Politics Or Free Markets

The night before I left Hong Kong, I joined a group for dinner. We were a diverse bunch, having in common a particular art that we attended to earlier in the evening. There were people from around the world, but mainly Hong Kong and China people.

In the two plus hours, we talked art and economics, ate cha siu and drank beer, history and philosophy, ate chicken feet and drank beer, some news, ate jiaozi and drank beer, all with bak fan and plenty of greens, but discussed no politics. The closest we got was when I was given a clarification on Kwun Tong vs. Kowloon City, and the history of Kowloon City's status.

Imagine that! A polite audience, a half-dozen beers, and I did not argue politics.

Politics is just so unimportant in a free market. Most of these people are self-employed, or work for small companies. They belong to associations related to their industries. They belong to clubs and groups that share their interests. They usually belong to some religious or philosophical group that addresses the bigger issues. Health care is generally something you take care of out of your own pocket, because it is cheap and plentiful, and education is obviously a matter for the family, regardless of how long your kid sits in a classroom.

Whose got time to worry about politics? And the political superstructure is so small it is generally ineffective anyway... plus it has nothing to offer compared to what resources the people draw on outside of "government." One only has time for so much, and there are so much more fruitful ways to spend it in a free market.

As we in USA descend into socialism, and government gets bigger, the stakes get higher, people get more intersted in politics. Since the stakes are high, we get involved. Since we are involved, the bad drives out the good, and we do not take time to do good while doing well. More and more people are fighting over less and less.

Hillary will be the next President, because she is so polarizing. People genuinely hate her. they will work politically to stop her. Others will work politically to protect her. She will define what medicine is, who gets it, and who pays for it. And people will take their time to respond to what hillary does, instead of what customers need.

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