Nonpartison sorrow

Partisan politics plays an important role in California and legislators seem locked within their parties, but when Governor Schwarzenegger gave his last state of the state address, you didn't have to be partisan to feel sad. Timothy Egan in the N.Y. Times expressed best perhaps the general sense of sorrow for lost opportunities that now pervades the state. The high hopes of six years ago when Californians thought a new hand at the helm could steer the state through its problems have faded. The governor and the legislature are locked into an endless battle of meeting ever-growing needs with ever-shrinking resources. It's not the government that has failed us, however, but we the citizens who have failed at directing ourselves. Californians struggled for the right to change the state through citizen initiatives and the idea was a good one. What has happened over the years, though, is that we have voted in opposing initiatives, demanding services but making it impossible to raise taxes to pay for them while making no provision for facing a recession like the one we are currently facing. Many concerned citizens believe the initiative process is broken. Our constitution surely needs an overhaul. It's time for citizens to take responsibility. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars...and not even in the politicians, but in ourselves.

Are you making rational choices?

For those of us who hope citizens are making rational decisions about which candidates and ballot measures to vote for, a look at the cell phone business can be discouraging. When we are acting like consumers and choosing which cell phone to buy and which calling plan to choose, we do not go for the one that is cheapest, which would surely be rational. According to an article in the NY Times, many consumers opt for complicated plans that cost more in the end raather than choosing the most economical. When Apple first released its i-phone, the plan was to charge consumers $500 for the phone and then $20 a month for full service. People didn't like that. The i-phones didn't start selling well until Apple dropped its price to $199 and raised the monthly cost to $30, even though over a two year period the consumer pays more. Other cell phone companies have tried offering a flat price for each call rather than a certain number of free minutes plus very expensive prices for additional minutes. People didn't seem to like the variation in their bills, so that idea failed. By now most people have adapted to the strange world of cell phone pricing, but perhaps we should take some lessons from it for civic activities. People can't be won over entirely by the cost/benefit of a particular measure. They must be persuaded that the idea appeals to them on more than the basis of cold logic. Economists are coming to realize that emotions play a far more important role in people's choices than their theories had admitted. It's time to look at people rather than theories in economies and in public life.

League moving into a new year

The League of Women Voters of San Francisco held its annual meeting yesterday to approve plans for the coming year and to elect new members to the Board. For more information about plans and directions, check the website www.lwvsf.org during the coming weeks to see our our plans for activities and new directions. After the business meeting, the featured speaker was Robert Cruickshank, the Public Policy Director for the Courage Campaign, which is gathering support for a new California Constitutional Convention to solve some of the many problems facing our state. Robert talked enthusiastically about the possibilityof the people of California getting together to change the dysfunctional system in Sacramento and improve life for all Californians. There are several websites you can follow to keep up with what is happening in the movement for a Constitutional Convention. One is Repair California and another is the webiste Calitics for which Robert is one of the editors. The future looks exciting, so be sure to keep up.