Funny Economist - Randall Parker's Completely Serious Macroeconomics Blog: Start this at about the 5:00 minute mark and reflect on today.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Start this at about the 5:00 minute mark and reflect on today.

4 comments:

Ashton said...: If you think most, or all, of your income needs to be spent on the general welfare through subsidization of certain projects, redistribution to certain groups, establishing a public insurance fund, etc., there should be no force to stop you. All that Friedman concedes is that the use of government as a tool for these purposes is much less likely to achieve an efficient outcome toward these objectives, given what we know about economics, history, etc.

In the end, what is the difference between a truly democratic (in our case, republican) government and its people? It seems, just the title of the association of individuals. That, and the monopoly use of a "legitimate," all encompassing force.; May 28, 2013 at 7:18 AM
Randall Parker said...: What if I thought you should shut up and not say anything publically ever again. Should there be a force to stop me? If you wish to spend your income that way, have at it. But when A and B decide what C should do for D, like buy cell phones for them, you have government run amuk. See Dan Henninger's column last Thursday in the WSJ.; May 28, 2013 at 7:50 AM
Ashton said...: I probably should have added the caveat "through mutually consenting, voluntary actions of adults, you could do all those things" to "there should be no [human] force to stop you." And if you want to give most or all of your income after what's left after taxes, you can engage in that sort of practice (that's probably too blatantly obvious, though). That's what I meant.

Right, if I wanted to force a group of helpless people into involuntarily building and funding a place for a future Community Redistribution Center in the name of the greater good, that would be wrong. But, if a group of people volunteered to build and fund such a center, and through voluntary donations, given some other things (e.g., the project is not a money laundering scheme, people are not coerced into joining, etc.), there should be no human force to stop you. At least, it would seem to me.

I think the question is now, if we can do this as consenting adults, why would the government need to force us to do such things like Redistribution Centers when we could probably do it on our own? Free rider problem?

At this point, I do not think I am capable of shutting up.; May 29, 2013 at 8:32 AM
Randall Parker said...: You don't have to here. Just be civil which you are.; May 29, 2013 at 9:43 AM

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)