And Things, They Are Not Working

Catching up on a Thanksgiving weekend Left, Right, and Center Podcast on the way to work today. Matt Miller spoke about a meeting he had with business leaders who feel particularly gloomy about the state of the country. This echoes an article Peggy Noonan wrote the other week. The spirit, right now, of America's elite, is down. Too many problems seem insoluble from the debt, to healthcare, to the economy, to jobs, to Afghanistan. Too many interest groups are influencing the debate. No one trusts government to put things back on track. No one trusts business to put things on track themselves.

I can't speak to the big issues, but only the small ones. It seems to me, there are too many passwords and account numbers. Somewhere along the line, we decided everything needed to be secure and efficient and what we have now is a world of passwords. These are things I need passwords for, off the top of my head -

1. Email
2. Bank Account
3. Computer Server at home
4. Electricity Bill
5. Car Insurance Bill
6. Cable Bill
7. Blogger
8. ATM code
9. Old Email Account for junkie stuff
10. Retirement/Investment Accounts
11. Bike Lock
12. Cell Phone Bill
13. CC security code
14. Zip Code
15. Alumni USC Password
16. Wireless Password
17. Online Tax Forms
18. Medical Insurance Number
19. Library Card Number/Password
20. Blockbuster Movie Rental Password

For Work
1. Server Password
2. Work Email Password
3. Blackberry Passwords x 3
4. Amazon Account password
5. Staples Password
6. Calendar/Computer System Password
7. Phone Messages Password
8. Credit Card Security Codes x 2
9. IMDB Pro Password
10. FedEx Password
11. PW Password x 2
12. Other computer passwords x 4
13. Variety password
14. Verizon password
15. Wifi Password

In total it equals about 46 passwords. Of course, there is the strategy of re-using similar passwords, etc, but let's think about this for a moment - I life a relatively simple life all things considered. I'm not married. I have one job. I don't own a home. I have one credit card. I pay taxes. I live as simple as anyone I know. I have nothing fancy or complicated financially. And yet, I have 46 passwords. I can't remember them all. They need to be written down (which makes them completely insecure).

Imagine running a business. Imagine making a feature film. Imagine running the finances for a family. Now imagine trying to fix the US Healthcare System or winning the hearts and minds of Afghani's or the Muslim World. There's a reason things feel insoluble - because if its goddamn hard to make meals, pay the bills, and muster the energy just to get through the day for one dude like me who keeps it pretty simple - how can we possibly run this gigantic organizations and systems such as the world economy or a country as complex as the US or even small countries like Afghanistan?

The problem with the financial crisis is that no one freaking understands it. Not the layperson or the politicians or even, I suspect, the boards at these institutions. How can anyone make informed decisions about problems we don't understand? We have to defer these decision to "experts" like Geitner and Lawrence Summers and we can't really tell or have any means to tell whether they are competent or not other than gut instinct. Something similar happens frequently with our computer systems and blackberries. No one understands how these things function with their passcodes and updates and databases. As a result, we are completely dependent on computer tech support and the more complicated the the issue, the more work they need to do (and money they make). Same thing with contracts and lawyers. I see 75 page contracts for a 10 G option. Just to review such a contract costs regular price 5 Gs. How can a society function like this? Our administrative costs exceed our output.

It's like we need a goddamn super computer to keep the world economy from crashing and another super computer to keep the supercomputer from crashing and a country to keep that super computer running. And it's falling apart as a result.