False Choices

I had a great time in Las Vegas this week at NAHREP’s Northwest Regional Event, where among other things, we honored Latino Trailblazers in the NBA. It was terrific! Later that evening we had dinner with friends and the subject of my recent blog about affirmative action was discussed. Fortunately, NAHREP has built a culture in which people can disagree about sensitive issues without losing their minds. I explained that my blog did not take a hard line on the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, but rather addressed a general misunderstanding of the topic. I explained that unfortunately, we live in a society in which people acquire strong opinions with only soundbites of information. Critics of affirmative action characterize it as a policy that allowed colleges to admit students of color who were undeserving and unqualified. However, the data shows that everyone who is admitted to Harvard meets the university’s academic criteria. Harvard, like most elite colleges, receives about 50 qualified applications for each available opening. Because of this, additional criteria are used to determine which applicants will be admitted. Colleges can consider several factors including a person’s socioeconomic background, their proficiency in sports, or whether their parents are alumni. But they can no longer consider race as a factor. You can have an opinion about whether race should or shouldn’t be a factor, but once you understand the issue in its entirety, you will probably realize this issue is more complex than what you have heard. The question of whether a person who is unqualified for admission should be offered admission to an elite college solely because of their race is a false choice because that is not what is happening. 

There are larger false choices, primarily having to do with how much we should do to help the poor and unfortunate. I’ve raised my kids to work hard, expect nothing, and appreciate everything. They are all college graduates and high achievers. I am most proud that they are good people, strong but considerate, confident yet humble. Best of all, they are all the furthest thing from entitled. However, they were lucky. They grew up in a stable environment with a family that loves them. Not all kids are that lucky. In fact, many are not. Approximately one-third of our youth live in poverty, in abusive households, or have chronic health problems. One of the best things about the real estate industry is that it rewards hard work as well as any profession. It isn’t easy, but with the right discipline and mindset, you can do exceedingly well. Successful people in our industry speak passionately about accountability and being mentally strong – that nothing is free, but anything is possible. I love that kind of thinking and it’s exactly what I teach my kids. However, those tenets, as positive as they are, sometimes oversimplify things. We think that just because we were able to earn our success, literally anyone else should be able to do the same thing. However, that is not quite the case. I think we all would agree that a child born with leukemia or who was orphaned at a young age has it pretty tough and should receive help from the rest of us, correct? Then we know that not everyone can do what we do. The question is where to draw those lines. What is the fair and morally right thing to do for people who are in genuine need of help? And where is the line in which we are doing more harm than good by making things too easy for people who are lazy and entitled?  Because this is also possible. 

Healthcare alone is a great example. I have a friend who is dealing with the most devastating situation any of us could imagine; his young son was diagnosed with stage four cancer. My friend attended an Ivy League college and works at a large Fortune 500 company, yet he had to open a GoFundMe account to help pay for the massive bills his family is encountering. Something is wrong with that picture. If someone with his means needs financial help from friends and strangers to avoid financial calamity solely because his child became severely ill, how do less affluent people survive when dealing with a similar situation? Yet when the subject of healthcare for everyone comes up, we tend to oversimplify the issue and resort to soundbites. The idea of universal healthcare is extremely complex. There is no easy solution, but we should all agree that everyone should have healthcare and nobody should die unnecessarily, or go bankrupt just because they became sick or injured.    

Very few issues are simple. You can be a hardworking, successful person who thrives on overcoming obstacles, and you can also be a person that believes in helping people, reducing barriers, and opening doors for others. Take the time to study the issues. Be informed, and avoid false choices.