Liberals have no business making attack ads

Below is the most recent ad from the Liberal Party, attacking Stephen Harper for the "Fake Lake" for the G20 Summit. I've been hearing the voiceover on the radio many times per day recently as I listen at work. After hearing it a few times, I actually began to think about it--so in a sense, the advertisement worked.


[from Liberal.ca]

First off, I'm completely and utterly annoyed with practically everything Harper does as PM, and I cannot think of one single thing to do with the G20/G8 meetings that I support him on. Furthermore, from listening to talk radio at work the last week or so, I can't think of a single person I heard call into any of the shows to support "Fake Lake" or much of anything to do with the meetings either, and even the seemingly conservative-leaning hosts haven't had anything good to say about the Summit expenditures themselves.

With that in mind, the Liberals are not advertising Harper's boondoggle in order to raise awareness, or to get a point across about the validity of the expense(s). It is purely an effort to attack the opposition on one of its mistakes. And therein lies the problem.

For one, I think that if you polled Canadians, asking us if we think the Liberals would have spent similarly outrageous amounts of money to host these ridiculous meetings, most of us would say yes. The fact that the public probably does not believe that the Liberal Party would have done things fundamentally different indicates that there is a sense of hypocrisy in the ad. Perhaps they genuinely believe over at Liberal headquarters that they would have tightened the purse-strings--such naivety should no more be rewarded than the inherent hypocrisy of the ad.

Secondly, I don't accept the discourse of modern politics which avoids philosophy and focuses on singular events, which avoids root causes and focuses on symptoms. There is a root problem with the Harper government that is in the philosophy of its members. That money was squandered on a stupid pond is symptomatic of this philosophical underlying problem. Had money been thrown away one time because of a mistake in judgment that was consistent with a sound philosophy of governance, I believe it could and should be overlooked, to a reasonable extent. And this draws us back to the first point: the Liberals also suffer from a lack of sound philosophy which manifests itself in unique symptomatic errors. Maybe instead of a pond, they would have wasted millions on some other boondoggle. But because the two parties share the same affliction, we can be sure they will both exhibit similar symptoms, even if we can't forecast what those symptoms might have been had the other party been in charge.

Thirdly, even if the attack was not hypocritical, it's horrible discourse. If the Liberals were worth voting for, I wouldn't be writing about philosophy today because they would put out an ad that carried that message to the people themselves. They would differentiate themselves from the Conservatives at a philosophical level instead of at the symptomatic level--practically, the superficial level. They would point out the difference in their views on government and explain how such manifestations as a phony lake would be inconceivable if they were running the show.

Clearly, this is not the case. The Liberals and Conservatives share a common ideology underneath their rhetoric. I guess the moral fo the story here is that when political allies are trying to draw attention to how different they are from one another, the people should always remember to take notice of the opposite, how very similar they really are.

Ann Coulter vs. Human Rights

I don't know anything about Ann Coulter. I have seen her on TV for maybe 5 minutes, and I've heard of the titles of a couple of her books. Other than that, I just know of the occasional controversial quote the media pundits pick at for a few days. She seems to be a religious and political nut, but I'm in no position to make that judgment.

She should be able to say any nutty thing that she wants to: hateful, disrespectful, idiotic, etc.

Believing that you're right, and being unwilling to open the issue up to discussion is just saying "fuck off" to anyone who happens to disagree with you. How does that encourage people to open their minds, let alone change them? The way we deal with these people today is to institute oppressive laws, to vilify the individuals and to treat their ideas as taboo and "just plain wrong". When we vilify them automatically for their ideas, we're pushing them into a defensive position that causes them to strengthen their resolve on the ideas even more than if we just ignored them and let them be. When we decide an exchange of ideas is no longer necessary, we can expect good speech to be limited as well, and that only helps the spread of bad ideas.

We should be doing the opposite. We should focus on the ideas and not the individuals. The bad speech should be drowned out by good speech. The debate should be open and accessible for all, so that any listeners should never have to rely on the bad speech they hear as the only speech they hear. The answer to bad speech is more speech.

Beyond that, we should enthusiastically engage the individuals who hold these unacceptable views, and offer them the chance to share their ideas with us and to listen to ours. When we invite them into an intellectual discourse, we're inviting them to share our viewpoint and to change--or at least to be less hateful to those of us who see things differently.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant; we should be bringing bad ideas to the forefront, exposing them as flawed and offering our peers an opportunity to change their minds. Isn't that better than "fuck off"?

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A little off-topic but shares my broad concept of the free market of ideas: watch Penn Says: Love of Truth and a Little Bullshit. I believe it's not only bad--intellectually bad--for people to believe in bullshit and not engage in the free market of ideas, it's also intellectually wrong to believe in something so obviously right and close the door on exchange of ideas. Al Gore likes to say, "the debate is over"; the debate should never be over.

"When you announce that you believe in something that you feel but you can't prove, you're just saying "fuck off" to everyone who doesn't happen to feel that....Questioning things that others have faith in is just another way of saying, "I'd like to share this feeling with you, give me something we can test in this world we agree to share." -Penn Jillette

Representation

I'm very troubled by the way government works to pass laws. The US health care reform was a great example of that. Forget the backroom deals, the hundreds upon hundreds of pages of legalese that nobody actually read, the reconciliation process and all the rest of the ugly mess that is democracy in action in the US Congress.

I'm annoyed to see a divided issue like this settled with growth in government. The issue of health care was fairly evenly split. There was a slight favour among people towards not passing the bill, but let's just call it even for all intents and purposes here. The Congress is made up of representatives, including the aptly named, House of Representatives. Supposedly, democratic government is all about representing "the people". But when an issue is divided as the health care issue is in the US, how do you possibly represent the people? Half want more government, half want less. The Congress cannot represent the people's will with either an increase or decrease of government intrusion, nor can the even keep it the same or balance it out.

The conventional wisdom would be to compromise. Both sides can choose their battles and both can get some benefit from compromising, so goes the theory. But even for the sensible tone and spirit of working together, compromise is ridiculous. That compromise is the solution assumes that both sides have equal legitimacy (turning issues into only two-sided affairs is a bit simplistic, but it's for simplicity's sake). Both sides aren't equally legitimate. If some people want more government, they need to impose their will on those people who do not want more government. Those wanting less government are not imposing their will on anybody to achieve that goal, they are merely deferring to private contract any additional particulars that the 'more-government' people might like to have. And what's more, even just keeping things the same, which seems like the reasonable thing to do in most cases, is in fact illegitimate versus reducing government. Once again, to keep things the same means to impose your will on those who want less government burden.

This brings up a lot of questions now about when a suitable majority is reached. If 75% of people want more government, then certainly they have a sufficiently-large majority over the rest to enact their goals, right? Well, for me that is certainly false. Nobody has the right to impose his or her will on another person, no matter how many people agree with him/her, or how few people agree with the minority. With 99% of people desiring one thing, the tiny one percent is no less entitled to be free from the majority than if it were 51-49 or even.

For the purposes of this blog, I don't need to get into this issue though. My point is that we should at the very least be discussing what a suitable majority is. For people like me, it is 100%, and though others might disagree with that, would they disagree that a representative government has to have the support of more than just 51%? 60? 70? 80? I hope most people would concede that 51% is not sufficient.

On the second point, it bothers me that the margins of success were so small in both chambers of the Congress on the health care reform. For the House, a body of 435 members, the vote was decided by less than ten votes--approximately 1.5% won the day! We may not be able to accurately determine public opinion on any given issue. Due to the fact that health care reform was high profile, multiple polls were conducted to help us get a reasonable estimate of where the people stood. On smaller issues, and other more technocratic issues on which many people will not be well-informed and which the media are uninterested in, such polling may never take place. In these cases, it's expected that the voter's have elected the right person to cast the right vote. And again, is 51% support enough to justify a law that burdens 100% of the people? I don't think so.

This also brings up a corollary with regards to repealing laws. If, for argument's sake, we determined a 75% super-majority to be necessary to pass a new law, shouldn't we similarly require only a 25% minority to vote favourably to repeal an existing law?

To sum up, shouldn't we be tweaking our government processes? Are they really working for us in the spirit of "representational government"?

A touch of irony caught my eye

While checking out some of the day's news on Google I came across a headline, "Students at Queen's Park to protest poverty."

Reacting to the first line of the article, "Hundreds of student protesters...[forced] road closures and traffic snarls for part of the afternoon," I couldn't help but chuckle at the irony.

The way to end poverty is to get out of the way and let entrepreneurs engage in production and trade. Forcing road closures and traffic snarls not only effects commerce and trade, but also the quality of life of those whose free time was ruined, which is probably more important. Afterall, we work so that we can produce a more enjoyable standard of living, not just for the sake of production.

I could have just let it go with a chuckle over the irony had these students been addressing serious solutions to poverty (of which we in Canada really know nothing about, but I digress...). Instead, the protests were pushing predictable ideas of more government interference in the wealth-producing private sector in order to redistribute funds.


The article goes on to mention that the students were also concerned about rising unemployment and rising tuition set against the backdrop of the current recession. The students are concerned about their futures, and for good reason. If only they understood about the debt they are inheriting, they would have far more reason for concern about the future. My one-year old niece is on the hook for $15,000 of federal government debt, just waiting for her in the coming years. And due to the policies of the same government, I have trouble forming an optimistic outlook for the job market she will be participating in.

We are on the verge of discovering what real poverty is all about. Thankfully, Canada hosts a great deal of opportunity with the vast resources that could be put to good use in a free market. If only we let the private sector produce wealth, it will pull us all higher.

The Flames should be vaccinated

An uproar has resulted from Calgary Flames players and their families receiving preferential treatment in receiving h1N1 flu shots while many Albertans were turned away due to a shortage of the vaccine. Other stories tell of the Flames' farm team, the Heat, receiving shots at an undisclosed clinic.

No one should be surprised to hear of such things happening. But there are important points to consider here. First, there is a shortage of the vaccine. Whether it is Dion Phaneuf or John Q. Public who is turned away by the shortage is moot. In the sense that there wasn't a random selection, or some discerning criteria for selection, it is very troubling to see a group of people given the shots instead of another group, the regular Joes that stood outside public vaccination clinics only to be turned away. But in general, I feel no better or worse knowing that the limited group of people receiving the treatment were of one group or another.

What bothers me about this situation is that free market principles would have enabled the Flames to pay for vaccination according to high market prices (induced by the shortage). But instead we reject market principles because it seems unfair to allocate resources through free transactions. But I ask those who cringe at the thought of the wealthy buying up vaccines, is it any less troubling to watch a shortage affect the wealthy than the poor? At least if the market forces were at play, there would be some additional revenue to speak of which could be reinvested to produce more vaccine. And when shortages cause prices to be bid up in the market, it signals entrepreneurs to invest in the activity and provide the product so that they can get a cut of the action.

Instead the government wants to ration out the vaccine according to certain criteria and otherwise to random selection (or first come, first served). While putting a price on health care seems cold, there is no moral high ground to random selection. This is particularly so when we consider the harmful effects of government supply mismanagement and disinterest in maximizing revenues that could be reinvested into ongoing production of the vaccine.

Just think, the Flames could have been vaccinated AND there could have been a profit to encourage further production of the vaccine to counter the shortage.

Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice

The following discussion between Ron Paul and Larry King touched on one of the most intellectually bankrupt arguments employed by many who are unwilling to do serious thought. King recalled, "Lyndon Johnson once said, 'The probable answer is that a government is going to have to be half-capitalistic and half-socialistic.'" This argument can be stated in many different ways, as promoting balance, as an objection to extremism, etc. Of course, these are all just platitudes with no real thought behind them.

Such ideas as balance and moderation sound good. Humans seek to avoid conflict and controversy (most of us, anyway) and so many are willing to accept a balance, or compromise, as being desirable. Furthermore, we accept the concept of moderation in nature and biology. e.g. It's good to let your kids get dirty and build up their immune systems, but it's also good to teach them good hygiene. It's good to get some vitamin A, but not too much. etc. ad infinitum.

Around the same time Johnson was making such empty remarks, Barry Goldwater famously said, "Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue, and extremism in defense of liberty is no vice." Now there is a well-reasoned statement.

Theoretical concepts like liberty and market intervention do not work the way that many other things work in biology and other sciences. There is a real provable reason why a balance of vitamin A is optimal vs. avoiding it altogether or taking it in abundance. A dietitian didn't just come up with the answer that moderation is best, nor did he just make up what constitutes moderation. Actual thinking and experimental science went into showing why it is so.

On the other hand, pursuing a balance between government and liberty confronts both philosophical and scientific problems. Those pursuing moderation have either failed to address either of these problems, or they have failed in their study of history and philosophy to understand their error.


(Ron Paul on Larry King Live [29/10/2009] following Michael Moore)

Just admit the free market works!

To all those out there complaining about the rise of the Canadian dollar, or to those in the US insisting that a lower dollar is beneficial: admit that the free market works!

Monetary values are driven by a few different factors. Supply and demand, of course, being the core function. In the past, demand for the US dollar was predicated on a false notion of security; that the US was home to the freest market and the strongest economy. Something a self-fulfilling prophecy has been propping up this perception for quite some time now since the fall of the Bretton Woods agreement, and certainly since the asset bubbles of the past 15 years.

When money creation is coupled with production, the demand for a currency can be retained. In a sound money economy, production increases over time (think electronics for the simplest example) as the money supply remains constant. This means that higher quality goods are produced in higher quantities, and the prices actually drop as supply is driven up against a constant money supply. But when dollars are produced by fiat at the printing press, the incentive to produce is weakened. Afterall, the inflation of the money supply will not be immediately felt, rather prices throughout the economy will be gradually bid up by consumers with more currency in their pockets. In the meantime, with more dollars and therefore better [temporary] purchasing power to buy foreign goods, it becomes cheaper to import than to produce at home. Why work harder to grow production when you've got more dollars and a higher purchasing power on others' production?

Of course, what happens over time is that prices are bid up to the extent that any increased purchasing power is wiped out as a new equilibrium is found. Now, with the dollar no longer beign stronger, it's time to go back to work and produce. And in fact, the foreigners now hold the dollars you spent to get their goods, so they have a stronger purchasing power and can have their turn at sitting back and waiting for the fruits of your labour to arrive at their doorsteps.

This is not the way it really works in global trade. Over the past many years, the US has convinced foreigners to accept their dollars for real production, and then to not spend those dollars, but rather invest them back into the American economy. This has created the bubble we are not even close to putting behind us.

But what if there were no increase in the money supply? China still has a relatively poor population compared to the people of the US. Their labour still would have been cheaper and would have produced goods that could compete for American dollars. The reason why a weak dollar is incorrectly perceived as a good thing is because it encourages exports, i.e. it ensures more jobs in production. A weaker dollar is the same as a lower wage, when it comes to the global marketplace. If Canadians have a strong dollar, it means we have a bigger wage to spend in the global market. If Americans have a weak dollar, it means they have lower wages. The problem is that in our current economies, dollar values are set by central bankers not the market.

Canadian manufacturers who are clamoring for a weaker dollar are in fact clamoring for a lower wage, plain and simple. Instead of having each labour group bargain its own wages with each management group, we have a monolithic central bank setting the price level. Unfortunately, that is not going to be enough, the bank cannot meet everyone's demands and find a common equilibrium. Only through the market can this be achieved.