Here’s a theory on how the departure from civility happened, offered by New York Times columnist Joe Nocera. It appeals to me. Robert Bork, whether you believe in the right or left or center, was a brilliant jurist. He should have had a chance to serve on the Supreme Court.

Instead, as Nocera recalls, one side of the political aisle attacked Bork’s opinions and ideology so viciously that “Bork” became a verb. Naturally, the other side of the aisle retaliated, setting off a rhetorical and political thermonuclear war that continues to this day.

Maybe we (especially our public servants and media) ought to learn how to discuss, argue and debate in a much more agreeable fashion.

For the original New York Times column:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/opinion/nocera-the-ugliness-all-started-with-bork.html

For feedback from Times’ readers:

http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/opinion/nocera-the-ugliness-all-started-with-bork.html

This early 20th-Century cartoon pokes fun at Andrew Carnegie's criticism of fellow capitalists who did not give to charity like he did.

Absent from the debate about how the U.S. ought to fix its finances comes a pertinent fact from The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. In 2006 (the last year for which figures were available), just over $81 billion, or 44 percent, of the $187 billion deducted as charitable giving by American taxpayers came from the wealthiest 3 percent of filers.

Not only do the wealthy already pay the lion’s share of taxes, they also contribute the lion’s share to causes including The American Cancer Society, the Sierra Club, local houses of worship and the Brownies.

What else happens when the government piles more taxes on the wealthy with the intent of solving the nation’s debt crisis? Economists have studied the question. The likely answer: less money will be contributed to charity.

In one research model, assuming that President Obama was successful in raising the top income tax rate to 39 percent and capping the rate for deductions at 28 percent, the wealthiest filers almost certainly would reduce their giving by a bit more than 2 percent. In 2006 that reduction would have translated into nearly $4 billion less for charity.

History will remember Bill Gates as a pioneer of the digital revolution and John D. Rockefeller as the man most responsible for turning oil into fuel. They should also be remembered as “rich guys” who didn’t just pay taxes – they also endowed universities, battled diseases and fed the hungry.

END

Bob Ritchie, Danialle Karmanos and Peter Karmanos Jr.

Thanks much to my friend Bob Ritchie – most of the time known as Kid Rock – for helping us raise $700,000 for the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, named for my late wife who died of cancer in 1989.

Bob is quite a party guy and irrepressible free spirit, as you can see from the picture. The sentiment expressed on his t-shirt is the way all of us feel about a disease that’s taken away so many of our family, friends, loved ones.

The event at Ford Field was a quintessential Detroit party, hundreds of “partners” in philanthropic giving in attendance to bid on trips, memorabilia and merchandise, including a couple of Bob’s guitars.

We’ve been holding these “partner” events for 18 years and raised over $12 million to benefit the institute, especially research projects designed to wipe out the awful disease eventually – and to lessen its effects in the meantime. Among its many distinctions, the institute offers more anti-cancer drugs, including many that are experimental, than just about any other cancer center in the country.

The work of cancer researchers at Karmanos is cutting edge. Among the programs is one that works on the promising technique of immunotherapy, drugs that teach the body to recognize and destroy its own cancer cells without causing injury or other complications. Pretty amazing concept, right?

The partners program actually traces its roots to the late Harry Korman, who lost a daughter to cancer and wanted to help eradicate the disease while teaching a younger generation how to raise money for a good cause. Harry and Bob are linked forever by that idea.

END

Peter Karmanos Jr.

Compuware has been building “apps” for almost 40 years, though back in the day they were known as applications and they made mainframe computers do what you wanted.

Now anyone who carries an iPhone or other smartphone knows about downloading these digital gadgets that can pay a bill, play Scrabble or a million other tasks.
This weekend at The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, we helped to sponsor Maker Faire, an exhibition of invention, creativity and cool technology. And we built the Maker Faire app, MakerQuest, that attendees could use as a program, a map or a schedule. Our app was even a platform to play a game and win a prize.

The “Get Your Geek On” theme at Maker Faire was a bit of fun we had at the expense of the technology nerds we knew in high school who ran the projectors, wore horn-rimmed glasses and knew how to use slide rules. (We handed out 2,000 pairs this weekend.) I was one of those guys. (Believe me, I broke my glasses more than once and used improvised materials to fix them.)

Apps are big and getting bigger, as anyone who owns an iPad knows. And as a technology performance company we’re still building them – though in ways no one would have imagined when mainframes were all the rage.

