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I HAVE JUST FINISHED REVIEWING THE
July/August 2007 issue. There were three
feature articles: The first on Justice Leah
Sears '76 is a very good biography, and
since I have two daughters I thought it
would be inspirational for them. The second,
on the current status of the College
of Architecture, Art, and Planning and the
plans for Paul Milstein Hall, also seemed
informative for alumni. And then there
was the article titled "Can't Buy You Happiness,"
which was either an undeclared
advertisement for Robert Frank's book or
a biased attempt to condemn the values of
twenty-first-century America. One highlighted
quote says: "Do we want to spend
our money on better teachers and
enhanced national security--or more
expensive watches and bigger mansions?"
As a member of the class that Professor
Frank attacks, I would respond that if you
do not have an economy that buys the
watches and the mansions, you will never
have the money to pay for the teachers or
the national security.
There are many measures of household
wealth that clearly indicate that the
American middle class has prospered over
the past five years, but it seems that Professor
Frank wants us to assume that since
some individuals had outsized gains
everyone else was driven by envy to try to
compete beyond their means. There could
be another explanation. The American economy is driven by a consumption
mentality.We love what we have and
are willing to leverage the future to
live well in the present.He may want
the country to become a nation of
savers, but that type of behavior
drove Japan into a fifteen-year-long
recession. What may seem reckless
for a single individual is actually beneficial
for the long-term expansion of
our economy when practiced by
most of the populace.
Furthermore, I would ask Professor
Frank this question: has he ever
driven a Dodge Viper or a Porsche
Turbo? He seems to think that people
buy expensive items only to impress
others. I would suggest that after he
drives down a winding road at about
ninety miles per hour, he might realize
there is another reason people
spend money on fine things--pure enjoyment.
It has nothing to do with what their
neighbor is doing. Yes, I am sure that we
also feel some desire to impress our neighbors.
But is that reason enough to change
the tax code? I doubt it. I would suggest
that there are better ways to spend Professor
Frank's time and to use the paper on
which Cornell Alumni Magazine is printed
than trying to change the entire culture
that drives America to greatness.
Bill Miller '73
Summit, New Jersey
ECONOMIST ROBERT FRANK REMINDS
us that money can't buy happiness and
goes on to propose that the government
step in to prevent us from even trying. He
attributes middle-class angst and indebtedness
to a futile effort to keep up with the
ostentatious lifestyles of the super rich.
The solution: take those cheeky plutocrats
down a notch so there's not so much to
envy. A side benefit: all that unnecessary
excess would be redeployed to the public
sector to patch roads, increase faculty
salaries, and invest in growing America's military might (oops, not!).
The downside:
nothing to speak of.Who needs a 70,000-
square-foot mega-mansion or a $2.7 million
Patek Philippe watch anyway!
Does Professor Frank really want us to
be happy? If so, he'd be espousing a return
to faith in God and the strong religious
values that pollsters find most closely correlate
with individual happiness and wellbeing.
Got a problem coveting your neighbor's
Lamborghini? Putting too much
faith in your hedge-fund stash? Try Exodus
20.
As Professor Frank points out, George
W. Bush is probably not the right guy to
carry out his zero sum, neo-Marxian
vision. Perhaps among the crop of current
political candidates can be found a latterday
Stalin who is not squeamish about
gutting the Bill of Rights.
Edward Shineman '65
Sudbury, Massachusetts
Professor Robert Frank responds: Recent tax
cuts for Mr. Miller, Mr. Shineman, and me
are really loans from the Chinese and others
that must be repaid with interest by our
children. Because of these cuts, we have not
just the largest houses in the industrialized
world, but also the largest budget and trade
deficits. For two years, our personal savings
rate has been negative. These conditions
threaten our continued prosperity. When all
build larger houses, the principal effect is
merely to redefine what counts as adequate
living space. Even the rich would benefit if
the same dollars were used to inspect the
cargo containers that enter our ports, or to
undo recent budget cuts in our program for
securing loosely guarded nuclear stockpiles
in the former Soviet Union. Falling Behind
has just 125 pages. Read it and you'll see
that my case for a more progressive tax
structure has nothing to do with envy.
