Richard Rahn of the Cato Institute and Institute for Global Economic Growth offers up this outstanding piece in the Washington Times. In it, he shatters many of the coveted fallacies of the big government, less liberty crowd:
"…the arguments from the big government advocates are usually based on a combination of economic and historical ignorance, including an inability to think beyond Stage 1, envy, and just plain delusional thinking."
Rahn goes on to include some examples that shatter some of this delusional thinking, including:
"• Most government programs do not live up to their billing in that they cost far more than projected and produce less than promised. Recent U.S. government studies have shown that about 50 percent of all taxpayer dollars do not achieve the promised results. There is little reason to believe most other governments perform any better. There is no evidence that governments spending more money use it any more efficiently than those spending less, and the contrary is more often the case.
• Most people can make better decisions about how to spend their money to aid their families than can politicians and government bureaucrats. When taxes rise, people’s ability to take care of themselves is reduced and they more become dependent on government.
• Higher tax rates reduce individual liberty by denying people the fruits of their own labor."
Let’s be clear, it is systemic and uncorrectable flaws that makes government so inefficient – not the people in charge at any given time. To continue to expand government and believe in politicians as the solution to virtually every problem in society is fool’s gold, and does much more harm than good.
Leave a Comment