I have some things to share with the 7 or so people who might read my website:<\/p>\n\t
Why I am apolitical:<\/p>\n\t
I’ve always stated that I am apolitical, neither democrat, nor republican, nor centrist, nor libertarian.\u00a0 But I have strong ideas about politics and the role government can have in our lives…very strong ideas.<\/p>\n\t
So as I watch the bailout of the financial system and the endless debate on healthcare reform everyone agrees in theory needs to happen…..I ask myself:\u00a0 Why am I\u00a0 not more political?\u00a0 Here is why: because there is no substantive difference between the democrats and republicans<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\t We think of them at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, but they are not.\u00a0 They argue loudly about small difference they make seem big while rarely addressing anything substantive.<\/p>\n\t I’ll use the example of the financial system bailout:\u00a0 Both the republicans and democrats wanted to bailout the financial sector; they just argued about the amount (both amounts being very large) and how to spend the money.\u00a0 The Republicans started the bailout and then the Democrats inherited it, and continued the same basic policy.\u00a0 Neither party addressed why it happened in the first place; no one (except maybe Ron Paul) wanted to discuss the structural issues of a monetary system based on debt and a fiat money controlled by unelected officials making decisions behind closed doors (the Fed).\u00a0 Neither party has addressed the “too big to fail” issue (not only that, but the big financial companies have used the bailout money to buy up the smaller companies that failed during the crisis; they’ve actually become bigger).<\/p>\n\t Here is another example:\u00a0 9\/11.\u00a0 Both parties wanted retribution.\u00a0 No party was brave enough to say:\u00a0 ” 2993 died today in a terrorist attack.\u00a0 6,744 people die a day on average everyday, so to put that in perspective, America is not under attack.\u00a0 This was high profile and a great tragedy, but to upend our way of life, to start long costly (very costly) wars on foreign soil with unclear means of success in which more men and women will certainly die…..to restrict and lose, in the name of increased security, the very freedoms and civil liberties we would claim to go to war to protect…..this is not acceptable.\u00a0 If this is our response to terrorism, then certainly we have already lost.”<\/p>\n\t This brings me to my next point.<\/p>\n\t Why Republicans want healthcare reform to fail:<\/p>\n\t I do not think the Republican’s opposition to healthcare reform is 100% genuine and in the interest of their constituents (even if you include the healthcare companies as their constituents). Republicans want healthcare reform to fail because if the Democrats pass the reform the people want, the Republicans may not see the inside of the White House or a majority in Congress for a generation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\t The point, is that neither party has a genuine interest in doing what is best for us….they have an interest in getting re-elected<\/strong>.\u00a0 They pass laws based on that and little else.\u00a0 Democracy works because the two can definitely overlap; if you pass laws people want, you get re-elected…..but their are other ways to go about it as well:\u00a0 money can also get you re-elected (so pander to companies); being less-bad than the alternative can also get you re-elected (just bash the other party and say great things about yourself).\u00a0 In short, there are alternative ways to get re-elected.<\/p>\n\t This brings me to my next point.<\/p>\n\t Why I want to go back to school:<\/p>\n\t I’ve been kicking around the idea of going back to school to get a PhD in Economics.\u00a0 In the long term, its a good life to be a college professor, and in the short term it would allow me to follow these ideas to their natural conclusion.<\/p>\n\t Incentives.<\/p>\n\t People are neither good nor bad; they act, en masse, according to the situation in which they find themselves.\u00a0 Modify the incentives and you modify behavior.<\/p>\n\t I would like to study some form of behavioral economics that would allow me to construct a system of incentives to help people avoid all these situations.<\/p>\n\t The economic system in which we operate works together with government\/law to create the set of incentives that control our lives.\u00a0 I would like to draw lines in the sand, to establish some facts and some subtlety:<\/p>\n\t The free-market can fail to reach optimal outcomes.<\/strong> We must accept that these textbook perfect market conditions don’t exist in the real world, and even if they did they would still produce monopolies, corruption, inequality, price fixing, etc.<\/p>\n\t Economy doesn’t exist w\/o government<\/strong>….therefore government has a role to play…not as a spender of money, but as a regulator, a system-maker.\u00a0 We need to accept that the invisible hand of capitalism produces anxiety, inequality and pits us all against ourselves.\u00a0 This produces crime, mistrust and ill-health.\u00a0 We don’t want to live in a country like that.<\/p>\n\t GDP is a horrible measure; lets replace it<\/strong>:\u00a0 It promotes over-consumption, doesn’t differentiate between types of spending, and you can’t subtract from it.\u00a0 Here is an example:\u00a0 The US has the largest economy in the world with a GDP of 12 trillion (per year).\u00a0 I can turn the tiny nation of Uruguay (or any country for that matter) into the largest economy in the world:\u00a0 Let them borrow 13 trillion dollars from someone and spend it all on rat poison next year.\u00a0 They will be horribly in debt and have a country full of rat poison…..but they will have a 13 trillion dollar GDP.\u00a0 You might be thinking “that’s not how it works, surely!?!?!”…..but oddly enough, it is.<\/p>\n\t