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Thursday, May 13. 2021

Political QQQ


A general difference between Republicans and modern Democrats is not so much ideological as it is the Democrats' failure to understand human incentive, and human nature in general.


That's a paraphrase of Scott Adams. I'm not sure that it is true, but I get his point.

Posted by The Barrister in Quotidian Quotable Quote (QQQ) at 14:34 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

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They do ignore incentives — the constant complaints about taxes that aren’t sufficiently punitive is a good example — but it’s not a failure to “understand”.

The left ignores incentives because they seek to impose their will on people. Saying they don’t “understand” implies that if only they could be enlightened they would probably agree with us, because we share common notives about what is good. Not the case at all.

Scott is great but he’s woefully naive about Progressivism.
#1 Jeff Brokaw (Link) on 2021-05-13 16:48 (Reply)
You made exactly my point.

Authoritarians don't care about people's incentives because they don't care about people as a whole.

When decade after decade a government program worsens the condition it was supposedly intended to cure, authoritarians never apologize or change direction. They just take more power then use that power to implement additional programs again with no regard to their actual efficacy.

That's because these programs are in reality highly effective once one understands that their desired effect is to gain yet more power.
#1.1 Old Dude on 2021-05-13 17:11 (Reply)
The fundamental difference between "progressives" and "conservatives" is progressives believe that people are naturally good. Conservatives believe that people are naturally bad.

The second viewpoint is the Biblical one and the way our whole government system and checks and balances works as envisioned by the Framers, to curb the power of those whose bad nature would otherwise be enhanced.
#2 Jim on 2021-05-13 17:25 (Reply)
A fundamental flaw of Communism as practiced everywhere (past, present, future) is the complete failure to take into account human nature. The Left (writ large) suffers from the same fatal flaw in its reasoning, world view, and policy prescriptions.
#3 PCB on 2021-05-13 21:06 (Reply)
Free markets recognize and work with human incentive, and human nature. That's why Free Markets systems work and create better lifestyles for people.

Marxist systems do not understand human incentive, and human nature in general, and as designed works against them. That's why Marxism has failed every time it has been tried.
#4 Bill Adams (Link) on 2021-05-14 15:30 (Reply)

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