Tories' target fetishism

There’s a famous story about a nail factory in the old Soviet Union. When it was told to produce millions of nails, it made them so small as to be useless, but when it was told to make tons of nails, it made them so big they were useless*.

I was reminded of this by the Guardian’s report that the government is considering almost halving the number of foreign students coming to the UK.

This is obviously moronic. It would deprive us of billions of pounds of export earnings at a time when we’re borrowing massively from overseas; it would harm one of the UK’s very few world-class high-skilled industries; and it would deprive us of the “soft power” than we’d enjoy from future foreign decision-makers having goodwill towards the country as a result of their student experiences.

Why, then, do something so stupid? It’s because cutting student visas is the easiest way of achieving the target of reducing immigration, just as producing useless nails was the factory’s easiest way of hitting its targets.

What we have in both cases are egregious examples of target fetishism. Targets are often not ultimate goals but rather expressions of those goals – and sometimes bad ones. What the Soviet Union wanted was more good nails. Similarly, when people say they want to reduce immigration they don’t have in mind an urge to cut the numbers of Chinese physics students. In both cases, chasing the target misses the goal.

And here, I lose patience with the Tories.

Those of us who grew up in the 70s and 80s were told by the Tories that central planning was a stupid idea. And yet here we have a Tory government considering the same mistake that central planners made, of thinking that it was sufficient to hit targets.

But there’s more. What we have here is a failure to see the case for freedom. This is that if you give power to the state it’ll be misused, because the actually-existing state is a stupid bully. Just as “anti-terror” laws have been used to harass journalists and peaceful protestors, so immigration controls will hurt decent people. And for the same reason - because they are the softest targets.

There was a time when Tories were, rightly, distrustful of the state. That time has passed. The Tories are now the enemies of freedom, and of basic economic rationality too.

* I don't know if this story is true or not: if it's not, it merely shows that today's Tories are even stupider than Soviet central planners.

Comments

[Miguel Madeira]

"There was a time when Tories were, rightly, distrustful of the state."

There was? As a Portuguese born in 1973, I don't have a direct experience, but my impression is that, even when they were defending vast privatizations, they were also for laws restricting the activity of trade unions.

[Dave Timoney]

The implication of the apocryphal Soviet tale is that what matters is managing upwards, i.e. satisfying someone at Gosplan or getting on the right side of the Politburo. So who are the Tories trying to impress?

Most foreign students spend their time here in large cities, such as London or Manchester, where the locals tend to be less fussed by immigration and may even be worried by a reduction in student spending. Conversely, small towns that have seen increased immigration from Eastern Europe in recent decades (and voted heavily for Brexit) won't see any change on the ground because of this measure.

The obvious conclusion is that the policy is aimed at satisfying the rightwing press through a "headline reduction". In other words, this is not just about the tyranny of targets but about the manufacture of reality. In this sense, cutting foreign student is fit for purpose in a way that the Soviet nails were not. It also shows that the role of bully is not limited to the official state.

[mikep]

I don't know if the story is true but there was certainly a cartoon in Krokodil showing an enormous nail hanging from the jib of a crane. And one worker is shouting to his mate "that's our output target for the year comrade"

[mikep]

I think this is it, though I don't speak russian

https://imgur.com/zL6ntxH

[droog]

So Tories led by Cameron increased university fees to £9,000 for British students. Now Tories led by May plan to cut foreign student visas to meet an immigration target.

I suppose we can hope for tourists to come to the UK and visit the derelict and empty classrooms of many British universities. What's the name for a decorative fake building or mock ruin that is meant to look aged? Ah, yes, folly. A very apt name.

[Blissex]

«told by the Tories that central planning was a stupid idea. And yet here we have a Tory government considering the same mistake that central planners made, of thinking that it was sufficient to hit targets.»

There are whig Conservatives and tory Conservatives. They have work at cross purposes, as they are sponsored by different wing of the business and property rentiers.

[Keith]

The far right Tory Government are indeed very stupid. They aim to destroy all export markets together, banking and education and everything else with Brexit and xenophobic measures.

Who needs a working economy?

[Anarcho]

"There was a time when Tories were, rightly, distrustful of the state. That time has passed."

That has never been the case -- they were "distrustful" of the state when it was not acting as the agent of the property-owning class. They were very much in favour of state action, regulation, etc. -- when it is against workers.

To suggest otherwise is nonsense.

[Jimweibo]

mikep -- I think that's it. It originally appeared in the old Soviet satirical magazine "Krokodil".

[Dominic]

Statistician turned management guru, W. Edwards Deming, recorded many anecdotes of perverse outcomes of arbitrary targets in 'Out of the Crisis' and other writings.
He even invented a simple game to demonstrate his ideas.
https://youtu.be/ckBfbvOXDvU