Do you remember:

In school, history class on the subject of the pyramids? I remember being taught that each pharaoh would have a monument to them made. It was supposed to simulate the rays of the sun and eachhad secret tunnels leading to the tomb of the pharoah and his family. The ones that knew the path of the secret passage ways were ‘bumped off’ so they couldn’t share the secret with others. Then the next leader would say to himself that they are a better leader and have an even bigger pyramid built. Thousands of laborers (many were probably slaves) worked to take those large stones up to each level. Just imagine the architechs thousands of years ago drawing and planning, even the passage ways. Setting traps yet designing the monument to last thousands of years. Some of those pyramids can be seen from space, one of the few man made structures that has stood the test of time. Think of it, todays architechs can only dream of having something that they design and build last a hundred years, but Imhotep built a pyramid that lasted thousands of years. Ted Mosby can only dream of something that lasting. What a monument to Djoser, pharaoh of Imotep. Here we are, thousands of years later still in aww of those structures.

So that got me thinking, the same vanity that drove the pharoahs to build a bigger, better pyramid is prevelant every where we look. Lets look at business today. There is always a time when the ‘management’ tries to improve on the bottom line. You see, they feel that they have to justify their position and salary and prove they are better than the previous manager. So they employ an architect of there own, a bean counter who figures how to get the workers to do more for less money and save a few dollars and cents yet charges 10’s of thousands of dollars for the effort. However, these monuments almost always become less than they were in the long run causing yet another manager and bean counter to attempt to correct/repair what the last manager and bean counter did. And I remember what I learned in geometry and physics, once you are at the top, the only way to go is down. This leaves us in a different kind of aww, when we see once great companies destroyed by greedy managers and leaders who lose focus on providing a product or service just to squeeze a few more dollars to the bottom line. They almost always forget the human element, the worker that makes the company what it is. And once a company looses its reputation, they can rebuild it, but it will never be percieved the same again. Just like the pharoah, the manager has to put his signature on the new bigger, better (pyramid) policy to justify his position and salary.

But the failed vanity that destroys the once great company is also prevelant in politics. Just look and ask yourself a question, has government ever shrunk? Has government ever ended a tax, no matter how temporary they claim it to be? Did you know that up until 2006, you were paying a 3% telephone tax (long distance) and it was called The Spanish American War Tax (1898-2006). Now you might be tempted to say ‘hey, congress actually repealed it. Doesn’t that prove your statement wrong?’ Well, no. Congress, after repealing the tax, passed 75 new taxes on the same day. So it was all optics. They focused on the one tax that they repealed but did not emphasis the millions in new taxes passed that same day. Every 2 years, a new set of politicians are sworn in to the House of Representatives. They all suffer the curse of the pharoah. They have to pass a new law (build a bigger pyramid) to justify their new position and salary. So just like the pyramids, laws remain on the books and are almost never removed no matter how old they are or insane the have become. Back in Los Angeles, around the time of the horseless carriadge, when the streets were cobblestone, they passed a law forbidding any vehicle from having rubber tires. A law was passed that no fruit basket could be given to someone in a California Hotel. In Everret Wahington, you can not hypnotize someone outside. Severance, Colorado forbids throwing a snowball. A snowball is considered a hand thrown missle. In Alabama, it is illegal to pretend to be clergy if you are not, so actors cannot perform any play where they are a priest, minister or a rabbi.

There was a supposedly reasonable cause for these and many other laws to be created, but they never go away, or if they do, they are replaced with more. How hard is it to write a law that says that if you want and can not afford medical care, you can opt for a government funded medical care plan? I could write it in 1 page in plain english. But how big was the affordable healthcare act? It was 33,000 pages long and if the paper was stacked to make a book, that book would have been more than 7 feet thick. Over 66 volumes of no less than 500 sheets per book or approx 7 cases of paper per copy. How many bean counters did it take to write that bill?

If our judical system refuses to enforce the laws already on the books, the politicians (mini pharoahs) have to write a new law so they can have future generations say ‘wow! Look at his pyramid’. Is it any wonder why we can’t get our government to live on a budget? They need the money to pay for the paper to write more laws so the politicians can justify their enormous salaries while claimimg to make life more free for Americans, as long as you do what they want you to do…be in aww of their pyramid.