Everyone is looking for a loophole. Often, one is found. This is why it is hard to fix social problems with policy.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Loopholes
This has nothing to do with anything local, but someone gave me a copy of the Lancaster Farming newspaper, and on the front was the photo below. Tradition and culture forbid the Amish to use tractors, but they have a horse-drawn contraption that has an engine and a PTO so they can run a modern round baler or other modern implements. I have also heard that some Amish sects can use modern tractors as long as they have steel wheels. So you might see a brand new John Deere combine with steel wheels on it, which is just bizarre to us outsiders.
Everyone is looking for a loophole. Often, one is found. This is why it is hard to fix social problems with policy.
Everyone is looking for a loophole. Often, one is found. This is why it is hard to fix social problems with policy.
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4 comments:
Part of the problem is that even when the use of loopholes is discovered politicians don't have the nerve to close them.
Policies always have unintended consequences. Maybe Plato was right when he recommended that politicians serve for life so they don't have to worry about being re-elected.
DIY I disagree. I see your point about not having to fundraise and pay back the moneyed interests with expensive decisions (expensive to taxpayers), but incumbents are arrogant and abuse their power. Look at the supreme court.
WTH don't they just retire ?! Seriously. 95 year olds working in this important position? Intolerably selfish and egotistical.
We can solve that by putting in a mandatory retirement age.
Today we have a global problem in the political arena of short time horizons and screwed up incentives. Politicians have exploited to the hilt the borrowing of money to spend on projects garnering votes. Long term promises have been made that can't be kept to regain office in the short run.
Speaking of the propensity of politicians to push costs to the next administration, next generation, etc., the millennials who are stuck paying for the current round of government overspending have one of the most lax work ethics of any generation :-)
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