Pentanomics - Lesson 1
Guide for Thinking about Political Philosophy
I like thinking about political philosophy. I’m not formally trained in the field. Some who are so trained may think my ideas are naive. However, look at the polarization around the world. Where have the Ph.D.’s helped us?
I read Introducing Pentanomics by Rick Raddatz a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I began working with Rick to promote Pentanomics as a way of changing how we look at the world. I want to stop the fighting between Republicans and Democrats and to do that requires a different way of thinking.
Rick starts with a discussion of opinions, facts and logical necessity. We all want the freedom to have opinions. We don’t agree on the truth of the opinions. Our opinions become the basis of fighting.
What about facts? Facts don’t help us overcome our political divide. Rick uses poverty as an example. Nobody disputes that poverty exists. What should we do about it? Facts can’t tell us, so we are back to opinion. We are back to fighting.
What about logical necessity? Rick says, “To put it simply, something is logically necessary if it simply cannot be any other way.” He goes on to say, “Now, logical necessity cannot do everything. But logical necessity can help us understand the universal laws that govern society (e.g., the laws of economics and how those laws apply to all aspects of society). Once we understand those universal laws, we can put the facts into context and form our opinions after that.”
Universal Law #1 - We have no choice about the laws that govern society.
That doesn’t seem right, does it? We have choices. We pass laws all the time. However, after the laws are passed, how the laws play out over time are governed by the laws of economics.
A good example is passing laws to encourage production more electric vehicles (EVs). After an initial surge, the growth in sales of EVs is stagnating. It is the laws of economics that are taking over.
Universal Law #2 - The only way to maximize the good is to minimize the harm.
Rick starts with the idea that humans act. The action can be helpful or harmful. We don’t need to be concerned with helpful action. We want as much of that as we can get. What about harm? While we won’t agree on what actions are harmful, we can agree that to the extent we can minimize harm, we obtain freedom from harm.
What can we do with our freedom? We can do anything we want as long as we don’t harm other people, including not harming future people. As Rick says, “This means the concept of minimizing harm includes the need to live within sustainable limits.”
We must negotiate. If you want something, but you can’t steal it, you must negotiate for it. That is powerful. Negotiation is the attempt to improve the world, at least for the people in the negotiation. If improvement is accomplished without harm, the world is being improved. More negotiation leads to more improvement. Continuous improvement over time leads to maximizing the good.
Some will look at that statement and think of minimizing government as maximizing the good. If government fails to minimize harm, harm is left to run amok. That does not maximize the good. Government is necessary.
What if we govern too much? Rick likens that to becoming a benevolent dictator “who uses his or her power to force otherwise free people to do whatever the benevolent dictator wants. Now, a benevolent dictator can, indeed, to good. However, a benevolent dictator can never maximize the good. However, much good a benevolent dictator might do, greater good can always be discovered via a process of constant improvement.”
As Rick says, “The only way to maximize the good is to minimize harm (and resist the temptation to do more or less).” … “Disagreement about maximizing the good is often at the heart of our political divide.”
Universal Law #3 Societies have five economies.
Private Action
Public Action
Political Action
Foreign Action
Governing Action
To prove the five types of action, Rick came up with the “Genesis Experiment”. Imagine a lifeless world then add people one at a time.
Private action is one person in the world.
Add one person and the two people could cooperate as a group - public action.
Add one more person to the group and two people could outvote one creating - political action.
Add a single person outside the three-person society and foreign action is created.
Governing action is created when we imagine a person in the future. All laws are created for people in the future.
We now have the three universal laws of Pentanomics. In future lessons we’ll look at application of the laws.