All Politics are Local

  I was sitting with a friend who is setting up a new business. He filled out a form incorrectly and now he either has to file something new or repay a fee. He went on a long rant about government regulation and it hindering business. I literally picked up the phone and started screaming, about his hypocrisy  Oh how the liberal once he starts a business starts sounding like a republican. Convenient.
   No less than 5 years ago I was drinking and was saying that Trade is good. I'm not a fan of "free trade" but trade is good. He piled onto me in some kind of "occupy" anti WTO rant. I believe in reasonable and fair regulation on business and trade. But trade is good.

The Irony that this same person who gave me the full court press on Free trade and corporate injustice against the little man. Suddenly, now that he is starting a business it's all Anti regulation and interference with his business. After he fucked up a form and has to re-apply, which costs him a week. I spent a year negotiating a phone system once. 

   There was another point in the conversation where he told me that there was never a time when bureaucracy helped anyone. I started listing things in both our lives where "the state" stepped in and helped to stop things that business should not be doing. He was like "oh ya!" 

   What is funny is how little we remember, how hard it is to keep a broader view. How easy it is to have an ideology or belief, until it costs you something. Until it inconveniences you. How we are apparently more interested in the politics of the moment, and not a consistent belief system. Isn't that the difference between running on our lizard brain and operating on higher functions. To most people "All Politics are local" 

Next up.... When did life get so cheep?