[Paleopsych] social engineering

[Michael Christopher]

>>It may be that the original welfare system was
constructed without any concept of the problems we
later saw.<<

--And it will be ended without any concept of the
problems that will ensue. Social engineering ALWAYS
has consequences, and dismantling a safety net is as
much an act of social engineering as creating it.

We have many people who are isolated in "theory
bubbles", both on the Left and on the Right. They are
not connected to the ground-level reality of life in
America. They are isolated in groups that think alike
and assume their ideas will work in practice once
obstacles have been removed. Today's think-tank
conservatives are not so different from yesterday's
"ivory tower liberals". They won't know what they're
doing wrong until reality trickles into their bubbles.
You simply cannot assume that because welfare is "bad
liberal social engineering" that removing it will
automatically produce good results. It may FEEL good
to "send a clear signal" about responsibility and
independence, but in practice as I mentioned earlier,
that signal gets distorted and can produce a nasty
backlash. The "Good doggy, bad doggy" method has
serious flaws, despite being based on good Skinnerean
theory. In laboratory conditions, where there is a
single trainer and the rewards clearly tied to
behavior, it works really well. In human societies, it
can be incredibly unstable when attempted on a large
scale.

Michael


		
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