All About The Benjamins

Post date: Aug 08, 2012 1:45:13 PM

Ideally the primary mission of a business should be about its core product or service. For example, the mission of a widget manufacturer should be something akin to making the best widget possible at a reasonable price for its customers. I fear that we have drifted into a culture where everyone's primary mission is to make money rather than provide great service or value to their customers.

What's wrong with a business trying to make money? Nothing is wrong. What is wrong is the approach to making money that puts that objective above its customers. Ideally in a free market, he who provides the best value or service to customers will win. This works when customers are well-informed about their choices. However, when customers are ill-informed by misleading ads, then businesses can trump customer satisfaction with profits for their owners.

There is a corollary in politics. Ideally the primary mission of an elected official should be about representing citizens. It seems today that the primary mission of most elected officials has drifted toward gathering power rather than looking out for the interests of the citizens they represent. Using the same tools as business, politicians can ensure that voters are ill-informed by their misleading ads and through the words of their misleading pundits of the press.

Consumers and voters need to fight back against both of these trends. We must stop allowing the pretty images of ads and the emotional voices of pundits to influence are decisions. We must roll up our sleeves and do our own research about how to spend our money and how to cast our votes.

Good places to start for voters are non-partisan sources of information about candidates on the web. For current elected officials like my opponent, Rep. Whitmire, you can check voting records and sponsored bills at state-sponsored sites such as http://www.scstatehouse.gov/member.php?code=1914204316. My other opponent, John Dalen has his own campaign website at http://johndalenforschouse.com/Home_Page.html. For all candidates, you can check independent sites such as http://votesmart.org/. After getting the facts, then check the candidate's campaign websites which can be found on the votesmart candidate profile page.