Read this if you've heard enough about cans and roads

If punditry is to be believed, then the roads in Europe and America are littered with cans that have been kicked, and are being kicked some more.  What's not mentioned is that the political and governmental act that they call "kicking the can down the road" is (1) pretty typical behavior for almost anything that involves humans; (2) a natural, and even necessary, characteristic of a democratically-elected government; and (3) sometimes helpful.

Lots of chatter

All of this talk about can-kicking is the outgrowth of the need that the popular auditory and visual media has to generate chatter about the events of the day.  Kicking the can down the road has become the metaphor for governmental inability to deal with great gobs of sovereign debt that is currently on the books of the Eurozone countries and the United States (and a few others, too, but let's not make this any worse or more complicated than it has to be).

Today has probably seen a new record set in the number of times that talking heads--and disembodied talking voices--have evaluated the current political and economic landscape by wisely observing that another can--or maybe the same can--has been kicked down the road.

We would all be better-informed if this record is not superseded at some future time.

In the minds of these pundits, here is a list of current events that are examples of kicking all those cans:  yesterday's Greek elections; last week's recapitalization program for Spain's banks; California's new State general fund budget; U.S. Federal government inaction on the national debt; insufficient progress in addressing Italian sovereign debt.  I'm surprised that France hasn't been included--or maybe it has been and I missed it--since that country also had an election this past weekend.

We deserve something better

Don't misunderstand me; all of these things are important.  The issues of economic growth and fiscal responsibility deserve more definitive action on the part of the responsible governments than has been the case to date.  But the general public--that's you and me--deserves better analysis than the dismissive statement that "they're just kicking the can down the road again."

Here's why.

To begin with, kicking cans down the road is a natural human behavior.  It starts when we are children.  There's something in the psyche of the human child that compels the foot to be used to kick inanimate objects that are left lying in the road.  That's just the beginning of a life of kicking cans, balls, rocks, and what-have-you.  Taking aim, and then propelling the foot to a successful encounter with the object is immensely satisfying and entertaining.  Like everybody else, I've done it lots of times -- not so much in the last few years, perhaps, but many, many times over my lifetime.  Boy, girls, men, women; we all have done it and, chronological maturity notwithstanding, we continue to do it until we are physically and/or mentally unable to cause the necessary motor actions.

Kicking can be entertaining, but it can also remove a potential obstacle from the chosen path.  The repositioning of the obstacle might be just temporary, but creating that reprieve provides the person with some more time to figure out a more permanent solution, or maybe just anticipate another opportunity for entertainment.  Go ahead, kick the darn thing again!  Eventually, it becomes a recognized and official sporting event.

Democracy -- it's not always pretty

Secondly, the nature of democracy is to incubate an environment that fosters the behavior of debating, deliberating, dithering and dissembling on monumental issues.  Take a look at our own history here in America:  it took our representative republic the better part of a century to figure out that something as monstrous as human slavery was wrong, and then do something about it.  The debating on this subject consumed huge amounts of governmental energy for decades with little to show for it.  Ultimately, the issue was resolved only by the secession of that part of the country that had the most to gain from the institution of slavery.  That started the Civil War, slavery was ended, and we then saw the beginning of another century of political, governmental and social debate on civil rights.

Democracy is a very messy form of government.

But it's the government that we Americans have chosen.  So, too, the Greeks, Italians, Spaniards, Germans, British, French and all the other Europeans.  We have all chosen the path of debate, deliberation, dithering, and--sometimes--dissembling.  This path is a road with lots of potholes.  Maybe some of those potholes should be filled, and that's why we periodically conduct elections.  Sometimes the elections have outcomes that cause the potholes to be filled; often, elections end up causing more potholes, but somehow over time we move along that road.

By the way, this is the same road that is filled up with all of those cans that have been repeatedly kicked.  It's the only road that we can take, because the other one is named "Autocracy Avenue."

Let's kick something else

Which brings us to that last point I mentioned at the beginning:  How can all this kicking of cans be helpful?  (Bet you thought I'd never get back here, didn't you?)  Most folks hear the phrase "kicking the can down the road" and think that amounts to nothing more than a delay of the inevitable.  Well, maybe so, but maybe not so, if the delay can be used productively by filling in some of those pesky potholes before you reach that can again.

I think that the metaphor is part of the problem.  It sets us up with preconceived notions of rigid limitations.  If we want our elected governments to actually accomplish something, then hemming them in with such unyielding limitations is self-defeating.  Frankly, by limiting elected representatives' choices of actions, it ultimately makes their jobs too easy, and we wouldn't want that to happen, would we?  Let's make them work harder to figure out something creative!  Something that actually has beneficial, long-term results.

You're probably pretty skeptical at this point.  Look, I realize that my best chance here to keep you with me is to dig up something from the world of sports.  This is my idea:  Let's replace the "kick the can" metaphor with a sports metaphor.  My choice is "punt the ball down the field."  That's something that goes on in American football. 

American readers know this; non-American readers might not, so I'll explain.  If your team is advancing the ball down the field but their forward motion is stopped, then it's sensible to regroup themselves and use their last remaining efforts before losing the ball to kick it as far down the field towards the goal as possible.  They punt.  They don't reach the goal, but it gives the team a chance to reposition itself and rework its strategy for another attempt at success.  Now they are forced to be creative and to execute well with whatever tools and skills they already have, but maybe with a new plan of attack.

Back to the real world now.

The talking heads and disembodied voices are probably going to continue talking about kicking cans.  They aren't going to pay attention to me because they don't know about me, they don't know these ideas that I am writing here, and even if they did they would not believe that I have the political, governmental or economic qualifications to say these things.  And it's true:  I don't have any such qualifications.

Most of them don't have any real qualifications, either.  Some do; most do not.  And to make matters worse, not only are they adding nothing of value by talking about kicking cans, they are also encouraging a conversation of sound bites, rather than of substantive analysis.

Pay them no heed, and laugh when they talk about kicking cans on the road, because it's all just for entertainment.

The real work is done elsewhere and at other times, and it's very messy work.