Politician - Difficult Position

When I was younger, my image of politicians are people who are working under government and who are not liked so much by citizens. I don't know how such an image was shaped, but this is what I used to think.


Politicians may be not liked by citizens because they increase tax rate, make a new law that may be disadvantage of some people, and....etc.


Mr. Noda, Prime Minister of Japan, was very criticized when he said that Japan is going to join TPP. One reason is that TPP is assumed to be very harmful for agricultural industries and to destroy them. Many farmers stood up to criticize him. Many people started criticizing him.


Do you know that Mr. Noda's mother is a farmer? If it is true that TPP will destroy agricultural industries, why did he decide that? Did he want to harm his own mother? Is he such a person who can never sympathize? How could he do this? Many questions came up with me.


Working on some assignments, which were usually about politics and economics, I could (maybe) understand what Mr. Noda may have been thinking. The assignments required me to think of some policies that improve such as social security, health care, etc. I found myself very liberal. I made some proposals, and they tend to be policies that increase government intervention. I said, on my one of the assignments, that government should increase taxes to gain more funds to rebuilt health care.


After submitting the assignment, I was reviewing what I wrote, and my reaction is "I don't wanna pay more tax though. I don't actually wanna taxes to be increased." Well...inconsistent. What I politically suggested on my assignment was completely opposite to what I personally thought.


How about politicians? Do they REALLY want to increase tax? I think they don't because they are also subject to pay more tax if it is increased; they also have to pay more for tax. BUT, they decided to increase tax for their country even though their output may increase.


What I noticed was "Politicians never decide to do what they want to do, but what they should do." There may be politicians who do what they want to do, but just ignore this case this time. They think of the country, and they are trying to dedicate for the country.


I believe that Mr. Noda never wanted to harm farmers, but he thought that joining TPP would work for Japan. I believe that he did what he should have done. I believe that he didn't do what he wanted to do. I hope these are true. I believe this is how politicians should be.


I don't know what he was actually thinking, of course, but I don't know joining TPP is successful or not; the future will tell me. Therefore, I don't criticize him. I want to carefully watch this case as one student who is studying politics.


I actually used to criticize him, but I will never since I sympathized and since I knew what he is thinking about this case.


Politicians sometime need to sacrifice, sometimes...or always...