The part of this commentary that caught my attention was: "passion for conscious control of everything." It was
based upon what he called the "pretense of knowledge."
Genesis chapter 3 and Ecclesiastes 1:9,nothing new under the sun!
 | | April 19, 2012 |
| | Comprehensive Usually Fails
by Kerby Anderson | | If you pay attention to legislation, you will probably notice a trend. Any bill that
attempts to be comprehensive legislation usually fails. If you see a bill designated as
comprehensive immigration reform or comprehensive healthcare reform, you can guess
that it won’t do what promoters claim it will do.Part of the problem is that something so large and comprehensive will be difficult
to understand. Listen to what some of the Supreme Court justices had to say about the
health care reform law.Justice Stephen Breyer admitted,“I haven’t read every word of that I promise.” He
went on to list some of the elements in the law: “There is the mandate in the community,
this is Title I and II, the mandate, the community, pre-existing condition. . . . There is
biosimilarity, there is breast-feeding . . . there is the Class Act.” He finally asked, “So
what do you propose we do other than spend a year reading all this?”Justice Antonin Scalia joked, “What happened to the Eighth Amendment?”
[which is the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment] “You really want us to
go through these 2,700 pages? And do you really expect the court to do that?”But understanding such a comprehensive law is only part of the problem. In his
book, Road to Serfdom, economist Friedrich Hayek warned that bureaucrats may think
they have all the information and that they understand the complexity of a market, but
they don’t.Hayek warned that such a road can be paved with good intentions. Most
government officials and bureaucrats write laws, rules, and regulations with every good
intention. But in their desire to control and direct every aspect of life, they take us down
the road to serfdom. He called it the “passion for conscious control of everything.” It was
based upon what he called the “pretense of knowledge.”Markets, especially the health care market, are much more complex than
politicians and government bureaucrats might imagine. Wise and prudent government
must recognize that there are fundamental limitations in human knowledge. These are
some of the problems with comprehensive legislation and why we should avoid passing
such bills. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view. |
Point of View | P.O. Box 30 | Dallas, TX 75221
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