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"It is highly unlikely that a government bureaucracy will distribute money such that it is spent more efficiently and productively than an individual taxpayer w
by mturmon 12y ago
"It is highly unlikely that a government bureaucracy will distribute money such that it is spent more efficiently and productively than an individual taxpayer would if he still had the money to spend himself."
This talking point does not hold up to scrutiny.
There are plenty of examples where individuals fail to build infrastructure that, if built, would help everyone much more than the cumulative cost to build the infrastructure. The same goes for research and technology development.
Basically, the talking point assumes that individuals are rational economic actors in a rational market, and this is just not true. Additionally, even if the individuals were rational and fully informed, there will be highly suboptimal Nash equilibria.
- logicchains 12y agoIt doesn't assume that individuals are 'rational'; it assumes productivity/efficiency of spending is determined by the spending's ability to fulfill individuals' preferences at the time of spending. In that sense, in the case where they don't give the money voluntarily to the government, however it spends it is by definition not the way they most wanted to spend it at that moment, hence is necessarily an outcome producing lesser utility to them at that movement then if they had spent it the way they most preferred to spend it.