Politics

Due to popular demand (really just Damon and Derek), I will now post about politics, in particular, my opinions about what Dad has taught me.

Dad's main ideas
-The government should keep their hands out of our pockets
-Everyone votes their interests
-Law of second effects

First off, everyone votes their interests. In my case that means I'll become a liberal. This is because working in a government funded institution (a university, or even a symphony orchestra) I am expected to vote for anything that gives me more money which would be bond issues and more taxing of people that make more money than me in order to fund public institutions. Who knows, I might even join a union! (Yes, if I get a job in a symphony orchestra I will probably have to, and no, I won't really become a liberal.)

Next is Dad's real ideas. The important one is simple. The government is terrible with money and are inefficient and wasteful. Therefore we should make sure we give them the least money possible. I am in complete agreement with this. While the government is necessary to maintain and administer a few things (such as a legal system) by and large I have no desire for the government to waste my money doing things they don't really understand how to do. This is Dad's main idea, but he has a few smaller ones as well. The next most important one is people are stupid. This means that since the average voter has no idea how the economy works they'll vote for people who offer them things which don't really help but seem like they do. An example of this is a commercial I keep seeing here in Arizona. Someone (I don't remember who) says their big goals if they get elected are to raise taxes on the oil companies and lower gas prices. These, of course, are mutually exclusive goals. If they raise taxes on the oil companies, they will pass the increased cost on to us in order to keep their profit margins going. But my favorite is one I heard the other day. Obama's plan is to close the "loopholes" in the tax code for business, and then give tax breaks to "American" companies. This is funny to me because the whole reason businesses go overseas is because it's cheaper, so in the end a whole bunch of companies would leave. Moving right along in the same vein, the most important economic idea is the law of second effects. Not the immediate consequence of an action but the third or fourth one down the line. Taxes have an immediate effect, but they also have a second and third effect as well.

Now this leaves some interesting things to notice. First of all, Republicans and Democrats both want to raise our taxes. This doesn't bother me a ton right now, since I don't pay any (we make less than 15k a year) but it will when I get a "real" job. Also, I've been pondering some issues lately regarding my faith and politics. For example, the climate issue. Wether you believe climate change is real or not doesn't matter. As a Christian, I believe that we have been told to be good stewards of the Earth. This brings up some interesting problems, especially since it costs more money to recycle. It also brings up energy, should I be more concerned with renewable energy? I also don't think the government should force us to spend money on charity. That includes things like welfare, medicare and the like. Programs that help out the homeless, or whatever other charitable endeavors are wonderful and necessary, but the government should definitely not be the ones to administer the program. I also don't want to pay into a Social Security program that won't work when I'm eligible to benefit from it.

So here's my bottom line. The government is a wasteful spending giant that has way too many unnecessary programs and outdated ideas (welfare, social security, etc.). Everyone wants to raise my taxes and, after the new bailout plan, manage the economy. Last time I checked, we supposedly had a free market, not a controlled market (yes Dad, I know, regulations about airplanes and stuff...). I don't know who I'm voting for, but at this point I'm looking at third parties. I'd probably vote Libertarian if I thought we didn't need a military, but who knows. Anyway, I think that's the important stuff.