Thursday, October 26, 2006
Old joke
A joke (or story) I ran across lately:
Some guy bought a new fridge for his house. To get rid of his old, still working fridge, he put it in his front yard and hung a sign on it saying: "Free to good home. You want it, you take it."
For three days the fridge sat there without even one person looking twice at it. He eventually decided that people thought it sounded too good to be true, so he changed the sign to read: "Fridge for sale $50." The next day someone stole it.
True or not, it illustrates an important truth. People like to pay lower prices, but beyond a certain point they wonder if they're getting a worthwhile product.
Apply this to government. The Laffer Curve unquestionably works. Forty years of experiments have proven that the right kind of tax cuts will give more revenue to the government. But when Republican politicians have no other marketing technique than "We will lower your taxes", they are missing the other side of the purchase.
Taxpayers expect to get something meaningful from government. Not necessarily a check, but at least a visible and understandable service. When the only thing they hear is "Low Price!" they automatically think "Bad product."
And when Bush decides not to tell us how many enemy soldiers we're killing, he's not just yielding the propaganda advantage, he's missing a big chance to give us something understandable and meaningful in return for our taxes. He opens our minds to the thought that we may be paying less, but we're getting nothing at all.
The worst thing about a low-quality executive is that it makes the job tremendously harder for later and more competent administrators. I saw this happen here in Spokane. For many years the city gov't was totally corrupt, pouring millions of dollars directly into the pockets of the Cowles family while doing very little for the rest of the taxpayers. The corrupt clique was broken up (by a local talk-radio host) in 1997, and since then the city has been trying very hard to undo the damage. They've been fixing thousands of potholes and sewer lines with very little added taxation, and they've been extremely careful about transparency. The citizens are still highly suspicious, and the city hasn't been able to raise taxes or pass bonds, even though the extra money might be genuinely needed.
Broken trust takes a long time to rebuild. ¶ 4:51 PM
Some guy bought a new fridge for his house. To get rid of his old, still working fridge, he put it in his front yard and hung a sign on it saying: "Free to good home. You want it, you take it."
For three days the fridge sat there without even one person looking twice at it. He eventually decided that people thought it sounded too good to be true, so he changed the sign to read: "Fridge for sale $50." The next day someone stole it.
True or not, it illustrates an important truth. People like to pay lower prices, but beyond a certain point they wonder if they're getting a worthwhile product.
Apply this to government. The Laffer Curve unquestionably works. Forty years of experiments have proven that the right kind of tax cuts will give more revenue to the government. But when Republican politicians have no other marketing technique than "We will lower your taxes", they are missing the other side of the purchase.
Taxpayers expect to get something meaningful from government. Not necessarily a check, but at least a visible and understandable service. When the only thing they hear is "Low Price!" they automatically think "Bad product."
And when Bush decides not to tell us how many enemy soldiers we're killing, he's not just yielding the propaganda advantage, he's missing a big chance to give us something understandable and meaningful in return for our taxes. He opens our minds to the thought that we may be paying less, but we're getting nothing at all.
The worst thing about a low-quality executive is that it makes the job tremendously harder for later and more competent administrators. I saw this happen here in Spokane. For many years the city gov't was totally corrupt, pouring millions of dollars directly into the pockets of the Cowles family while doing very little for the rest of the taxpayers. The corrupt clique was broken up (by a local talk-radio host) in 1997, and since then the city has been trying very hard to undo the damage. They've been fixing thousands of potholes and sewer lines with very little added taxation, and they've been extremely careful about transparency. The citizens are still highly suspicious, and the city hasn't been able to raise taxes or pass bonds, even though the extra money might be genuinely needed.
Broken trust takes a long time to rebuild. ¶ 4:51 PM
