AUGUSTINE’S LAWS

Norman R. Augustine, former chairman of the Lockheed Martin Corporation, wrote a book which I have used as a systems engineering “bible” for nearly as many years as I have been a practicing systems engineer. In it, he has written fifty-two “laws” about life, engineering, and defense acquisition which are both humorous and prescient.

Here’s Augustine:

It took the federal government seventy-seven years to build up to where it could dispose of $1 billion in a single year. It reached the $10 billion level in another fifty-three years, jumped to $100 billion in just forty-three more years, and required only twenty-five years to smash through the $1 trillion ($1,000,000,000,000.00 for those who like figures) barrier. “Blessed are the young,” said Herbert Hoover, “for they shall inherit the national debt.”

President Obama exceeded $1 trillion in only 30 days.

The significance of these observations is obvious.

Law Number LII “People working in the private sector should try to save money. There remains the possibility that it may someday be valuable again.”