"If You're So Smart, How Come You're Not Rich?"

This is really shocking. We live in a nation of such wealth. And we have effectively run out of such a basic protective device at a moment of such need. CDC is offering advice on how medical staff can survive during a contagious disease outbreak without proper facemasks. Wow. pic.twitter.com/47of6BZQ9r

— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) March 19, 2020

So, here's the thing:  wealth does not equate with wisdom.  Never has; never will.

Woe to him who says,
"I shall build myself a spacious palace
with airy roof chambers and
windows set in it.
It will be paneled with cedar
and painted with vermilion."
Though your cedar is so splendid,
does that prove you a king?
Think of your father: he ate and drank,
dealt justly and fairly; all went well with him.
He upheld the cause of the lowly and poor;
then all was well.
Did not this show he knew me? says the Lord.
But your eyes and your heart are set on naught but gain, set only on the innocent blood you can shed,
on the cruel acts of tyranny you perpetrate.

Jeremiah 22: 14-17 (REB)

You can read that as another jeremiad (why not?  It's where the word came from.), or you can note the king thinks his wealth makes him wise, too.  The king thinks his money has bought him something worthwhile.  So America, so wealthy, so "smart," now finds it is poor in what is required.  "But your eyes and your heart are set on naught but gain, set only on the innocent blood you can shed, on the cruel acts of tyranny you perpetrate."  Is this a time for jeremiads against America?  Only if we're going to learn something from this.

Prosecutors are refusing to prosecute non-violent crimes, because those persons fill the courts and the jails, and crowding is the danger right now.  On the other hand, state laws (in Texas, anyway) require meetings of state agencies (like local school boards) to be held where the public can give input.  But how do you do that if your board members want to meet by telephone?  Or close the meeting to the public but stream on-line?  School districts are not set up to do call-in shows.  Must they?  Yes.  Even in a crisis like this?  Yes.

But do we have to incarcerate so many people, to show how strong we, the society, are?  How "tough on crime" we are?  If we shouldn't do it now, why should we do it later?  Why should we have done it before?  Will we ask?  Dare we ask?

With so much wealth, haven't we bought wisdom?  Look at the comparisons of our healthcare systems to other nations.  We rank about 36th in the world, yet ours is the "best in the world."  It is certainly the most expensive.  With all that money, why are we running out of medical equipment essentials?  Because we bought most of it from the part of China that shut down for 2 months?  Or because most of our money doesn't go to healthcare, but to insurance companies and clerks in offices filing insurance paperwork?

And if you're noticing by now that "wisdom" is not necessarily the same thing as "smart," reflect on Jerry Seinfeld's (yes, really) observation in an interview long ago.  It was noted that he was a huge fan of Superman.  He noted Superman was supposedly "super" in everything, and that would include intelligence.  Still, he said, Batman was better in that regard, because Batman was billed as the "world's greatest detective," and a detective has to be wise in the ways of human behavior.  So, Seinfeld asked in a rhetorical question, is it better to be smart?  Or to be wise?

As a nation, we are finding out we are neither.  Which we will strive to be after this crisis passes, is a penetrating question, too.