THE PROBLEM WITH ASKONUS

[Thank you "Fotheringay Phipps" for today's post. To all readers - please comment on any topic, your comment might be tomorrow's post - KollelVeib]

The problem with the askonus system of government is that people perceive the entire purpose of government as being the granting of special favors to this one or that one and the only question is who gets the favors. In reality, there are POLICIES that if followed on a consistent basis can be beneficial or detrimental to the population as a whole. Askonim, and many people, unfortunately, do not focus on this.

As an example, if you look at every building proposal as a question of whether to favor the specific developer who wants to build it or the neighbors who oppose it, you are losing sight of the long-term imact of a general policy of allowing over-development. And so on for any number of areas.

The askonus system - a carryover from Europe - is called for when you are not in position to influence general policy in any event, as was the case in Europe and is still the case in NYC. But in a place where you are a substantial percentage of the population, such as Lakewood, you need to focus on general governance issues instead of this or that favor.