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Economist Adam Smith, Not Always Accurately Portrayed…
It’s my belief that anyone who pursues a legislative or municipal seat in government must understand and consider different schools of economic thought. Legislation, budget allocations, oversight of city works, and management of a government labor force all factor into economics – whether locally or nationally measured.
My education of economics began, oddly enough, with an analysis of Reaganomics by libertarian humorist, P.J. O’Rourke. Satire peaked my interest when I first heard O’Rourke, because I wanted insight and context to connect with the humor my elders enjoyed. To find this, I studied iconic figures like Adam Smith, John Keynes, and Milton Friedman. Admittedly, this was not typical for a teenager.
To begin modern economic thought, one must consider Adam Smith. He is touted as the father of laissez faire (a French term, literally meaning, “leave it alone”), and is championed by conservatives and corporate libertarians as intellectual proof for limited government and pure-free-market reign.
As we dive deep into his writings, particularly his most famous work, The Wealth of Nations, we learn that he is more pragmatic and accepting of government involvement than often perceived. He describes scenarios where government can boost infant industry through subsidies as long as government is relieved of the financial burden once the industry grows into maturity.
Smith describes government and corporations as corruptible and problematic, but in necessary marriage. In, The Wealth of Nations, government is posed as a ploy to protect the wealthy from the poor through a barrier system, while also a mechanism for protecting private property. Smith details how taxes can become badges of liberty, not slavery, as long as they are paid in absolute necessity and, “as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”
To me, Smith advocates for a basic form of government, which protects property and preserves the integrity of the nation-state. Far reaching programs and bloated government, as we often find in contemporary economic environments, would be offensive to Smith. As a pragmatist, not a firebrand or pure-free-market zealot, I agree that government should be small and efficient.
I also agree that government can provide safe guards, and checks and balances, but only in limited circumstances. For example, consumer protection agencies, the Food and Drug Administration, and public education are areas of government I want to preserve and improve to better our society and strengthen the private sector.
-Brandon Chicotsky
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Liberal Arts and Business…
With every business course I took as an undergraduate student, I found reason to compare them to my liberal arts education. Business studies provided rudimentary knowledge of accounting, finance, marketing, and organizational management, but most of it was a gloss-over exercise in learning. Conversely, liberal arts courses, particularly the upper-division coursework (smaller classes, more rigorous), provided in-depth and introspective viewpoints into subject matter. I found practical applications for my liberal arts concentration - cultural anthropology.
Every day, I am faced with challenges in business where I am prompted to research or lean on third parties for answers. Business education is critical, whether independently pursued or through degree coursework. As a business owner and manager, I’ve learned some tough lessons that could have been avoided with mock trial entrepreneurship as an undergraduate, but it was never offered.
Most undergraduate business studies focused on learning for corporate applications, not suited for start-up enterprises or entrepreneurship. Fortunately, as I was graduating from The University of Texas at Austin, new entrepreneur-based courses were in formation. The future is bright for any student who seizes such an opportunity to take on these new courses.
Cultural Anthropology is the study of social, political, and economic interaction and constructions among people. Often, cultural anthropologists immerse themselves in a foreign environment in an effort to gain understanding of why and how people behave relative to their roots, origins, and location. For me, I take an economic and political approach to any field study or cultural immersion study.
As an undergraduate, I visited 7 countries and took on 3 study abroad programs. My travels have continued, though my writing and research on the areas I visit are less detailed than before. Experiential learning has become a natural priority while away from the grind of essays and course deadlines.
Later in life, I will likely consider pursuing a doctorate in cultural anthropology. I envision myself as a retired politico, traveling to the northwest, where the universities are cut out of the beautiful red wood forests, overlooking a sister city to beloved Austin (Portland quickly comes to mind). As for now, I have a more pressing priority - continuing my business education and getting back to Texas as soon as possible (after studies are complete).
