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This is true, but not the whole story. Many, if not most, political decisions are not determined based on logic alone, but at least partly on values. Because of

This is true, but not the whole story. Many, if not most, political decisions are not determined based on logic alone, but at least partly on values. Because of this, it's possible for two different, rational people to both reason correctly from the same data yet arrive at different conclusions. For example, amongst economists there is no question that outsourcing work or production overseas is a net benefit to the economy. If this were the entire discussion, then we'd all go home now happy. However, there is an additional level of argument that can only be addressed through one's moral system and values, which differs from person to person. Some people would say that although this outsourcing does help society as a whole, it also harms a small number of people whose jobs go overseas, and that in recompense for this benefit to the rest of us, we owe the now-unemployed some help. The truth of that, and the size of any aid that it implies, is not something we can get to through purely rational argument.

anigbrowl 17y ago
I partly agree, but this, like the original article, assumes that politicians act as free agents once elected - that is, vote according only to their own best analysis of the situation. However, most political calculus is colored heavily by the question of how it will play with voters via the media. To take your outsourcing example, it is indeed the case that outsourcing is likely to leave everyone better off overall, and individual negative effects could be mitigated with careful planning. But if a large part of your electorate believes in the lump of labor fallacy, and your opponent's campaign team is happy to perpetuate this mistaken belief while dismissing your attempts to foster local economic alternatives as pork-barrel spending, then the arguments in your re-election campaign are rapidly headed for lowest-common-denominator territory. I made a resolution this past new year to give up my hobby of arguing politics on the internet and have (mostly) stuck with it, by the simple expedient of blocking a few websites whose signal-noise ratio had long since gone to the dogs. I have no idea how politicians deal with the daily tide of incoming phone calls, emails, faxes and so on, beyond hiring thick-skinned secretarial staff. Not that I'm shedding tears for the political class, who in many cases choose to concentrate on the game at the expense of the results, but it's kind of amazing that anything gets done. I don't think it's a problem of scale (eg the size of the federal government); I see the exact same problems at the municipal level.
- CWuestefeld 17y ago
  this, like the original article, assumes that politicians act as free agents once elected Based on my observations of political behavior immediately preceding elections, in comparison with behavior of those same politicians following the elections, I assert that most of the time they do act as free agents.
  - eru 17y ago
    I guess they are just acting at different time scales.

anigbrowl 17y ago

I partly agree, but this, like the original article, assumes that politicians act as free agents once elected - that is, vote according only to their own best analysis of the situation. However, most political calculus is colored heavily by the question of how it will play with voters via the media. To take your outsourcing example, it is indeed the case that outsourcing is likely to leave everyone better off overall, and individual negative effects could be mitigated with careful planning. But if a large part of your electorate believes in the lump of labor fallacy, and your opponent's campaign team is happy to perpetuate this mistaken belief while dismissing your attempts to foster local economic alternatives as pork-barrel spending, then the arguments in your re-election campaign are rapidly headed for lowest-common-denominator territory. I made a resolution this past new year to give up my hobby of arguing politics on the internet and have (mostly) stuck with it, by the simple expedient of blocking a few websites whose signal-noise ratio had long since gone to the dogs. I have no idea how politicians deal with the daily tide of incoming phone calls, emails, faxes and so on, beyond hiring thick-skinned secretarial staff. Not that I'm shedding tears for the political class, who in many cases choose to concentrate on the game at the expense of the results, but it's kind of amazing that anything gets done. I don't think it's a problem of scale (eg the size of the federal government); I see the exact same problems at the municipal level.

CWuestefeld 17y ago
this, like the original article, assumes that politicians act as free agents once elected Based on my observations of political behavior immediately preceding elections, in comparison with behavior of those same politicians following the elections, I assert that most of the time they do act as free agents.
- eru 17y ago
  I guess they are just acting at different time scales.