One of my neighbors has a huge, beautiful walnut tree that I call “Old Walnut”.  It hangs over our yard and provides excellent shade in the summer months, which we really enjoy.  I know that walnut wood is valuable and that walnuts taste good, but other than that, I seldom think about walnut trees!  Let’s fact it, walnut trees don’t have magnetic personalities.  They don’t get around much and don’t introduce you to any interesting people.  And, except for a short time in the fall of the year, they don’t carry on much of a conversation!

During the past twenty years I’ve developed a special relationship with Old Walnut.  Each year from late August through September he communicates with me in a strange way by dropping hundreds of walnuts on my lawn.  Walnuts are green when they fall from the tree, about the size and color of a small green apple.  Inside that apple-like exterior is the walnut shell that we are used to buying at the store.  Inside that shell is the nut that we enjoy so much.  Once the walnuts fall from the tree gray squirrels dig inside the soft apple exterior and carry away the hard walnut shells, complete with nut.  The outer coatings kill the grass, making it annually imperative that I must pick up the nuts to preserve the lawn.

When I go over and pick up the nuts, Old Walnut has a chance to “talk” to me.  I figure that Old Walnut probably feels neglected and needs to communicate.  As I’m picking up the nuts, Old Walnut drops more nuts!  It’s kind of humorous.  I pick up perhaps 50 nuts and get a small area of the lawn nut-free and before I know it, it that Old Walnut plops a new nut right in the middle of my clean area.  They hit the ground with a big thump, which is Old Walnuts’ way of communication.  Last time I visited, Old Walnut dropped over 20 nuts while I was cleaning up.

Sometimes I utter mild curse words to Old Walnut when I hear a new nut fall.  This doesn’t intimidate the Old Walnut in the least.  Every time I curse him, he drops another nut!  After a while, my cursing is so impotent and foolish that I just start laughing each time I hear a new nut fall.  He brings a smile to my face!  It’s Old Walnut’s way of telling me that he is in charge and that I have no chance to alter his behavior.  Sometimes it is demoralizing knowing that this big, inanimate object is ruling me, but Old Walnut also gives me a sense of security.  No matter who is President, no matter what shenanigans Islamic terrorists are up to, no matter how badly the Green Bay Packers play football, no matter how the bad economy is doing, and no matter unhappy my wife is with me, that Old Walnut tree is a constant presence in an otherwise insecure world.  Nothing, but nothing changes Old Walnut.  He drops his nuts wherever and whenever he darn well pleases!

Humans are control freaks.  We like to determine our fate.  When something doesn’t suit us we develop technology and resources to change it.  If we can’t shape things to our liking we become unhappy.  When we want something we want it immediately.  We move at a fast pace.  We could all use a bit more patience, a bit more silence, and a bit more internal strength.  Maybe we can learn something from Old Walnut.

As this article is being published ignorant Muslims in many parts of the world are burning churches and threatening Christians as a reaction to a speech made by Pope Benedict XVI at Regensburg University in Germany.   The Pope’s speech, titled “Faith, Reason and the University.  Memories and Reflections” was prepared as an interdisciplinary, academic exercise to faculty and students at the beginning of the academic year.  The speech is a rigorous academic document that must have taken many hours to prepare.  The text of the speech is 3,700 words and 8 pages long.  It is not easy reading.  The complete text of the speech can be found at:

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=46474

In the speech the Pope refers to a dialogue between Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian regarding Islam and Christianity and the truth of both.  During the dialog, held in 1391 in a barracks near Ankara, Turkey, the issue of the relationship between religion and violence was discussed.  At one point the emperor says to his Persian friend, “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

These 32 words in a 3,700 word speech, an historical account of a conversation between two individuals 616 years ago, were blasted around the world by the media and were characterized by so-called Muslim scholars and ignorant Muslim masses as an assault on Islam by Christians, despite the fact that the speech had not been translated into Arabic, the full text of the speech had not been released, and no one had read the speech in its entirety.

