Thursday, February 5, 2009

10 Commonly Accepted Lies about Politics

1. Democrats are Liberals.  Republicans are Conservative

You obviously didn't pay attention in your U.S. History classes.  Worse, you didn't do your homework.

2. There are Good Politicians

All politicians are bad.  People that want to do good things become doctors, teachers, firemen, and solders.  The rest run for office.

3. There are Bad Politicians

That would imply that only a segment of the total population are bad.  They're all bad.

4. Pork is different from "Earmarks"

Tylenol is acetominophen.  Advil is ibuprofen.  Pork is earmarks.

5. Printing more money is good

The more units that are in circulation, the less value they have.  This is one of the famous causes of inflation.

6. Government Regulation is Bad

The concept of a "free market" hasn't turned out so well.  It seems that every time, throughout history, that the markets have been given some self-regulation slack, they fuck up and crash the bus.  1929, the mid 1950's, the 1970's, the 1980's, and the end of the .com bubble.  Now they did it again with uncontrolled, greedy behavior and sucked everything down with them.  The result of this is increased government regulation and intervention.  Every time.  Same outcome.  The notion is that markets need oversight to run properly.  Like kids left alone in a classroom.

7. Government Regulation is Good

Of course, the above sentiment comes with a simple, yet powerful caveat:  Governments have shown very little proof they can run anything properly.  Medicaid.  Veteran's Affairs.  FAA.  FDA.  SEC (do I need to mention Madoff again?), AmTrak, holy cow, do I need to keep going?!  So the anecdote goes:  The classroom of kids needs a teacher to keep them in order.  But what if the teacher is a drunk?

8. Balance of Party Power is Good

Nope.  It almost always turns into a tug of war.  Nothing gets done.

9. Balance of Party Power is Bad

But you need balance of power to avoid one party ramming a one-sided agenda down our throats for four straight years.

10. Taxes are Good.  Taxes are Bad

Nothing in government can run without funding from somewhere.  Printing more money isn't the solution (read #5), so that means they need to suck it out of taxes.  Taxes on people, things, and transactions.  But having tax revenue, and spending it, are two entirely different issues.  Who can we trust to entrust who we trust?

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