A celebrity interior decorator vacationing in Sri Lanka said Monday that all he could see was "utter devastation" in the wake of a deadly tsunami that slammed the island.
"We were completely devastated yesterday morning," Nate Berkus told CNN. "There was absolutely no warning."
Berkus, a regular contributor to "The Oprah Winfrey Show," said he and a friend were sleeping in a beachfront cottage at Arugam Bay on Sri Lanka's eastern coast when he heard a loud noise and the roof was ripped off.
Berkus, 33, said they were swept into the sea along with debris, animals and other people.
The two grabbed a telephone pole, he said, but lost their grips when a second large wave hit. Berkus told CNN that he climbed onto the roof of a home; his friend was missing.
I think it was philosopher Adam Smith that said if you woke up one morning and heard that a million Chinese had died overnight in a tragedy you might feel badly for them but your reaction would be nothing compared to the loss of the tip of your little finger.
The story above about Oprah's interior decorator reflects this pretty well. He's not just another schlub that was inconvenienced, but the guy on our TV that Oprah likes. The media found a way to personalize the storm. Now for many it has happened to a real person. I don't watch Oprah, but if Doyle Brunson or Hideki Matsui had been swept away it would have gotten my attention. We were shortly worried about Tricia's two friends who were vacationing in Vietnam, but the Tsunami seemed to leave that place alone.
You have to know someone to feel the impact because people for as selfless as they aspire or pretend to be are really self-interested. The world works in the manner of Adam Smith's invisible hand. When society is designed with human nature in mind things run much more smoothly. When planners try to design a system that ignores people's self-interest for the glory of the greater whole, they fail.
People aren't little angels. Half of Europe can oppose our fighting the war on terror because 9-11 didn't happen to them. Chirac and Shroeder's self-interest lies in secret oil deals and getting re-elected not, avenging our loss. Likewise, most Americans didn't lose sleep worrying about Asia's disaster. We're a philanthropic country and we'll send money, but it won't change our worldview.
Human actions are linked to human desires. When those desires hurt others in the forms of thefts or killings we punish the perpetrator because it acts as a disincentive. Disincentive is a very powerful tool among the sane, because it conflicts with our self-interest. That’s’ why those who favor rehabilitation instead of punishment for prisoners are the same people who think we can spend the poor out of poverty. But if people weren’t self-interested then why does the CEO of the United Way make $150,000 a year?
When the government denies self-interest it many times hurts it own self-interest. For instance, the disincentive of taxation keeps people from engaging in certain behavior that grows the economy. The government benefits from a growing economy, but the government’s desire to centrally plan more of our lives hurts their ability to collect the money to pay for it.
There is an interesting quirk in central planning. Central planners trumpet their important work, but usually hide or ignore the unintended results of their decisions. Though it would be good for the system as a whole to hear the central planner tell of the trade-offs, it’s in central planner’s self-interest to present their plan as a marvel and nothing less. Therefore, even by their own actions, Central Planners usually prove the self-interest is a more effective tool than central planning.
And the electric chair is a more effective disincentive to murder than college credit made easy.
No comments:
Post a Comment