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111 sats \ 2 replies \ @SimpleStacker 10h \ parent \ on: Supreme Court Decision on Education Dept. Clears Trump To Dismantle Department Politics_And_Law

I think our society has a pretty healthy skepticism of capitalists in the market when they sell their wares. These same people are often blind to the same issues being present in the government sector.

Case in point, when I do economic modeling exercises in my class, I'll ask them to list all the players for a particular scenario. Often, companies and public officials come up.

I ask them, "Alright, what are the companies trying to optimize for?" "Profits!" Great!

Then I ask, "Alright, what are the public officials optimizing for?" Some student inevitably says, "The good of society?" To which I say, "Do you really believe that?" Everyone laughs. Someone says, "Getting re-elected!" Now we're getting somewhere!

30 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford 10h

Indeed. We are told from an early age that the CEO of Boeing is trying to improve humanity but we are being told that about "our public servants". Gee... I wonder why that is?

Don't get me wrong. The CEO of Boeing might have good intentions and the elected politician might as well but we shouldn't kid ourselves.

63 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 10h

I guess ostensibly you could say that it's because we elect public officials to make decisions on the public's behalf, and thus for the public good, but somehow we ignore the fact that they're just humans too, facing the same incentives as any other human.