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11/27/2008: "Imbalanced Balance"

Many times, when political issues are discussed in the news, you will hear politicians and pundits declare that they are seeking to find a balance in resolving the issue.

This is complete whitewash.

Invariably, the two "sides" to the issue that are presented involve doing little on one side, and doing too much on the other. Notice I didn't say doing "too little". When government decides to change their involvement in an issue, it's normally a question of how much more they are going to do. Doing nothing is effectively never even put up for discussion.

Given how much the state is involved in nearly every issue, the idea of it doing less should be up for discussion. However, heaven forbid any politician should ever bring that up. It's practically a political death sentence, for all but a small minority.

So, when the balance being sought is between doing a little and doing a lot, be sure that no matter what kind of balance is struck, the state will be larger than before. This can mean a number of things, but it usually involves more bureauracy, more laws, and more police or more policing in one way or another.

It also means more taxes. More of your money getting sucked away from productive measures to satisfy those bureaucrats who have a burning desire to be seen as "doing something"... and it's your money their desire is burning.

This is somewhat like the negotiation strategy of demanding far more than you really want to get, knowing full well that the other side will be forced to negotiate down to somewhere in the middle anyways. The difference in this case is that no matter what they ask for, it will be more than before, and any illusion of a balance between two sides is just that -- an illusion.