(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Fred Clark explains basic economics:

Imagine this happens to you:

Some big Manhattan publisher gives you a $100,000 advance to write the Great American Novel. Then you look at the fine print and you realize that your deal gives you $100,000 every year until you finish the book.

You call to double check. "Does this mean I get $100,000/year forever?" you ask.

"Not forever," the publisher says, "just until whenever you're finished writing." And once the book is completed, the publisher says, you will receive a $2,500 bonus.

This would never happen in real life, of course, because any capable publisher would realize that such a deal would provide a major incentive for you never to finish the job.

But while no publisher is that dumb, the Bush administration is. This, essentially, is the deal the White House has with the Pakistani government for helping us track down Osama bin Laden. Crooks and Liars sums it up:

... the Bush administration pays the Pakistani government $1 billion a year to hunt down Osama bin Laden, and demands zero accountability as to how that money is spent.

The Bush administration is also offering a $25 million bounty for information leading to the capture of bin Laden. Let's do the arithmetic. If you're Pervez Musharraf which would you choose? A one-time award of $25 million? Or 40 times as much this year, and next year, and every year after that?

Let's try one more analogy. Imagine you're Halliburton. You've been hired by the U.S. government to rebuild Iraq's refineries and oil infrastructure. In the meantime, until that job is completed, you've also been hired to supply Iraq with gasoline at whatever prices you see fit to charge. So, do you diligently work to complete the first task, thus killing the goose that lays the golden egg? Or do you do the economically sensible thing and ensure that the lucrative "meantime" lasts as long as possible?

This analogy, unfortunately, is not hypothetical.

Comments

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

Ugh...

[mazarinade.livejournal.com]

So, ah, who put these clowns in charge of the world's biggest economy, world's biggest military and world's biggest nuclear arsenal, again?

[raie.livejournal.com]

Christians :D

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

We aren't all happy about it, trust me.

[elffin.livejournal.com]

Vanna will show you your lovely prize for today: The Internet. Ah, yes.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Pretty transparent, isn't it? They get away with it, too, because way too much of the electorate has no real comprehension of the words "million" and "billion" (not to mention "trillion").

[opaqueplanet.livejournal.com]

See, where theweaselking and I come from elected representatives can kick a government out with a no-confidence vote. If there any way short of a full-out impeachment you guys can get rid of these creeps? And if not, why can't you just frigging impeach them? Oh, right, because then you'd get Cheney. You guys seriously didn't think there'd ever come a time when you wouldn't need to change the administration for a whole four years? I know you're touchy about your democracy, but your system needs overhauling.