R.C. Dean is a commenter at Reason who’s codified life with a few simple rule; here they are:
1. You get more of what you reward and less of what you punish.
2. Money and power will always find each other.
3. If everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.
4. The less you know about something, the easier it looks.
5. You aren’t free unless you are free to be wrong.
6. Me today, you tomorrow.
7. Foreseeable consequences are not unintended.
Which sounds about right–though of course there are two different ways of reading #6 (one of which is a restatement of #6 from an earlier version of the “Iron Lawz”–“Any power used for you today will be used against you tomorrow”). I’m pretty sure that’s what’s meant.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Masochists disagree with #1.
Otherwise, interesting. The only thing it misses is something about how time influences all of these things, especially money paid out later v. money paid out now.
#6 was previously codified by Goldwater as “A government big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.”