Breaking down yet another simplistic meme

Logically this makes sense. But there are actually some basic problems with it.

In physics (as a metaphor) I could explain it as the entropy problem: no matter what we do to increase how organized and coherent things are, entropy (useless disorganization) of the universe always increases. So we can know as a general principle that we can never make things universally better everywhere – the chaos will only be displaced to elsewhere.

Now to the psychology. Most of our present problems are caused by errors in group reasoning and coordination. Look at politics – it’s a battle to get people to make a binary decision and it’s usually between the builder (Democrat) and the demolition guy (Republican) – plainly obvious on one level, but we have this whole media apparatus trying to convince people that destruction is the true creation.

Making complex decisions is hard enough for individuals, because understanding consequences often requires multiple steps of reasoning and most people want to stop at one. “If I drink this milkshake, it will be delicious” is pretty easy logic but may not ONLY lead to the good outcome. But who wants to add “unnecessary” logic? If I drink this milkshake, it will be delicious, and then what? Will the dairy disrupt my gut functioning? Will the sugar disrupt my metabolism for hours? Will the surplus energy of the drink be converted to fat and add to my weight, causing other problems later? Will it contribute to a future heart attack?

Nobody wants to think about all of that and none of it is on the billboard saying “The shamrock shake is back!”

It’s even worse for politics where the decision or policy that feels pleasing on the surface level – cut a tax, end a program that benefits someone I don’t care about, go to war, drill more oil – often has far reaching consequences that are very hard to understand. Externalities, unintended consequences, perverse incentives, and often even intentional consequences that people don’t talk about. People don’t WANT to think all this through.

So yes, people could in theory do better through democratic means. But getting them to actually do so is no trivial task.