Seeing Clearly

"The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way.  Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see.  To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion, all in one."

- John Ruskin

 

This was the June 1, 2011 quote in the Zen calendar on my desk.  I didn't know who John Ruskin was.  He had some controversy in his life (disgustingly disturbing if true), but he also had some insights during his 1800's English life that I agree with, including this (from his Wikipedia entry):

"Nay, but I choose my physician and my clergyman, thus indicating my sense of the quality of their work. By all means, also, choose your bricklayer; that is the proper reward of the good workman, to be "chosen." The natural and right system respecting all labour is, that it should be paid at a fixed rate, but the good workman employed, and the bad workman unemployed. The false, unnatural, and destructive system is when the bad workman is allowed to offer his work at half-price, and either take the place of the good, or force him by his competition to work for an inadequate sum."

Comments

[Tom Worth]

Radical and not market-based, but I think what sometimes derails us is the belief that things have to be all or none, 100% market-based or 100% state-controlled. A hybrid may be the solution. And we're in a hybrid anyway, so why not tweak it? It's probably got something in common with the theory behind minimum wage, but it would be a minimum wage per industry or work type, rather than one universal minimum wage for all jobs across the country (or however minimum wage works). And it's different than unions, because the parties wouldn't be contractually obligated to anything other than a rate of pay for a given job.

[Sam W.]

Interesting thoughts on marketplace dynamics. Seems like it could have been written today. Hard to argue with his view of meritocratic market forces.