Ok, bear with me today….
I know we all wonder “How on earth can they think this way?” when it comes to some of the conclusions on the left.
Well Philmon of The Clue Batting Cage has a theory that I is looking pretty sound to me. It concerns the “role of abstract thought in the life of the affected”.
In a normal, healthy human being, one balances the capacity for abstract thought with experiencial moorings in reality. …….We build these often useful models of reality – abstractions of experience … and … abstractions of abstractions. And thus we can build layer upon layer of abstraction. The ability to do this is useful, it’s interesting, and like I said demonstrates an agile and flexible intellect……… One should understand that the more layers of abstraction one constructs over reality, the farther from reality it becomes. But many people do not understand this…………… As such people engage in this activity they begin to confuse rationalization with reason.
And they become Progressives.
Read the whole post for clarity, but let’s take a look at today’s example from Small Dead Animals. They link to this news item about Rep Ed Markey of the US House Natural Resources Committee. He wants to:
imposes new fees on energy companies for failing to produce oil and gas on federal lands they lease.
Here’s the (and this is a simple example) thought process:
If you charge fees for not producing, the energy companies will be encouraged to produce more oil and gas from these leases that they are letting sit idle. And if that doesn’t work, it’s still a win because the US government will have more money to spend.
“It’s as if the oil and gas industry first asked for dessert, then ate one-fourth of their dinner and then complained to the manager about the service,” Markey said Thursday during a hearing of the Natural Resources Committee.
Let’s go with that analogy. You go to a restaurant and pay for a 4 course meal and eat dessert first. Then you only eat 1/4 of the rest of your meal and complain because you are so full. In Rep Markey’s head, the fix for this is to charge you for 2 meals. This will encourage you to eat dinner first and if it doesn’t, well, the restaurant is still ahead.
Tangent: Years ago I respected Ken Salazar.
Salazar said the Interior Department “would be happy” to help Markey develop the legislation.
Anywho…..did you get that abstraction?
Oil companies first pay the government to lease land.
It lays idle so rather than cancel the lease, or even re-lease the land thus “punishing” the lessee for mistreatment of the lease, they figure it will work to charge a fee.
In the real world, oil companies will just no longer buy all these xtra leases that they are not quite ready to start working or exploring yet. The government will lose out on the lease money AND there is still no incentive for energy companies to “work harder”.
Back to Kate at Small Dead Animals:
I Wish I Owned All The Oil Companies In The World
So I could go to Washington and announce my retirement.