Doing Better
AS A PSYCHIATRIST WHO HAS WORKED
in the college setting, I agree with Cornell
counseling director Greg Eells that we will
never be able to prevent entirely the sort
of tragedy that unfolded at Virginia Tech
("Talk Therapy," Currents, July/August
2007).However, in the case of the Virginia
Tech shooter,Mr. Cho, there was already a
judicial order in place that mandated outpatient
treatment for this disturbed student,
who earlier had been hospitalized. As
far as I know, there was no effective liaison
between Mr. Cho's hospital-based clinicians
and the student health service at Virginia
Tech. Neither was there any effective
mechanism in place to ensure that Mr.
Cho did, indeed, obtain appropriate mental
health care.We can do better than that.
Colleges should be empowered to insist on
and monitor mental health treatment for
seriously disturbed students who have
already been deemed a potential danger to
themselves or others.
Dr. Ronald Pies '74
Lexington, Massachusetts
All Wet
I WAS SORRY TO SEE THAT CORNELL continues to require its undergraduates
to
pass that antiquated swim test ("Different
Strokes," Letter from Ithaca, July/August
2007). As one who waited until two weeks
before graduation to take the test (and
would have waited longer except that I
didn't want to show up at commencement
with wet hair), I have yet to encounter a
challenge in my life for which those three
lengths in the pool prepared me. If the
university wants to impose a standardized
test on all undergrads, it should consider
a writing or reading-comprehension
requirement. Those are skills central to the
mission of the school and necessary to
success in almost any field.
David Fine '87
Camp Hill, Pennsylvania
Commencement Critique
PRESIDENT SKORTON'S COMMENCEMENT
address was an embarrassing collection
of clichés ("Pomp and Circumstance,"
From the Hill, July/August 2007). No one
who understood anything about social science
data would quote a poverty rate to
tenths of a percent; social science data are
rarely even accurate to 20 percent. In fact,
there is almost no genuine poverty in
America--when did you last see an American
emaciated from hunger or in tatters?
In genuinely poor countries, it is meaningless
to speak of people living on two
dollars a day, because most of them are
subsistence farmers whose food is not
bought with money.
In fact, we know how to cure poverty.
Foreign aid doesn't do it.What succeeds
are free markets and limited government
that respects people's rights to make economic
(and political) choices for themselves
and doesn't oppress them for the
benefit of bureaucrats and city dwellers. It
requires a cultural change to honesty,
transparency, and restraint in government.
That's hard.
No one knows how to reduce inequality,
or why it has risen in recent decades,
or even whether it is an unavoidable consequence
of human nature. It is not the
same as poverty. It is better to have it in
the open in the money economy rather
than hidden as a system of silent privilege.
Poverty and oppression don't cause violence
and terror. Frustrated would-be
artists, intellectuals, and professionals do--consider, for example,
Hitler, Lenin,
and the September 11 terrorists. Not a
starving peasant among them.
What Skorton should have said is that
if you want to help the world, learn a useful
skill. Activism only makes you feel
good. Instead, for example, get an MD or
become an engineer or economist. But
you don't get to be a university president
by honestly facing reality.
Jonathan Katz '70, PhD '73
Clayton, Missouri
Defending Wolfowitz
REGARDING THE LETTER FROM GEORGE
Miller '50, MBA '55 (Correspondence,
July/August 2007): If Mr.Miller had read
the careful analysis of Paul Wolfowitz's
ouster from the World Bank in the Wall
Street Journal, he might have come to a
different conclusion.Wolfowitz was obviously
railroaded from the presidency by a
board that hated his attempt to reform a
bank rank with corruption.When Wolfowitz
tried to recuse himself from deliberations
on his girlfriend's position at the
bank, the board entrapped him by citing
bylaws that evidently required him to rule
on her status. Fault Wolfowitz's judgment
but not his moral values. And it was interesting
to note that Wolfowitz's main support
came from African nations that had
benefited from his compassion. As for me,
I'm proud that Paul Wolfowitz is a Cornell
alumnus.
Harvey Turner '52
Mendham, New Jersey
University or Business?
AS AN ALUMNA,THE MOTHER OF THREE
Cornell graduates, and the wife of, sister
of, and daughter-in-law of alumni, as well
as a participant in many alumni activities,
I read with deep interest your article entitled
"Who Runs Cornell? (Part 2)" (Currents,
May/June 2007).