The message of the entire speech, if one were to actually sit down and read it, is that the Western world and Christians, in particular, need to emulate their Islamic brothers and sisters by tempering their scientific reason with the teachings of God.   The speech delivered a criticism of the concept of “reason” as it has evolved in the West since the Enlightenment.  The Pope was pointing out how the western world, including the Catholic Church, has become too secularized, removing the spiritual dimension from the concept of reason.  The Pope’s thoughts mimic what Muslims say about the secularized world, that the west has science and technology, but that we have marginalized the spirituality of our existence.

The speech was not a criticism of Islam, but did suggest that doing away with violence would bring about a dialogue between Christians and Muslims that would make the world a far better place.  The Pope proposed a universal dialogue open to people of all religions as a conduit based on a broader, and more spiritual definition of reason.

The violence, killings, and attacks on Christian churches stirred up by uninformed Muslims in reaction to the Pope’s speech is eerily reminiscent of the deaths and destruction a few months ago as a result of a cartoon image drawn by a Danish editorial cartoonist.  The stupid actions of these ignorant Muslims and some of their leaders serves only to discredit Islam.  Using violence to make the point that the west is falsely accusing Islam of being a religion of violence only reinforces in the minds of westerners that Islam must indeed be a religion of violence!

Muslim leaders and scholars who have criticized the Pope’s academic treatise at Regensburg should try a new approach.  First, they should not react to any speech until they have read it in its entirety.  Second, they should not let the mass media manipulate their scholarly views.  Finally, even if the speech (or cartoon, or whatever else offends them) is critical to Islam, they should publicly urge their followers to resort to dialogue rather than violence.  If they stay the present course, to allow violence and street protest to grow, Islam will spiral downward and crash upon itself.

Today, Sunday September 17, 2006, the Pope apologized to the Muslim world, for any misunderstanding and hurt that his comments might have caused.  He did not apologize for the content of his speech, nor should he do so.

Since Sachin Patel and his wife Smita arrived in Hubbard (Episode 13, “Sachin’s Early Days” they demonstrated a bit of Gujarati entrepreneurship by purchasing the Diplomat Motel on the west side of Hubbard. The Diplomat, built back in 1964, isn’t exactly a palace, but it serves as a refuge for travelers on a budget and also for construction workers who are in Hubbard for an extended stay. Sachin bought the place on a handshake and got financing from the previous owners, who were happy to rid themselves of the drudgery of room cleaning and constant guest complaints.

While the Diplomat’s leaky plumbing and wobbly bath fixtures presented a huge problem for the previous owners, they weren’t a turnoff for Sachin. As bad as the toilets and showers look to the average American, they were luxurious compared to the toilets in India. When a guest complains about a dirty toilet or a shower with low pressure, Sachin just smiles and says, “You know, sir, the rates here are really cheap. You can’t find a better deal in town.” Like a lot of motel-owning Patels in the United States, Sachin was determined to squeeze every penny of revenue from the place, with a minimum of repairs.

In addition to brewing Sachin’s massala chai and the preparation of his dal dhokli, chapatti, lapsi, and other Gujarati delicacies, Smita worked at the golf pro shop in the summer and fall. During those months, Sachin hired a full-time maid. After all, if Smita could make enough at the pro shop to pay the maid’s expenses, why not free her from the cleaning duties for part of the year. This summer’s maid was none other than Silvia Iocco, a body-pierced twenty-something who was the only one that replied to Sachin’s ad in the newspaper. When he first looked at Silvia, Sachin wanted to close the door, but he figured he might as well give her a try. She proved to be relatively dependable, showing up on time and getting all of the rooms clean prior to guest check-in. Her cleaning prowess was less than perfect, but it was good enough for the Diplomat’s clientele. Sachin’s only complaint about Silvia was the fact that she is an incessant gossip. Every day Silvia came to work with a tale for Sachin. It might be about someone who had to be driven home from the bar last night, or a girl at the technical college who just discovered that she is pregnant, or the guy who sideswiped a BMW with his rusty pickup truck. In any case, Sachin detested her daily diatribe, but put up with it due to his need for her cleaning services.

