TOD 01.23.08

We are hearing a lot of theories right now about what the government can do to avoid a recession in the United States. I also have a theory. If we grant the premise that government can fix the problem, then mustn’t we accept the conclusion that government was the problem in the first place? Any federal action which might alleviate the “crisis” now would seem to incriminate them for their failure to have taken it earlier.

One reply might be that things were too hard to predict previously. But, if so, what has suddenly made prediction so much easier? In short, it seems irrational to expect that the people who are responsible for the problem are capable of fixing it. But here’s another theory. Government can’t fix an economy because government’s only product is government.

If this is true, we would expect smart people like our country’s founders to have known so and to have deliberately not given government any economic responsibilities other than to prevent theft and coin money. After reading your copy of the Constitution, which theory do you think is correct?

2 comments:

Stan said...

"If we grant the premise that government can fix the problem, then mustn’t we accept the conclusion that government was the problem in the first place?"

I'm not sure that argument will stand up. If a person has broken into your home, you call the police to fix the problem. Clearly, if the police can fix the problem, it must be that they were the problem in the first place, right? I'm not sure that works.

(I'm also not sure the government can fix the problem of our economy.)

Anonymous said...

If you meddle with the natural flow of a stream, you interject anomalies that alters the performance, and introduce destructive changes that lead to erosion. That's also true regarding the blocking of natural variations in the economy. An artificial infusement to prevent a natural occurring economic recession will only lead to delaying an inevitable, and often worse, set of circumstances. I believe that the Great Depression was largely the result of similar manipulations of the natural flow of the free market.