I have noticed a disturbing shift in the
culture of the University--from a focus
on academics and its noble calling to an
institution run on a "business model" or
worse: one appearing to be a moneymaking
corporate venture. Of particular
interest to me was a comment in the article
attributed to Charles Walcott, PhD '59,
the dean of faculty, that President (and
Doctor) Skorton has said that "if he invites a representative of
the faculty [to
his senior staff meetings], then doesn't he
have to invite representatives of the students
and the staff" as well?
I am a physician who is old enough to
remember when hospital boards were
composed predominantly of physicians.
But hospital administrators wanted to
consolidate their power, and over the last
twenty years they have driven physicians
out of boards and other decision-making
roles. Doctors, nurses, and food handlers
are not the same when you are clinging to
life in the ICU--nor are academicians,
support-service personnel, and students at
the same level when it comes to setting
policy and priorities for a world-class university.
There is something to be said for
years of experience and institutional
knowledge when setting university policies.
Collaboration with the faculty can
only enrich the educational and social
experience for the students.
Increased medical errors and bad outcomes
in patient care have been caused by
shifts of governance and the changing of
priorities to run hospitals as businesses.
What will be the cost to the academic health
of the University by minimizing the input
of the faculty in the governance of Cornell?
Dr. Carol Bender '65
Bethesda, Maryland
Negative Psychology
I WAS DISAPPOINTED AND NOT A
little disgusted by the article titled "The
Pursuit of Happiness" (Currents,May/June
2007). How long do we have to pretend
that psychology is some form of science?
The article says that "traditional psychology
focuses on treating illnesses such as depression
and schizophrenia." Since when? Psychology
focuses on trying to justify itself by
linking itself to real sciences (medicine or
biology, for instance) and pandering to
whatever feel-good trend is current. "Positive
psychology" is basically a jaded robbery
of everything a twelve-step program
or your grandma could tell you for free:
you've got to stop and smell the roses. It
says a lot about the sad state of intellectual
thought in America that someone like Professor
Kashdan can hype his scam in your
magazine.
Jeffrey Thurston '77
Oakland, California
Satisfied Customer
WHEN MY COPY OF CAM COMES, I usually
read my class column and the alumni
deaths and then skim through the rest. But
I read every article in the May/June 2007
issue and found them all stimulating and
thought-provoking--Carl Sagan, the Cornell
Police, the food science piece, "The
Pursuit of Happiness" (with those gorgeous
twins), the fascinating article about
our award-winning farrier, the inner-city
kids involved with Shakespeare--even the
pain of hovering parents!
I've also been reminiscing and feeling
a little sad about the elegance of life on
campus when I was there--dining halls
with white tablecloths and waitress service,
callers being announced by telephone
to your room in the dorm, just a general
atmosphere of refinement pervading all
aspects of living. I know all of this is long
gone and we live in a world of first names
and speed, but it is a shame that all the
niceties are dying out.
Marjorie Evers diPretoro '44
Harrison, Maine
Filmmakers' Request
WE ARE CREATING A FEATURE length
documentary on the Berrigan
brothers, Daniel and Philip.We would like
to hear from members of the Cornell
community who can share archival film
footage, photographs, audiotapes, or home
movies of the Berrigans, especially ones
from when Daniel worked at Cornell
[1967–70]. In addition, we will be coming
to Ithaca and hope to interview people
who had direct contact with Daniel.We
welcome hearing from individuals who
perhaps did not support his anti-war
views during those years. Please e-mail us
at blessbless@mac.com. Thank you.
Susan Muska and Greta Olafsdottir
New York, New York
Correction--July/August 2007
Legacies, page 107: Erik Jerrard '10, a fifthgeneration
Cornellian, was incorrectly
included in the "Three Cornell Generations"
list. He is the son of Dana '80 and
Catherine Vicks Jerrard '80, the grandson
of Dwight E. Vicks Jr. '54, MBA '57, the
great-grandson of Albert R. Hatfield Jr.
'27, and the great-great-grandson of
Albert R. Hatfield Sr. 1897. |
