Substitute Wisdom
Soccer is a coordination problem
Should you care or think about politics ever?
Now, some say, “everything is politics”. Eh. I mean politics as in the Polis, the body politic, like What We Together Ought To Do.
The answer to that, for me, is something like the answer to whether and how much you should care, or think, about all the humans on Earth. There’s some amount that you probably should, but it’s pretty hard to know what that amount is, and spending time worrying about if you worry enough about people in far away places probably also has diminishing returns.
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I went to go watch my old soccer team play the other day. It was a tournament game, but in the group stage. It was using the 10-point system. 6 points for a win. 1 point for a shutout. 1 point for each goal, up to 3 goals. It’s a system that’s not often used.
The coach texted the team they needed 8 points to get out of the group. He said that means winning 1-0, or 2-1, or 3-2.
I read this, and as a math minor, realized quickly that, if you win, you will always have 8+ points. I’ll give you a moment to work through it, if you want. Some of you will, some of you won’t, that may be a point I make later on…
When I showed up, the game had just started, I heard an old teammate on the bench ask, “Hey, how many points do we need?”
Someone else on the bench responded, “Matt said 8 points”
Another player said, “8 points? So we’re out? It’s 3 points for a win.”
“No, it’s using that dumb 10-point system.”
“What, like when we were kids?”
“Yeah, so it’s like 6 points for a win and then some other shit.”
“Yeah, and we have to get a shutout or—”
“Well it’s a point for every goal—”
“Doesn’t matter, Matt said if we get a shutout we’re through.”
“But if they do score?”
“You get a point for every goal. Read the text thread, man.”
“So we have to win by 2?”
“No, it can be like 2-1 or 3-2. ”
Maybe they would have just attempted a brute force solution, listing all reasonable winning scorelines, 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 4-0, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 3-2, 4-2. I’m sure they would have been fine. Regardless, I butted in and let them know how clever I was.
“You guys, as long as you win, you’re through. It’s either 6 plus 1 for a shutout plus 1 for at least one goal, and if you didn’t get a shutout, but you won, that implies you scored 2 or more goals, therefore you acquired 8 or more points.”
“Oh…”
They thought about it. That made a lot of sense to them. They calmed down. They proceeded to win 2-0 and I felt like I played my part. Just kidding. I don’t think my efforts were either necessary or impactful.
What does this teach us? Select any or all of the following options.
(A) A lot of people don’t read text messages
(B) A lot of people don’t read text messages when they involve math and it’s not immediately relevant to them or someone else is responsible for understanding it (such as a coach)
(C) When it becomes important, just about anyone can understand at least slightly complicated systems, especially when they work it out together
(D) Some people do like to read text messages when they involve math
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What’s this got to do with Henry George? Everything. Everything is related to Henry George. More specifically, this is about how most people don’t care about George, just as they don’t care about complicated scoring systems. Most people don’t bother to learn a bunch of information that isn’t of immediate use to them.
The funny thing is, in my soccer example, while I was the one who spent the most time thinking about the scoring system, I’m not even on that team anymore. I’ve been out of the game for 2+ years, I just happen to be a nerd who really likes to show people how clever he is.
The Land Value Tax is not immediately useful to people, because none of us have the power to do anything about it.
I make some strong claims about the LVT. I’m not far away from claiming that it can END WORLD POVERTY. Yet how many of you have read George’s book? Are you a bad person? If you have read it, it’s probably not because you just found my blog, it’s probably because you are an econ nerd or my mom. Most people are neither an econ nerd nor my mom, yet I believe they would support the Land Value Tax.
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“It’s a coordination problem.”
This is what Ian, who serves on the board of Democracy Without Elections, tells me whenever I express frustration over these ideas not catching fire. Democracy Without Elections focuses on spreading the use of sortition.
Why do I choose to spend a lot of time talking about these ideas? Well, for one, I’m unemployed and for two, (as stated above!) I like showing people how clever I am!
Going back to the soccer players trying to understand the scoring system. They want to win. If the 10-point system said that doing cartwheels on the field during the middle of the game would give them a point, they’d do it. If the rules said they’d get a point if they stole the opposing team’s water bottles, they’d do it. Only once the rules were so fudged up that either soccer was onrecognizable or it forced them to violate some of their deepest moral convictions would they revolt.
However, these amateur leagues have annual meetings where every team’s manager comes together and they discuss the rules. They review the quality of the referees. The cost for the league and wether that’s being properly tracked and spent. Amateur leagues often fail and new ones start.
(Compare and contrast this with FIFA!)
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We can either wait for the American empire to tell us to do cartwheels over the corpses of the dead homeless people and only then do we start a bloody rebellion or we can try to figure some shit out now and together.
Maybe you never talk politics with anyone ever. Probably a more beautiful existence that way. However, if you do happen to talk politics, consider batting around the idea of why we use juries for deciding the direct life and death situations you may actually deal with and why the same methodology shouldn’t be applied to the general laws about our common welfare.
If you think there’s flaws in the jury system, do you think they’re addressable?
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I talked to an aging, handicapped woman who says she gets sent home every time from jury duty, because she has a brother in jail. Should her voice be heard? She’s never going to run for office. She’s never going to have money.
She is pro aborition.
My mother is anti abortion.
Both of these women are beautiful mothers.
Do you think they could work together?
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Sunday, our LA sortition organization has been asked to present to the Humanist Association of Orange County and I volunteered to do it. It’s on Zoom and everyone’s invited. I’m a little nervous, I’ve been given some slides to use.
[Edit: I’ve given the talk, I’ve posted it below]
I’m going to do a run through tonight at 6 pm on my live stream at 6 pm Pacific time: https://www.twitch.tv/landvaluetaxmax
My talk is open to everyone on Sunday at 1:30 pm: https://www.meetup.com/humanist-association-of-orange-county/events/308115974/
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Yours truly,
Max
Total fire, by the way! 🔥🔥🔥
What I took away from the soccer scoring scenario was that we have a tendency to overcomplicate things which don’t need to be complicated (like kicking a ball around for fun … or our tax code).
Also, I can empathize with the lady who gets kicked off the jury panel. I live in a place where there are enough phenotypical minorities to be randomly selected to a jury, but not enough phenotypical minorities to make it through all 9 of the prosecution’s peremptory strikes. We can expand the application of sortition across more areas of decision-making, but we have a tendency to break things by adding unnecessary complexity. (LVT exemptions is another example.)
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
We aim for elegance.
Best one yet. People need to know the benefits and how it will help them win. We dumb. It is the way it is.