In 2011, I will enroll in a Masters for a business concentration. Applications have been sent and the wait for admissions has begun. The programs to which I applied are varied in business subjects. All of them concentrate on entrepreneurship and management. The traditional MBA, as offered at my alma mater, does not quite suit my career objectives, which are to own and operate businesses for the coming years.
MBAs are known as credentials geared for career shifts or hiring tools. I have little intention of pursuing a cookie cutter role in a developed company. Rather, I will offer such a position in a company of my own, and I will be pleased to hire an MBA student. Meanwhile, I will have a Masters with a concentration in management or entrepreneurship.
I look forward to continuing my education of: capital investments, debt strategies and leveraging assets for growth, accounting, human resource management, market research and analysis, marketing and advertising, and technological tools for business. All the while, I will continue to expand my critical thinking, expose myself to new environments, and remain indulged in worldly reading as an enthusiast of cultural anthropological studies.
-Brandon Chicotsky
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Concerning gun rights…
In February 2009, Texas Senator Jeff Wentworth introduced Senate Bill 1164, which, “will allow persons who are licensed to carry a concealed weapon to do so on college campuses in Texas.” The bill passed by a 20-10 vote in the Senate and has been stalled in the lower chamber, though half of the House members endorse the House version.
Click here for text of the bill.
During college, I held the belief that guns were too dangerous for citizens to openly carry and posses outside of private property. I have since reformed my position and taken a more libertarian approach to the issue. However, I am not convinced students should carry weapons on campus. I do believe the more lax gun laws become, the more likely citizens will educate themselves on firearms and responsible usage. Regardless, the conversation on gun rights must continue and resolution on the issue must be settled.
College campuses are no exception to heinous crimes and senseless violence, as experienced on UT’s campus last week. Many believe if students and faculty held the right to bear arms on campus, a deterrent factor would play into anyone’s decision-making before storming campus with deadly intent. I have also heard the argument that if we solely rely on authorities and the state to protect us in all public environments, the American citizen is ultimately stripped of liberty and self-protection in critical circumstances.
History details many narratives where limited or denied gun rights disempower citizenry and establish legal precedents of over-assertive government imposition. As a liberal and critical thinker, I am hesitant to accept that completely lifting campus gun restrictions will create a safer environment for learning, but I am sensitive to preserving and expanding civil liberties. This issue deserves more debate and deliberation.
My heart goes out to everyone who must face this latest tragedy first hand. As the debate over Senate Bill 1164 and rights to bear arms continues, I hope all Longhorns, critics, and punditry remain united in their efforts to better our intellectual communities.
-Brandon Chicotsky
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A Quick Flashback to One of My Undergraduate Studies Abroad
I visited 7 countries while enrolled at The University of Texas at Austin, earning credit at The Universidad de Guanajuato (Mexico) and at an archaeological camp in Central America called La Milpa - an ancient Mayan ruins site in Belize. After college, I studied in Jerusalem for a summer before fund raising and organizing lobby efforts with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. My travels provided experiential learning and broadened my understanding of people and history. La Milpa in particular was a journey of physical challenges and revelations about our ancient past.Secondary forests consist of dense growth with natural mechanisms in place to poison foreign species of the environment. Many ecologists and nature observers debate whether or not plant and animal evolutionary development specifically target humans. If you spend several months in secondary growth, you may no longer need such a debate. While my injury (shown in a picture above) is not directly attributed to forest elements, several people around me were subjected to brutal discomfort at the hand of this unique forest growth.
Any forest that formerly exists, is destroyed, and then grows back becomes known as secondary growth. Often, in these forests, you find plants, bugs, and animals with symbiotic relationships that are dually functioned to survive and harm foreign species of the forest environment. At La Milpa, there were Africanized bees, which are a breed of bees who protect their territory in packs and will relentlessly attack, in mass, to any offender. I witnessed an Africanized bee sting on a colleague. This person had to be restrained from swatting at the bee or irritating the hive. It was a chaotic moment for this person. As I’m told, anyone stung by such a bee must stand entirely still or run in one direction as fast as possible to escape the territory claimed by the insect.
