“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson.
He was probably right about those times that people cleave to one set of rules without thought. A speed limit is a speed limit, but if an ambulance or a fire truck has to go faster, that makes sense. Shooting someone is wrong, but defending yourself is not.
But with apologies to poets and philosophers, consistency is generally not foolish. Aside from efficiency and ease, consistency has something going for it that makes it so popular.
Fairness.
Buy a box of cereal, and you want to know that it has the same number of flakes as every other box. Pay your electric bill, and you want to know that your lights cost the same as everyone else’s. Consistency makes that happen.
And consistency is what we have faulted Gov. Tom Wolf for repeatedly during the coronavirus pandemic. The administration’s policies — from shutdowns to reopenings to liquor stores to crowd sizes — have been a bouncing ball. Today’s move is tomorrow’s change and next week’s appeal and next month’s pivot.
The course of the coronavirus pandemic is highly unpredictable. So changes are good if they are motivated by changing data or by compromise after reasoned debate with the opposition.
If they seem as random as the Daily Number draw, that’s a problem.
This week, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale agreed with that, issuing an update on an audit begun in May on the business closures and the granting of waivers to some businesses to stay open.
To date, of the 42,380 waivers requested, the audit shows more than 500 businesses received answers from the Department of Community & Economic Development. Some were granted waivers that were later revoked, or denied waivers that were later approved. Some businesses were told they didn’t need a waiver, but then they did. Some were told they did need one, but then they didn’t.
That’s a problem with consistency.
“The waiver program appears to be a subjective process built on shifting sands of changing guidance,” DePasquale said.
While this is par for the Wolf course, what makes it different from previous criticism is that it isn’t coming from the Republican Senate or the Republican House. It’s not coming from a
Republican county or municipal government. It’s not coming from largely Republican protesters gathered in Harrisburg or Pittsburgh.
DePasquale is a Democrat. This critique is coming from inside Wolf’s own house.
This is not about whether one agrees with the governor’s moves or not — and there are plenty of people on both sides of those actions. But a good policy is not made better by inconsistency, and a bad one is only made worse.
What would Emerson say about foolish inconsistencies?
