Perspective is Everything

An airport run and the Big, Beautiful Law have me thinking about perspective.

We human beings are a funny lot. We can lift each other up and let each other down. Our attitudes can be contagious for good or for bad. Our interactions can send each other off like dominoes to brighten up or rain upon the days of everyone else we meet.

Recently, I picked up my mother from the airport. As I waited for her outside the TSA screening area, I took great pleasure in the people watching – you know, those real life “Love Actually” moments. A young couple arrived with their two toddlers in tow. The young wife threw herself into the outstretched arms of her waiting parents. Her husband dutifully shook his father-in-law’s hand. And their little girl said to her grandfather, “Poppy we saw another plane fly right under us!” A few feet away, an older couple dropped off their middle-aged daughter. Goodbyes already exchanged, the daughter walked away. Her wheelchair-bound father yelled after her, “Take care of that little dog of yours.” Father-speak for I wish you weren’t leaving us. The mother turned the father’s wheelchair around, and they headed home to their routine and, perhaps, a home that may now feel too quiet.

When my mother finally arrived, we waited for her bags at the baggage carousel. I glanced across the carousel to see an elderly woman being wheeled up to the carousel by an airline employee. She handed the man a tip. He started to walk away, opening the folded money to count it. Just one dollar. He shook his head and walked back to the woman. He handed the dollar back to her, saying something to her as he did. The woman slid the dollar back into the pocket of her pink, knit cardigan. The man walked away. Still shaking his head, he slammed a luggage cart back into the rack. I watched the woman’s expression as whatever the man said sank in. She looked at first a little annoyed, but then a sadness seemed to take hold. Two people’s day ruined. Cue the domino effect.

The older I get the more I try to not judge. The man may have had his day ruined long before that small tip. He may be struggling with bills or a health issue. Either way perhaps he rudely said, “Apparently you need this more than I do.” Or perhaps for all the head shaking and cart slamming out of the woman’s view, he found it within himself to kindly tell a little fib like, “Thank you anyway ma’am, but I’m not supposed to accept tips.”

For the woman’s part, she could be affluent but stingy.  If she is stingy, it could be out of selfishness or because her life experiences have made her fearful of running out of money. Or just perhaps, a dollar is a lot of money to her, but she couldn’t fathom not being kind enough to offer something.

Everything is relative, and perspective is everything. Someone of Bill Gates’ wealth in that moment could have handed the man a $100 bill. But the question I have is, who would have done more for that man? Certainly the $100 would go further towards paying his bills than the $1. But who has sacrificed more, the giver of the $100 or the giver of the $1? Perspective.

We have a choice both of how to perceive things and how to react to them. We have a choice to give people the benefit of the doubt. We have the choice to let our attitude stay positive so that we go through our day as a domino of kindness, not of bitterness. We have a choice to count our blessings rather than keep an account of who may be getting one over on us.

That perspective also applies to public policy. The just passed Big, Beautiful Bill hinges heavily on your perspective. We seem to live in a country where a large percentage perceive the affluent as selfish and illegal immigrants as hard-working saints. Another large percentage view the struggling as gaming the system and illegal immigrants as murderers. I know that is shameful oversimplification on my part, but I don’t think it’s that far off. We need to do a better job calling balls and strikes so we can solve our problems. We need to do so in a way that doesn’t portray all rich people as robber barons, Medicaid recipients as scammers, or illegal immigrants as murderers. While it may be the case in some instances, scheming hyperbole is the lowest caliber of argument. America is worthy of more elevated debate. 

