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OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
OTHER VIEWS
Big and little loves
Text and
risk death
Texting and driving is more than
The technology of automobiles
a bad habit. It’s the closest most of
and communication are currently
us will get to death each day.
at odds. But technology is already
There we are, hurtling down
inding ways to marry the two.
Interstate 84 going exactly the
Nearly all new cars allow drivers
speed limit, when the phone on
hands-free communication, both
the passenger seat
phone calls and
chimes and buzzes.
texting. It’s not
The mind
We’re expected
perfect — it allows
somewhere and, like
your mind to wander
reels at the
usual, we’re running
— but it’s not much
late.
different to chowing
possibilities
What does that
down on the Big
offered by a
text say? Are plans
Mac while driving,
changing? Are other
blinking phone. or iddling with an
people running
iPod or an 8-track to
late, too? Are they
adjust your tunes.
planning an intervention because of
We are less than a generation
our chronic inability to be punctual? away from driverless cars, which
Is there a hilarious new Dat Boi
will enable us to be zoned out in
meme?
the backseat, scrolling through our
The mind reels at the possibilities Facebook feed, listening to our
a blinking phone message offers.
favorite podcast and fretting about
Many of us will pick up the
somehow still being late.
phone and glance at the message,
But we’re not there yet. Until
despite the 70 mph speeds and the
technology saves us, we can only
steering wheel in our hands. Many
save ourselves. You put your
will respond with a text of our own.
life — and the lives of others — on
A few, while doing so, will drift out
the line each time you pick up your
of our lane. A few of those won’t
phone. You increase the chances of a
survive.
serious hospital bill, a fender-bender,
This is an instantaneous world of
death. We see it happen locally and
communication. Our phones, when
we feel it personally. We can also
not in our pockets, are parked right
look at the statistics and see what a
in front of our faces. If we don’t
widespread and growing problem
respond quickly, we are considered
this is nationwide.
rude or unreliable — work and
So the next time your phone
personal responsibility requires
buzzes and blinks, think twice
prompt responses. It may seem silly before grabbing it. Technology will
and inane, but it is modern life for
soon save us, but right now it has
people no matter their age.
put us at risk.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher
Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
OTHER VIEWS
Client interests belong at forefront
The Providence Journal (R.I.)
ew rules requiring inancial
advisers to put their clients’
interests irst should be a solid
gain for consumers. While many
investors might have assumed that
their advisers were doing this all along,
it was not necessarily so. Under the
current standard, advisers only have
to recommend “suitable” investments.
That means they can peddle products on
which they receive a high commission
but that may cost the client more than
something comparable or better.
The new rules, issued last month by
the Labor Department, speciically take
aim at retirement savings. Expected
to take effect beginning next spring,
they will govern the handling of 401(k)
and individual retirement accounts
(IRAs). Importantly, rollovers will
inally be covered. The new so-called
iduciary standard will not altogether bar
commissions, but brokers will have to
disclose their interests.
A staggering amount of money is at
stake. Americans have parked more than
$7 trillion in IRAs, and nearly as much
in 401(k)s. That far outstrips the amount
held in traditional pensions. Yet, relying
on a growing body of academic research,
the Obama administration estimates that
savers lose $17 billion a year to conlicts
of interest and excessive fees.
Not surprisingly, banks, mutual
fund companies and insurers lobbied
heavily against the iduciary rule, which
has been six years in the making. In
N
response, the Labor Department made
some modiications. Among them: it
reduced restrictions on the types of
investment products that can be sold;
scrapped penalties on advisers who push
their company’s own mutual funds; and
exempted advisers to businesses with
less than $50 million in 401(k)s.
Overall, the new rule should
encourage a shift to lower-cost
investments, and away from high-fee or
high-risk funds. Critics complain that the
new rules will be hard to comply with,
especially for smaller irms. But the
“suitability” rules were already complex,
arguably more so.
Others warn that advisers will stop
bothering with small accounts. But
many large irms already snub these
accounts. Some have begun providing
online services to guide investors. These
alternatives may prove just as effective,
at a fraction of the cost. And in theory,
they are better than dishonest advisers.
The advantages of the new iduciary
standard far outweigh any drawbacks.
Most Americans have not saved enough
for retirement, and need to hang onto
as much of their savings as possible.
As traditional pensions disappear,
and workers become increasingly
responsible for their own savings, the
need for protections only grows.
It is no secret that Americans are
heading for retirement in larger numbers
than ever. The more their savings fall
short, the more taxpayers will be under
pressure to come to the rescue. Making
the system safer beneits everyone.
E
the danger that, amid all the constant
ver since the days of ancient
trivial preoccupations of private life,
Greece, philosophers have
ambition may lose both its force and
distinguished between the
beautiful and the sublime. Beauty
its greatness, that human passions may
is what you experience when you
grow gentler and at the same time
look at a lower or a lovely face. It is
baser, with the result that the progress
contained, pleasurable, intimate and
of the body social may become daily
romantic. Sublime is what you feel
quieter and less aspiring.”
when you look at a mountain range or
I’d say that in America today some
David
a tornado. It involves awe, veneration,
Brooks of the little loves are fraying, and big
maybe even a touch of fear. A sublime
love is almost a foreign language.
Comment
thing, like space or mathematics, over-
Almost nobody speaks about the
awes the natural human dimensions
American project in the same ardent
and reminds you that you are a small thing in
tones that were once routine.
a vast cosmos.
Big love is hopeful, but today pessimism is
Recently neuroscientists have shown that
in vogue. Big love involves a conidence that
the experiences of beauty and awe activate
one can use power well, but today Americans
different parts of the brain.
are suspicious of power, have lost faith in
The distinction between the beautiful
leaders and big institutions and feel a sense of
and the sublime is the distinction between
impotence in the face of big problems.
the intimate and the transcendent. This sort
Big love involves thinking in sweeping
of distinction doesn’t just
historical terms. But today
happen in aesthetics but in
the sense that America is
life in general. We have big
pursuing a noble mission in
and little loves.
the world has been humbled
The soldiers who we
by failures and passivity.
honored on Memorial Day
The country feels more
were animated by a big
divided than uniied around
love — serving their country
common purpose.
— and by a little one —
Big love involves
protecting their buddies.
politics, and thus
Religious people experience
compromise, competition
a love of God that is both
and messiness. Americans
big and little.
today are less likely to
Rabbi Joseph
discern the noble within the
Soloveitchik wrote that
grittiness of reality. The very
God is in one guise majestic
words that the founders used
and ininite, the author of
to describe their big love for
the universe. But when
their country sound archaic:
Soloveitchik’s wife lay on
glory, magnanimity, sacred
her deathbed, God did not
honor and greatness.
appear that way. Instead, he
There is, in sum, less
appeared as a “close friend,
animating desire in the
brother, father. … I felt
country at the moment,
His warm hand, as it were,
and therefore less energy
on my shoulder, I hugged
and daring. The share of
His knees, as it were. He was with me in the
Americans moving across state lines in search
narrow conines of a small room, taking up no of opportunity has fallen by more than half
space at all.”
since the 1970s. The rate of new business
In daily life we have big and little loves,
creation is down. Productivity is falling for the
too. The little loves, like for one’s children,
irst time in three decades. Economic growth
one’s neighborhood or one’s garden, animate
is anemic. There’s a spiritual and cultural
nurture, compassion and care. The big loves,
element behind these trends.
like for America or the cause of global human
So I write today in defense of big love, the
rights, inspire courage and greatness. A little
love not only of your little platoon but of the
love is a shepherd protecting his lock. A great grand historical project this country represents.
love is Martin Luther King Jr. leading his
Young people now want to join startups or
people.
NGOs, or eat locally grown foods, but I’m
The small attachments serve as the
writing in defense of the big love that once
foundation of our emotional lives, but
inspired big projects, like NASA, the national
when you have a big love for your country
railroads and the creation and maintenance
or a cause, you are loving something that
of the postwar, U.S.-led world order, with the
transcends a lifetime. You are pursuing some
free movement of people, goods and ideas.
universal ideal and seeking excellence. A big
Before the country can achieve great things
love involves using power well, seeking honor it has to relearn the ability to desire big things.
and glory and being worthy of them.
It has to be willing to love again, even amid
The amount of big love in a society can
disappointments — to love things that are
rise and fall. Alexis de Tocqueville wondered
awesome, heroic and sublime.
if democracy would dampen Americans’ big
■
love.
David Brooks became a New York Times
“What worries me most,” he wrote, “is
Op-Ed columnist in September 2003.
Big love is
hopeful, but
today pessimism
is in vogue.
The sense that
America is
pursuing a
noble mission
in the world has
been humbled
by failures and
passivity.
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues
and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper
reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and
products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must
be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number.
The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send
letters to Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
or email editor@eastoregonian.com.