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Not quite, because a successful business could be as simple as a lemonade stand. Government finance, on the other hand, is an exceptionally delicate game of sa
by akamaka 2y ago
Not quite, because a successful business could be as simple as a lemonade stand. Government finance, on the other hand, is an exceptionally delicate game of safely maximizing spending to stimulate economic growth (and therefore future tax revenue).
- kortilla 2y agoYet nobody with an economics degree is in control of government spending. Funny that
- PaulDavisThe1st 2y ago"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." - H.L. Mencken Wake me when a majority of actual US voters would pick someone based on their educational qualifications for the job.
- krainboltgreene 2y agoWe do that all the time.
- PaulDavisThe1st 2y agoNot in any election that I've seen in the last 35 years.
- krainboltgreene 2y agoI don’t think that’s true, frankly. I guess maybe if you don’t vote in local elections and also don’t pay attention to congressional elections.
- PaulDavisThe1st 2y agoI vote in both. My state rep lives (more or less) across the street from me. He wins because he gets things done and is generally a nice and honest person. His educational background as a lawyer doesn't seem to enter into the reasons why any of us vote for him. My congressional rep and our two senators - I couldn't even begin to tell you their educational backgrounds. I can tell you about their policy positions (and in one case, their abject failure to actually do anything related to them), and a little bit about their personal history.
- krainboltgreene 2y agoI’d have to know your district to give you more details but I promise you there’s hundreds of positions across America in elections that get filled by people with a matching background college education. At the very least I can point to judges who have legal backgrounds.
- dmonitor 2y agoI live in alabama. One of our state's senators only previous job was as a football coach. It's bleak out here.
- krainboltgreene 2y agoOkay but that’s not the only election going on in the United States, you know that right?
- krainboltgreene 2y agoThat’s actually just categorically wrong and frankly easy to find out. First of all the one that jumps to mind is AOC, but also just in general apparently econ is the third most popular study for congress members, behind politics and law.
- kortilla 2y agoAOC is not in charge of government spending. Congress members have not meaningfully capped government spending for decades now. So it’s not “categorically wrong” and it’s petty good evidence that those degrees are useless for actually controlling government spending.
- bccdee 2y ago…do you actually think there are no economists working on the US government's federal budget? Is that a serious belief of yours?
- s1artibartfast 2y agoThe vast majority of government spending is not about growth and isn't an investment. It is about placating voters and interests groups. Arguably positive budget categories like Education, research, and infrastructure make up a miniscule part of the overall pie.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- pnut 2y agoInterestingly, China, who does capitalism better than the west, is not very concerned about short term voter happiness or placating special interest groups. So it's not a given that government spending must be constrained by historical assumptions, or that that model is even optimal. I'd say many of the moves towards autocracy in the west are pointing in that direction, for better or worse.
- s1artibartfast 2y agoThat's obviously a provocative claim. I wouldn't say that they "do capitalism better", but I would say that they have better industrial policy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_policy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_policy