Politics breeds ire, as a rule

Why are people angry at the political class? It is because life today is like trying to play Monopoly with a 50,000-page rule book. More time is spent arguing about the rules than playing the game.

The political class, the three branches of government, write, enforce and interpret the rule book. In trying to address every contingency, they have gummed up the works so nothing works very well.

Why do schools have more highly paid administrators than teachers? The administrators deal with the rule book. Why do charter schools work better? They do not have to follow a lot of the rules.

Why is megabusiness doing well? It is because Goldman Sachs doesn’t have to deal with a lot more rules than Sam’s Drive Inn.

The intent was to have the rule of law. The reality is that the rules are unclear enough that the meaning depends entirely on which enforcer or interpreter you get. The present call for smaller government is really a call for a clearer, simpler rule book. They need to quit writing rules and greatly simplify the ones they have.

W.C. Rust

Wallace