Politics and HK

Recently, I received one of the best passages regarding politics, that's written by a Hong Kong person.

甚麼是「政治」？有人認為，政治是政府的事。這是狹隘的觀點。社會，其實由個人組成， 社會的主角，就是我們每一個人。在健康的社會，人民一起決定社會的方向、政策、落實及 監察。基於我們都忙碌的生活，於是選出代言人，在政府架構中代為處理房屋、醫療、教育、 交通等事務。人民以交稅的形式，聘請政府官員工作，做人民的公僕，服務大家。每四年一 次的選舉，讓我們嘉許稱職的官員；失職者需要問責，由人民選擇更合適的人替代。可是， 傳統中國社會，皇朝統治幾千年，龐大的集體潛意識，製造了逆來順受的蟻民，視政府為皇 帝，對政治漠不關心，政府便按自身的意願和政治任務辦事。

I totally agree with the above. China has historically been, and relatively still divided into a highly passive, pacified population that worships power, does not speak truth to power, and the wise that are smart enough, daring enough to protect their own interests from the government.

Having said that, much of the world remains so too.

孫中山先生說過：「政治是眾人之事」。公眾領域的事務，都是政治問題。菠蘿包賣五 元一個、紅磡海底隧道長期塞車，都是政治問題。香港地價處於世界最高水平，賣菠蘿包的 小店，如果一個包賣五元，一天賣一千個，都未必足夠交租。紅隧長期塞車，因為東、西隧 都是私營，收費高昂。如果將隧道收回公營，統一收費，塞車問題可能即時紓緩。

Oh, you know what Mao said? "槍桿子裡面出政權." This is just as true.

政治就是生活。即使我不搞政治，政治都會來搞我。每個人都有自己的角色，我們未必 需要站在最前線抗議，卻可以做好自己、拒絕同流合污。譬如，我們可以選擇捐款、投票、 分享文章、關心社區、每天祝福身邊的人。不要輕視自己持續的小小行動，我們每個人，都 可以是逆轉整部大機器的小螺絲。

獨裁暴政之所以得逞，關鍵不是壞人當道，而是絕大部份善良的人都自我滅聲。加上強 勢政府的寒蟬效應，不合理的社會體制得以延續。政治修行，就是帶著初心，謙卑地關顧身 邊世界，在日常生活中，實踐平等和公義。

Beautifully written. 

True, except this view of government is too benevolent.

Government is based on coercion - this is a fact. If you don't think so, I suggest you try not paying the taxes and see how far you get.

Incentives...Incentives...

What incentives are there for freedom? A stateless-society?

The more government intervention, the more incentive to appeal to government.
The more choice government provides, the more incentive to stick to the government, the less incentive to create a stateless-society.
The better a government manipulated economy is, the less incentive there is for a free-market.

The incredible part of this is that no controller, leader is required. This arises naturally. There is no need for a deliberate conspiracy.

Interesting problems

1. Is the current state of affairs at Occupy advantageous to the HK Police as a gov agency?

More Crime, Instability

Violence is advantageous to the Police. For one, they get to show off their toys. And they get to buy more pepper spray, weapons, train more personnel etc etc.
And what happens after the cleanup? More people join in. What after that? Police can then use more violence. And so on...

Huge incentives for starting violence.

Low Crime, Stability

With ever-decreasing crime, police would just shrink and eventually disappear. As we all know, the golden rule of running government agencies is always spend all your budget and never be defunded.

No incentive for decreasing crime.

So why does HK have relatively low crime? It's not because of the police. That's because of the free market that incentivizes value-creating economic activities.
How do you increase crime? Destroy the free-market. Make it hard for people to improve their own circumstances through moral means..

2. How much incentive does social welfare have in getting people out of poverty?

3. How much incentive does the CDC have in really stopping Ebola?

4. How much incentive does the military and the industries dependent on military spending have, to not go to war?

5. Where does this put democracy? If democracy, in the end, in support of such an incentive structure?

Conclusion

Policing by government agency will always eventually corrupt itself, because it has all the incentive and none of the costs to do so. Incentives override everything else.

All governments get bigger.

Reason doesn't stand a chance head-on against incentives. If the choice is between suffering for being good and a million dollars, dollars generally win. Instead, reason must start with the disenfranchised.

Conflicts of incentive against reason makes it hard to think straight.

Conspiracy theories are good as an emotional driver, in getting people to think. Such theories are personalizations of natural phenomena. Once one reaches a good understanding of the nature behind bad systems, such are no longer necessary.

As long as morality and moral people, organizations does not control the incentive structure, we are all, unconsciously under the control of immorality. From the most subtle (manipulation of interest rates) to how much more government personnel are paid relative to their free market counterparts, to every agency of every government, you can speak sound rational arguments all day and have no real impact in the end.

Money talks.

If you believe in the free-market, you should work to become successful what's left of the free market.

"More than 90% of people in European cities breathe dangerous air"

If 90% of people in European cities breath dangerous air, where does that leave Chinese cities?

Hong Kong?

It's over, and we all know it.

http://sas-origin.onstreammedia.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/s7pyxwkvskssjtqfjk4kxw.gif

Talk about low approval ratings!