What people don’t like is uninvited commentary from strangers on how to economize.
I went on vacation as the debates about the common good were blending into a mole sauce and became a debate about burritos, but I had a thought on it I wanted to share.
Because of the high place conservatives and libertarians give to initiative, we’re often tempted to switch the conversation from one about political conditions, and how we might change them, to personal circumstances, and how one might manage those. We switch the topic from politics to self-help.
I think this is an error for most political commentators, but it’s almost malpractice when done by politicians. And conservatives used to know this most of all. When Jimmy Carter was dealing with a difficult economy and problems in the Middle East, he suggested that Americans start car-pooling and turning down their thermostat and wearing sweaters. Conservatives balked. Their attitude was: how about address the conditions that retard the general prosperity, rather than counseling us to voluntarily embrace a lower standard of living.
Economizing, self-discipline, not succumbing to a victim mentality — this is good advice under any political condition, even urgently intolerable ones. This advice would help you endure communism, or political imprisonment. But it’s not a substitute for political reflection.
And again, I think conservatives know this. We often talk about the miracle of free economies in terms of the “knowledge problem” — central planners simply can’t know how much of what will be consumed when, and at what price, because individual preferences are so diverse. If that’s true for consumption, it’s also true for economizing.
Person A might hear that Person B spends $20 on a burrito for lunch and think that Person B is nuts. Person B may look at Person A’s having a recent-model car, and carrying the higher debt and higher insurance premiums that come with it, as the insane indulgence. Person A and Person B may both be admirably responsible, or they may each be correct that the other is irresponsible. But either way, their observations, if done from any distance at all, lack all relevant context. People do seek advice on these things — from friends, parents, peers, pastors, and maybe even Dave Ramsey. What they don’t like is uninvited commentary from strangers on how to economize. And they especially loathe it from politicians or political commentators who seem to be offering that advice in lieu of thinking about the broader conditions driving inflation.