The Laws of “Good Intentions”

Politics as Supply and Demand of the information product "good intentions"

Murphy's well-known Laws ("Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong") prompted me to draw up similar ironic Laws of Good Intentions ( “It is not the intention that a good intention is realized”).?Good Intentions are "information products" traded on the markets of good intentions with supply and demand.

What is a “good intention”?? A definition is : “an act or instance of determining mentally upon some action or result.” Something mentally thus. A good intention is positive information mentally processed? about a probable and possible positive future.? Since the only information that we have is information about the past, whereas the only information that we need is information about the future.

Damasio (Descartes’ Error) states that throughout evolution emotions allow acting smartly without thinking smartly. Pre-organized mechanisms (instinct, emotions) help the organism classify things or events as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ because of their possible impact on survival. “Emotion and feeling…assist us with the daunting task of predicting an uncertain future and planning our actions accordingly.” Feelings along with the emotions they come from serve as internal guides, he states, and feelings help us communicate to others signals that can also guide them. “Emotions play a role in communicating meanings to others and they may play the cognitive guidance role” (Descartes’ Error, p.130).?

A "good intention" activates our ability to display images internally with dispositional representations, patterns of neurological activity that disposes individuals to act in some manner. (See i.e. Descartes' Error : Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain, also referred to in our publication on “Reference Creation” see link below). ?Recognizing that behavior results from the process of mental representation, helps to explain why individuals exposed to similar "good intentions" can have different outcomes: the perception of a "good intention" is individually interpreted.

As an economist I know the public choice theory, to quote according to Wikipedia is "the use of economic tools to deal with traditional problems of political science" and “Its content includes the study of political behavior. Public choice, building upon economic theory, has some core tenets that are largely adhered to:?

The first is the use of the individual as the common decision unit. Due to this there is no decision made by an aggregate whole. Rather, decisions are made by the combined choices of the individuals.?

The second is the use of markets in the political system, which was argued to be a return to true economics.?

The final is the self-interested nature of all individuals within the political system."

And Wikipedia continues: “However, as Buchanan and Tullock argued, "the ultimate defense of the economic-individualist behavioral assumption must be empirical...The only final test of a model lies in its ability to assist in understanding real phenomena".

The theory which I present is deduction from the theory of public choice: the use of the individual as the common decision unit, the use of markets in the political system, the self-interested nature of all individuals and the ability to assist in understanding real phenomena.?Each aspect I will address.

As an economist I start with the aspect : market, without (percepted) demand there will generally be no supply. In my view, the “Good Intentions” are the main product which is traded by individuals as the common decision unit , so individual? politicians, political organizations and charity organizations are in the market of good intentions. It is a market with many individual suppliers and many individual? demands. The product is heterogeneous and the -fragmented- market is in some cases not very transparent and in other cases it is. Sometimes the “good intention” is quite homogenous and the market transparent:? fully competitive conditions where the individual producer has no power on the market.

The market of good intentions mainly plays a role in politics, in many talk shows, etc. Sometimes the market of good intentions is fragmented and consists of different submarkets with different target groups, where the communication costs can differ considerably and therefore also the production cost? of the good intentions . The communication costs are the main cost category for producing a good intention. These costs can be measured in money and time. Also opportunity costs play a role, especially for the units of demand: they might change their interest i.e. to other good intentions?

As in any market there is an equilibrium where supply meets demand with an equilibrium price. The price consists of the communication costs of the good intention for both the buyer and the producer.?

To understand the real phenomena : The Laws of Good Intentions

• It is not the intention that a good intention is realized.

This is the "general law of good intentions" (aspect: the use of the individual as the common decision unit and the self-interested nature of all individuals). The self-interested nature makes that, if the good intention is wrongly realized, it reinforces the good intention. After all, then 'learning effects' can be drawn, so that the good intention can be reformulated in order to reconcile with the question of the good intention. The realization of the good intention is not so desirable because then the necessity of the production of the good intention disappears when there is no demand any more.

Other "Laws":

• Every good intention has side effects that are counterproductive once the good intention is actually fulfilled.
• When the good intention is fulfilled, the market is generally cleared. Supply = Demand. The good intention is forgotten.?
• The positive effect of realizing a good intention is generally unrelated to the initial communicated good intention (the supply of the good intention)
• The simpler - less complex - the good intention is formulated, the better it can be communicated and the more supporters the good intention acquires.
• Good intentions are generally at odds with one's own behavior in the matter.
• As society becomes more complex and prosperous, good intentions become simpler and more general.
• In poor societies, the information about good intentions is primarily aimed at those -or those organizations- that can support good intentions with resources from outside that society ("charity").
• Economically, good intentions generally create a beggar economy where demand is infinite at the price of 0.
• The price of a good intention is not based on the production costs of the good intention, but on the price that can be achieved on the market of good intentions.
• Expecting gratitude when concretely realizing a good intention is a wrong assumption. After all, the person whose good intention has been realized must be grateful, because his need has been met. Not so much the person at whom the good intention is directed, after all it was not his/her good intention.

You can also distinguish several market forms of the markets of good intentions: there might be collusion , so monopolistic characteristics at these (sub) markets. There are heterogeneous “good intentions” and “homogeneous good intentions”.? When there is a monopolist the quantity of the production of “good intention” is fixed, thereby the price determined on the monopolistic market.?

These Laws of Good Intentions made me understand real phenomena, experienced in my political career as a social-liberal, experienced and still experience in charity projects in Africa (Malawi, Burundi). My presented Laws of Good Intentions are somewhat more cynical, summarized in the English saying: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions".