Am I confusing symptoms with problems?
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”
—C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
There has been a lot of talk in Canada lately concerning the funding of healthcare. In particular, the provinces are seeking a significant increase in transfer payments from the federal government to enable them to meet the healthcare needs of their residents.
This situation should be doubly concerning for taxpayers. First, while it is tempting to side with the provinces given their constitutional role as the governments responsible for healthcare delivery, the reality is that we taxpayers fund both the provincial and federal governments. Thus, from the taxpayers’ perspective, the primary concern is not which government pays but how much healthcare costs them.
Second, notwithstanding the expression of boilerplate concerns by officials regarding the effectiveness and efficiency of the Canadian healthcare system, the tendency is to broadly frame the problem as a lack of cash rather than the need for systemic change. Indeed, an all too common propensity is to define lack of cash as the main problem requiring a solution. When defined this way, the problem begs the obvious solution: inject cash! This thinking infects not only governments but every other domain of culture including business.
Here’s an example from my investment experience. When a company we have financed requests additional funding, we focus first on the causes behind the cash deficiency. They might include poorly defined and/or executed strategies, ineffective spending, excessive financial leverage or operational inefficiencies. Almost invariably, the common denominator is poor management judgment. Here’s a good rule: avoid injecting cash until the real problem, such as the need for more capable leadership, is fixed.
In conclusion, we humans often confuse symptoms with problems. Using medical terminology, the physical pain we are experiencing, while unpleasant, is not the real problem. It is a symptom of the real problem, which could be an allergy or some other medical condition. Applying the foregoing analogously, people often think of the products and services cash can purchase as the source of their satisfaction. It follows logically that lots of cash is the solution to dissatisfaction and lack of cash is the problem creating dissatisfaction. As a result, many people, particularly those in leadership, become fixated on achieving financial success.
Having more cash and what it can buy will not satisfy anyone's deepest desires.
However, having more cash and what it can buy will not satisfy anyone's deepest desires. In a 2018 interview with CNBC, billionaire Warren Buffet said: 'If you have $100,000, and you're an unhappy person and you think $1 million is going to make you happy, it is not going to happen.’ As C.S. Lewis astutely pointed out in the opening quote, if we cannot satisfy our heart’s desires with anything in this world, the real problem is not the lack of anything money can buy. Rather, this yearning for fulfillment is evidence we were made for another world.
The solution to finding fulfillment is recognizing our need to be in relationship with God, who has created us not only for the world we currently inhabit but for another world!
Is your life fulfilling? If not, why not?
Photo by cottonbro studio
