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May 19, 2005
Too Boring to Care
Sometimes amateur and professional policy wonks (a group that includes anyone inclined to read this post) forget just how boring their obsessions can be to normal Americans. This happens among other groups, perhaps most notably among voters in last year's presidential election. But elections are simpler than policy. We have long since moved beyond our republic's early practice of having the runner-up in a presidential election serve as vice president. However, the formation of policy often works along those lines, with good ideas being diluted by questionable but popular sops to groups with the power to halt progress if they are not appeased. And so with policy decisions, especially those that are receiving public attention, it is essential that we all strive to understand the rationale for opposing points of view.
A President widely admired for his common touch is currently advancing the mother of all egghead arguments in his attempt to serve as a catalyst for the reform of Social Security. But as Edward Crane at the Cato Institute has noted: "Sending people out with charts and figures will achieve little." The eyes of average Americans glaze over as they listen to the steady buzz of arcana: unfunded liabilities, solvency, rates of return, transition costs, etc. As Crane observes: "the focus has been on green-eyeshade issues".
Compare the complexity of the reform argument (as it is currently being advanced) with the simplicity of the Democrats current stand. Benefits will be cut, they warn. The problem can be solved (or largely solved) by increasing taxes on the wealthy, they maintain (in this not a few Republican legislators agree). We can have private accounts and the old system too, they virtually squeal, (again, Republican support with this position should not go unnoticed). These are simple, reassuring counter arguments, and they are winning.
The target for the reform message needs to be those outside of the reform-minded wonk echo chamber. The electorate that chose the simple, straight-forward candidate in 2004 is decidedly against his brainiac case for reform, let's all reach out to the Homer Simpsons in American and "dumb it down a little".
Posted by Audi Partem Alteram at May 19, 2005 11:40 AM
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