A remake on 'Best is the enemy of Good.'

When I was working at Well Fargo we went through a management phase where we were indoctrinated with the slogan 'best is the enemy of good.'

At the time it probably made some sense, specially in the systems area. Banking deregulation required quick response and some systems types, especially those with some experience under their belts, know that 'good' just might not be 'good enough' when the something that wasn't tested blows up in the everyones' (including the customers') faces. So a balance was required. Test just enough, change as much as you can, make it work now, not 6 months from now. Don't try do a perfect job. Do something that works, and that we can work with.

What I'm leading into is how far we've fallen. It's no longer just forget perfect, forget best, just make it good (as in workable).

Krugman and some of his fellow travelers now appear to accept the proposition that we don't even try for good anymore. Any crap will do and we will and should accept it:

Basically, Paulson has placed us all in a miserable predicament, with a lousy plan that has to be passed in some form to prevent total panic. Jan. 20 won’t come a moment too soon, and may well come about 4 1/2 months too late.

Democrats may get to blame this on Bush and the GOP. And they will be right. But we should also hold the Dems in Congress responsible. They are so used to doing nothing, to rejecting their responsibilities, to letting us down that they must be held accountable for their job performance, with is abominable. They have lowered the bar to repeatedly accepting and passing the worst legislation imaginable and then telling us what a wonderful job they just did. They don't work. They take orders and not from us.