There were poisonous grass fields to the skin, give-and-take trees (plants with poisonous spikes and a curable ointment only found in the middle of the trunk), and over sized forest cats, who are extraordinarily dangerous. Certain snakes had deathly venom and spiders were notorious for numbing the skin before repetitive strikes. I slept in very fine mosquito nets and could hear insects fly into the netting all night. They were attracted to my body heat, which always surprised me considering the blistering heat of Central American summers.
Howler monkeys could be heard from 3 miles out. These monkeys were mostly peaceful accept their roar is unfathomably loud. If someone did walk under such a monkey perched in a tree, it’s not uncommon for the monkey to urinate or throw feces at the person entering the territory. I was lucky to have avoided such situations but heard of several colleagues who were victimized. These stories always had a comedic tone, but represented the odd and unsettling interaction of American students with secondary growth forests.
Halfway through the summer abroad program, I was exploring the surrounding territory with several colleagues and came across a basketball court unlike any I had seen before. This court was cut out of thick growth, had broken concrete on the ground, a bicycle rim as a goal, and a tree trunk for a goal post. With each new arrival to the camp site, we were delivered medical supplies, food, and special gift request (books, power savers, and water cleansers). In my case, I received a basketball among my special deliveries. The basketball goal was slightly above 8 1/2 feet tall, which enabled me to take on seemingly fanciful dunks.
At the end of the summer, after many hours exploring pyramids ascending over 100 feet from the ground and educating myself on the customs, civic structure, and traditions of Mayan religious practice, I injured myself in circus form. Throughout the summer I sustained countless insect stings and climbed dangerous ruins that were freshly uncovered and unmapped. However, it was the basketball court that conquered my physical durability.
I crossed over to my right and saw an open lane to the goal. It was a 3 on 3 game and we had chilled drinks on the line (a commodity in the jungle). After a few dribbles, I leaped in acrobatic fashion to execute a side-winding dunk. When I came down my right foot became lodged between two broken pieces of concrete (split by persistent roots underneath the foundation). My ankle turned with the full weight of my body coming down, still descending from the dunk. One of my peroneal tendons popped. This tendon is situated in front of the ankle and holds the bone in place. Hours later I had the chilled drinks in hand, but they were not used for celebratory toasts. Instead, I was placing them against the injury to quell the swelling.
Years later, my ankle is fully healed and functional. I had no surgery, but endured many hours of physical rehabilitative exercises. I still take on basketball courts, no matter where they reside. When a similar lane opens up toward the goal, as experienced in La Milpa, I aggressively pursue. Of course, goals are usually 10 feet tall in the states, and any form of a side-winding dunk is unlikely for my stature. However, I look back on my injury, my travels, and the experience gained from adventures in Central America and am enriched with broadened perspective and unique memories.
-Brandon Chicotsky
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What 9/11 means for ‘Generation 9/11’…
With the passing of the anniversary of September, 11th, 2001, I look at my generation and consider 9/11’s impact. The children of the Baby Boomers amount to roughly 76 million Americans, and we are often termed Generation Y, Echo Boomers, or Millennials. I assign a different term to the babies of the 70s, 80s, and 90s in America that represents a new age of communication technology, geopolitical competency, and media influences. We are ‘Generation 9/11’.
I first heard mention of the term, ‘Generation 9/11’, in our nation’s capital. Ambassador Dennis Ross, who is special adviser for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia to Secretary of State Clinton, was giving a lecture about the rise of genocidal rhetoric from national and religious leaders who institute Islamic Wahhabism and Islamic Sharia law.
Communication technology usage throughout the world was detailed as a concern by Ambassador Ross during his lecture. He considered American media as a demonstration of liberal democracy exercising a right to free press, which creates news-feeds and ideas that are varied, topically vast, and diverse. Conversely, Ross warned, Middle East Petro-states (governments with nationalized oil industry) like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria are propagating dangerously controlled and consistent messaging to Generation 9/11. Ross suggests many of these ideas are threats to civil liberties and reach the 48 Muslim-majority nations, which creates an alarming market of interest abroad.
