Last night, the Buncombe County Commissioners hosted their public meeting on the budget. Of course, the state is still trying to settle on how many millions the county may receive, so nothing final could be presented. For what it was worth, the people got to talk, anyway.

So very strangely, those who spoke wanted stuff. Nobody was telling government, “Take my stuff,” “Raise my taxes,” “Bilk me more.” Many wanted stuff for the voiceless, adults who are victims and need nurturing. During the pleas, I muttered in my mind things like, “There is no crime where there are no victims,” and “Buck up.” What happened to forgiveness and perseverence? Treating evil like water on the back of a duck is not something these people want. They want to magnify each injustice for full impact.

Most aggravating were the people who wanted more money for the Obamacare navigators. Back in the day, we aspired to invent things to ease suffering and increase creativity and productivity. Now, the goal is to complexify. The correct word is “complicate,” but it is hip to complicate even that. Our objective is not to promote wellness, we want a nasty bureaucracy that requires navigators. By complexifying, we introduce inefficiencies that require job creation, and we grow budgets to bring more free, gumming money into the local economy – because everybody else is doing it.* Stepping back, we see that our complexification has not added anything to promote health, ease suffering, or spark genius, and so the economy has not grown. Good communication and easy access to ever-improving technologies would help society. Complexificationializationicating is bad for the economy.

*Do some math, please.