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36 April 2012
RD Tramp
No Such Thing as
Perfect in Politics
By Mark Phillips
itting at lunch, my kind hostess
looked out at the table and said,
"Something is wrong with our
society when people get paid millions
of dollars because they are good at
hitting a ball with a stick while nurses
and teachers make so much less."
The table, being good guests, qui-
etly nodded. I, being a good guest,
kept my mouth shut.
Then her husband joined the fray,
bemoaning the state of our country.
"The government is
too deeply involved
in the economy. We
need to let the free
market work. The
deficit is too big!'
I, no longer a
good guest, had to
open my mouth.
"You can't have it
both ways," I said.
"You can't have
nurses make more
money and keep
the government
out of the mar-
ket. Or, you can't
complain about a
ballplayer making
$10 million. People
make money off of that ballplayer.
The owners, MLB, the ballpark, TV ...
That just tells you how much money
that guy brings in:'
"But it's wrong that our society
rewards ballplayers more than they
reward nurses and teachers," she said.
"Really?" I replied. "That's the free
market at work. For a nurse to make
$10 million a year, an appendec-
tomy would have to be $50 million.
Then the government would have
to subsidize medicine even further
than it is now and the deficit would
be even bigger!'
"We have to cut government
spending somewhere," said her hus-
band."The deficit is simply too big!'
"Where should we cut it?" I asked.
"Should we reduce Medicare pay-
ments to doctors by 27 percent or
whatever the latest proposal for
deficit reduction has it?"
"The legislatures need to decide
that," he replied. "But they have to
do it without the influence of spe-
cial interests:'
"Then how should they do it?" i
asked rhetorically."The incredible
thing about this country is that any-
one can make their voices heard. We
have a free and open society and
an ever-growing list of soapboxes
on the Internet. Anyone can pull a
group together to take action and
express their interests:'
"But that leaves everything up to
political action committees, orga-
nizers or special interest groups,"
another guest added.
"It leaves it up to people who
mobilize and organize causes or
groups. How else should politicians
vote or decide?" I asked.
"Based on prin-
ciple," said our host.
"Based on what is
right and what is
wrong."
And I, becoming
a good guest again,
shut my mouth. We
had arrived at the
crux of the problem.
I probably agree
with my host-
ess and host on a
gazillion different
things, but in laws
and governance, it
is never simple for
people to agree on
what is right and
what is wrong.
The questions that come up in
Congress are not long-standing
moral questions that have religiously
codified answers.These are ques-
tions around society-made con-
structs. Companies and departments
of government are involved. Massive
parts of society are impacted. The
law of unintended consequences is
pervasive. The questions are rarely,
if ever, moral questions.They are
technical questions with huge conse-
quences for interested parties.
That's OK.
It's been said a thousand times
and seems to bear repeating. Our
system is not perfect, but it is the
greatest system ever made. It is a
human system, created by and for
human beings — with their flaws
and virtues. Attaining universal
goodness, universal perfection, is
not in the realm of government.
That, I believe, is what the hostess
and host were striving for. Me, too.
But let's not confuse economics and
politics with the human attainment
of perfection. 7 T
Mark Phillips is an economist and former
Wall Street analyst.
www.redthreadmagazine.com