The Illusion of Politics

From:

http://kunstler.com/blog/2013/02/not-so-smart.html

The Illusion of Politics

I was reading that Belgium was without a government for 2 years or so and their economy actually got better: that makes me think at how little governments, politics and laws really influence the economy, it seems to be mostly an imaginary mind game, imaginary battle lines over laws and regulations and rules that are supposed to have this or that effect on the economy and such. But mostly all of these changing of rules and laws really is hiding the fact that someone, some group wants to gain an advantage against some other group, someone wants to change the rules to grab more and take it away from someone else who will lose according to the new rules and such (politics is always a win lose situation even though everyone wants to make you believe that it is all for the common good, a win win situation and such and you can also see the diminishing returns - effects of politics and laws in time, in the beginning of the 20th century, maybe it was a win win situation, maybe the gains were evenly distributed (but also because the economies grew and technology was constantly increasing the standards of living, now that free lunch is finished and over with, now we are left with ever growing number of laws and complexity and a constant win lose situation, a constant situation where you have to share a decreasing pie (but the pie is decreasing because the conflicts amongst people are increasing, not because wealth is really decreasing, nay, wealth is actually constantly increasing) and such)): like the "new labor laws" they all want to shove down the throats of Spain, Italy and Greece, they want to make it easier to fire (so that they can hire more easily) but what it really wants is to give the richer people, the bosses, those that can hire more power and freedom to do whatever they want and such and punish the workers and such, a win lose situation, all making believe that it is all for the "common good", everyone will win since the market becomes more flexible and such: nothing further from the truth, there are no jobs and people don't hire other people in these crappy countries (and all countries mostly) because there is nothing left to do for so many people that is worth the effort, there is no profit in most activities anymore, the entire model of work, of doing something for someone else and getting paid is no longer valid, is obsolete, since very few activities give any kinds of returns anymore, hence work is no longer needed, is disappearing and such.

Just like the diminishing returns of Information, or Thought, or Debates and so forth, information is now or in the future going to be worth zero, because it is a dime a dozen, the internet can channel any amount of information (books, movies, TV shows, etc.) to anyone for free, no matter what, all kinds of activities based on information creation will have no profit anymore, will be worth zero, it is all free hence worth zero. All of the thoughts and debates and conflicts, imaginary conflicts really are just imaginary wars and such, imaginary constructions in people's minds fighting each other with no real material substance, all denotations like macro economy theories and the the numbers and statistics, the fights dealing with education and who is to blame for this or that, the fights over mexicans coming and "robbing jobs" and such, all large scale constructions, imaginary constructions that have no real connection to what happens on the ground since what happens on the ground will always be point like events, simple action - reactions and so forth, simple forces playing out according to all kinds of intractable impulses, events and actions and reactions and going anywhere at all disregarding all debates, and thoughts, and new laws passed and so forth.

So all the debates and thoughts and efforts in politics is just one huge imaginary construction for the most part, just like religions, just a huge time occupier, or better just an example of excess capacity of the mind compared to those few simple puny activities it really needs to survive and such.

Anyways, politics and 60 % of "new" laws have mostly a negative to effect to most people, most changes seem to always be for the worst, maybe 30 % of the new laws and changes don't do anything and maybe only 10 to 20 % of most laws and changes have any benefit or contribute to the "common good" and such, hence it is better that no changes happen at all, no new laws are passed at all, no government at all is better than any government, and in fact Belgium's economy grew with no government, with no changes in effect: and then this imaginary myth that the governments control everything or have all this power and such: the actions of governments are so feeble these days, are so weakly coupled to most activities it is incredible that so much attention is given to such a small cause, to something almost irrelevant in the end and such.

The action of governments and politics is so weakly coupled to any effects because:

1) How laws are coupled to effects is very vague, intractable, you never know what reactions, what loopholes people will find to overcome a law or avoid a law and such;

2) The laws may have no effect at all, or may have an opposite effect that you cannot foresee and such.

