Boulders in a river
Recently, somebody pointed out a survey (warning: PDF) by The Strategic Council and sponsored by The Globe and Mail and CTV. The results of the poll seem to me to be fairly neutral, with most sides being able to find something to point at as positive. There is a leaning that favours the party that is currently in power, which is normal.
It's not the results that were of real interest to me, though. One of the questions caught my eye as having the appearance of push polling. I'm not sure this kind of push was even realized when the question was posed, given the political bias of the sponsors of the poll.
The question was this: "Which one of the political parties do you think is best able to manage the economy?" (page 11)
This question is highly leading, with a lot of assumed answers preceding it. Does the economy need to be "managed"? Does government management add value to the economy? Does any government do a good job of managing economy?
Governments "manage" their economies much in the same way as boulders "manage" a river. Since governments do not and can not create value by themselves, they can only operate by taking value out of their economies. The "management" they provide usually amounts to obstacles and impediments against one form of activity or another, much as boulders provide impediments to the flow of a river. Put in enough boulders, and the result is the river slowing down to a trickle, and the plants the river feeds will die.
There's another side to that too. Rivers don't just trickle between boulders put in their paths. Given enough obstacles, they will start to flow around the obstacles, making new paths and streams, rendering the obstacles ineffective once again and washing out unexpected areas. In much the same way, virtually everything done to "manage" an economy has unintended consequences that spill over into other areas. People will try to route around impediments to their economic goals through tax evasion, black markets, and other illegal activities. Government incentives and impediments will also have unintended consequences, like some of the mass shifts of companies into income trusts to avoid taxes.
Sadly, this poll did not appear have an answer that is the most accurate: "None of them."
Bruce on 03.05.07 @ 01:12 PM CST [link] [No Comments]