Of White and Black Cats
There is an old Chinese proverb, quoted by various leaders over the centuries, which says ‘It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice’. I have myself often quoted this proverb to family and friends when discussing various political issues and hope to use it for a series of posts over the coming weeks.
The basic point, of course, is that when you are looking for a solution to a particular problem the goal should be to find what works, without worrying about whether the solution matches your own personal political or ideological attitudes.
For example, when looking at domestic economic policy, it would not matter to me if the best solution was unbridled capitalism or hard line socialism, as long as the economy worked and people were able to work. Of course I doubt that either solution would work, instead I suspect it would be some sort of mixed solution. Thus the question becomes do we want some form of regulated capitalism with socialistic elements or do we want some form of modified socialism with capitalist segments.
Similarly when it comes to foregn policy, I am open to anything from hard line isolationism to full blown internationalism that leads us to intervene all over the world. Again, I suspect that the solution will be some mixed system, either a cautious internationalist policy or a open minded isolationist attitude.
I plan to discuss these factors in greater detail in future posts but would welcome initial comemnts both on the basic concept of being open to a wide range of solutions as well as a debate as to how realistic it would be to implement such a system in our increasingly partisan climate.
3 Responses to “Of White and Black Cats”
Well that opens a can of worms and I predict lots of name calling. Here's my take on this.
I believe every American should have the basics assured; health care, food, clean water and shelter. We're still the richest nation on earth and there's no excuse for any American to starve, freeze or die for want of basic medical care.
I believe most of us want more, much more, than the basics, and are willing to work for it. So my model would include the essentials provided at maximum effectiveness for minimum cost. If private enterprise can deliver it cheaper and better, fine. But they likely won't, because the commercial model of success is delivering the minimum for the maximum price. I suppose what I propose is a hybrid of democratic socialism for base needs coupled with robust capitalism for creating wealth, innovation and products.
GreenDreams — How do you propose to have “fair wages everywhere”? And what do you mean by 'have to pay'?
PM, trade agreements can carry environmental and labor requirements, and I favor those. It's not acceptable to me that we hire essentially slave and child labor overseas to increase profitability for multinationals. Example: Nike pays someone 80 cents in China for a shoe they sell for over $100. There's more than enough profit there to revive our own manufacturing industry, and if they were required to pay a minimum wage worldwide, we might get some jobs back.
Likewise, it's not acceptable that these companies buy from places with no environmental controls, so their workers die of cancer or silicosis while the factory dumps tons of toxic heavy metals directly into the ocean.
With a global economy must come global responsibility, not just shopping around for a place where they can be completely irresponsible.