theoretical versus practical

I remember an old Rodney Dangerfield movie, "Back to School". In the film, his son wants to drop out of college, thinking it's a waste of time and money, pointing out how "dad" (Dangerfield) has become a millionaire without a college degree. He makes an agreement with his son that he will go to college if his son returns.

During the film, many of the scenes are of him "schooling" (if you'll pardon the pun) the professors about how business works in the real World, versus what their books say; how debt is bad, how you have to bribe the inspectors, meet or beat union standard wages and benefits regardless of "fair wage" according to the books, and so on. Basically, what a real business has to do in the real world if it wants to keep its doors open.


Obama filled his cabinet with a good many academicians. They sold him and the country on how all these ideas would work, and work great, and make out nation better. Cash for clunkers was supposed to remove every car more than 6 years old and getting less than 17mpg. The bank bail-outs were supposed to get money to the common folk and have us spending like it was the 90s all over again. The auto industry bail-outs were supposed to have American Motors cranking out cars like it was 1950s Detroit once more. Drone warfare destroying multiple city blocks to kill one suspected terrorist was supposed to scare the rest of the middle east out of becoming terrorists. Our treating Cuba and Iran like they were decent, humane, civilized countries was supposed to turn them into exactly that. (somehow)

Its much the same way all the little kiddies on the college campus would always tell me "communism works perfectly well, in theory. No one gives it a chance" Then I'd ask if they remembered the USSR. Unsurprisingly, they'd never heard of it. They'd champion socialism, until I explained (and proved) that both Nazi Germany and Italy were socialist, that the "z" in "nazi" stood for the German word for Socialism. And it would take quite a while to get that simple truth into their heads; usually a few weeks. They would claim their theoretical pure democracy worked better than our Republic, until I explained that would mean simple majority wins, and on most things they cared about, they were a significant minority, at the national level.

Anyway......
Trump is now filling his cabinet with rich former CEOs