Progress

The old General Electric Theater program on CBS television , in the 1960s was promoted by their spokesman Ronald Reagan. The mantra was: Progress is our most important product.

For 100 plus years the company was a major American corporation with important inventions and products used throughout the world.

But, “progress” progresses just so far. Recently General Electric was removed from the Dow Jones 60 stocks that comprise the DOW. Their financial well being does not show progress at this time.

Progress in a different sense is measured by how much wealth one has accumulated. From a starting wage of $1.72 1/2 per hour working in a hazardous iron foundry to $3.22 per hour chasing speeders as a State Trooper was real progress. More social status but coupled with social ostracism was perhaps a mixed bag, but I certainly considered it progress.

Educational progress is measured by degrees. I mean Bachelor, Master, to Doctor degree. Ones intellectual progress, easily measured, does not also mean personal progress in personal relationships and other social likability.

Sports heroes who progress in their athletic ability do so at their peril of other of life’s more long lasting endeavors.

Progress of life’s living standards has had the most dramatic effect on the world. The industrial revolution marked the beginning of progress in how we live. The train, the steamship, the auto, and the air plane enabled an ease of travel without dependence on a laboring beast. Ask the beasts. That’s real progress.

Space exploration is widely considered progress. But just up to a point. We may well visit Mars but beyond that it would be futile to go further. No other destination would be livable nor could we get there in one’s life span.

We have made progress in many areas but as we do we create more problems that more progress has to solve. Does it ever end?

Personally, I’m grateful for the progress in medicine. Treatment of the heart, eyes, joints, and cancers is really miraculous. Progress is moving at a fantastic pace. I’m lucky to be alive yet, because of progress in the treatment of heart attacks.

My old neighbor once told me that the best improvement or progress in his life time was the invention of the indoor toilet. In the cold winters of us ” up north” people I understand. Ronald Reagan was right, “Progress is our most important product.”