Politicians Will Not Save Us

Our politicians will not save us from our problems. We shouldn’t expect them to either. There’s little incentive for them to do so. They are engaged in a zero-sum game. In game theory, this is described as a situation where one of the participant’s gains is equal to the opponent’s loss. For someone to win, the other has to lose (similar to sports).

So if you want to be victorious, you can either put the effort in to win or work to ensure your challenger loses. It seems that politicians often take the second route rather than the first. The result is the same (get the job or keep the job), but the costs are less, or at least seem that way in the short term.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. – Albert Einstein

This win-lose mentality won’t solve the problems that the system has caused in the first place. Instead, we will have to do it ourselves. It will take – the blue collar, white collar, and civil servants; our artists and scientists; teachers and students; those retired and their grandchildren; corporations, non-profits, and government agencies – everyone who has a vested interest in our nation’s success, but doesn’t run for election. It will take people who believe that we can build win-win solutions, and then have the fortitude to make them a reality.

Failure is always an option, and without changing the way our government does business, it is inevitable. There’s too much at stake. No time for blame, time for action.

originally posted on RoguePolymath blog