I don’t think balanced means “in the middle.” Someone can espouse a solution to a problem that is extremely liberal or extremely conservative and still have a b

I don’t think balanced means “in the middle.” Someone can espouse a solution to a problem that is extremely liberal or extremely conservative and still have a balanced viewpoint. I consider somone to have a balanced point of view if they can recognize that all solutions have tradeoffs, frankly discuss the tradeoffs of different solutions, and argue why their proposed solution is the most attractive option. I think it is also important to recognize how sure we are about the effects of different things. Some things we are very sure about. Others (like predicting market reactions to government policy), less so. The world is complex and any argument that isn’t complex probably isn’t balanced. As an example, if I ask someone what their least favorite part of their favorite programming language is and they say, “nothing, it’s perfect,” I can safely assume they are a partisan idiot. One can believe an extreme programming language like Elm is the best solution available and still have a balanced view of it.