I sat in the back of the room listening to various administrators and students pitch my son. The anomaly had become a trend and that trend disturbed me. My son, a civil engineer wannabe, visiting various colleges of polytechnic renown, heard them attempt to lure him with the promise of never taking an English class again. From students to deans of students, this became a common theme – the humanities are a thing of the past and the only such classes will be more science-oriented than humanities-oriented.
I remember my high school career. I was a science and math guy through and through. I hated English. It made no sense. It was completely subjective. And, so, when it came time for this Physics and Astronomy major to take his required dose of English Literature as a college freshman, I attacked it with as much sarcastic rigor as possible. My intention was to mock the tomfoolery of literary analysis by pushing the envelope as far as possible. Every written assignment only escalated this. I was asked to review a Joseph Conrad novella (The Secret Sharer) and I handed in a report comparing it to a Star Trek Episode ("The Enemy Within").
Next I was tasked with reviewing Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and came back with an analysis based solely on the names of the characters, including a purposely placed anachronism comparing the nursemaid to a Borden Dairy Company mascot Elsie the Cow (if you can't see the connection, think harder).
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But my professor zigged when I expected her to zag. Rather than berate my disrespect, she instead read it as something creative and gave me A's for both papers. When I admitted to her the basis of my true deviousness, (i.e., science guys don't like English classes) she blew it off with the simple suggestion I read C.P. Snow's The Two Cultures. I did and it was a cold slap on the face. In it, Snow explains the cultural divide between the literary class and the science class and suggests neither can be considered a truly intellectual class unless and until it can comfortably understand the fundamentals of the other.
When I spoke to ASPPA's Brian Graff for this week's FiduciaryNews.com article, (see "Exclusive Interview: ASPPA Head Brian Graff Blasts Stupid Retirement Suggestions from Capitol Hill (and Others)," FiduciaryNews.com, April 15, 2014). During our discussion, he spoke of our nation's legislative class in a manner that evoked Snow's Two Cultures. Of course, in Washington, it's more than two cultures. There's a culture for every committee on the Hill. And they all operate with blinders on, living in their own universe, none of which is anywhere near the universe of you and me and all other "real world" people.
Graff cites this as the biggest problem we're facing today in terms of retirement policy. For example, the skewed scoring system only counts current year activity, while it ignores future activity. This is how a congressman can claim donating to a Roth IRA (which doesn't produce any immediate tax savings) doesn't cost anything to the Federal budget while contributing to a traditional IRA (which defers taxes) does cost. Ironically, if you count the long term impact on Federal revenues, a Roth IRA has a real cost while a traditional IRA general produces greater revenues. Worse, in their short-hand sound-bite lingo, far too many congressman can say with a straight face that a contribution to a retirement plan is a tax deduction when, as we all know, it's merely a referral.
But the greatest "two cultures" challenge in Washington, according to Graff, is the "progressive" view (nay, their insistence) that problems can only be solved by the government. Contrast this to the opposite view that government cannot solve any problems. Clearly, on the first hand, government can never imbue self-reliance on the individual while, on the other hand, it takes a village to build an aircraft carrier.
Retirement policy involves a lot of different factors that go far beyond the need of individual congressional committees. More so, retirement tends to involve personal choice and is more likely to fall under the rubric of "self-reliance" than it does "aircraft carrier."
We'll never get sound policy from Washington until these cultural divides can be bridged. How do we do this?
It's like I told my son. Engineering is about applying science and math to solve human problems. In order to solve human problems, you need to know humans. In order to know humans, you need to study the humanities.
Until lawmakers make an effort to study the fundamentals of other cultures beyond their own, C.P. Snow will continue to turn in his grave and we're doomed to debate unproductive retirement policy alternatives.
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Christopher Carosa
Chris Carosa has been writing a weekly article and monthly column for BenefitsPRO online and BenefitsPRO Magazine since 2011 and is a nationally recognized award-winning writer, researcher and speaker. He’s written seven books, including From Cradle to Retire: The Child IRA; Hey! What’s My Number? – How to Increase the Odds You Will Retire in Comfort; A Pizza The Action: Everything I Ever Learned About Business I Learned By Working in a Pizza Stand at the Erie County Fair; and the widely acclaimed 401(k) Fiduciary Solutions. Carosa is also Chief Contributing Editor of the authoritative trade journal FiduciaryNews.com and publisher of the Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, a weekly community newspaper he founded in 1989. Currently serving as President of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and with more than 1,000 articles published in various publications, he appears regularly in the national media. A “parallel” entrepreneur, he actively runs a handful of businesses, including a small boutique investment adviser, providing hands-on experience for his writing. A trained astrophysicist, he also holds an MBA and has been designated a Certified Trust and Financial Advisor. Share your thoughts and story ideas with him through Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christophercarosa/)and Twitter (https://twitter.com/ChrisCarosa).
