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The government’s money are unearned money, confiscated from taxpayers. There is a saying about this kind of income: "easy come, easy go". You can be sure that "
by nickpp 6y ago
The government’s money are unearned money, confiscated from taxpayers. There is a saying about this kind of income: "easy come, easy go". You can be sure that "the subjects" this money was taken from would be much more careful about spending it.
Not convinced? Just look at the way government borrows: no sane person would sell her future like that. Also, just ask a politician how worried he is about spending money "for his constituents". I know stadiums made for tiny towns, boulevards for undriven neighborhoods, and so on and so forth...
- TeMPOraL 6y agoSure. But that's neither here nor there, as the market is an equal opportunity institution. It doesn't ask whether you got your money by providing goods in exchange, or confiscated it from your subjects, or won it in a casino, or robbed a bank, or stole it from your employees' pension fund, ...
- nickpp 6y agoIt is there, since such a large player as a government throwing around unlimited money will inevitably distort and corrupt the market. Look at what is going on in the stock market right now since the fed started buying assets in spring.
- TeMPOraL 6y agoSure, but that does not apply to the case we're discussing - which is a government paying clinics for procedures. You could substitute "a billionaire philanthropist" for "a government" and the outcome would be exactly the same. Now if you want to talk free markets in general, then I want to point out that in the real world, a free market cannot thrive without some sort of government that ensures social stability and enforces contracts. Without such government, the market would quickly degenerate into trading violence alongside currency, and either disintegrate or... end up producing a government. Ultimately, "private enterprise" and "public governance" don't have a clear boundary between them - they're two modes of the same phenomenon, people negotiating with each other.
- nickpp 6y agoThere is no billionaire who can even remotely approach the purchasing power of a government. If billionaires could truly influence markets, we'd have seen it on the stock market. Instead, we saw the Fed. I am not proposing to get rid of the government, that leads to anarchy. A government is required to uphold the rule of law and, for markets, to sustain contracts. I would also argue that they should tax externalities. The trouble starts when governments go beyond that and start regulating and influencing the markets, ending up corrupting them.