Egos Of The Elites

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), he of the "no more dangerous place to be than between Chuck and a TV camera" notoriety, has chosen his next kerfuffle. Apparently, a certain sports energy drink called Prime has become popular among the underage, and it's a Problem with a capital "P."

And, of course, something must be done about it. By, of course, government, because we've been conditioned to interpret our natural "Do Something!" proclivities as an authorization for government action.

Those proclivities, and proclivities they are indeed, are the bane of liberty. Humans prefer action to inaction, prefer control to uncertainty, and are more apt to see direct action by leaders and other proxies as a positive attribute, even if inaction is the better remedy. As in "at least they tried to do something about the problem," with no heed given to the negative effects, opportunity costs, and liberty infringements of that action.

That "at least they tried" is a horrible measure that excuses all sorts of failures and misdeeds. Worse, it shifts focus away from the problem itself. Including, it must be noted, whether the problem is really a problem in the first place.

Schumer asserts a problem, and sics the government on the people who supposedly created the problem. If the government were a neutral, impartial, and logical arbiter, an investigation that produced a "do something" response might be trusted to have reached the correct conclusion. But, government is not. Bureaucrats, Ron Swanson excluded, don't get paid to say "nothing is wrong here" or to do nothing where nothing is the best thing to do. An administrator that doesn't build a body of successful interventions is apt to see his funding and staffing cut, or be replaced by someone more "active."

Hand-in-hand with action is credit for that action. Military procurement is rife with inefficiencies caused by the rotation of senior supervisory staff. Every new boss needs to put his thumbprint on the project, because absent that his predecessor will get all the credit for the project's success... and the new boss will take the blame should the project go poorly. Such inclinations are not limited to the military, either. Anyone who's worked for a big organization will likely have seen the same.

Since we are wired to prefer "do something!" over "do nothing," those who compete for power and status are incentivized toward "do something!"

Especially on matters that are "for the children!"

Which almost invariably is a signal to watch your wallet and your liberties.

Thomas Sowell figured out that this natural inclination leads to the "self-congratulation" feedback loop that drives and sustains the do-gooders in our society and in our government. Actual problem-solving is hard, so action itself substitutes, with more regard for the act of acting and less regard for the outcome of that action. As in, "we did something, now we can smug-smile and move on to doing something else."

And, often, that "something" is simply throwing Other People's Money at their chosen problem, or voting for people who promise to do so. "I've done my part! I can pat myself on the back!!"