Time for Another Lesson from the Miltons

There have been a lot of famous people named Milton offering society important lessons on a range of topics.

Economist and 1976 Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman was a prominent advocate of free market economics and wrote about the social responsibility of business to increase profits. Those lessons, including his book “Capitalism and Freedom,” spelled out the necessity of a sustainable and vibrant capitalist economy to benefit society.

And Milton Bradley taught us if not the meaning of life, then how to succeed at The Checkered Game of Life in the board game he created. While the goal in Bradley’s original game was reaching happy old age, the 1960 version of the venerable board game set the bar higher with the aim of becoming a millionaire. Either way, the games offered lessons on success and happiness.

Milton Berle taught us the value of laughter and was a driving force in the popularization of television as a mass medium with his hosting of the Texaco Star Theater in the 1959s. And Milton Hershey gave us lessons in living the sweet life with his chocolate confections.

But our latest lesson comes from a different Milton – Hurricane Milton.

For most people, early October is a time for taking in the fall colors, picking out a pumpkin to carve and enjoying the change of seasons. But in Florida and the Gulf Coast, it is the height of Atlantic hurricane season. And this year is no exception.

After a relatively calm season in 2024, all of a sudden things are heating up, and it offers a chance for a teachable moment.

Community organizations and local governments were hard at work this past week urging residents and business owners to prepare for the arrival of tropical weather across the peninsula. And while anyone living in Florida is very familiar with the annual rites of hurricane season, it always seems as if those lessons go more than a little unheeded – at least until the last minute.

Even with the arrival of Hurricane Helene just a few weeks ago, it appeared from a casual look at the lines at gas stations and grocery stores that many people put off storm preparations. A peek down the toilet paper aisle at most stores is evidence enough of panic buying and begs the question of when toilet paper became the commercial canary in the coal mine signaling the approach of impending disaster.

But on a more serious note, the fact that so many people did not prepare enough for Helene and needed to go back out and resupply for Milton shows while the messaging about preparedness is out there, few are really heeding them. And for business owners it is doubly difficult to make those preparations for home and work at the same time. Like the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper, too often business owners and homeowners focus on the here and now and pay scant attention to what the future may bring. And when the severe weather arrives, too many pay the price for the lack of preparation.

Maybe this time it will be different and we won’t suffer the fate described by the English poet John Milton and wake up to our paradise lost.