One of the greatest thinkers of the last century, Thomas Sowell, wisely noticed: “in life, there are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.” This should be more obvious than it is. Let me give just a couple of examples. For every household’s savings efforts, they trade the loss of an additional vacation. For every choice to work more hours, we trade the loss of family time. Life is trade-offs.
This understanding is a mere repackaging of the concept of “cost-benefit analysis.” That skill, understanding costs and benefits, is fundamental to being a functional and thriving adult.
The lack of that skill has been on abundant display in major media sources over the last couple of weeks. Before I get there, though, let me provide some historic context on the duplicity I have noticed.
Let me take you way back to 2010. President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in March of that year. In the proceeding years, in an effort to get employees under the 30-hour-per-week threshold that would require employers to provide health insurance, millions of jobs were made part-time or eliminated altogether. The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond estimated the country lost about 3% of paid hours as a result. One year later in 2011, President Obama initiated an effort to shrink the active military force by about 40,000 troops.
Now fast forward to 2017. The Biden Administration announced that development on the Keystone XL Pipeline will end, eliminating what would have been a few thousand jobs (the exact number is hotly debated).
Now, in news coverage at those times, the BENEFIT of these decisions became the fulcrum. To the people creating our national narratives, the BENEFITS of these decisions were so obvious that we need not discuss the costs. The COSTS were real. People lost jobs they had, lost hours they worked, or were unable to pursue jobs slated to be created. However, our cultural betters determined that their desired outcomes: more people with insurance, a smaller military, or some perceived environmental outcome were worth the costs.
One final time-jump: come with me to February 2025. The Trump Administration is eliminating government jobs with alacrity. I’ll admit my own unpleasant surprise at how imprecise and uncareful some of those cuts have been, but that is immaterial to main my point. Those COSTS are real. People who had jobs are losing them. The difference now is that our narrative-setters have flipped their script.
Now, ONLY the costs matter, and they provide no context for the benefits. While the costs are real, so are the benefits. Beyond identifying and eliminating inefficiency and waste, wise administrators should also seek to eliminate bloat or unnecessary positions. Those actions benefit the tax-payer and helpd to defang federal government power going forward.
All of the policies I have itemized over three administrations can be argued on their merits or lack thereof. All of that is fair. My main thrust is to encourage you in this: don’t allow media narratives from any direction demand that you analyze events only by costs or only by benefits. Discerning, deep-thinkers must recognize both and use wisdom from there.
