Now bear with me, this may take some
time to explain. Our Canadian hiking friends insisted that we play a
card game with them called “ The president and the idiot”. The
Canadians said we were the right kind of people to play the game.
This is how you play the game. After the cards are shuffled all the
cards are dealt to the four participants. The president, the vice
president, the idiot and the vice idiot have already been chosen by a
card draw.
The president gives his worst two cards
to the idiot. The idiot gives his best two cards to the president.
The vice president gives his worst one card to the vice idiot, and
the vice idiot gives his best card to the vice idiot.
The president plays the first hand.
Two's trump everything. Whomever plays the highest card wins the
hand. The round progresses from president to vice president to vice
idiot to idiot. The winner of the hand gets to lay down the next
leading card. The object is to get rid of your cards. If you cannot
play a card you must pass. You can play one card, a pair, three
cards of a kind, or four of a kind.
Now to the important part of the game.
The game mimics life. The idiot can become the president, but it is
very unlikely. The game favors those on top staying on top.
However, the game seems to give the false appearance of being fair.
Everyone gets dealt the same number of cards. Everyone plays by the
same rules, and after all occasionally the idiot does become the
president.
This is exactly how our political
system works. It appears to be fair, and it appears to give everyone
a chance, but in reality the same people generally win. When you
closely examine the statistics for our country you see there is very
little upward mobility, but everyone believes it is there, because
after all it does happen. The inheritance tax is the classic example
of the president and the idiot in action. The rich kid that inherits
millions certainly has much better odds for a good life than a poor
kid in the slum. No rational person would say it is fair, and the
answer is obvious. Fairness would be to start both kids out more
closely to even. This was done in the past by taxing the estates of
the rich. Now we have instituted the president and the idiot system
whereby the good cards go to the rich, and the bad cards go to the
poor. We argue the system is fair, and the idiots think it is.
After all some idiots make it to the top. The whole thing is exactly
like gambling. Some people win, but in generate just about everyone
else loses. Idiots by lottery tickets and stay broke. The casino
operators take advantage of the idiots and pay off the politicians.
What else is new?
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