Change You Can Believe In
03-Oct-08
Well, the House just served the American public with a $700 billion crap sandwich with $170 billion side of pork.
So, how did Obama, champion of change, friend of the little guy, vote?
He voted for it, of course.
And twisted the arms of Congressional Black Caucus members–who originally voted against it–to change their vote.
McCain’s behavior was even worse.
But McCain doesn’t inspire beautiful delusions. Few expect anything but more of the same from him.
But Obama? Many Democrats believe that if only one of their guys, the good guys, got into power, things would be different.
And it’s true, the performance of government does depend to some extent on the competence of the person in office.
But the root problem isn’t Bush. Or McCain. Or Obama. Nor our Congressmen and women. I wager if you spent much time around our leaders, you’d discover that most of them truly believe in what they do, are reasonably good people, and are trying to do the right thing.
Our government leaders performs poorly due to the perverse incentives they face. And as long as those incentives remain, no matter who you feed into the grinder, you’ll still get a crap sandwich at the end.
So if you want change you can believe in, you have to change the systemic incentives.
Until then, please enjoy your sandwich.