Well, it turns out that Silvia was not only a gossip, but a snoop as well, for she had overheard the conversation that Smita and Sachin had about the condom that disappeared from Bill Haley’s golf bag. (Episode 17, “Susan Johnson’s Summer” Thanks to Silvia, this unfortunate slip-up on the part of Bill Haley was no longer going to be confined to the kitchen of two discrete Hindus. As circumstance would have it, Silvia’s aunt just happened to be a dental hygienist who works for a nice young dentist named Craig Johnson!

One rainy Tuesday afternoon in the dental office of Craig Johnson, DDS, a patient had not shown up, giving Dr. Johnson and his hygienist a few moments to talk. Getting up her nerve, the hygienist said to Craig, “You know, Dr. Johnson, there is a rumor going around town that you might want to quell. This is difficult for me, but I wanted to tell you about it before you heard it from someone else. It appears that there might be some hanky-panky going on between your wife and the golf pro at the Hubbard country club. A couple of weeks ago this Bill Haley character took your wife golfing early in the morning with a condom in his golf bag. Word has it that when they returned from the round, the condom was missing. I wouldn’t have brought this up, sir, but gosh, it is all around town.” Craig was shocked, angry, devastated and disappointed. A flood of emotions and confusion raged through his body. He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to confront Susan with such an outrageous story. If she was innocent she would never forgive such an accusation. He had to verify for himself whether this was true or not. After a couple of days he came up with a plan. Despite the fact that he was a hacker, he reserved a tee time to shoot a round of golf with his buddies.

During the round Craig kept thinking, “Where on this golf course could a man carry on an affair with a woman at 6:00 a.m. in the morning? He found a probable answer along the thick woods of the fairway leading up to the 7th hole. It looked like an abandoned maintenance shed, back forty feet or so from the edge of the woods. Trying not to be too obvious he took a quick look at the building. It was still in good condition with a padlock on the door. Craig couldn’t see if there was anything inside because the windows were covered with canvas curtains. There was only one thing Craig knew for certain; this was the only indoor spot on the whole golf course that would possibly serve as a rendezvous point for Susan and Haley.

The next day Susan left the house at 5:30 a.m. for her daybreak golf lesson with Bill Haley. Craig left for the course at 5:35, heading straight for a country road that was only a few yards from the maintenance shed on the 7th hole. By the time Craig got out of his car and positioned himself hidden in the woods near the shed, it was 6:20 a.m. He figured that without other golfers ahead of them and using a cart, it would take a minimum of 45 minutes for two accomplished golfers to reach the 7th hole. No less than ten minutes later he saw Bill and Susan’s cart zip though a small path and park behind the maintenance shed. Craig shuddered. Sweating, he slowly approached the shed. He could hear their voices inside, especially Susan’s. It was her voice, but didn’t sound like the wife he knew. She sounded like a temptress, and a successful one at that. He didn’t have to listen very long. Five minutes later, without divulging his presence, he walked back to the car.

Today’s article is about self-made rich people and their contribution to society as analyzed through something I’ve devised called the Reward/Effort ratio.  Sometimes we look at rich people with envy.  It is understandable.  After all, they have virtually unlimited resources.  They own several homes, they fly in their own jet aircraft, sail in personal yachts, and have every convenience known to man. I’ve heard people say, “No one should be that rich.”  As an economist, I don’t buy that for a moment.  Let me elaborate.

First, I want to differentiate between inherited wealth and self-made wealth.  Christy, Jim, S Robson, Helen, and Alice Walton are ranked 6th through 10th on Fortune’s ten richest Americans list.  However, they all inherited their wealth from Sam Walton, the founder of the world’s largest corporation, Wal-Mart.  Those that inherit wealth are destined to enjoy all of the material things that life has to offer.  Ironically, despite their wealth, there is one thing they can never earn or buy; the respect of others.

