One idea that is related to this topic is the idea of the efficiency and economic opportunity of honesty.
I’m talking about honesty in communications with people you know as well as you people you don’t and honesty in agreements, both written and unwritten. Honesty means not having to reinvent the wheel, at least to a degree, with every different subject or with every different person you meet. By partially reinventing the wheel, I mean submitting “Proof” or “Sources” when making a statement.
Even written contracts usually fail to address all possible ways that a party can fail to deliver what the other party was expecting, as there are often intangible issues involved.
It comes down to character whether someone will perform the way they would want the other side to perform if the roles were reversed.
Many cultures who have been historically impovershed are often unreliable ethically because they try to maximize the short term gain of an opportunity by looking for ways to cut corners on their obligations. This results in disatisfaction of the other party, resulting in a loss of potential future business.
A specific example is someone I know was in Vietnam after the Vietnam War looking to see if there was a business opportunity there. While over in Vietnam, he came up with the idea of exporting shrimp, but had learned early there were few legal protections over there, rampant dishonest dealing, and potential legal liability for him in the US if the other party failed to perform in some way. Instead, a underdeveloped resource failed to benefit him, the counterparty, and ultimately, the consumer, for quite some time.
In US politics, honesty and character are critical to a properly functioning system. Politicians and the media have obligations to be honest and to represent the public’s interests above all else, even above lobbyists and advertisers. Those who believe otherwise, may I suggest the current state of US politics already reflects the misallocation of these primary obligations by those in power and influence.
When a politician or newsman lies, distorts, mischaracterizes, leaves out pertinent information, maintains undisclosed conflicts of interests, they have failed in their duties to the public and to the principles upon which the United States was founded. When the media shows a bias or preference for a political candidate, they are useless as a credible and needed check and balance against politician abuse of power. Media credibility is key aspect of a healthy system.
Reforms are needed, but how are can we get corrupted politicians to agree to them? Especially since it would change the status quo of their conduct and stoke fears their livelihood is threatened?
This is where I had high hopes of Trump accomplishing, with his “Clean up the Swamp” campaign promise. Instead, for the most part, the Swamp has tried to get rid of Trump. Entrenched politicians fight hard to keep what they stole, I suppose. I’m certaintly not suggesting Democrats are alone when it comes to corruption.
What I’m hoping for at this point, is to see enough come out on Biden and some of the other key Democrats to not necessarily to put them in jail or to remove them from office, but to bring them to the negotiating table for their agreement to system saving reforms.
It is this sliver of dwindling hope that I still support Trump to allow enough time for Democrat stalling tactics to run out and that we may yet restore our political system back to where ethics count.
