We are heavily regulated… and it shows how free we are!
Oh, if only we had civics education! Take the standard libertarian complaint about how heavily regulated Americans are, listing the vast numbers of laws and rules on the books. (A number that nevertheless went down under VP Al Gore’s “Re-Inventing Government” reforms and always goes up under Republicans.)
One explanation often offered is that modern life crams so many people close together in a technologically complex era. And yes, that's a contributing factor. But the impression then is that our ancestors must have been more “free.”
One explanation often offered is that modern life crams so many people close together in a technologically complex era. And yes, that's a contributing factor. But the impression then is that our ancestors must have been more “free.”
You know it's not true. Just close your eyes and envision life for 99% of our ancestors, as serfs or peasants or laborers for an endlessly boring series of lords and estate-owners and priests and kings, whose power was capricious, overwhelming. You think you have it worse? Go attend any city council meeting and observe the impudent shouting by local citizens, arguing fearlessly and indignantly over one detailed rule or another.
The reason for the vast number of modern rules is that we are vastly more free.
== What??? ==
Consider that most human societies operated under one central (and zero-sum) principle:
“Whatever is not specifically allowed is automatically prohibited.”
In the past, a cop or priest or thug would approach you and demand “Who gave you permission to do that?” Unless you were a lord, you needed to show it was allowed. There was no need for a lengthy rule-book. The law was: “ask for permission first, or die.”
In the past, a cop or priest or thug would approach you and demand “Who gave you permission to do that?” Unless you were a lord, you needed to show it was allowed. There was no need for a lengthy rule-book. The law was: “ask for permission first, or die.”
In sharp contrast from 99% of human history, our current fundamental (positive-sum) premise is the opposite:
“Whatever is not specifically prohibited is automatically allowed.”
If no one is being endangered and no harm is being done, you can demand the state’s officials prove to you that it’s forbidden. (Granted, you should demand very carefully if you are black. Alas, still. Have that cell cam turned on. Hands-free. Then keep pushing gently at the envelope.)
That is why our laws are so complex! Because what’s forbidden is the exceptions to a generality that’s freedom.
EXAMPLE: those of you who have taken flight school know about the “upside down wedding cake” control zone around airports where you must report in and obey traffic controllers. The complexity of the shape of this zone arises for a simple reason, and it is not that rule-makers are meddlesome fuss-budgets.
The air traffic control zone is complex because regulators carved away every chunk of sky they did not need to regulate. Because they shared the same instinct. Most of those serving on the rule-making committees were themselves private pilots. And the thought was always: "Is it really necessary to report-in here?" (See it explained in detail.)
Yes, you are suffering cognitive dissonance, right now. Well, stretch your mind (it’s what you come here for!) Dig it again. U.S. air traffic maps are far more complex… more “regulated” … precisely in order that pilots should be more free.
There are zillions of such examples. Here's another place where I discuss the "miracle of the four-way stop-sign intersection." And I wish every one of you would do the experiment that I recommend there. Go to the nearest 4-way stop sign intersection and just watch, for a while. And be amazed.
Again: “Whatever is not specifically prohibited is automatically allowed.” And hence, that means there must be more rules that specifically prohibit a lot of special cases amid a vast sea of liberty. A sea that you never notice, the way a fish ignores the water!
It's tragic we don’t teach Americans that this is their core assumption, so they never parse it out. And hence, you get libertarians who reflexively pour hate at the very civil servants and fairness rules that Adam Smith himself recommended, as counterweights against the real enemies of freedom across 6000 years - those kings and priests and owner-lords. Nor is it just Americans who would benefit from greater understanding.
Alas, by neglecting to talk about such basic fundamentals, we raise generations who cannot acknowledge the freedoms they take lazily and ungratefully for granted.
If no one is being endangered and no harm is being done, you can demand the state’s officials prove to you that it’s forbidden. (Granted, you should demand very carefully if you are black. Alas, still. Have that cell cam turned on. Hands-free. Then keep pushing gently at the envelope.)
That is why our laws are so complex! Because what’s forbidden is the exceptions to a generality that’s freedom.
EXAMPLE: those of you who have taken flight school know about the “upside down wedding cake” control zone around airports where you must report in and obey traffic controllers. The complexity of the shape of this zone arises for a simple reason, and it is not that rule-makers are meddlesome fuss-budgets. The air traffic control zone is complex because regulators carved away every chunk of sky they did not need to regulate. Because they shared the same instinct. Most of those serving on the rule-making committees were themselves private pilots. And the thought was always: "Is it really necessary to report-in here?" (See it explained in detail.)
Yes, you are suffering cognitive dissonance, right now. Well, stretch your mind (it’s what you come here for!) Dig it again. U.S. air traffic maps are far more complex… more “regulated” … precisely in order that pilots should be more free.
