The Bigger The Government, The Smaller The Individual

When the government is big and powerful, with lots of money to throw around, and even more frighteningly, with an almost omnipotent ability to take away your money, individuals are less likely to assert themselves.

Here are two examples, from Rhymes With Cars and Girls. In example one, we find that Real Estate agents are "sitting on the sidelines" waiting to see what kind of economic engineering magic the government is going to pull out of their ass next:

This plea from Rick Grant to real estate agents to stop waiting for the government’s next trick & get back into actual real estate selling seems symptomatic of a larger issue I was screaming about over a year ago: when the government is this large and bulky and throws around this much money/regulation this haphaardly, the government becomes the economy, the government is the economy.

If real estate agents are (as is implied) somehow on the sidelines keeping an eye on when/whether the government will extend this or that tax credit, or whatever other giant macro government goody/subsidy, well – who can blame them?

What single other factor is going to have a larger effect on housing than this or that monstrous, ill-conceived, corrupt, rent-seeking, ill-informed government act by this or that government blowhard egomanic? What chance do old-fashioned rational market forces stand when the government can decide to “stimulus” ten billion phony dollars this way or that on the whim of some stupid-ass Senator?

Grant wants real-estate agents to ‘get back to work’, but in light of the government’s whimsy, they’d be pretty stupid to. Actually, everyone would.

In example two, we find that people in the business of Genetics Research are finding it hard to be honest about their lack of results, because of fear their funding would get cut off:

In a wiser world, we would see genetics research as we see astronomy: worth supporting, but without expecting practical benefit. In this world, however, genetics research is far better funded than astronomy and is expected to have practical benefits.
Unfortunately, the benefits have been slight. A New York Times article by Nicholas Wade makes this clear:

The primary goal of the $3 billion Human Genome Project — to ferret out the genetic roots of common diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s and then generate treatments — remains largely elusive. Indeed, after 10 years of effort, geneticists are almost back to square one in knowing where to look for the roots of common disease.

“Largely” elusive? Completely elusive is more accurate, as far as I know. Not one treatment has come from this work.

For geneticists, to acknowledge the lack of examples is scary. Their funding might be cut! So they don’t. But nothing prevents journalists from thinking for themselves and asking a supposedly “tough” question (”what’s an example?”) — although asking for examples is the most basic question there is.

Thanks to Alex Chernavsky. More about the cargo-cult nature of modern biology. If you don’t believe me, read this: “Of the roughly 50 companies at the conference, not one is focused on approaches related to tracking down new genes. . . . The one corner of the genome-focused biotech industry that’s thriving is the one churning out equipment and services to support researchers in their endless hunt for gene links.”



In other words, the businesses who get government funding are failing. The businesses who stick around are the ones who figure out how to cannibalize off the failures of those on the government tit.

In the first example, Real Estate agents are driven to lethargy by the arbitrary nature of government programs.

In the second, nothing is really getting done, and no one wants to say it, for fear of losing funding.

In both cases, individuals are not doing their jobs because of government interference.