While defending the current stimulus plan, Paul Krugman makes a ridiculous argument.
[W]rite off anyone who asserts that it’s always better to cut taxes than to increase government spending because taxpayers, not bureaucrats, are the best judges of how to spend their money.
Here’s how to think about this argument: it implies that we should shut down the air traffic control system. After all, that system is paid for with fees on air tickets — and surely it would be better to let the flying public keep its money rather than hand it over to government bureaucrats. If that would mean lots of midair collisions, hey, stuff happens.
Claiming that government provides a level of consumer protection that wouldn’t be there in a free market is an argument as common as it is false. Here’s a newsflash for you; it’s in the best interest of an airline to not have midair collisions. Shocking I know.
Left to their own devices, airlines and airports would create their own system to track and manage air traffic. And I bet it would be more efficient and cheaper than the government model. Planes won’t start running into each other without the FAA, elevators won’t start plummeting to the basement without goverment inspectors, and canned goods won’t be full of E. coli without the FDA.
I trust the people who’s livelihood, and in fact lives, depend on the safe delivery of their products and services, not the government.
The Best Judge of How to Spend Your Money
While defending the current stimulus plan, Paul Krugman makes a ridiculous argument.
Claiming that government provides a level of consumer protection that wouldn’t be there in a free market is an argument as common as it is false. Here’s a newsflash for you; it’s in the best interest of an airline to not have midair collisions. Shocking I know.
Left to their own devices, airlines and airports would create their own system to track and manage air traffic. And I bet it would be more efficient and cheaper than the government model. Planes won’t start running into each other without the FAA, elevators won’t start plummeting to the basement without goverment inspectors, and canned goods won’t be full of E. coli without the FDA.
I trust the people who’s livelihood, and in fact lives, depend on the safe delivery of their products and services, not the government.