Transparency, Privacy, and Prevention

In America we are innocent until proven guilty. We also have the right to remain silent. The 4th Amendment protects the U.S. citizen against improper search and seizure. Law enforcement recently has been trying to circumvent the search warrant by planting GPS devices on suspects’ vehicles without a warrant. Cases in Wisconsin and now in New York will bring the matter before the U.S. Supreme Court sooner or later.
On Wall Street and in Washington there is talk of taking care of the derivative mess by creating two categories of derivatives: those traded publicly and those traded privately. The publically traded derivatives would be subject to regulation; the private ones would not, or so Secretary Geithner has proposed.
What do these two issues have in common? They both illustrate the paradoxical, if not contradictory nature of the American ethos: we want as much freedom as possible to go about our business and we want protection from the negative consequences of that freedom.
A third issue that stands before the country whose ultimate solution lies in prevention is health care. The sooner we start asking America to invest in prevention or in the promotion of health, the lower our intervention costs will be. Instead of pumping billions of dollars into the pharmaceutical industry and expensive diagnostics, we should be focusing our energy and money on wellness and prevention of illness.
A healthy economy and a healthy society should follow the same model. Instead of resorting to the same old economic deception and gamesmanship that mutates into bubbles the way diseases mutate into pandemics, let’s not leave any soft spots in the economic membrane where bubbles can form. Let’s tame the wildly speculative aspects of the market and encourage investors to invest in companies that actually make things, rather than in betting that they can or can’t. Let’s not allow unregulated derivatives. They are unhealthy in any long run. If we can’t come up with the economic equivalent of a GPS for derivatives, they should not exist. The greater good is far more important a value than the speculative economic freedom of the individual.
Privacy is a right in America. Its protection is essential. However, there are very clear cases in which the greater good must be protected against harm done by the individual. For example, the harm done by a shoplifter is not the same as that done by a terrorist. If a person is suspected of links to terrorism, a GPS without a warrant is fair because the potential damage is great. Besides, GPS is a far better source of information and considerably less invasive than, say, torture. Yes, the GPS tells more than the police need to know, but it provides good information that may lead to prevention without harm to the innocent.
America needs to take a hard look at itself and not resort to the same old principles of freedom and privacy above all else. When someone’s “freedom” to smoke raises my insurance premium, my freedom to spend my money as I see fit is compromised. When someone’s right to privacy creates a bomb that blows up my family, my family’s right to life is compromised. When someone’s right to invest in private derivatives puts the whole economy at risk, my economic well-being is compromised. It is time to look at the greater good for America and not trot out the same old principles of individual freedom and privacy as sacrosanct at all costs. That’s a sure way to impale America on its own sword of belief.