Subject: Report from Public Choice Society
Date: Mon, Mar 24, 2014
Msg: 100808
From: List for transpartisan leaders and innovators [mailto:TRANSPARTISAN@LISTS.THATAWAY.ORG] On Behalf Of Rick Raddatz Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2014 9:08 PM To: TRANSPARTISAN@LISTS.THATAWAY.ORG Subject: [TRANSPARTISAN] Report from Public Choice Society
I just returned from the annual conference of the Public Choice Society. Public Choice is a branch of economics that uses economic analysis to study everything besides capitalism.
Here are a few takeaways that are relevant to transpartisanship:
1) 60% of adults can't name their senators, and this had remained steady across time and across all large democracies -- it's not just an American thing. Public choice economics proves that it is rational for voters to choose ignorance -- as the odds of any one vote making the difference is practically zero. The implication for transpartisanship and D&D is that we should focus on the "sports fans" of politics -- those who follow politics for enjoyment -- rather that try to reach out to everyone.
2) One of government's primary purposes is, of course, to correct market failures. However, public choice economics reveals with great mathematical precision just how dramatic -- and likely -- government's failures are. The implication is that we need to fix government before government will be able to effectively regulate capitalism.
3) The transpartisan philosophy of pentanomics http://Xiosoft.com/pentanomics.docx was received well by the leadership of the society, and I have some leads on funding and possible co-authors for the paper. Note that this is a rather right-wing libertarian crowd supporting the government's aggressive pursuit of social justice as long as it happens under fiscally conservative limits.
4) The Age of Enlightenment happened. I'm talking about the period between 1550 and 1800 where reason started to win against the establishment at the time. I mention this because transpartisanship (I believe) will require a second Age of Enlightenment, and the fact it happened once means it can happen again.
- Rick Raddatz 303-949-8075
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