Interconnected media technology puts this controlled and pointed messaging from Middle East Petro-states in direct contention with liberal-western ideas. From my experiences in the Middle East, I believe western culture and ideas are more compelling than its competition. While I foresee the dangers of Islamic Wahhabism, Islamic Sharia law, and any non-secular society under military doctrine, western media’s impact on Middle East society is apparent.
I remember Egypt’s suburban houses were lined with satellite dishes. American wrestling was a huge fad in Egypt, as was Baywatch - a cleavage-inspired 90’s sitcom. Even if the west begins to lose its battle in the market of political ideas, it will not lose the battle for cultural influence through new media technology.
Generation 9/11 contains the last remaining demographic of Americans who lived, at some point, without the common use of a cell phone and social media. Interface application systems like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were first introduced during our young adulthood, and were mostly developed by members of my generation. Traditional media, like television news, has evolved to fit an aging and older viewership, while internet news media appeals more to Generation 9/11.
Some traditional television news media are making attempts to showcase younger anchors who use modern colloquialisms. D.T. Mindich, an author on generational interest in news media, points out that such efforts are failing to recruit young viewers. One of every four Baby Boomers regularly watches a television news segment, while the younger generation polled at one of every seven.
Generation 9/11’s inundation of internet applications has developed an intuitive usage and research capability, which satisfies many needs once sought from television news. Almost all of my peers can identify, locate, research, and gossip-feed any topic of interest, including worldly news involving national, military, or economic conflicts. Internet informational access is one general, defining attribute of Generation 9/11. Another notable attribute is a looming economic burden.
In Thomas Friedman’s, The World is Flat, he argues interconnected economies and blending cultural influences ultimately deter nation-states from warring. Friedman provides sound arguments for globalization that include checks and balances and accountability systems focusing on human rights. David Smick in his book, The World is Curved, offers a rebuttal to this interconnected theory that not only challenges Friedman’s idea that globalization creates passive nations, it maps out an economic imperative for Generation 9/11.
When I read Friedman’s argument, I was a full-time undergraduate student with minimal tax payments and expenses. At that time, ideas were my currency and Friedman’s ideas were satisfying. Several years later, as a business owner, I involved myself in Smick’s writing while basing my work out of Houston, Texas - the energy trading capital of the west. I could sense the changing dynamic of America’s economy. The mortgage crises had just hit, America’s national debt was accelerating, and competing nations were fueling proxy wars against American military positions abroad, which influenced the oil market.
By learning more about the energy sector, I realized nation-states will never cease in competition. Smick correctly argues that nations like China and Russia, regardless of their government’s dedication to human rights, are empowered by globalization and may ultimately reposition western economies and military security in a dangerously compromising position.
Friedman’s hopes that globalization will create an economic equilibrium in the world may seem noble to many, but I do not believe such a development will benefit Generation 9/11. No matter how badly my generation wants peaceful and passive nations through economic interdependence, America’s Generation 9/11 may be the antithesis of another nation’s Generation 9/11 residing in west or east Asia.
I believe Smick is on to something when he suggests America should remain competitive and the world’s economic leader, and maintain this priority with intense commitment. This endorsement does not come with a blanket free-market advocacy. America must maintain mechanisms for checks and balances, rule of law, and protections of property. Setting such governmental precedents establishes efficiency, dependability, and durability for the private sector.
Generation 9/11 is now facing more private sector regulatory reforms, government capital injections, and national debt than any period in American history. We must focus creative energy on maintaining our nation’s wealth and monetary strength. If my generation does not address America’s economic challenges with intensity and long-term vision, more citizens will perish through malnourishment and poverty than the many Americans who suffered on 9/11 in 2001.
