Democracy Is Not For Sissies

From kindergarten to graduate school the benevolence of government is never questioned. From graduate school to the grave, the benevolence of government is just assumed. Benevolence of government is completely taken for granted. All though school, students learn to establish arbitrary loyalties. “Have school spirit! Why? Because it is good. Why is it good? Just because………. ” Working together is required and deemed a natural way to interact. “Lets go to our groups.” The teachers say.  By the time a person reaches adulthood he is of the impression that government is a kind paternalistic place where good people go to make everyone’s lives better. What we have is pacified humble dumplings ripe for exploitation by anyone who offers a few kind words.

But, in the real world Democracy is not for sissies. Power hungry people compete brutally for elected offices. Self interest and not agape love is what drives the political process. Anyone can run for office. Unindicted felons are particularly attracted to positions of power. Is there a quicker path to a life above the law than to get elected to congress? An even faster way to law free living is to buy the influence of the lawmakers who get elected.

What is the most competitive activity in the world? Is it in the National Football League? No, it is the campaign for President of the United States.  Professional football is way down the list. House and Senate races are far more competitive than any professional sport.

The game of politics is so competitive, truth is not used. All of the candidates are sociopaths because only that personality type has the manipulative skills to win elections. In the end government becomes a platform to be used by rich powerful people the get even richer and more powerful.

Ordinary folk believe government is a kind and gentle place were anointed people go to do good. Perhaps for mental health reasons, it is necessary for people to visualize their government as being like a kind parent who always knows and does the right thing. In the real world it works just the opposite. When the citizens of a country believe their system of government works one way but it operates the opposite, there is not much chance anything good is going to happen to them in the near future, not with respect to politics.

 

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About Fantasy Free Economics

James Quillian independent scholar,free market economist,and teacher of natural law. Who is James Quillian? Certainly I am nobody special, Just a tireless academic and deep thinker. Besides that, I have broken the code with respect to economics and political science. Credentials? Nothing you would be impressed with. I am not a household name. It is hard to become famous writing that virtually no one in the country is genuinely not in touch with reality. But, if I did not do that, there would be no point in my broking the broken the code. If you read the blog, it is easy to see that there are just a few charts, no math and no quantitative analysis. That is not by accident. Given what I know, those items are completely useless. I do turn out to be highly adept at applying natural law. Natural law has predominance over any principles the social science comes up. By virtue of understanding natural law, I can debunk, in just a few sentences , any theory that calls for intervention by a government. My taking the time to understand the ins and outs of Keynes General Theory is about like expecting a chemistry student to completely grasp all that the alchemists of the middle ages thought they understood in efforts to turn base metals into goal. Keynesian theory clearly calls for complete objectivity. Government can only make political decisions. Keynesian techniques call for economic decisions. So, why go any further with that? Fantasy Free Economics is in a sense a lot like technical analysis. Technical analysis began with the premise that it was impossible to gain enough information studying fundamentals to gain a trading advantage. Study the behavior of investors instead. Unlike technical analysis, I don't use technical charts. What I understand are the incentives of different people and entities active in the economics arena. For example, there is no such thing as an incentive to serve with life in the aggregate. In the aggregate, only self interest applies. It is routinely assumed otherwise. That is highly unappealing. But, I am sorry. That is the way it is. I can accept that because I am genuinely in touch with reality. Step one in using Fantasy Free Economics is for me to understand just how little I really know. A highly credentialed economist may know 100 times what I do based on the standard dogma. Compare the knowledge each of us has compared to all there is to know and we both look like we know nothing at all. There is always more than we don't know than what we do know. I am humble enough to present myself on that basis. Why? That is the way it is. I am not bad at math. I have taught math. What I understand is when to use it and when to rely on something else. Math is useless in natural law so I don't use it. While others look at numbers, I am busy understanding the forces in nature that makes their numbers what they are. That gives me a clear advantage.