Dark Side of Democracy

Sometimes, we have win-win situations. Sometimes, it is lose-lose. These are easy.

We can dissect those win-lose ones further. If most win and few lose, we follow the utilitarian rule and sacrifice the minority. The flip side is the taxation scheme: a small increase of burden on the majority to fund the few. This takes political skills and usually reek corruptions: the famous bridge to no-where.

The last category is for wars! There are enough who will lose more than noticeable. They will fight hard. Since losers fight harder than winners (strange human nature), they usually win as the minority. This is the worst and darkest part of the democratic system: minority actually dominates the agenda (think Tea Party). It crippled India and California. Now, Taiwan.

This island country has been mired in the equivalent of the social security reform. The government must deal with the bankrupting system. There is no good solution; someone must lose. There are several possibilities:

  1. Keep on borrowing from the future: next generation loses.
  2. Change the pay-out scheme: the retired people lose. Their income gets slashed.
  3. Increase tax to pay: everyone loses. Politicians never touch this option.

Nearly 100% of the time, the government choose #1 and blame it on the previous regime. Let’s see how Taiwan come out of this.

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