The Way I See It

by Dennis J. Lane



Paul's Paper Clip Paradox



"I've got a great idea for your column."

Paul Skalny called me late in the afternoon one day last month. He was very enthusiastic on the phone. "Okay. Let me have it."

"What happens to all those paper clips?" he wondered.

Huh?

"I was sitting here looking over my latest invoice for office supplies, and I noticed that we just ordered more paper clips. Every day I receive documents that are paper clipped together. Shouldn't there be enough in circulation so that we shouldn't have to make any more, much less buy any more?

"Where do they all go?"

To tell you the truth, I have never given this problem much thought.

You see this is what happens in a slowed down economy. We have time to ponder things like paper clips.

At first I didn't exactly share his enthusiasm. As far as column ideas go, I thought his "great idea for a column" might be a little thin. On the other hand, the day he called I was about as busy as a Maytag repairman, so I kept listening.

"Think about it. Where do they all go?"

The more I thought about it, the more intrigued I was. Paper clip consumption in this country is staggering. Every year 10,000 tons of steel goes into making paper clips.

Amazing.

Yet, while I had to admit that Paul's paper clip paradox was an interesting topic, it wasn't what I was planning to write about.

This is where I make one of my bizarre topic transitions.

The column idea I was working on was taxation without representation. It seemed appropriate for an April column. One of the few things I recall with clarity from high school social studies was the slogan "Taxation without representation is tyranny."

Why do I recall that, you ask?

Well it was the first time I can remember seeing the word "tyranny," and I wondered what it meant. A teacher named Jerry Paradise informed me that the tyranny was arbitrary and unrestrained use of power. The slogan came into popularity after the passage of the Stamp Act in 1765 as the American colonists rebelled against repressive British taxes.

Stay with me here. I am just getting some background information out of the way before I get to my point.

What got me headed in this direction was the recent study on Columbia's governance conducted by the Columbia Association. Over a period of 15 months a committee made up of Columbia residents attempted to make recommendations for a more "consistent and understandable" system for governing the second largest homeowners association in the country.

Conspicuously absent in their recommendations was granting any voting power or forum to commercial property owners in Columbia who pay the assessment but have no vote or representation on the Columbia Council.

This is no small issue. Over 25% of the Columbia Association's annual budget comes from commercial property owners.

Amazing. Sounds like taxation without representation to me. Any high school social studies teacher could see that.

As Columbia approaches "build out" in the residential portion of the community, the greatest opportunity for revenue growth lies in the growth of the commercial properties. County governments long ago figured out that commercial development provides a healthy tax base. Commercial properties don't create the same demand on government services that residential properties do. Commercial property tax revenues are critical to keeping overall property taxes stable. That is a major reason why counties sponsor and promote economic development initiatives.

It would appear that the Columbia Association takes commercial property lien revenue for granted. They make little to no effort to service this constituency.

And why should they?

The simple answer is because it is the right thing to do. Promoting a healthy business environment will translate into increased revenues. It doesn't necessarily mean giving every landlord and developer in Columbia a vote. A voice or a forum will suffice, given the current structure of the Columbia Association.

We need an allegorical paper clip to connect the commercial property owners' interests with those of the residential population of Columbia.

Did I mention paper clip?

As it turns out, Paul's paper clip paradox was easier to solve than the representation issues of commercial property owners in Columbia.

And the answer was found back in the very country that inspired the "taxation without representation" slogan.

A few years back, undoubtedly during a slowdown in the economy, Lloyd's Bank of London decided to attempt to solve the paper clip paradox. It tracked a batch of 100,000 paper clips within its bank. Here is what it found: 25,000 were simply lost "in the shuffle," swept up or vacuumed into oblivion; 19,413 served as card game chips; 14,163 were twisted and made useless during phone conversations; 7,200 were used as hooks for belts, suspenders or bras; 5,434 were used to pick teeth or scratch ears; 5,308 were used as nail cleaners; 3,196 were used as pipe cleaners.

The remaining 20,286, or about 20%, were used for their intended purpose of clipping papers together.

Amazing.