Along with economic challenges and media technology usage, Generation 9/11 is defined by an unique geopolitical competency. The Baby Boomers’ political maturation during Vietnam popularized dissent and skepticism of leadership. Civil liberties were expanded to minority communities and worldly thinking became more common. Vietnam spurred interest into the differentiations between communism and democracy and drew new meaning of covert and overt warfare. Also, American weapons manufacturers began to feel pressure from an inquiring public about state sponsored contracts using tax payer dollars. All of these developments were in some way present after 9/11. Like before, skepticism led to a questioning of war motives, private sector influences, media involvement, and conspiracy. However, none of these developments had the fervor and mass involvement that defined political activity from the Baby Boomers.
Generation 9/11 has generated a noticeably large conspiracy community. The Bush Administration’s initial reticence to commission a 9/11 investigation committee exacerbated skepticism among a niche intellectual community, which grew on college campuses in the form of organizations seeking thorough review of 9/11’s causes, course of events, and government-media relations. President John F. Kennedy’s assassination frenzy has parallels to this new form of protest and recall. Nevertheless, this young, niche community of skeptics have failed to popularize their political efforts and intentions to a broader market of interest.
Without a popular movement for protest, the 9/11 conspiracy community is increasingly marginalized, but their numbers are large enough to gain attention. College campuses today are flooded with political activist communities, which often include mainstream Party politics, anti-Israel sympathizers, human rights awareness efforts, or campaigns to debunk America’s government and military justifications for 9/11. Recent debates involving immigration reform, college subsidies, and global warming also have thriving activist organizations on college campuses, and these issues may remain in heated debate for decades. All the while, Generation 9/11 will be defined by an unfocused sense of purpose, political competency, and protest in the wake of America’s tragedy in 2001.
I represent the youngest American population of competent political minds when 9/11 occurred. This means, as teenagers, we can remember where we stood, what we thought, and the complex questions that formulated about our government and military during the event’s fallout. Now in our 20s and 30s, our consumer behavior, political orientations, and career objectives can be linked to the dynamic military, political, and cultural developments surrounding the historical event.
As Generation 9/11 defines the new age of media, technology, and political engagement, we face enormous economic challenges. We will shoulder unprecedented national debt and grapple with the effects of globalization. These challenges, however, will not prevent my generation from defining a new age of technology and social media. Generation 9/11 has access to more ideas and information than any generation that has come before. With this access, we will embody innovation.
It’s my hope 2001’s tragedy will serve as Generation 9/11’s motivation to protect our nation’s civil liberties and critically review our military campaigns without losing national purpose. Along with military security, economic security must be considered by Generation 9/11. We have the components needed to increase our nation’s wealth and strengthen America’s private sector. We must continue to drive the economy forward with innovation, entrepreneurship, and an active labor force. Whether or not we excel in this effort, the market influence of Generation 9/11 cannot be ignored.
-Brandon Chicotsky
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Remembering a great man and community leader…
A Chicotsky friend, Fort Worth civic leader, business magnate, and commited family man passed away today. Leon Harold Brachman’s career and commitment to community are incredibly inspiring.
My last memory with “Uncle Leon” was a dinner in his beautiful home in Fort Worth. I was joined by his wonderful daughter and close friend, Debby Rice, and my dad. Leon told stories about coming face to face with Francois ’Papa Doc’ Duvalier, Haiti’s former President who survived six assissination attempts. Leon was a skilled pilot and would establish and operate businesses abroad, as was the case in Haiti. Leon’s entrepreneurial and managerial brilliance inspired the entire Fort Worth Jewish community.
He was twice named B’nai B’rith’s Jewish Person of the year, the only person ever accorded that honor. Civic affairs found him as a longtime member, president and chairman of the Baylor All Saints Medical Center Board of Trustees. He received the Texas Health Care Trustee Foundation Award, the highest award given to a Texas hospital trustee for a record of leadership in healthcare government.
Leon’s board memberships also included the Camp Fire Girls Club. Leon and his late wife, Fay, were among the founding members of the Van Cliburn Competition and associated with Casa Manana, the Chamber Music Society and the Fort Worth Symphony. He will be greatly missed by family and many lifelong friends.
Thank you for your insight and friendship, Leon. We’ll miss you dearly and are deeply grateful for so much selfless and valiant leadership.
