One of the first things I learned about baseball was that the umpire is extremely important to the integrity of the game. If the ump doesn’t honor the game by trying to call balls and strikes as consistently and accurately as possible, then it’s not worth playing because no one would know what to expect from pitch to pitch. Although both consistency and accuracy are important, consistency is more important than accuracy because every ump has a slightly different strike zone, but if they call things the same way on both teams, then the game is fair. Both teams agree on this; it’s not even up for debate. If umpires didn’t aim for consistency, then baseball would be a game about trying to convince the umpires to call pitches your way.

During his confirmation, the current Chief Justice of the United States said, “My job is to call balls and strikes not to pitch or bat.” It’s fair to ask: Do baseball’s roles for consistency and accuracy hold true for governments as well as umpires? At some level, is it more important that governments treat people as consistently as possible rather than as accurately as possible according to any one of the many different political positions citizens might have? Clearly accuracy is important, both in both baseball and governing. Umpires get fired if they aren’t at least accurate to some degree. A political system that disenfranchises half its population is too inaccurate to be considered fair no matter how consistent it is. However, at some level of marginal return, is it more important to be consistent than accurate?

Let’s look at two cases. First, consider the bailout of AIG. In mid-September of last year the U.S. Government poured billions of dollars into AIG in an effort to save the company from bankruptcy. Just a week earlier though, the U.S. Government declined to bailout Lehman Brothers, which was operating under similar circumstances. Second, consider the recent bankruptcy proceedings for Chrysler and General Motors. In the Chrysler bankruptcy, secured creditors are getting 30 cents for every dollar owed. In the General Motors bankruptcy, secured creditors are being paid in full. Secured creditors are guaranteed by law to be first in line, so it’s not crazy to say that these creditors were screwed when the Supreme Court decides not to hear the inevitable lawsuit. It’s not unreasonable to label this as a “deadly sin” in the well-settled area of bankruptcy law. I’m not even sure it’s hyperbole to say that this is the end of capitalism as we know it. It is, at the least, inconsistent governing, and I’m not the only asking for an explanation.

It’s easy to be distracted by debates about accuracy. For example, some may argue that secured creditors don’t have as strong a position as intimated by others. That’s a debate about accuracy: which position was right according to some standard. Debates about accuracy are important, but aren’t debates about consistent governing more important at some level? There were secured creditors in both cases, so why were the results different?

The main benefit of consistency is that it allows us to know what to expect. In February 2008, the U.S. Government decided to bailout Bear Stearns. At the time, economists like Russell Roberts wondered publicly if this was setting a bad precedent. Essentially, he disagreed with the decision to bailout Bear Stearns, but thought that the real harm was “the encouragement of recklessness and irresponsibility” down the road. This position disagrees with the accuracy of a particular government action and assumes consistency in future government actions. Precedent, whether good or bad, only has meaning if the government operates consistently.

The cases I’ve mentioned seem strikingly similar on the facts, and yet, they had distinct, different outcomes. As a result, they set no precedent. If we can’t be completely accurate, wouldn’t it help to at least be consistent? In fact, the only precedent that they might set is one of inconsistency regardless of party affiliation. The Lehman Brothers / AIG case was under the Republican Bush administration; the Chrysler / GM case was under the Democratic Obama administration. And yet, they were both handled just about as inconsistently as possible. Unfortunately, this may be the only kind of consistent governing we can expect.