Nobody Cares, Good Politics but Bad Economics, Etc

It has become clear that Congress (as a general term for all our reps to include the Senate) just doesn't care what we think. They voted overwhelmingly for the Insurance Company Kickback (Obamacare) despite the people they claim to represent making it abundantly clear that we did not want it. Recently the Executive Branch made it clear that they do not care what Congress thinks, laws and traditions be damned. They did this by reinserting Death Panels (seriously not that big of a thing and grossly misunderstood, but that's not the point) back into the program by decree despite Congress taking it out.

This could be continued down through the state and sometimes county/ city level. They care most consistently about pursueing whatever agenda they happen to have, securing easy paychecks and enjoyable perks as well as solidifying their positions. After that it is paying back the people who helped them get into office and just enjoying things.

Other than bribing and scaring enough people to secure reelection none of these representatives care at all about us and what we want. Really keeping their positions secure (especially in homogenuis districts) is pretty easy and is just about maintenance and continued favors. I am not going to say it is right or wrong, it's just how things are.

My point is that nobody cares. Even if you fall into a group that (outside of big business/ key sectors able to levy significant and regular bribes campaign contributions) is supposidly championed by a certain political group like minorities, gun owners or small businessmen when the chips are down they really just don't care. They care in terms of talking points and sound bites but not in terms of taking a stand or putting out actuall effort to help these people. Since nobody cares you had better start caring.
Strive to get ready for all sorts of different scenarios because as I noted nobody is going to help you. In particular I think it would be prudent to get ready to take care of yourself. Consider basic stuff like power outages, local disasters, home invasions and income disruptions and go from there. Don't forget about inflation as it may be rearing its ugly head.

I have listened to a lot of conservative talk radio over the last couple days as I drove across a big chunk of the PNW. An interesting concept was talked about. The idea of something that is simumtaneousle good politics and really bad economics. For example minimum wage laws. Oregon which is already hurting pretty badly just recently raised their minimum wage. There is a broad consensus among economists that artificially high minimum wages push low skilled people out of the legal labor market. These people are not allowed to work for the kind of wages they are qualified to earn. This really hurts young adults and seems to hit minorities the hardest.

Another great example is what happened with American unions, in particular the UAW. The head guys kept getting beat up by unions and so they gave them concessions. The easiest concessions to give were very generous pensions because they cost money in the future as opposed to wages or other benefits (though they weren't tight fisted here either) which cost money right away. These were also a real easy decision in hindsight because none of the real decision makers were around when things came to a head.

I could probably keep giving examples (SS, Medicare, etc) all day long. However since I don't have all day you will have to try and follow me. Politicians are willing to do something that is obviously bad economics if it is good politics. They will build airports nobody flys through, bridges people don't want to drive on, give kickbacks to farmers in Iowa and such. I think politicians would burn giant piles of cash on television if they should it would help them politically.