Step 7 of 10

Compounding policies and ethics

Easy policies rarely force your priorities to collide. They feel good, but they’re typically incremental. Big-impact policy usually leans hard on one set of priorities — for example, cutting global aid to reduce taxes — and that’s exactly why it’s politically difficult: it reveals what you value most when values conflict.

My view is that a clear understanding of your priorities (and a party’s priorities) will increasingly be the only way to judge whether a policy “cuts through”, what it costs and how to have the most impact.

Model disclaimer
The charts on this page are illustrative frameworks. They’re designed to make trade-offs legible.
1) Easy wins vs hard levers

The intuition: the policies that are easiest to agree on usually don’t meaningfully pit priorities against each other. The policies that truly move the needle usually do — and they reveal what a party is willing to sacrifice.

X: Priority trade-off intensity (how hard your values collide).
Y: Expected impact magnitude (how much it changes outcomes).
2) Compounding dynamics

In competitive environments, utilitarian performance focus compounds positively when maintained — and compounds negatively when abandoned.

Post globalisation, we are very exposed to global competition. It is a race with no let up. It feels like globalisation is a noose for democracies. Early prosperity generated from globalism can reduce the felt need to push hard on growth.

Utilitarianism loop — up-spiral

  1. Enhances GDP power relative globally
  2. Makes importing goods/services cheaper relative
  3. Allows cheaper growth relative
  4. Fulfilling deontological obligations easier
  5. ↺ Loops back

Anti-utilitarianism loop — down-spiral

  1. Lose GDP power relative globally
  2. Makes importing goods/services expensive relative
  3. Growth and obligations more expensive
  4. Fulfilling deontological obligations more expensive
  5. ↺ Loops back
Warning
Personal view
This is my personal belief, but now the globalisation door is open, utilaiatiransim has to take high priority. It'll be increasingly difficult to keep our rights, way of life and standard of living unless it is a core focus. Because of the lag in metrics, by the time we feel it, it might already by too late.