My Two Cents

I started by reading this Post from Arnold Kling. I followed it with reading both of Tyler Cowen’s Posts, here and here. I finished with previewing Matt Yglesias’ Post. I will first admit that I am totally scalping my material today, something which occasionally irritates Tyler. Second, I agree wholeheartedly with Matt that the Right uses shaded eyeglasses when considering the promise offered by the Right-acclaimed entities like Singapore, Chile, and Hong Kong. All Cases proclaimed utilize great government authority–whether cited by Left or Right–and that great government force is hidden only by style. I will finish this paragraph with Statement that the strength of government authority is governed more by population density and the need for conformance, than it has ever been driven by ideology.

I will initially contend with Tyler’s assessment of the Left being too significantly worried about the corruptive power of Money in Politics. Here is a place where One cannot be too worried! A bad Apple applies damage beyond his own circle of influence, and a group of bad Apples can ruin an entire harvest. I once constructed a model–you all recognize my skill level with models–which has since been lost to history, yet it suggested that as little as 5% of the corrupt Participants in an legislative process could skew over One-Third of the passed legislation in ways that are injurious to the Polity as a Whole. Tyler also suggests that left-leaning economists refuse to consider the federal budget as a series of integrated Accounts. I imagine this to be an overstatement, considering the Right’s refusal to touch Tax Cuts, Defense Spending, Government Contracts, or special Tax Exemptions long past their Worth. The Right is as reluctant to actually reorder Government Spending as the Left, and to blame one Side is to hide the real problem.

I review the material and think Arnold Kling may be the most lost. There is only one structural imperfection at play: Tax revenues do not meet or match Government Expenditures. One can claim that Tax revenues are too small, or one can claim that Government Expenditures are too high. The single greatest Problem in Government must be the refusal to deny the profligate Spending of previous administrations; I once called it the Win-Win situation, where both Sides achieved exactly what they wanted all the Time. This Crap needs to change before We can reach any viable fiscal policy. lgl