To be sure there are those able-bodied Americans who receive government assistance that are gaming the system, sapping resources intended for those in true need. The human resource professionals that work for me always seem amazed that employee beneficiaries know more than they on the availability of and technicalities surrounding assistance programs. To be sure our government programs have fraud that needs to be eradicated. And no doubt our programs can get the implementation horribly wrong, unintentionally incenting the wrong behavior. I think of an amazingly competent young, single mother that worked at one of my companies. She excelled at her job and we wanted to promote her. She refused the promotion because the new salary put her over the threshold to receive assistance but under the level by which she would be better off without that assistance. And so taxpayers continued to bear the burden, not we the employer. I also think of the Medicaid system that, by the way it reimburses the states, incents states to add people they wouldn’t normally add. These are all areas that need to be addressed.

To be sure there are millions of Americans that pay their fair share, or more, of taxes. They work hard for their money and tax bills hurt, particularly for those in the middle class or those in states and cities with excessive local taxes. Four in ten Americans pay no federal income tax and the top 1% of earners pay nearly half of our federal income taxes. Those two facts are staggering. But to believe those who pay no income tax pay no taxes is fallacy. Most of them also work hard for their money, paying other taxes along the way such as sales tax, property tax, Social Security, and Medicare.

A fair tax system, or a fair entitlement program if we are going to have it, is one designed using a veil of ignorance, not knowing if the designer will be a school teacher or a hedge fund billionaire. Pretend you don’t know where on the economic spectrum you will fall. Now design a system that you believe will be fair regardless of your status. That is what our leaders must do. That is what a civilized society must do.

I have been disappointed by some of the conversations I have heard as of late. An affluent person at a country club bemoaning that he has to support people gaming the system, as if somehow those folks are leading better or more rewarding lives than he. A person on assistance programs vilifying the affluent as if they don’t work hard for the blessed lifestyles they have. Perspective can teach us a lot. Who in the 1% would trade lives with any of the 4 in 10 that pay no taxes? No one. Who would choose to remain in a life of government assistance if their path of opportunity and life experience led them to believe they could own a yacht someday? No one. Those are the two extremes, of course. The conversation is more difficult for those in the economic middle, I grant. For them, we must ensure that how we conduct public policy always allows the middle class to reap the reward of their hard work.

I do think both sides of the political spectrum grumble too much and discount other people’s experience. Perhaps discount isn’t the correct word. Perhaps it is simply not putting themselves in the other person’s shoes long enough to allow the potential for understanding. And frankly we don’t know what we don’t know. For example, those of us that live in affluent suburbs with several hospitals and urgent care centers within a few miles drive don’t know that tens of thousands of commercial fishermen in another state have one hospital on their island, and that hospital is so reliant on Medicaid dollars that cuts to that program will close it. Perspective.

As for the political parties, their perspectives are different as well. The only fraud Republicans seem to care about is entitlement fraud, seemingly oblivious to the countless people that engage in tax fraud. Democrats, on the other hand, seize on tax avoidance wanting more IRS agents yet seem to slow-walk work on entitlement fraud. And both parties are wrong for it.

Perspective will determine the winners of the 2026 midterm elections, too. I am a small government conservative. I am for strong borders and national defense. I value personal responsibility and a strong work ethic. But being the party that acts in a way that allows the perception that it locked in tax breaks for the affluent while using cuts to healthcare and food assistance programs to fund more walls and cages may not be the best way to hold onto congressional majorities. I miss when our party spoke of compassionate conservatism. It’s not only the right approach; polling seems to show it is where the majority of Americans are right now. Republicans would be well advised that a softer touch on all the issues of the day might be the answer, just as Democrats might be well advised to stop being pulled so far left by their most progressive.

Inherently we know that people’s experiences color their perspective. Some of us are born empathetic or learn it from our parents or religious tradition. But I think most of us find our empathy for others by having been knocked down ourselves. Perhaps the worst leaders are the ones who have never been knocked down, ones who assume all struggles are the result of laziness or self-inflicted wounds. They are not. So let’s continue the work of perfecting this union and improving the administration of our bureaucracy. It needs it. But at the same time, let’s give each other the benefit of the doubt along the way. If for no other reason, let’s do it because, like that elderly woman in the pink sweater, we can’t fathom not being kind enough to offer something.