The entire myth that something as complex and intractable as the economy can be manipulated by new laws and regulations, by changing rules is an act of faith: most laws probably have no effect at all, some or probably most will have a negative effect, and probably a very few may help the "economy grow", since all these new fangled laws are desperately trying to make the economy grow to pay back past debts made when the economy was growing (actually was inflating bubbles and inflating property prices, as much growth just means hike up house prices as much as possible to establish, confirm and lock in a standard quo, to lock in the gains that the first buyers and the first ones made against all the future generation, in other words, high property prices are a lock on any real flexibility of an economy, are an iron fist lock and wall against poorer people ever being able to have access to homes, it is a power structure to force the weaker to pay ever more for a basic need, but all the economists chant that high home prices are good for the economy go figure).

Vlad and others on this blog are always talking about rascism, who is better and worse, who deserves more or less, the blacks, the jews the mexicans and such: why don't you all just say, I am better than all, end of story, who cares about all the reasons and justifications, why do you even need any justifications ? why does it have to even be right or wrong ? who cares for right or wrong, why are you pretending that there is some objective box where the truth is and we all must abide to some objective, abstract truth and such: well who cares, I invent my own truth, nay, I will just do anything I want, I could care less if it is right or wrong, justified or not, the past histories, the facts and all else, it is all irrelevant, just do anything you want, all these hugely long debates and constructions trying to find moral, historical and whatever else justifications to confirm one population superior to another is so irrelevant, who cares, even if it is true (or false) it is all irrelevant, useless, can simply be assigned a zero value for fun, just because, and such. In the end it all boils down to a simple fight: A against B, A wins B loses, end of story, a one bit universe, a one transitor circuit.

why does it have to be justified by racism or histories or other moral justifications ? just say I want this, I'll do this, end of story, I don't have to justify anything to anyone or anything since it is all irrelevant, indifferent, I just do whatever I want, arbitrarily, I need no justifications and such.

And rhino boy and hard work: you mean the hard work is the hard work other people oppose, oppose your work, the hard work is other people, not the work or the real tasks at hand, they can be done in a jiffy, a dime a dozen, it is all very easy, it is people that make things hard, people create work by creating problems creating complications, by being stupid and acting stupid, by creating interdictions and contrasts and opposing your will power and such, the hard work is the "fight" always needing to "fight" other people and such.

So the hard work is mostly the hard work others make you do by opposing their will power, the work is hard, nay the work exists only because other people force you to work as by constructing roadblocks, interdictions, by forcing you to exert ever more effort to obtain something and such: and yet this is another contradictory quirk of a Technological Economy: since most real work, most of the basics are licked, then the only other kind of work that can be created is by making people fight each other, by making people work against each other and such: when you needed people in a factory or in an activity based on a lower technology level, you actually needed those people to fight reality, the laws of physics, the real interdictions and limitations reality opposed you as when people needed to repair TV sets, you were fighting the circuits and not the software like today (and in fact the evolution from hardware to software exactly reflects this evolution from real necessities, hard necessities, hard work agains matter, to fake necessities and hard work against other people and their will powers, the social crap, the arbitrary, non necessary, random opposition to events that other will powers can oppose you just because, just to actually create work, like a technological economy will create ever more fake work, ever more conflicts, debates and fights, the less we have to conflict and fight matter and reality and the real necessities and basics).

Anyways Electrification is only 120 years old or so, so much advancing in so little time, that huge advancement that happened in 150 years or so from the 18th century towards the 20th century made people believe and expect in ever more advances, progress, growth (this is the origins of the "Economic Growth" myth) and possibilities to go forward and such but that game is over now, that one time quirk where everything - most of the fundamental basics have been discovered and applied and created huge economies of scale and huge possibilities of new jobs and hiring is over and done now: now we have to remain in a steady state situation where everything will become choices, politics, debates, conflicts and such, now we have to decide how to apply the power we have and such.

And in order to go forward we need free salaries and cheap rents and rockets to mars and such.




GURU