David McElroy

making sense of a dysfunctional culture

statism

People who invoke ‘fairness’ generally just mean, ‘Do things my way — or else’

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One of the most insidious tools in the collectivist toolbox is the one called “fairness.” When someone in a political or financial situation tells you to “be fair,” you generally need to hold onto your money really tightly.

Fairness is one of those concepts that we learn as children and that everybody can agree is a good thing. The problem starts when some people get the arrogant notion that they should be the artibers of what’s fair — instead of the people who would otherwise be on the two sides of a mutual agreement.

People also use the word to intimidate people into agreeing with them. An example that irritates me is that of some non-profit organizations — most notably United Way, in my experience — pre-define the amount of money they say you should give to them as your “fair share.” I refuse to give to an agency such as that, and I’ve had a couple of confrontations with bosses in the distant past when they tried to intimidate me by saying that I was keeping a department or a company from having “100 percent participation.” This type of thing is implied extortion in which your boss and an agency collude to take money out of your pocket. But at least it’s still your choice in that case.

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I have no ‘duty’ to vote, even if I agree with you about freedom

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As most Americans gear up to pay attention to another presidential campaign season, I’m once again hearing an argument that’s been around for a long time. Does every U.S. citizen have a duty to vote?

It’s long been a staple of “good government types” that everyone has a responsibility to be an informed citizen and then to vote on election day. Newspaper editorialists who’ve run out of actual things to editorialize about are fond of writing a piece (right before election day) about the duty to vote. I seem to recall that I’ve written such editorials a time or two in the distant past when I was an editor, although I did once write a controversial column asking ignorant people not to vote. But that’s another story entirely.

The argument I’m hearing right now, though, is from freedom-loving people who argue that libertarians and others who desire freedom have a duty to go to the polls and vote for the candidate who they think is most likely to bring about liberty. Well-meaning liberty-lovers frequently insist that the rest of us have such a duty.

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When politicians insist the ‘war on drugs’ is working, they’re just following majoritarian incentives

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I frequently tell people not to blame politicians for the problems they see in democratic governments. Instead, I suggest that they blame the voters, because the voters are the ones who insist that politicians lie to them — if they want to be elected.

There’s a new report from a group of “former world leaders” that admits that the “war on drugs” doesn’t work. (Download the full report here if you care.) Most people among my friends will look at this and think that it means these former world leaders are just being hypocritical to notice the truth now that they’re not in power, but that would be missing the bigger point entirely.

The real point is that human beings follow incentives. If a person has political ambitions, he can’t allow himself to notice the truth about the “war on (some) drugs.” If he understands the truth, he might accidentally say the truth — and telling the truth about something this emotional with the voters will result in his defeat. When you’re part of a majoritarian system, you have an incentive to agree with the voters, not seek truth.

It’s true that politicians carry out the will of the majority — at least a form of it that’s filtered through a bizarre and unseemly process. But it’s majoritarian ignorance and emotion that is to blame for the things that get carried out. Don’t just blame the politicians. Blame the statist system that gives the majority the power to force its will on the rest of us. Just changing the names and faces of the people operating the machinery of the state isn’t going to change anything.

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