Super size, or stupor size?

Bigger is better. Big stores bring us big savings by driving down production costs, buying in volume, and passing on the savings to us consumers. Big cars make us safer, and help us merge in traffic. 

Big cruise ships and big airlines provide us with cheaper vacation options, and many destinations. Big fuel provides us with a reliable flow of gas for our automobiles. Big trees provide us shade, protect us from the winter winds, and yield lots of lumber.

There is safety in numbers. In the animal world, we see herds of four legged game staying together. They travel, eat, and sleep with their herd. When predators come, they often defend themselves as a group, or when faced with overwhelming fear, will run in a group to escape the danger. As I often say when I am hiking with friends, I don't have to out run the bear, I just have to out run you. 

Big companies are often thought of as a safe employment option. With so many employees, it is less likely you will be singled out to be downsized. It's the herd mentality, without the bear. If you can make sure you aren't in the back of the pack, you can feel safer in your job. 

When my honey and I raced sailboats, we preferred larger fleets. The same herd mentality applies here. With a large fleet, we could expect a certain number of boats to have equipment failures, make tactical errors, mess up a tack or jibe, or not be hearty in bad weather. We improved our place in the regattas by just showing up and crossing the finish line. In a small fleet, finishing 3rd out of 4 boats sounds bad. Finishing 15th out of 20 sounds much better. 

But is bigger better? Safety in numbers is statistically accurate. You're less likely to be the loser when there are more players. But I've never seen a hungry hawk after it chased a flock of birds. 

Terrorists don't attack sparsely populated areas, they look for density to perpetrate their crimes. They have more targets there.

Large ships have become the favorite target of the pirates. Their size makes them hard to hide and not very maneuverable. 

Big cars are only safe when they are light. Big heavy cars are dangerous not only to the occupant of the car, but also to those around it. 

Big trees fall and crush homes. When was the last time you had a sapling cause heavy damage to your home? 

When big businesses fail, whole divisions of "safe jobs" are sent to the streets for the reporters to take pictures of. Think of Enron, Global Crossing, Merril Lynch, and we saw the Big Three Automakers downsie, along with companies that supported them. 

We've also seen large investment funds disappear. People must have felt very safe adding a hundred thousand dollars to a fund worth $50 billion. Safety in numbers. A small player on a big field. One in a large herd. A small fish in a big pond. This equates to less you have to worry about. 

In a large fund, every investor is represented by numbers. There is an account number, and a balance number. Humanity is removed. No longer is the hundred thousand dollar investment associated with your neighbor Joe, it is a number in a large pool of numbers. A faceless victim, "they should have known better", and "better them than me". 

Look at our government. Approximately 10% of the American workforce is employed by our tax dollars. This represents a tremendous voting bloc, and the dollar amounts are huge. 

How else would a group of people think that spending a trillion and a half dollars for a short term bailout is a good idea? This equated to 10% of our entire economy, and coincidentally, 10% of our existing national debt. 

As the numbers get bigger, the numbers mean less. A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money. How can we not fund a billion dollar program when our numeric reference is so big? Trillions? What is that?

The bigger they are, the harder they fall. That was one of my Dad's favorite sayings. He usually threw that one out there over the top of the Daily News when a politician took a hit. 

Maybe bigger isn't better? Throw a small rock into a lake. The splash is small, the ripples are low, and they don't last long. Now throw a big rock into the same lake. Note the difference in splash size, the height of the ripples, and how far they travel - they often reverberate, bouncing back and forth across the surface.

Maybe smaller is better. Small is manageable. Small is agile, it can change as needed.  Small is easy to understand, we can get our arms around it. Smaller food servings, smaller waists, smaller health bills.

Small banks, where we know the employees and they know us. Loans would be written based on our ability to pay, not some big algorithm crushing numbers in a big data pool. 

Small is green. Over half of our workforce works for a small company. Small homes, small obligations, and most importantly, small government. This will mean small tax bills.

Small must be the status symbol of our future. We must get back to being small. Smaller is better.