Politically apathetic?
Posted on | September 5, 2003 |
I don’t want to become politically apathetic. I feel myself becoming borderline. Everyone is so mainstream–anyone who is not is labelled a liberal. Everyone is so worried about the here and now and their own special interests that they forget about the ‘big picture.”
I grimace inwardly and outwardly when I hear that more quotas have been added to clothing imported from Malaysia. This is to save maybe 100,000 jobs while the other 279,900,000 of us suffer higher clothing costs. I might live with a tariff but a quota? Grrr.
Or when legislation is introduced to limit the patent time allowed for prescription drugs. This jeopardizes my future health care. Am I the only one that cares?
Or when more money is appropriated to the hog that is public education. 60%-70% of state taxes are already given to education and has it increased test scores? No. Maybe more isn’t always better in this case. Or, for shame, what if we introduced a few market mechanisms into public education. Just two days ago, I tried to convince my mother that the teacher unions were screwing her, so to speak. My mother is a math teacher–a very high-in-demand occupation. However, because supply and demand does not operate in the public education system, she doesn’t receive the higher wages the market says she should get. Her response? That’s fine, she said, but if the market decided wages women will get paid less. Grrr. This is the oldest argument ever. I guess she forgot the fact that men make up only 10% of the teaching force.
And don’t even get me started on farm subsidies. Or the freedoms that seem to be disappearing under the guise of Homeland Security.
And have you noticed that most legislation introduced is that which is important to people 55 and over? What about me? I’m the 22-year-old who cares. I may grab Crystal and start a new movement.
Oh, and I’ve decided my first step toward nonapathy is to go change my party affiliation from Republican to Independent.
Comments
3 Responses to “Politically apathetic?”
September 6th, 2003 @ 3:17 pm
Throwing money at people is most definitely not a solution. To quote Ayn Rand, “Money will not serve the mind that cannot match it.” Unfortunately, the collective political conscious cannot equal its resources. As long as you don’t mind that I’m a Republican, I’ll gladly join your movement!! I’m tired of people not caring. I can completely understand why they don’t want to become involved because of the mess our government is in, but that’s no excuse to be politically passive.
I’ll climb down from my soapbox now…
September 10th, 2003 @ 10:00 am
Itīs not that simple.
If supply and demand were completely market oriented, maybe many teachers wouldnīt even find a job, because many and many children just wouldnīt have enough money to pay the bill.
Government uses to take money from those who have more to spend it in the benefit (at least in theory) of the ones who have less.
As for as public education is concerned, money that comes from taxes is used to lift demand by allowing technically poor children the access to schools and teachers.
Maybe, if that didnīt happen, much fewer children would be demanding education and, therefore, much fewer teachers would get a job.
Regards
September 10th, 2003 @ 12:13 pm
I don’t even know where to start to respond to that one.
Firstly, you’re confusing two different supply and demand dynamics. One is related to labor–i.e. the demand for a particular teacher versus the supply of the same kind of teacher. For example, math teachers are in high demand, the supply of math teachers is low. That equates to higher salaries for math teachers. The opposite is true for, say, english teachers. I’m just aiming for efficiency in the market.
The ability of students to afford education is something different entirely. Allowing market dynamics to operate in teacher salaries would not affect education costs. In fact, it could be argued that costs would be reduced, at a savings to tax payers.
As far as redistribution of income by the government, nothing makes me shudder more. That completely disrupts incentive systems inherent in normal, efficient markets.