The politics of neatness
One of the most common urges of politicians is to try and making things neater. They like to tidy things that individuals and the markets in which they operate would, left to their own devices, allow to carry on in a seemingly haphazard way. One example is the way in which the market traders dubbed “Metric Martyrs” were prosecuted by Britain’s Trading Standards for selling their products in Imperial measures rather than metric. No one is harmed by market sellers weighing in Imperial, and older customers learned weights in Imperial anyway. As long as scales are not bent, why prosecute?
Many British people who learned metric at school have, in strange British way, become used to an amalgamation of Imperial and metric measures, for example measuring lengths in millimetres then centimetres then inches then metres then miles. To a politician’s mind this is travesty of untidiness. Some people make the case for in the dark of night having a sudden swoop and replacing all the road signs in Britain with ones in kilometres. But given the choice of that and allowing individuals to keep more of their earnings, which would promote economic growth, I know which I’d prefer.
Some years back, the European Commission thought about harmonising electric plugs across Europe. One could argue that the British plug isn’t the best design: they are bigger than they could be. Perhaps aesthetically Continental-style rounded pins are better. (In fact, the traditional British Empire plug, which was the standard in Britain before 1962 and still used by former colonies such as India, has rounded pins.) Also, the British plugs are apparently relatively expensive to produce. But the cost of harmonising them would be so great, only a politician spending other people’s money would want to do it.
When systems evolve, they may seem to be irrational and untidy to those the detached world politics. Why do British beer drinkers drink in pints but German beer drinkers in Becher, Seidel and Pokal glasses? And why do Germans keep with the Steinzeugkrug, a stoneware beer mug with a hinged lid, apparently a hygiene measure after the bubonic plague? Personally, I enjoy going to a bar and being presented drinks in unusual glasses.
Neatness has a role to play. When there are real economic benefits from things being neater, then it’s worth tidying up. If every country had their own incompatible email system, making things “neater” by having a standard system would be a good thing. Having mobile phones that only worked in some countries but not others was a real pain; thankfully the widespread adoption of GSM and also tri-band phones has fixed that. But when it come down to things that don’t damage trade, a little bit of untidiness might be the most rational option.