Yes Minister

On the 7.30 report last night Kerry interviewed Senator Robert Hill. Now Sen. Hill is a South Australian, as is the now resigned board member of the Reserve Bank Robert Gerard. Kerry asked him if he intimately knew Gerard. Sen. Hill said he knew Gerard and his family very well. Kerry then asked if he knew of Gerard's tax problems since there were court proceedings, newspaper reports about it and, more importantly, since Sen. Hill knew him intimately. Sen. Hill replied he didn't know about it. This reminded me of an episode of 'Yes Prime Minister' in which a certain group of bankers lent money to some crooks who couldn't repay the loans. The bankers didn't make inquires because "The crooks seemed like decent chaps, so the Decent Chap Rule applies: decent chaps don't check up on decent chaps to see if they are behaving decently. Nor do they really mind people being crooks. What they do mind is people finding out that people are crooks. Worse still, people finding out that people knew that people were crooks." I think that Sen. Hill must have watched this show and taken copious notes.

The same episode also describes the logical process known as the Politicians' Syllogism.
Step one: Something must be done.
Step two: This is something.
Step three: Therfore we must do this.

Sound familiar???? I think this logic forms the basis of the policies put forward by the Howard government over the last few years.

Step one: The country needs to be more productive/safer/alert.
Step two: We can pass legislation.
Step three: So we must pass legislation.

This is logically akin to:
Step one: All dogs have four legs.
Step two: My cat has four legs.
Step three: Therefore my cat is a dog.

This is what happen when you study economics. Logic gets thrown out the window. Rational thought. What's that? Didn't the Dark Ages and religious dogma put an end to that?