...and Taxes

As is my wont, on a recent Sunday A.M., I tuned into Fox News Channel to blow the early morning cobwebs from my brain.  As is their wont, the segment airing was a discussion of medical and health news. One of the regular contributors, Dr. Marc Siegel, was speaking to the state of care for Alzheimer’s disease. He stated, and I am paraphrasing here, that Alzheimer’s was being underserved in the research community. Citing reduction in heart disease and cancer related death rates, Dr. Siegel proffered that similar gains could be made in the field of Alzheimer’s care had the funding for research had been brought to bear.

Now there is nothing inimically wrong with that statement but still, it set my intellectual alarm off.  Why? Because it infers that an increase in the effectiveness of treatment for Alzheimer’s would result in a decrease in deaths.  And we know, or at least we should, that this is not true.  If we were successful in eradicating heart disease (touted by medicos to be the single most common cause of death) would we reduce the rate of death? No, because life and death have a one-to-one correlation and causation. Everybody that is born dies; and life is a prerequisite for death.  Let me restate.  If you have life, it will result in death.  And, to complete the cycle, death cannot occur unless there is life.

Tomorrow could bring us a one hundred percent effective cure for cancer.  If we did, would we have saved the lives of those currently stricken or who are future victims of the disease?  No. We would simply shift the cause of their eventual demise to some other morbidity.  As Dr. Benjamin Franklin averred, “The only thing certain in life is death and taxes.”

In discussions of this topic, I have heard the argument that with advances in science and technologies like cloning, the human race may be able to extend life interminably. I don’t buy it. To bolster my position, I introduce the concept of entropy (there’s one for you, Tink).  From the smallest subatomic particle to the entirety of the universe, everything will run out of energy eventually. If creation is slated for a cold, dark destiny, what chance does a fragile glob of bio-molecular flotsam have?

“Oh! Don’t be such a negative Nelly.” you might say.  And at this juncture, I will shift the discussion to economics.  Do you see what I did there; I lured you in with a peek at your own mortality.  You know it’s true that if I had opened this missive with a nod to the dismal science by the second paragraph, you would have abandoned me, trotting off to watch Jersey Shore and I would have only two readers left; one of them being in Germany (Hi, Nicky… miss you).

First, let’s define economics. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, economics is; “the science that deals with the production, distribution and consumption of wealth…”  Webster is wrong.  Economics is a branch of the social sciences (although neither Economics nor the other social sciences, e.g. Psychology, Sociology, et al is eager to admit it); it deals with the study of human behavior in an environment of scarce resources. The best definition I have encountered is from Wikipedia:  http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics .

Economics is, put simply, about people making choices in a world where one cannot have everything.  Yeah, I know, the talking heads would have you believe that greater minds developed masterful methods for predicting global financial trends and prescribing fiscal policies to maximize the welfare of mankind.  But look to their record to date; pretty dismal, huh? Any one of you, allocating moneys from of your periodic paycheck, does a better job of making choices based on predicted outcomes than clowns like John Maynard Keynes or Paul Krugman. And that, finally, brings us to the point of this heretofore seemingly meaningless rambling.

Life, put in Economics terms, is all about making choices.  With the limited resources at our disposal we each, individually and collectively, must decide how to allocate them in the most beneficial manner. This practice of this dismal science at the community level, as seen in the current events of our time, leads to conflict and controversy.  It always has and it always will.  Trust me; the collective wisdom of all the ages will never create the path to universal agreement on what constitutes the ideal existence. Ergo, we will concentrate the remainder of this discussion (if one can properly refer to an individual’s inane ramblings as a discussion) to the person.

Certainly, if you are reading this, you understand the concept of possession and assets.  Assets come in many forms.  There are tangible assets, e.g., money, real estate, automobiles, investment instruments (yes, I know, sometimes it seems like our 401(k)s are more ethereal in nature and evaporate into nothingness at the whim of Chairman Bernanke, but fragile as they are, qualify as tangible), boats and wine.  And there are intangible assets; health, intellect, charisma, intelligence, ambition and peace of mind.   

What is the most precious of resources?  I will give you a hint.  It can be traded away, but once spent, can never be recovered. We all have an abundant supply of it at our disposal with no associated cost but at the same time can never quantify the exact amount we possess.  That’s right; the single most valuable commodity we own is time. And that is the tieback to the opening of this post. Time is limited for all of us, as we know that we must die and cannot predict when time will run out.

Think then, about how you spend your time.  Do you allocate it wisely, ensuring the most value for your life? Or do you fritter it away engaged in panic driven activity chasing one shiny bauble after the next?  Only you can set the path that will result in a life of true satisfaction.

So given that time is the most valuable of all commodities, it behooves us to make the most of it; to wisely consider the value of that for which we trade it.  Once squandered, its balance cannot be rebuilt. Therefore I must ask you,” What are doing sitting there reading this dribble?”  Get off your ass and go do something worthwhile!