Common intuition and experimental psychology suggest that the ability to self-regulate, willpower, is a depletable resource. We investigate the behavior of an agent who optimally consumes a cake (or paycheck or workload) over time and who recognizes that restraining his consumption too much would exhaust his willpower and leave him unable to manage his consumption. Unlike prior models of self-control, a model with willpower depletion can explain the increasing consumption sequences observable in high frequency data (and corresponding laboratory findings), the apparent links between unrelated self-control behaviors, and the altered economic behavior following imposition of cognitive loads. At the same time, willpower depletion provides an alternative explanation for a taste for commitment, intertemporal preference reversals, and procrastination. Accounting for willpower depletion thus provides a more unified theory of time preference. It also provides an explanation for anomalous intratemporal behaviors such as low correlations between health-related activities.  http://www.nber.org/papers/w12278   

Yes, those are researchers using their jargon, but we get the gist of their research:  willpower can be exhausted.  Note this sentence:  

...and the altered economic behavior following imposition of cognitive loads.  

In plain English, when we are stressed, we cannot refrain from spending money.  And that is just one example of what happens when we lose willpower. 

From a different source: 

…So if willpower is like a muscle, can it be strengthened? Yes, says Dr. Baumeister and others. One psychologist, Howard Rankin of the Carolina Wellness Center, even runs a willpower-training program.  

Baumeister says that to strengthen your willpower, you must exercise it.  But don't set yourself up for failure.  Start with stuff your out-of-shape will can handle.  Hold your breath.  Stand on one leg.  Write with your left hand, if you're right-handed.  Skip a meal.  Look for ways to pit willpower against want-power.  It's like a weightlifter doing reps. …

http://encarta.msn.com/column_willpower_tamimhome/
Can_You_Increase_Your_willpower_tamimhome.html 

If you answer the multiple-choice questions below and e-mail to lessonanswers@mymontebello.com with “Lesson answers” in the subject field, you will be credited toward a “certificate of recognition in community affairs” to be awarded in 2007 by a local nonprofit organization.  

1.  How might the lack of willpower be explained?

(a) A condition, like stress, depletes it.

(b) If parents fail to show willpower, their children, too, will fail.  

2. Can willpower be increased?

(a) Yes, through pharmaceuticals.

(b) Yes, through carefully planned exercises.

Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
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The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.
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I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty.
Thomas Jefferson, 1743 – 1826,
third President of the United States, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of Republicanism in the United States. 

In part 1, we learned that our elected representatives represented many more people than they did in the past.  This had harmful consequences, as explained in parts 3, 4, and 5.   

It is worth repeating that an “overpopulation” of constituents means that the issues of concern to those constituents do not increase arithmetically, but, rather, geometrically.  In other words, if a member of Congress or a city councilor has twice as many constituents as did her predecessor fifty years ago, the number of issues reaching her by telephone, fax, e-mail, and visits is not twice as many, but, rather, four times as many. 

Some would say that the solutions would lie in hiring more staff to assist the elected representative.  Do you see the problems in doing that? 

First, a staffer has grown up with his own values and viewpoints.  He might agree with the representative on many issues, but he does not agree on everything.  Beyond that, his style of researching—how he gathers information, where he looks, how he analyzes, his predisposition to certain conclusions—might be different from that of the representative.  Since the representative is so busy, she turns to him to assist in drawing conclusions about issues.

Now, since the staffer is busy, he welcomes information from lobbyists, who are prepared to help the staffer receive, analyze, and categorize information.  So, before the representative receive information on an issue, the issue has been filtered twice, first by the lobbyists, then by the staffer. 

A second problem with staffers is that they are not elected by constituents, but, rather, chosen by the representative.  Certainly, she looks for people who would work well with her, but, as seen above, her decision-making is affected by staffers.  This is aggravated when staffers have not grown up with the constituents whom the representative represents.  The staffers do not understand everything which is going on among the constituents. 

A third problem is that, because a representative is busy, staffers screen communications.  The staffers make decisions on behalf of the representative, including whether to answer communications.  The representative never sees the communications or only gets a filtered summary before moving on to the next matter.  That, I imagine, is why neither Illinois Senator Obama nor Senator Clinton has replied to my letter, the letter to the former about citizen committees and the letter to the latter about solving the kind of problem which arose at Abu Ghraib.  

Thus, increasing the number of staffers cannot be a solution for a representative confronted with an overpopulation of constituents.  

FOR EVERYONE.  Comet!  Comet Holmes is visible these nights.  Amateur astronomers the world over have been stunned and amazed by the weirdest new object to appear in the sky in memory. And it's one of the brightest, too.  It's easy to spot with your eyes alone if you know where to look.  For more information, http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/10775326.html .

FOR EVERYONE.  Meeting of city planning commission.  Tuesday, November 20, 2007, 7 p.m., in the city-council chamber at city hall, 1600 West Beverly Boulevard.  Open to the public.

FOR EVERYONE.  Montebello memories.  At the “My Montebello” Web site, there is now a page for Montebello memories.  Imagine, for example, going duck hunting where the CVS pharmacy now stands!  To read about memories or make a submission, http://www.mymontebello.com/memories .

FOR COMMUNITY LEADERS AND ELECTED OFFICIALS.  Tapping an underutilized asset.  Register for the 2007 Youth Service Institute.  "Surfing the Wave of Change," December 12-14 in San Diego.  “Youth service” allows young people to take action on very real and very serious social issues, transforming themselves and their communities.  The youth-service field is at a position of strength, and this maturity, combined with better positioning in the public's eye, on the candidates' platforms, and with record participation by youth, allows us to think bigger and more boldly about breadth and depth.  To help continue this great momentum, Youth Service America invites you to attend the Youth Service Institute.  The Institute will unite colleagues from the service, service-learning, and youth development fields for three days of skill-building and innovation. Participants will gain tools and strategies to expand their organizations' impact and scale by engaging in workshops that illustrate the strength and power of the youth-service movement.  To register or learn more about the Youth Service Institute, please visit www.ysa.org/institute or contact Andra LaVant at alavant@ysa.org, or 202-296-2992 x 112.  From HE-SL Listserv.