Categories
Uncategorized

The pursuit of self-interest in goverment

The reason why Capitalism works is that it is based on the pursuit of self-interest in such a way that it benefits society. All people are naturally inclined to pursue their own interests. Therefore, Capitalism works because it is based (among other things) on the natural motivations of people. Systems fail when they do not […]

The reason why Capitalism works is that it is based on the pursuit of self-interest in such a way that it benefits society. All people are naturally inclined to pursue their own interests. Therefore, Capitalism works because it is based (among other things) on the natural motivations of people.

Systems fail when they do not follow the natural motivations of people. For example, government. People in government (politicians) are inclined to pursue their own interest. In theory, this corresponds to the interests of the electorate, but in practice it’s a leaky abstraction. The interests of people in government is to make laws and systems that benefit themselves and give the appearance of benefitting their constituency so that they get reelected. In practice, this is not one and the same. For example, Digital Rights Management benefits politicians, who get compensation from special interests for passing these laws, while DRM does not benefit the electorate. Therefore, DRM passes, which hurts the populace but benefits the politician. But it passes because to the uninformed it gives the appearance of helping the industry. We can’t really blame the politician because he is following his own self-interest, anymore than we can blame the lion for killing the idiot who jumped in the zoo. It’s the system that is broken.

The reason why the Judicial branch works better than the Executive or Legislative branches is because, for a judge, there is less power and thus less self-interest involved. A judge theorectically doesn’t have the power to make laws, only to interpret existing laws. So a judge has less at stake, meaning that it is harder to bribe him or her and you don’t necessarily know which judge will take your case, and even if you bribe one the judge that gets the appeal may not accept your bribe. More people involved in a process tend to give better results than fewer people and people who have different levels of self-interest tend to form a more fair group that one that doesn’t.

Since we only have two effective political parties there are only two sets of self-interested parties. Also, by definition it’s in your own interest to get into Congress (so you can benefit yourself) and it’s easier to get into Congress by being dishonest than by being honest simply because lying works better than telling the truth as long as you don’t get caught. Since only liars win elections it’s no surprise that Congress is full of liars.

So what’s the solution? I think a system of government that would work is one that works best when people follow their own interests, as long as there is transparency of information. Because as soon as you start lying self-interest doesn’t work the same way Capitalism doesn’t work when people lie and cheat.

I’m proposing nearly a true democracy. Eliminate the legislative branch entirely. Instead, ALL laws are drafted and passed through a simple majority vote by those parties that have an interest in the matter. So state laws by state and federal laws by the country. In order to prevent lying, there needs to be a simple framework:

1. Each law up for vote needs to be fully described in the voting pamphlet in a factual and neutral way (think Wikipedia), including how much it will cost you, the long term effects, who it will benefit, who supports the law, etc.
2. There can’t be any voter fraud. This means keeping out qualified voters, cheating at the polls, allowing illegal aliens to vote, etc, a lot of which people claim happened for the Presidential election for G.B. 2nd term.

The judicial system can be kept intact to review and interpret laws that are passed to make sure they are fair and non-contradictory.

The executive branch should be severely curtailed to be solely a figurehead position to represent the country. The populace should be able to kick out the President at any time with a majority vote.

One reply on “The pursuit of self-interest in goverment”

While I agree with your take-home message that most political systems are broken because they do not actually serve the people, I must disagree with many of your fundamental statements.

First of all, capitalism is so broad a term and has so many different meanings that it is hardly worth discussing so generally. But for shits and giggles, I’ll assume that by “capitalism”, you are referring to modern, western-style economic systems (which, by the way, are not actually capitalist but rather mixed economies).

What do you mean when you say that capitalism works? I’m assuming you mean it works better than something else? What?

Where did you get the idea that capitalism is based in any way on the pursuit of self interest? and particularly self interest than benefits society?

Finally, I’m sick of hearing that all people are naturally inclined to pursue their own interests. It’s such a gross oversimplification that it is meaningless. It’s obviously true in the obvious ways – people are “naturally” inclined to not die and so forth. But are people naturally inclined to benefit themselves at all costs? In U.S. society, we are taught to be nearly that selfish but I doubt that people are naturally inclined to be that way. I think people are naturally inclined to be caring, sympathetic and to help others as well as to be selfish and otherwise evil. Think about it. Are you against helping old, poor people? If you are is that really the normal, natural way to feel. I hope not.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *