Cardinal Richelieu is credited with saying,
“If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.”
Economists are big on doing a cost-benefit analysis. If it costs $10 to make a high-quality Widget which may be sold for $15, the cost-benefit ratio of the activity of making high-quality Widgets is positive and people proceed to make high-quality Widgets. Economists also like the term “shadow,” describing indirect costs or hidden transactions that affect decisions.
The long shadow of government hangs ominously over society. There are many direct costs such as taxes and license fees. Occasionally a benefit exists (I was really fond of police and fire protection when I could get it) but usually not. There is a list of things the government can do for us that we cannot do for ourselves. The problem is how short that list is. Societies reach a point of collapse when that list becomes all-encompassing. There are never enough resources to grant every foolish wish of every uneducated voter.
Woven into our rational and moral wish for a peaceful, functioning society having a positive cost-benefit associated with its organizational form (government), is the underlying assumption that intelligent, honorable, capable and accomplished people are available to serve in various capacities, in and out of government. The basis of this assumption is the existence of an education system at home and in schools which teaches what it means to be intelligent, honorable, capable and accomplished. Still further beneath that prayer is the need for an incentive system that rewards the intelligent, honorable, capable and accomplished for exercising their skills and devoting their time to the safe and wise stewardship of society through the troubled seas of life.
The exact nature of the shadow that chills us all is the specter of being swept up into a regulatory action when one has done no wrong. Regulators operate a protection racket, viewing citizens as temporary custodians of property that actually belongs to the government. People pay taxes and fees and fill out millions of forms hoping to avoid a fatal encounter with The System. If the government sets out to ruin you, it wields awesome power to do so. The consequence, indeed a cost that is never quantified, is that the most capable become unwilling to serve. This extends to all walks of life: The best doctors, architects, engineers, entrepreneurs, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers are never to be seen. If you are good at something but you risk losing all for exercising your skill or art, you tend to not do it. In fact, you do nothing. Expect no high quality Widgets for there are none to be had. Those remaining to operate the levers of society are festooned survivors of an education system that does not teach, all armed with cellphones, all with nothing to lose.
Many people ask: How is it possible, in a country of 350 million souls, that we are offered only the two current presidential candidates?
Please stop asking me this. I am afraid to respond even though I know the answer. I don’t want to take any chances.