I know what you are thinking.  “If my old man gave me ten million (or ten billion) dollars, I wouldn’t much care what anyone thought about me; just give me the cash!”  However, the respect of others is an essential ingredient for personal self-fulfillment and it is almost impossible for those who inherit wealth to receive respect.  No matter how ad admirable their character and no matter what they achieve in life, the talk behind the back of the inheritor of wealth goes something like this:  “Well, no wonder he has all that money.  If my father had spotted me $10 million and made me the Vice President of his company, I’d be rich too!”  As strange as it seems, the lower or middle class person who goes to work every day to make an honest living garners more respect than the son or daughter of a billionaire.  I often tell my students that if they come from a poor or middle class background that they should be thankful.  Their initial standing gives them the opportunity for self-made success and the genuine respect that results.  The respect paid to rich kids is feigned; it exists out of patronage, not out of sincerity.

Enough for the inheritors.  Now lets talk about the producers.  The top five wealthiest Americans are self-made.  They include, from the top, Bill Gates (Microsoft), Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway), Paul Allen (Microsoft), Michael Dell (Dell Computer) and Lawrence Ellison (Oracle Software).  These are the fortunate ones for they have both material possessions and the genuine respect of others.  Bill Gates is a prime example of a self-made billionaire.  Gates’ estimated net worth is around 51 billion dollars.  That’s a lot of dough, but I don’t begrudge Gates a dime of it.  In fact, as I see it, my Reward/Effort ratio is far greater than that of Bill Gates.  Let me explain.

Gates is an incredibly intelligent person; far more intelligent than I.  With that intelligence and years of hard work (Effort), he designed products and put together a company that invented programs like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Xcel, and Microsoft PowerPoint.  Gates has made billions from the sale of his software.  That $51 billion is the numerator, or the “Reward” part of Gates’ Reward/Effort ratio.  However, the denominator, or “Effort” part of the Reward/Effort ratio is also very high for Bill Gates, who has dedicated an incredible amount of intelligence and hard work to build Microsoft.  The value of his “Effort” measured in dollars is at least $10 billion.  With a net worth of $51 billion that gives Bill Gates a Reward/Effort ratio of 5.1 to one.

On the other hand, I, a relative dummy compared to Gates, have reaped tremendous benefit from the use of Gates’ software.  I’ll bet that during my lifetime Word, Xcel and Powerpoint have saved me thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Those programs have also enabled me to do things that would have otherwise been impossible.  To be sure, my “Reward” part of the ratio isn’t as high as that of Gates, but my “Effort” part of the ratio is a mere $350.00 to purchase the software.  My Reward/Effort ratio is probably $200,000/$350 or 571 to 1.

As indicated above, Gates has a much lower Reward/Effort ratio than I do.  While Gates had to struggle mightily to create his fortune, through the use of Mr. Gates’ software I can avail myself of all the genius of his brain and his creation, yet I have to sacrifice only a few hours of my time to purchase his software.  I’m the big winner in this arrangement.  Gates had to be intelligent.  Gates had to build a successful company.  Gates had to assemble the management team and finances to make his dream come true, all of which constitutes a tremendous achievement.  I had to do none of this.  All I had to do was spend $350 for the software.

Free market capitalism has enabled those of us with average intelligence (me included on a good day) to enjoy many comforts and conveniences that wouldn’t be possible without the efforts of people who are more intelligent.  Cell phones, computers, televisions, aircraft, and the Internet are just a few examples of things that Don Salyards wouldn’t be enjoying if I had been required to invent them.  If you had placed me in an office in 1970 with all of the technical data and information that was available to the person that invented the hand held electronic calculator, I would still be in there today trying to figure it out.  In a few years they would drag my corpse out of that office and guess what?  There would still be no calculators!   Thank God for the achievers!  May they enjoy their well-deserved fortunes and respect.