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Msg. 18185 of 54959
(This msg. is a reply to 18184 by DigSpace) |
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I know these aren't your beliefs, but let me tell you why I think these ideas are not very deep. How do you define "large government"? The only thing I hear is Republicans demanding reduction. When does small get too small? When is large too large? These sizist memes are too inexact to be useful. If folks want to reframe their belief systems thoughtfully, they should phrase things a bit differently: where government provides a net benefit, you want to have it; where it provides a net cost, you don't. There is no general rule of government size. There are social environments, many of which may benefit from some government contribution. The type of government contribution you want is the sort that suits the problem. There is no general rule of what contributions match which problems. You build knowledge over time. For me, that is a statement of traditional conservative philosophy. But you can't find folks who believe in this. It's all "government is necessarily bad, markets are always benevolent" and other such mush. I have not encountered Republicans who believe in 1-3!!! Anyone who believes in 4 would have let the world economy destroy itself in 2008, so those folks ain't learnin'. Fortunately, the Fed knew better. What's good for the banks is okay for the rest of us, if extraordinary harms occur when not doing so. The invisible hand hasn't got eyes so it doesn't know where it's going. Sometimes the cliff is up ahead. Anyone who believes in 5 would also have been content with the lack of regulation of Wall Street leading to 2008, so again, in need of edumacation. Markets do better when someone regulates/stops harmful behaviours before they do the harm they would do otherwise. People cheat and steal. It's a known thing that doesn't vanish because you say it's a marketplace. Markets are pricing mechanisms. So you generally don't want governments to get in the way of that (exceptions for monopolies, oligopolies etc). Public protections are necessary because folks naturally pass their own costs to third parties eg poisons from mining flushed into rivers that go downstream and affect everyone. People who believe 6 should either read Pigou or just consider the algal blooms at the bottom end of Texan rivers and ponder how they got there. I have time for 7 and 9. You get Clean Water Acts because you have government departments that care about the environment. Surely the ones who believe 1-3 abandoned ship eons ago. I agree that the Dem candidates are weak this time out. That is a shame.
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