Caste Summary

You will identify more Paraducer power castes on your way to work tomorrow. Not all are even as cut and dried as the ones I mentioned, but you will recognize the traits of a Paraducer. Remember, Paraducers seek to consolidate and protect their own power through regulation.

Look also at the indirect effects of these castes on our lives. I have watched people and businesses grow meaner, more impatient and less responsive over the past 20 years. Have you seen this, too? There is more price pressure, less room for error, and when a mistake occurs, it’s time to whip out a handgun, start a fist fight or sue. Makes me want to stay indoors.

This is not happening because all the good jobs are going to China, or too many Mexicans are pouring over the border. It is happening because all the slack in our lives has been removed, our lives drawn taut by the Paraducer castes and their costs to us.

The “check engine” light has been lit on my van’s dashboard for a month. I know what the problem is, the exhaust gas recirculation system, and it will cost about $350 to repair. The first car I owned did not have such a system, and it got better mileage than this van. The environmentalist Paraducers and their lawyers have coerced the government into forcing the auto makers to install these anti-pollution systems on our vehicles. This month, I’ll be $350 short because of that, and it causes my fuse to burn a little faster.

Higher insurance costs mean we have to work longer hours. Higher health care costs deplete our savings. If you make a product, you have to sell it for a higher price because insurance and legal and employment costs are going up at several times the rate of inflation. You have to do more with less, and you demand more of your employees, who resent you. This situation is like the crowd shoving that starts at stadium sports events. One jerk in the back starts pushing and pretty soon hundreds of people in the front are suffocating or being trampled. That jerk is a Paraducer. You are in the front in the stadium of life, having the air squeezed out of your lungs. No wonder you are impatient!

Yep, the space and slack in your life is gone. You are stretched and pushed at every point, and so am I. Let’s push back.