I came across the acronym ‘POSIWID’ in an article today, and out of curiosity looked it up. The below from Wikipedia, my emphasis — re my recent posts, why does it sound so familiar?

The purpose of a system is what it does (POSIWID) is a heuristic in systems thinking coined by the British management consultant Stafford Beer, who stated that there is “no point in claiming that the purpose of a system is to do what it constantly fails to do”. It is widely used by systems theorists and is generally invoked to counter the notion that the purpose of a system can be read from the intentions of those who design, operate or promote it. When a system’s side effects or unintended consequences reveal that its behaviour is poorly understood, then the POSIWID perspective can balance political understandings of system behaviour with a more straightforwardly descriptive view.

So, analogously, the purpose of a federal infrastructure loan program is what it does? Not what federal policymakers and administrators intended it to do, or spin it as having done? And the loan program’s side effects (um, I don’t know, like massive mandatory appropriations?) might reveal that its actual role, as a specialty component of a competitive capital market, is poorly understood by said policymakers and administrators?

Well, perhaps it’s time to consider balancing current ‘political understandings’ with straightforward descriptions and spin-free policy ideas. Just saying.