I jotted down some random thoughts on government on a Post-It note the other day, and want to transcribe them onto my blog so I can toss the Post-It (trying to unclutter my desk a little):
· Taxes and subsidies influence behavior. People will do less of whatever you tax and more of whatever you subsidize.
· Governments should see themselves as businesses and their citizenry as customers.
· Free markets only discount for the short-term and the financial; where that ends and other desirable ends begin, governments can and should get involved. Example: there is no market incentive to provide a safety net for the poorest and most vulnerable in our society, so it is proper and just that governments administer some sort of social security program.
· In the management of government administrations themselves, a balance needs to be struck between bureaucratic consistency (which enables entities as massive as government agencies to manage themselves) and decentralized decision-making (which acknowledges that it is possible to command-and-control everything, and therefore information and power must be delegated down where useful).
· Everyone says they want smaller government until they get into power, and then they love spending money. There are a lot of ways to ensure that government spending doesn’t get out of control, but the best way is an informed public and a wounded opposition party.
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