END

A real pinata.

As Scott McNealy said about his tenure when he stepped down as chief executive officer of Sun Microsystems, 22 years is a long time to be in the executive “piñata.” Stick-wielding critics, some wearing blindfolds, are swinging at you constantly – many of them more or less ignorant about what they’re criticizing.

Chief executive officer is a title for the person who assumes ultimate responsibility. It’s the place where the buck stops. By March of 2013, when I move officially to the next phase of my business life, it will have been a long time – 40 years – in the piñata.

One of the most important things about mine or anyone’s business career is the need to stay positive, no matter how great the burdens you bear. The more responsibility and success you have, the more you’ll encounter people who will insist you’re failing. That’s why it’s important always to stay focused on the goal: success.

Compuware’s restructuring required the efforts and intelligence of many, and it’s helped position us to capitalize on a period of growth that lies ahead. We had to be patient, to live in the moment, until our plans were achieved. But we can’t let down for a moment, because business is nothing more than a process of overcoming new difficulties.

Bob Paul, Compuware’s new CEO, no doubt will meet his share of critics taking swings at the executive pinata. It comes with the territory.

As Compuware’s executive chairman, I’ll be mentoring, advising and rolling up my sleeves to get involved on occasion.

Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in the early 20th Century.

In earlier posts I’ve pointed out the obvious, that Detroit has a big geographic footprint and not enough people.

One simple way to attract people to the city (as well as to Michigan and the rest of the country) is to respond creatively and intelligently to non-U.S. citizens who want to come here to live.

Full disclosure: My folks came here from Greece – and I’m proud of it. I also understand that illegal immigration is a huge problem that the country has to address more seriously than it has.
Still — people from all over the world with educational credentials, financial assets and entrepreneurial instincts are trying to get in – why aren’t we encouraging them?

According to the Partnership for a New American Economy, immigrant-founded ventures have created something like 450,000 jobs in the U.S. About a quarter of the tech and engineering companies started in the U.S. between 1995 and 2005 had at least one immigrant founder.

I could go on. But first I’m going to join the Partnership. You’ll be hearing more from me on this subject, so I invite you to consider the potential benefits and possible difficulties in liberalizing immigration to the U.S.

Peter Karmanos

We didn’t need the census to tell us that Detroit has lost a lot of its population and that those losses are coming from both ends of the curve:  People aren’t coming to The D and many in The D are moving out. 

I’ve never really been much of a conformist, so I took the stage with my friend Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans; and we shared our thoughts on why there is no better time to be heading into the city than now.

Need some proof?

Look at the video* of a gathering Friday afternoon at Compuware headquarters in Campus Martius. In attendance were a few hundred students from the University of Michigan, Michigan State and some other schools who are interested in coming here to work and live. (Here’s a shout-out to the Michigan Economic Development Corp. for arranging Live Work Detroit!) I can feel in my bones that there were at least a few future Detroiters in that crowd.

I’ll repeat what I said is a benefit of moving here to work and to live: “There is no party like a Deetroit party.”

*Thanks to videographer Ben Friedman of WDIV, who says he’s scouting downtown for a place to live.

Franklin Roosevelt

I heard someone on the radio the other day refer to social security as an “entitlement.”

 Excuse me?

Social security, signed into law by President Roosevelt in the 1930s, was meant to be a safety net. The idea  remains a sound one: an insurance policy for those who pay into it, a safety net against poverty in old age.

Most of us have been paying into the fund for our entire working lives, and so have employers on our behalf. In fact, it’s the single biggest tax that Compuware pays.

Welfare, by contrast, is an entitlement. A poor single woman with dependent children, for example, is entitled to a payment from the government.  She mightn’t ever have paid taxes – but she’s going to receive a payment.  Medicaid, in most states, is an entitlement as well.

Social Security has two problems.  The $2.5 trillion trust fund, Social Security’s financial backstop, doesn’t contain cash or other economic assets – it’s full of Treasury bonds, which are more or less promissory notes put there because the government borrowed the fund’s money to pay other bills.

The second problem is that, starting last year, Social Security began paying out more in benefits than money collected, to the tune of $37 billion. This year the deficit is estimated to be $45 billion.

So, no, Social Security isn’t an entitlement.  It’s our money. And it might never reach the retirees to whom it belongs if the government isn’t a more responsible financial manager