals with every day.

So, a reminder, changing one’s mind is OK. We believe what we believe and do the best we can, as I’ve been told, with what we knew at the time. If we’re lucky, over the course of our lives we know more. The private gym I was going to got too dirty. Have a wonderful weekend.