A Concrete-Bound State of the Union

President Obama's 2015 State of the Union speech was full of examples of concrete-bound thinking.

Obama seems to think that if he likes something, a law will make it happen.

• Are some people poor? Have the government give them money!
• Should women and men both be treated like the individuals they are?

Make it illegal to treat them any other way!Is college education a good thing? Make it free, by law!

The concrete-bound mentality, Ayn Rand explained, is one that focuses on what can be seen and eschews thinking in the abstract about long-range consequences that can't be seen.

Obama's policy ideas are concrete-bound

Obama can see that some people are poor. He can't see the stutifying, prosperity-destroying effects of his socialist economic policies. He can't see the counter-factual, flourishing America that would exist but for those regulations, subsidies, and taxes.

Obama can see that both men and women are people. He can't see the crushing effect a law mandating “just” pay would have—the lawsuits it would engender, the damage it would do to the rule of law itself through the inherent vagueness of its charge. What jobs are the same? What is fair pay? In private life, these questions are resolved through endless interaction and renegotiation. Obama can't see the teams of investigators that would be needed to judge the rightness of every contract and pay rate, disrupting the private market.

It takes abstract thinking to appreciate why freedom is the best policy. It takes conceptual thought, not the perceptual level limitations of the concrete-bound.

EXPLORA

• William R Thomas, " The Conceptual Faculty. " (video lecture).

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