Versión Español
Politicians seem to clearly understand the law of cause and effect when it comes to elections. Get money, get more votes; get people emotional, get more votes; make your opponent look stupid or evil; get more votes, make yourself look angelic, get more votes.
When it comes to actually governing, however, they seem disconnected from the concept of cause and effect entirely. It is almost as if they enter some kind of “Twilight Zone” episode, where reality no longer matters and what is really happening . . . well . . . just doesn’t.
In Puerto Rico and the United States, not to mention Mexico, and a whole host of other nations the war on drugs, not drugs themselves drives the murder rate. Ask any senior law enforcement official or politician about why there are so many murders and they will tell you that it is organized crime trying to protect illegal drug activities. If you have the temerity to ask them how many people are murdered over drugs used to treat kidney, liver, or heart problems they would scoff and say “none.”
Of course no one is killed because of legal drugs. Why should they? The police aren’t after them; they can manufacture and distribute in the open; and their competition has to play by the basic rules of business and respect patents.
But (and yes, I know I’m starting a sentence with the word “But”) the lack of common sense on drugs is not the only place where the law of cause and effect is ignored in government.
Take poverty for example.
America has spent literally trillions of dollars, both real and imagined by the FED, fighting a war on poverty. The result? More poverty. Hmm . . . Perhaps the idea of paying for people’s homes, food, schools, medical care, kids, and other items plays more into that whole, getting elected thing.
But I digress.
On occasion, government has actually done a few things right — but I struggle to come up with a list. Can you think of things the government does to make things worse in the name of making things better? I bet you can.
Discussion about this post