There are zillions of such examples. Here's another place where I discuss the "miracle of the four-way stop-sign intersection." And I wish every one of you would do the experiment that I recommend there. Go to the nearest 4-way stop sign intersection and just watch, for a while. And be amazed.
Again: “Whatever is not specifically prohibited is automatically allowed.” And hence, that means there must be more rules that specifically prohibit a lot of special cases amid a vast sea of liberty. A sea that you never notice, the way a fish ignores the water!
It's tragic we don’t teach Americans that this is their core assumption, so they never parse it out. And hence, you get libertarians who reflexively pour hate at the very civil servants and fairness rules that Adam Smith himself recommended, as counterweights against the real enemies of freedom across 6000 years - those kings and priests and owner-lords. Nor is it just Americans who would benefit from greater understanding.
Alas, by neglecting to talk about such basic fundamentals, we raise generations who cannot acknowledge the freedoms they take lazily and ungratefully for granted.
== Restoring civics ==
Good news? See where some states have started to address the “Civics Gap” that actor and activist Richard Dreyfuss has long campaigned about, with his “Dreyfuss Initiative.”
Even better news, it is a mix of red and blue states, passing rules that high school students only graduate if they can pass the same test as an earnest immigrant seeking citizenship.
Every foreign student at U.S. universities should be taught about this! How about requiring a civics class of every foreign undergrad and graduate student? China keeps close tabs on its students and plants a “Confucius Center” next to more than 100 U.S. universities, to maintain indoctrination. But we don’t need to convert anyone, just send them home with some ideas in their heads.
Especially the fundamental meme that “Whatever is not specifically prohibited -- and for reasonable reasons that were deliberated openly -- is automatically allowed.”
What a memic seed! We need to start using our advantages in the peaceful battle of ideology between authoritarianism and the enlightenment experiment.
Especially the fundamental meme that “Whatever is not specifically prohibited -- and for reasonable reasons that were deliberated openly -- is automatically allowed.”
What a memic seed! We need to start using our advantages in the peaceful battle of ideology between authoritarianism and the enlightenment experiment.
== Time to discredit Supply Side Voodoo? ==
I've elsewhere spoken about the passing of President George H. W. Bush. But let's put aside the gruesome horrors of his catastrophic foreign policies. I agree that domestically he was a gentleman and stark contrast to the present Republican Party. He sought to address problems through an art called "politics" and signed the Americans with Disabilities Act, plus assertive measures that cleaned up our rivers and seriously reduced Acid Rain. And he was an archetype of courtesy and calm and decorum(!) Moreover, while he knuckled-under to support the increasingly insane-predatory GOP tax policies, he did -- once -- give those policies their proper name -- "Voodoo Economics."
Impervious to evidence or facts, today's Republicans clutch so-called "Supply Side" theories that have been 100% disproved by 30 years of diametrically opposite outcomes. Take the latest news:
“Large pharma companies spend more on share buybacks to boost share prices (and stock options — the main way that executives get paid) than on research and development. Pfizer, for example, spent $139 billion on share buybacks and dividends in the past decade — and just $82 billion on research and development in the same period. (The chief executive’s pay was also a reported $27.9 million in 2017.)” See “Big Pharma is hurting drug innovation.”
Dig this. The GOP Tax Bill was one more Supply Side deliberate lie, promising that the trillions fed to corporations and their high-caste owners would go directly to R&D and productive capacity (increasing "supply.") Not a single Supply Side prediction or promise ever moved the needle even a little toward coming true. Ever! (No wonder they wage open war against science and all other fact professions.)
Instead, as Adam Smith himself predicted, gusher influxes of wealth to aristocracy do not get spent (by most) on research or production, but rather on "rentier" or rent-seeking asset bubbles. Except for an entrepreneurial few, it is always, always true.
And in handing over this asset-bubble fix, we the taxpayers are plunging into debt. (Deficits always accelerate during GOP rule and always at least start decelerating under democrats. Always.)
And finally....
The former Polish Defense and Foreign minister describes in detail the methods by which the Kremlin is - right now - waging active ‘hybrid wars’ of conquest against Russia’s neighbors, rebuilding the Soviet Empire.
California, already by far with the best election laws in the nation, is pioneering a new process in half a dozen counties that may offer a glimpse of the future.
Oh, but now the East Wing – the Office of The First Lady, which does not exist in any legal or Constitutional way – publicly calls for the firing of a national security advisor. OMG seriously?
All I can do is repeat the ever-applicable mantra: “WODI!” or “What If (Michelle) Obama Did It?” What hypocrites.
All I can do is repeat the ever-applicable mantra: “WODI!” or “What If (Michelle) Obama Did It?” What hypocrites.
