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The Cost of Political Distraction

From Marco Arment replying to people suggesting he is writing too much about politics lately:

To those complaining that I’m posting about politics: I’d love for the U.S. political environment to return to a state where I can just do my job and ignore it.

The context of this particular post was the Treasury Chief Warns of Severe Debt-Limit Fallout article at the New York Times.

I don’t think we’ll ever be able to “ignore” politics, but right now the political system is far too distracting. What makes it worse is the cause of the distraction, paying our bills. Initially deciding how to spend money should be deliberate and well thought out. Paying our bills after we’ve spent the money? That should be nearly automatic.

Can you imagine if it took me two weeks, 24 x 7, to decide if I was going to pay off my credit card each month? I’d never get anything else done.