More Election Thinking

One of the big bummers is that this election doesn't seem very substantive. It is kind of funny because just as the technology for candidates to reach out to everyone within a nation become possible, the people running for office seem less and less interested in talking about real things in substantive ways.



I guess the problem with that is that candidates would likely sound like the Federal Reserve Chair Allen Greenspan who is like this oracle spouting what could be wisdom, but that you have to decipher into human-speak. In his last congressional testimony he made an interesting distinction between Social Security and Medicare.



Basically, with Social Security, the government knows what future obligations it is making and can take it into account. However, the cost of Medicare can't be predicted--it is an obligation that is made without knowing the cost.



He also had an interesting observation of the nature of government expenditures. More and more government is making long term obligations rather than making decisions with the annual budget. This means that politicians can essentially fulfill campaign promises this year but put off paying for it until many years from now.



Maybe I'm just missing long and persuasive arguments about these things because I don't watch too much TV or read a paper every day. Maybe they aren't talking about it because both Bush and Kerry are all that different on the topic, making it a moot point.