When people say that political differences boil down to differences in values, they’re often implying an unbridgeable gulf between their side and the other side. And so we have the increasing polarization and breakdown of communication between Democrats and Republicans. After all, if you don’t care about the same things, what’s the point in talking to each other? To break the communicative logjam, it helps to think about political differences in terms of priorities instead of values. Priorities are based on the idea that valued ends require scarce resources with alternative uses. In other words, values remain part of the picture, but you can’t have everything so you have to prioritize.
There are two ways to deal with scarce resources. One is to allocate wisely. The other is to reduce scarcity. In economic terms, that means to increase productivity, to get more bang for the buck. Redistribution that undermines economic growth makes everyone poorer in the long run. The policy challenge is to create conditions conducive to economic growth while making sure that no one’s left behind. In practice that means a constant juggling of goals and priorities.
Prioritizing is not just about what we want and what matters – it’s also based on assessments of urgency, opportunity, trade-offs and resources. To frame issues in terms of priorities is to appreciate we live in a complex world. There’s nothing quite like an appreciation of complexity to cool the righteous passions. And you need a cool head to do the right thing.
When we talk about priorities, there’s less “either/or” thinking than when we talk about values. When we talk about priorities, there’s room for discussion and compromise.