`Everybody does it'

By Casey Lartigue, Jr.

Despite having 5,000 years of recorded history to evolve, children are still responding to ''no" from parents with: ''But everybody else is doing it. (Fill-in-the-blank's) mom is letting him do it. Why can't I?" Parents are using the same rebuttals, stolen from their own parents: ''If everyone else jumped off a cliff (or a bridge, or in a river), would you do it, too?"

As a youngster, I embraced the question, asking (shortly before a whipping): ''How high is the bridge? What if I took swimming and diving lessons, would it be okay then?"

That level of debate is fine for families, but a serious problem around the world is politicians and intellectuals using similar ''because everyone else is doing it" arguments. The political version of this is: ''The OECD countries are doing it. What about Sweden? Why can't we (fill-in-the-blank)?"

I thought about this when I recently applied for a visa along with some coworkers for a trip to China. It cost my Korean colleagues 38,000 won each. For me: 230,000 won. Ouch! What was the reason for the extra charge for me? According to the agent handling my case, the Chinese government is retaliating against the U.S. government charging Chinese citizens a similar amount. Then he said it: ''Every government does it."

This ''eye-for-an eye" justice—giving citizens in other countries reciprocal treatment—means bad government that harms people on both sides. If there is to be retaliation, why not target government officials with the power to change policy? Such as, U.S. president Barack Obama or members of Congress should be charged 500,000 won visa feesout of their own pockets, rather than the Chinese government retaliating against U.S. citizens.

Even worse, government forces ''everybody does it" reciprocity on private individuals in the private economy. For example, South Korea has a 400 percent tariff on rice, forcing people in South Korea to overpay for rice. Would it make sense for America to ''retaliate" with a tariff against South Korean rice or other items, thereby forcing people in the U.S. to also overpay? That is a great example of cutting off your nose to spite someone else's face.

It doesn't make sense, but governments around the world routinely force their own citizens to overpay for goods and services because of other governments forcing their own citizens to pay high tariffs. If American car companies gave away free cars to South Koreans, the South Korean government might haul the U.S. before the World Trade Organization, accusing the USA of ''dumping."As Henry George wrote in 1886: ''What protection teaches us, is to do to ourselves in time of peace what enemies seek to do to us in time of war."

It isn't just politicians using ''everybody does it" arguments. Pop economic historian Chang Ha-Joon has made a career out of using the ''others did it" argument. In such books as ''Bad Samaritans" and ''Kicking Away the Ladder," he argues that today's economic superpowers (U.S., Britain) became wealthy by using trade protectionism and government intervention, therefore they are hypocrites for discouraging those policies today.

My response: So what? Every society in the world allowed or directly engaged in slavery throughout history. Korea didn't end slavery until the 1890s, forced by the Japanese government to halt the practice. Using Chang's logic, America would have been hypocritically ''kicking away the ladder" by lecturing Korea about slavery because it had ended slavery just three decades before that.

Because some countries have done something is not justification for particular policies today. The OECD measuring stick becomes a crutch for those who say ''everybody does it, we should, too," basing policy on what other interventionist governments have done rather than on increasing freedom for individuals. Using Chang's logic, the U.S. Congress today, with an approval rating today of 7 percent, should remain a guide for society centuries from now, holding citizens in the future hostage to deal-making politicians of yesteryear.

Of course, people embrace ''everybody does it" when they agree. Many Koreans, for example, justifiably reject the ''everybody did it" argument when the Japanese justify the rape of the comfort women by citing sex slavery in other countries.

Just as every new generation of children uses the ''everybody does it" argument, we can expect every new generation of politicians and intellectuals to also continue using ''everybody does it" arguments to justify their interventionist policies. But I am now embracing the argument, by using other tactics from kids that will never change: ''If you can't beat ‘em, join 'em" and ''two can play that game."

Britain repealed protectionist laws in the 1840s, Hong Kong unilaterally dropped trade barriers decades ago and has virtually no barriers to trade today, and Canada recently unilaterally dropped tariffs on baby clothes. They did it, why can't Korea?

The writer is the Director for International Relations at Freedom Factory Co. Ltd. in Seoul and the Asia Outreach Fellow with the Atlas Network in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at cjl@post.harvard.edu.