Yes, I Want It in My Back Yard

I was looking at a little mailing--sort of a newsletter--from my congressman. He boasts of "bringing home" federal dollars for projects in his district. The sort of news that gladdens his constituents. We all want to be sure we're getting a piece of that incredibly huge federal pie, don't we? When it's "my back yard," we want all the good stuff and none of the bad stuff.

But if it's someone else's congressman and his district that federal money is going to, we call that "pork barrel legislation," and deplore it.

Are we perhaps being a bit inconsistent? A guy I used to know would use the expression, "It depends on whose ox is being gored." Yes, it matters whether it's us or someone else.

You might call this inconsistent, or hypocritical. Or, how about selfish? I have long maintained that very many people--maybe the average persons--care very little about what goes on beyond the four corners of their lot. Okay, one qualification to that: they care about their children's schools. But, human nature being what it is, everybody's interest is mainly in their personal welfare and their immediate family's, and their physical home.

There are the Mother Theresas and others who have wide horizons and truly want to save the world. But many folks, when they leave their suburban houses in the morning to go to work, and look up and down the street and see two cars in every driveway, truly feel that all is well with the world. Well, maybe it's the working of those needs hierarchies that we learn about in Psych 101. Again, human nature.

Copyright (c) 2009 by Richard Stein