Wealth redistribution

Quote: TheCesspit

It's the same problem that causes departments to spend all of their budget, in case they don't get it next year. Which is one of the most brain clenchingly awful things that happens in middle management politics.

Waste it all, so we can get the same amount next year. Gotta love it.

Quote: TheCesspit

I concur, governments spend far too much time passing new laws. I liked it when the minority government up here had to spend more time debating and less time enacting laws. It made for a period of stability. Career Politicians are a boil on the arse of democracy. The sunset laws sound reasonable, but I would have to worry about unintended consequences there... but there is a lot of merit to the idea.

For sure, in our current system, the Sunset would be assimilated to fit the current game. Probably develop a whole new division to handle the work, and constantly get rid of or enact laws depending on which side is in power. I know I can't even keep up with the minor changes in DEC laws every fishing season. Large scale, like laws of a country, would be a disaster.

But some part of that mechanism should be in place. There should be some sort of evaluation done. Most obviously is something like the War on Drugs. Here, the work has already been done. Whether you look at cost vs benefit, rates of recidivism, effect on the populace, affect on the black market, every single part of it is a complete failure and costs $40mmm a year. This is a colossal failure, but it just keeps ticking on. I'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands of laws that fail just as hard. But they keep on keeping on, draining resources, retarding growth, and breaking everything down. It's just common damn sense. Don't matter if it's a garden or a herd of elk or a '97 Toyota Camry or your personal self or, indeed, a government. Adding good is OK. But equal effort must be given to removing the bad. If not, you get stagnation, disintegration, and decay. You get what we have now, and what we are headed for.

Quote: Face

For sure, in our current system, the Sunset would be assimilated to fit the current game. Probably develop a whole new division to handle the work, and constantly get rid of or enact laws depending on which side is in power. I know I can't even keep up with the minor changes in DEC laws every fishing season. Large scale, like laws of a country, would be a disaster.

But some part of that mechanism should be in place. There should be some sort of evaluation done. Most obviously is something like the War on Drugs. Here, the work has already been done. Whether you look at cost vs benefit, rates of recidivism, effect on the populace, affect on the black market, every single part of it is a complete failure and costs $40mmm a year. This is a colossal failure, but it just keeps ticking on. I'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands of laws that fail just as hard. But they keep on keeping on, draining resources, retarding growth, and breaking everything down. It's just common damn sense. Don't matter if it's a garden or a herd of elk or a '97 Toyota Camry or your personal self or, indeed, a government. Adding good is OK. But equal effort must be given to removing the bad. If not, you get stagnation, disintegration, and decay. You get what we have now, and what we are headed for.

Simple division of labor and actually learning the fine points of commitees and delegation. Lets say the Bureau of Indian Affairs wants a reg that says tribes have to keep major roads passing thru their reservations paved to the standards of the rest of the highway system On the committee we would have say a congressman from Laveen, AZ and Olean, NY as they deal with this stuff. The guy from AZ says, "We don't need this law as the tribes out here keep it such that if you didn't see the sign for the reservation you would never know."

The guy from Olean never makes it to DC because his car breaks an axle in a pothole on I-86.............

Seriously, though, there is some weird idea that congress is more "productive" when they pass more bills with more pages. Could be a bill renaming a Post Office, it is passed. Meanwhile people all over are working to comply with a snowstorm of paper from the executive branch agencies. Congress should act more as a Board of Directors, approving management decisions. Instead it is more and more dysfunction.

Since you brought up the DEC...............................


When I was a PCO the DEC passed a chemical reporting law that said all PCOs had to report exactly how much chemical was put into each room in the house and where. Some operators really struggled with it, though the guy said with a wink all they cared about was the room and how and where applied.

It was all because of concerns over breast cancer principly on Long Island. The legislature passed it unanimously. Who could be against stopping breast cancer? But did they do anything with the data? Was there any way to see if you could get a control group? Not really to any of it, the thing was just a law to mandate reporting and generate paper.

There was talk of getting rid of it because there was some kind of statute in NY that you cannot pass unenforceable laws. I didn't last to see what happened, but my bet is it is still in force and by now there is even more reporting and even less you are allowed to do for pest control, despite no proof of any links. Pass a law, get a photo, forget it when you go home.

Quote: link

Almost two-thirds of Chinese with more than 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) in the bank have emigrated, or are planning to, according to research firm Hurun.

I say Capitalism itself is not the virtue of our system, but that Free Enterprise is. Admittedly, the two often get along well together. But that they are not the same thing, as is often claimed, is clear to me, and IMO China is a good example. There you have Communism and Capitalism combining. This combination does have contradictions and conflicts methinks. Rich Chinese are thinking it too, realizing they are vulnerable to 'wealth redistribution' indeed.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/07/10/news/china-corruption/index.html?iid=HP_LN