When I taught at Washington and Lee University, they had a rule for the young men: “You are required to be a gentleman.” I loved that. If there was an issue, your fellow classmates decided whether you had violated the code. The Oxford dictionary definition of a gentleman is simply “a chivalrous, courteous, or honourable man,” which encompasses a great deal of daily behavior. Sometimes a simple approach beats one spelled out in too much detail.
Simplicity, or rather a return to simplicity, may be just what we need to bolster an economy that faces a serious challenge from China.
No one would describe the maze of federal and state regulations, laws, and guidance that govern virtually every aspect of American life as “simple.” And while many of these regulations work, what happens when we can barely keep track of them all?
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