Wednesday, October 14, 2015

It was pointed out -- by my wife -- that the reason we want government services isn't so that they'll be better --...

It was pointed out -- by my wife -- that the reason we want government services isn't so that they'll be better -- they often aren't -- but so we don't have to use our limited human time and attention on it.

My limited ability to make decisions is absolutely something I value.

4 comments:

  1. It's amazing how much more we get done in life when we don't have to spend all our time acquiring shelter, food, and security.

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  2. Right? Reading historical fiction, and considering the monumental task of trying to both eat less processed foods but also save money, has really brought this to light for me.

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  3. Also, "better" is not a meaningful term, absent context.  You can't optimize without a value measure to optimize to.

    Politicians fall easily for the cheap rhetoric of "Government isn't optimizing to the same measure as corporations are, therefore it is worse than business."

    Similarly, the free market does a crap job of optimizing for a minimum service to everyone in need, because that's not the measure it optimizes.  That doesn't mean that McDonalds is worse than the government.

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  4. Huh, every single response thus far is one I have agreed with.

    Travis Scott I mean, right? And don't forget about clean water.
    Kelley Vanda Oh man, realistic historical fiction. "The sharecropper awoke in his drafty shack, and went to get water from the well. It was filled with poop. He died."
    Tony Lower-Basch This is also true, and gets to a different point: governmental services aren't for the direct use of the wealthy.  Mostly, with exceptions, anyway. They exist for everyone else.

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