By Bill Kombol

Guest Editorial

Is politics meant to divide people? Does economics brings us together?

Every four years a presidential election rolls around with impassioned voters swearing allegiance to their candidate of choice as the nations’ only hope. Salvation is said to rest with said aspirant. Equally fervent counterclaims foretell an impoverished country and destroyed institutions. Rival supporters devolve into tribes – two teams of competing color, mascot, with fevered fans chanting slogans. Campaigns are staged pep rallies, filled with carefully tailored promises to entice a few undecideds.

Most voters are irrelevant to the outcome, living in red or blue states, where the electoral outcome is settled before the campaign begins. Only a handful of undecided in a few purple states have any real influence on the results. And, those afflicted few are hammered by television advertising focused primarily on the evil doings of the other. Politics remains a game of carefully accumulating a winning combination of compatible interest groups stitched together to form an electoral majority. Election Day arrives and produces a winning team. The elected enact laws calculated to reward their supporters, with a matched zest for punishing their opponents. Losers seek solace by painting a sour picture of the nation’s future. There are only winners and losers, and to the victors go the spoils.

Economics is the daily means by which people obtain goods and services through a system of mutually beneficial transactions. Each consumer purchase is that day’s vote – the economic voice used to craft the world. Say you want a loaf of bread. You could assemble the ingredients and obtain the know-how to bake a loaf; or simply visit the local baker who’s saved you time and trouble by baking hundreds for you and your neighbors. Or perhaps you’d enjoy a slice of cheese to accompany that bread. You could certainly buy a cow, culture the milk, add coagulant, stir the curds, separate the whey, then salt and age the cheese. But, the dairy farmer and his co-op already manufacture varieties of safe, delicious, and affordable cheese favored by your palette. The baker provides fresh bread while the farmer produces aged cheese. They are better off for having done so. You’re better off from avoided labor and newfound convenience. Each party gets exactly what they want at a mutually agreeable price. And each dollar is voted in a fully recognized exchange. Everyone’s a winner.

This cornucopia of life’s goods is inviting, but how to obtain the required currency. The entrepreneurially sort might raise the cow or build the brick oven then obtain fields of grass and grain allowing her enterprise to prosper. Another less inclined to risk-taking might hone skills and offer labor at a wage that suits her competence. If the community is stagnant perhaps she’ll travel to a market town where her abilities are prized. In either case, diverse parties come together economically to further their respective needs. Through commerce people intermix then commingle in millions of large and small transactions. Each bargains for what they want. Each finds goods or jobs at suitable prices and wages. Every day you vote your dollars and sell your labor. Each decision shapes lives – yet in aggregate the collective choices shape culture. It’s all so democratic.

Nonetheless, November harbors an election so politics can rear its ugly head. The ambitious and charismatic seek power to implement the will of their supporters. That will is the political base which becomes the interest served. The gilded prize is the exercise of power over others. Here’s the rub. Lost are the wonders of voluntary transactions. In its place are victors exercising raw political power and losers trying to subvert or lessen the damage of triumphant pigs at the trough.

So, will your vote matter? When was the last time your vote provided the deciding tally in any city, county, state, or federal election? It will be counted, but it likely won’t matter. However, in the economic sphere, every dollar you spend is a vote that matters – to you. And, every hour you work makes a difference – to you. And, every buck you save or invest can be used for a better tomorrow. Salvation lies not with politicians who curry your vote. It rests in the votes you take every day expressed by the economic choices you make. Vote wisely.

Bill Kombol graduated from the U.W. with a degree in economics.