My Hope for Healing in the United States

Things Never Change

One of the largest US Investment Banks tells its junior bankers that “things don’t change as much as people think”. After the journey I have been on, I better understand why that is the case. I think the single biggest threat to the strategic interests of the United States of America are what I see as the continued abuse of power in our various power circles - government, finance, religion, education, etc. This abuse of power is causing an erosion of trust in our democracy. The notion that all men (and women) are created equal is being thrown by the wayside as politicians seek more power, CEO’s ask for more pay, educators inflate prices without providing a concomitant increase in the product or value they provide. For me, as a gay man in the United States of America, our religious leaders increasingly are being influenced by what my mentors in the investor business called “the disease of capitalism.” We were no socialists. Quite the opposite. We invested where there was opportunity. America is after all a land of opportunity. But when abuse of power and erosion of trust begins to creep in, capitalism begins to become diseased. The patient needs a cure. It last cycles the remedy for this patient was more money at the problem. We have had countless market cycles the last several decades and the equation to fix the problems has always been to throw more money at the solution. My view this next cycle is that more money is not going to solve the core issues. The patient has a sickness worse than money can solve. It is abuse of power. For example, the Church of Jesus Christ (my faith) does not provide equal rights to members of the LGTB+ community. They claim they provide equal rights but they lie to the American public about this. This is because this storied and much needed institution of moral decency has also become diseased, in this investors opinion. They have got caught up in the poker game instead of honoring the American culture that “all men are created equal.” We see this now spreading with how politicians have been caught cheating their very stakeholders - we, the people. They have forgotten that to be a US politician is to “serve the public”, much like our religious community serves local communities. However, these institutions are all hungry for one thing. More power. We see this manifesting everywhere. Educational firms, Investment firms, large Fortune 500 companies who now have multiple business units that have little to nothing to do with the core business. The current poker game in America is to build a kingdom. Whether you be a Mormon leader, Fortune 500 CEO, an influencer, a celebrity, an educational administrator - it seems everybody is in the game of becoming the next King. I like to joke that the US President is now “King Trump” the same way some of our Fortune 500 CEOs are acting like Kings. They of course have shareholders to please, but now that power is spreading. CEOs are getting into politics without official mandates, educators are seeking to become influencers instead of teaching their students, well known celebrities are pitching so many brands its hard to keep up with who is recommending what product. The excess is quite dramatic.

So my current belief is that the current trajectory that the United States of America is on is 1000% unsustainable. As Warren Buffett taught us, “anything that can not last forever, doesn’t.” We can’t have religious leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ abusing their power (as they did to me) simply to build their kingdoms as they exclude LGTB+ members from equal rights under the law. We can’t have the Ivy League schools pricing out much needed smaller institutions and other educational opportunities to educate and train the America people. We are woefully undersaffed in the STEM sectors, yet our leaders in politics and education are more interested in erasing LGTB+ stories, for example from textbooks. As if that is what truly matters. It is a deflection of these core issues where the stronger power centers in America are getting stronger and everyone else is left out in the dust.

The insidious part of what is happening is much of this is sorta being swept under the rug. Of course, like Americans are figuring out the corruption in politics, they are seeing this corruption in other sectors as well. The truth can only be contained for so long.

So my hope for America is that we start to realize we can’t continue to suppress and marginalize minorities or small voices to simply enrich those with access to information, capital, or power centers. It is so popular for some politicians to attack Wall Street - my background as a Broker and Investor - while lining their pockets behind the scenes. Only to have another administration undo the very changes that happened in the previous cycle. I think most Americans would agree we need a healthy Wall Street, a healthy debate structure, a healthy religious community. However, when these power centers get so large they begin to infringe on the unaliable rights of our neighbors, it has gone too far. We are forgetting God’s two great commandments. To love him and to love one another despite our differences.

I truly believe America’s best days are yet to come, but I think it is going to take a new wave of leadership that truly understands that power corrupts. We can throw money at the problems as we have in past cycles, but more money does not solve an abuse of power problem. Until the abuse of power stops, nothing will truly change. And as we are all learning, the people who say things like “real change” happens slowly, simply do not want it to change that much because it benefits them. But the systems in America must get better. We must get better at taking care of one another without exploiting or demeaning our neighbors. It is one thing to disagree it is quite another to lie about it. For example, the Church I was once part of tells me I can have equal rights if I give up my other rights. That language by itself is disgusting. It is a form of false advertising. Similarly, when CEOs say “we are listening” but then nothing changes for the employees or communities, it means they are in fact not listening. When the same bait and switch tactics in politics, business, religion, etc are being used to stifle innovation and slow progress, then we know the same cartel of crooks that run America are indeed running it into the ground. So my true hope - my faith - is that things will change perhaps more quickly than past cycles out of pure necessity. The same old tricks are losing their ability to lie to the masses who simply want some basic things. The right to marry who they want. The right to healthcare services. The right to affordable housing. The right to transportation options. The right to educate themselves. The right to a livable wage. These are just some of the basics. This is not complicated. The only complicated part is getting very real power centers to agree that the status quo - the way we are doing business right now in America - is indeed not working for the masses.