Thursday, March 31, 2011

Can't follow the bouncing ball? Steal it.

Trying to control the Economy is like trying to control the Weather. 

Without an accurate forecast where do you even start?  Do you dare do anything? 
It's like trying to steer a car with opaque glass.
Before you make any changes you need to know where the thing is going.
Without a clear view the car or the economy will likely crash and burn.

It is impossible to collect sufficient information to make a forecast for more than a short time into the future.  Even if your data is accurate there is a limit to how much information you can collect and calculate in time before everything changes and you need to recalculate.

If you can only predict a few minutes into the future with the system as is, then you certainly can't know with any precision what effect any changes you add to the system will have.  

Weather forecasts are updated by the minute.  How often is legislation, regulation and law updated?  Weather forecasting need constant feedback from thousands of sensors.
Government systems have no such capacity.     

To determine whether to use an umbrella I look out the window every so often. 
The standard for umbrella opening is if it's raining or if I think it will rain.  My standard would not be an umbrella law at the National Level.  Most business regulations make about as much sense. 

If I drop a rubber ball down my stairs I can reasonably tell you where it's headed after it hits the street.  There are only a small amount of interactions and I can figure out by myself what effect they will have on my ball.  I can even plan how to drop the ball so it bounces right into Mr. Busybody's coffee mug.

But if everyone on the block drops a ball into the street it is extremely difficult to predict where any individual ball is headed or to know quickly enough how to influence an outcome. 
If the goal is to prevent collisions let's say, then as an individual taking care of my ball, I can  determine if I need to run after my ball and pick it up, kick it, stop it, blow on it or even throw another ball at it based on what I see. So can any of the other individuals. Voila no collisions.  That is the Free Market.
What if I tried to take care of two balls at once. Maybe I could squeak through if the balls are close together.  Three?  Forget it.  A street full?  Maybe when pigs fly!

Imagine how hard it is to make up a general rule for all balls to avoid collisions.  Just trying to calculate with three balls stumped mathematicians for hundreds of years.  Calculating a Street full or an economy full or a global economy full is impossible.  The variations are literally close to infinite.  You have to break the calculation down to small sets of information.   That is why government regulations can never take the place of the free market made up of intelligent individuals.

Did you ever plan a vacation?  Flights, clothing, packing, coordinating schedules, parking, security checks, passports, excursions, tempers, frustration, motion sickness, medications, pictures, phone cards, gifts etc.  There are so many things to get right just for a week. 
Could you handle planning your neighbor's vacation while you plan yours?  How about planning your whole block's vacation?  If that makes your hair turn gray do you really think a few Politicians can plan millions of vacations, much less millions of businesses?

Socialism is a pipe dream.  Don't get hooked.

Think of the game of pool. Think of the break.  Can you predict where each ball will roll after the break?  It's easy enough to predict when you hit one ball into another.   But it gets progressively harder when you try hitting one ball to move a third and unbelievably hard to predict where the fourth ball hit by the third will go.

Imagine if all the balls are in motion.  Now try making a shot.

But what if each ball could steer and find the pocket on their own.  That's the free market.  If you do nothing you will have a perfect score.  Any control you exert will likely mess up the correct trajectory of the balls.

Government can best help the economy by staying out of it. 

But they don't.  Because they realized they can cheat.  They can't control the system so they break it.  If they cover up some of the pockets (through regulations) then all the balls divert into their pocket.  Better yet steal the balls before they even get on the table (Wage and Payroll taxes). 

Socialism is a corruption of the economy and theft of wealth. 

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