Do Unto Others

The sentence recited most as a prescription for propriety is in fact terribly self centered and therefore at the root of many of our societal difficulties:

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Look at it carefully.  Who is at the center of this sentence? YOU!  YOU! YOU!  When we follow this instruction we concentrate on OURSELVES!!!

This golden rule actually leads us astray and causes untold misery.  The computer industry is a terrific example.  For decades the nerds would dream up something they thought was just so cool, never understanding that their customers could not care less and in fact hated their computraptions.  I now realize that I have become the econo-nerd equivalent, especially in what I have posted on this website.

With one exception (Gold IS Green) I have focused entirely on what matters to me.  I was doing unto you what I would have you do unto me – write about creating the most wealth while leaving me alone to my curmudgeonly self.  Notwithstanding this website’s intended focus on issues of sustainability, the environment and global poverty, our host graciously allows me a forum.   In the spirit of rectification, this will be the first in a series of posts that aims to do unto you what you want done unto you.

One of the greatest philosophers of all time solved the problem bedeviling philosophers for thousands of years – the analytic synthetic dichotomy.  In English a good explanation of the meaning of that phrase is, “It works in theory but not in practice.”  She explained that there are no contradictions.  If you think you have found one, she would add that you must check your premises and you will find that one of them is wrong.  I have refined this slightly by adding that you must also check your data and your logic, because somewhere you have made an error.

For the purposes of this post, the above distills to Reiss’s economics application of Rand’s rule of non-contradicion – good economic policy is good environmental policy.  Conversely, bad economic policy is bad environmental policy.  Among the most glaring examples of bad economic policy causing horrific environmental damage is the US sugar quota.  Historically this has resulted in domestic sugar prices at roughly triple the world sugar price, thereby adding significantly to consumer food costs.  This grotesque trade protectionist quota has made the Fanjuls a family of billionaires.  Environmentally, it is responsible for the ongoing destruction of the Florida everglades.

Far more damaging to the environment, our health and even the long term outlook for our economy are the huge subsidies for King Corn!  A better description is actually huge subsidy for King Corpricutlture since the vast majority of the actual dollars goes to big agribusiness enterprises, and not the long gone, small family farm.  For additional discussion I highly recommend THE OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA by Michael Pollan.

The above represents the low hanging fruit of hundreds, even thousands, of possible illustrations of outrageous government expenditures that hurt the economy and ruin the environment.  In this there is virtually zero difference between and among the demolicans and libervatives.  Yet environmental activists keep voting for the same old scalawags in a vain hope that something will change in the minutia of policy without first having a change in the fundamentals.

Worse, the environmental activists actually promote the very fundamentals of statist policy in the wrongheaded idea that elected officials will exercise their power for environmental health as opposed to their personal political position.  Unfortunately, Colin Powell’s corporate welfare kings will continue to dwarf the welfare queens and the environment in obtaining public largesse.  Nothing will change until the state is stripped of all power other than that directly related to redressing the initiation of physical violence, threat of same, theft and fraud along with being the final arbiter of disputes.

That there is a big problem with government run rampant is a cliché, so I have no doubt that you are, so far, unimpressed and unconvinced.  Still, I had to start somewhere.  In my next post we dig deeper and take the next step showing how true free market economic policy really does promote sustainability and is good for the environment.

Read the original story at SedonaCyberLink