Cause-and-effect is one of the first abstract ideas the human brain learns to deal with. The tiniest baby knows within his first few hours that if he cries, his mom will feed him. Even my little dogs know that if they bring me one of their chew toys at the right time of day, I’ll fix their supper. We know that the worst thing that can happen to a child is to be born into a family where this cause-and-effect dance doesn’t happen. We now know that neglect is far more damaging than abuse. To neglect a child is to break that all-important connection. The only power an infant has is his grasp of cause-and-effect; it gives him a tiny bit of control in an otherwise hostile world.

Conversely, cause and effect is one of the hardest ideas to prove, for our world is incredibly complex -- every effect is just swimming in possible causes -- often unforeseen and indemonstrable.  

This is why it’s such a struggle to find solutions to our problems. To rectify an errant policy, we need to know what caused it, or at least we need to be able to forecast what ramifications a change in that policy will set off. We also need to know which is the cart and which the horse.

Thomas Sowell talks a lot about cause-and-effect and he points out that too often those making policy decisions don’t think past the first level; they’re oblivious to outcomes lurking behind the second and third levels of inquiry. So, we want to solve the problem of poverty. The obvious solution would be to give the poor more money. Problem: poverty, solution: more money. So, let’s raise the minimum wage. More money = less poverty. Unless:

1. Companies can’t afford to pay out more in wages, so they eliminate positions. The ultimate effect is that more people are poor than were in the beginning.
2. Because these companies can no longer keep enough workers on staff, they pile the extra work onto those few workers left, and eventually, they quit and hope against hope there’s an opportunity elsewhere. So we lose workers.
3. Last week 10,000 California workers were let go due to the increase in the minimum wage. That’s 10,000 sources of government revenue gone, at least temporarily. Now even the government is poorer. And that’s just three ripples moving out from this “solution.”

The point is that superficial “solutions” are no solutions at all.

How do we manage to avoid this kind of knee-jerk reaction to problems? This thin, third grade approach has us sending our kids to schools that advertise their inability to protect our children (Gun Free Zone!).  It has us welcoming sexual deviants into our schools to do what? -- to practice making perversion normal? How do we start thinking ahead more responsibly?

For one thing, we need to recognize the flaws that are inherent in human nature. We want things to be simple and easy, but they aren’t, so facing that would be step one. We’re all damaged goods. We are all prone to greed, sneakiness, impatience, and arrogance. Those traits must be factored in. Checks and balances must be applied. If we make the mistake of believing that all people are basically good, we open ourselves to

1. Moral confusion because we good people don’t always act that way,
2. Philosophical confusion because if all people are good, how do we account for evil? (You can’t blame everything on Trump.)
3. Financial disaster. If we run businesses, or work for the government and just blindly assume that all people are basically good, then human nature -- your own and everyone else’s -- will take advantage of that Pollyanna fog and soon we have major airplane manufacturers unable to guarantee the viability of their product, we have school teachers who fail to actually teach, and doctors who prescribe dangerous vaccines.

We do, however, need to be wary of any proposal that gives government more power than it already has. I don’t want the government keeping track of how much I drive, at what temperature I keep my house, how often I water my yard. I don’t want some bureaucrat telling me which shots I should get, or what procedures I must have done.  I don’t care what problems such restrictions may “fix,” the cost is too high.

While we’re being wary of each other’s negative propensities, we still need to balance that with respect for the average person’s abilities and drives. Most problems almost solve themselves, if big government gets out of the way. Human beings are smart, ambitious, creative, and now and then, responsible. We solve most problems at the micro level -- close to home. But most problems are caused by attempts to fix things on the macro level -- close to board rooms and the seats of government.

Then we must become more discerning about which problems are actually problems.  Is there even a cart to be pulled? It turned out that Covid was not nearly the boogeyman it was portrayed to be. Neither is climate change. Neither is racism -- it once was, but, aside from the machinations of political stormtroopers, it really isn’t such an authentic or urgent nightmare that we have to swarm into some ill-thought-out solution like affirmative action or bussing kids to distant schools.

Most importantly, we need to be honest with ourselves about what has caused our almost impossible peace and prosperity in a world that has never had enough of either. The woke weasels think this nation was built on the backs of people of color. They assume that men (white males) made all the mistakes of yesteryear, therefore it must be testosterone overload and lack of melanin that set off those errors. We must read the founding documents to see what was really going on, what actually produced our astounding prosperity. Or we’ll lose it.

One of the things that catapulted our young nation onto the top of the mountain was our education system. Not just that it was free and available to all, but that it did seem to educate people and educated people invent things, manage things, produce. Much of why that system met our needs so well is that it taught our young people about God. We no longer do that -- anyone want to venture to guess what the effect of that has been?  

Carts and horses. Right now, the cart is leading, and the horse is walking backward toward the cliff edge. The man holding the reins isn’t even aware that’s a problem. You see, elections have consequences, causes and effects. What caused that problem? Failure on our part to follow the money. Failure to face how evil people can be. Failure to raise our children well. Failure to be honest and earnest. Failure to honor God and be grateful to Him. Failure to be truly American.

Image: Kurt S