Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Quote of the Day: Intentions and Results
“One of the greatest mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” — Milton Friedman
One thing the media has harped on with the Democratic presidential candidates that dropped out — especially Elizabeth Warren — is that the intentions of the policies and programs they offered were good. Medicare for All. Free tuition. Disarming ordinary citizens. Intersectionality. All, supposedly, were offered with the best of intentions. Which incidentally, are the paving stones for the road to hell.
The results of these programs or policies if implemented would be execrable. They always are. Takers enslave makers to provide the goods and services offered “free.” Policies intended to make us safer (such as gun control) always have the perverse effect of making things more dangerous. Crime rates are highest in cities with the strictest gun control laws. Policies intended to make things “fair” equally perversely increase unfairness. Generally this is because someone has to measure “fairness” and the power that grants is seductive enough to corrupt anyone.
Results are the reason that while I thought Trump a con-artist in 2016, I will now vote for him in 2020. I strongly mistrusted his character, personality, and intentions. Yet he has delivered on the promises he made in 2016. The economy is stronger, the judiciary is better, taxes and regulations are lower, the United States is safer, and our enemies are weaker. Do I like the man? No. Do I like the results he has delivered? Yes.
Give me good results over good intentions every time.
Published in General
One can never go wrong with a quote from Milton Friedman.
Great Friedman quote, and you’re right it’s perhaps the one most relevant today. Democrats have always been about an imagined future disconnected from the past, from cause and effect, understanding how things work, or what drives people, but they’ve reached new lows and we’re mis educating our kids so it will only get worse unless we radically undo the government power they’ve created to support their fictions.
The most “consistent” President since Ronald Reagan.
Join other Ricochet members by submitting a Quote of the Day post, the easiest way to start a fun conversation. There are many open days on the March Signup Sheet. We even include tips for finding great quotes, so choose your favorite quote and sign up today!
The intentions of policymakers are rarely, if ever, good. Their intentions are either to amass power for themselves (as James Carville so frankly called for recently), or for messianic self-aggrandizement. Their mechanism is almost always to stir up some moral panic (whether Global Warming or illegal immigration or income inequality or international terrorism).
It also occurs to me that policymakers usually espouse a utilitarian morality to implement their schemes but retreat to appeals to universal moral principles when those schemes inevitably fail to come anywhere near the promised results. The means—theft and the initiation of violence—are justifiable because of the ends. But when the ends come to disaster, they are then justified by the the intentions.
Sea,
Very nice phrase. I think I’ll use it. Good post.
Regards,
Jim
@cj:
Philosopher Jacques Ellul writes this: “propaganda must not concern itself with what is best in man,” and “does not aim to elevate man, but to make him serve…. Hate, hunger, and pride make better levers of propaganda than do love or impartiality.”
Regarding DEMs and REPs: He says “Propaganda by its very nature is an enterprise for perverting the significance of events and of insinuating false intentions. There are two salient aspects of this fact. First of all, the propagandist must insist on the purity of his own intentions and, at the same time, hurl accusations at his enemy. But the accusation is never made haphazardly or groundlessly. The propagandist will not accuse the enemy of just any misdeed; he will accuse him of the very intention that he himself has and of trying to commit the same crime that he himself is about to commit.”
“With regard to political situations, he is given ready-made value judgments invested with the power of truth by the number of supporters (media) and the word of experts (more media). The individual has no chance to exercise his judgment either on principal questions or on their implications; this leads to the atrophy of a faculty not comfortably exercised under any conditions. Under the influence of propaganda he always takes the easy way, the path of the least resistance, even if it costs him his life.”
Finally for now and regarding my cause to bring people awareness of our lost first amendment of free speech when Congress uses Majority Rule outlined in my book EAR:How Congress Listens; why they fail.
Ellul observes: “One of the most remarkable weapons of the authoritarian State is propaganda that neutralizes and paralyzes opponents (or all of public opinion) by reiterating a simple set of “truths,” such as that the exercise of political power is very complex and must therefore be left to professional politicians.” (or in our case Majority Rule is legit and does not silence citizens)
Yes Majority Rule gives all committee chairs to one party and allows the Chair to silence the minority representatives. This is how there is partisan impeachment. Half the citizens speech is silenced and violates the free speech clause. Email me and ask for the FREE pdf of my book or buy it on Amazon. Get up to speed how Congress really works. You will understand why we fail to achieve the goals of the Preamble. You can not achieve them if Congress is not restrained with all the first amendment restraints. johnruffu@gmail.com thank you.
Trump is an unusual person; he has a bizarre style of communication, I agree. But, I’m like you in being very pleased with the results of his presidency. It is very positive. I mainly voted against Hillary last time. But this time, I’m definitely voting FOR Trump.
Trump is actually an old school liberal Democrat, just not a Leftist or Progressive. He is what Biden was, I think his thought is of the JFK style/school. As such he actually communicates as a Democrat. What he does is only offensive because a GOP is doing it. If he still was considered a Democrat nobody would raise an eyebrow at his rhetoric. They would even cheer it on.
What we’re seeing with the COVID-19 outbreak is a perfect example of the law of unintended consequences.
Are you a libertarian with a bent towards open borders? That’s a pandemic paradise right there.
Are you a “free trader” that advocated turning China into our cheap labor playground? Shortages and supply chain problems are on you.
If the idea of “America (and Americans) First makes you cringe then don’t look to to your government to save you. After all, you’re not special anymore.
I was kind of amused by Trump at first and was not at all sure he was serious. My instinctive reaction was disgust due to his previous history, mostly taken from the Media. I was very skeptical in October of 2015.
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/50063.html
I have been watching the phenomenon of Donald Trump and wondering if it can continue or if he will implode. So far he seems to be riding the wave of disgust with professional politicians that has dominated the Republican Party this year.
By December, I was beginning to change my opinion.
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/50860.html
I am not a Trump supporter but I am intrigued at the steady progress he is making toward success. I have been a fan of Angelo Codevilla’s characterization of America’s Ruling Class.
The recent collapse of Republican Congressional resistance to the left’s political agenda as noted in the surrender of Paul Ryan to the Democrats in the budget, has aggravated the Republican base and its frustration.
Here we are four years later and I am being accused by Democrats of being a “Trump cultist.”
I know how that feels.
You have to understand that all of that is about self absolution. And the “cult” charge does originate on the left, it originated on the right.
I think it has been used by both sides. The Mormons were considered a cult and there have been many such. The most extreme was Jim Jones in recent history.
“The only other people who are helped are the do-gooders responsible for this type of legislation and for these effects. They have the high-minded satisfaction of promoting a noble cause. The good intention is emblazoned forth for all to see. The harm is far less visible, much more indirect, much harder to connect with the good-hearted action. Besides, the harm is mostly to someone else.” — M. F.
The competition between so-called utilitarians and deontologists is an important one. It’s a chasm even within the two major political parties and gets far less attention than it deserves.