🚀 go-pugleaf

To: KFL@MX.LCS.MIT.EDU
cc: mcgeer%sirius.Berkeley.EDU@UCBVAX.BERKELEY.EDU,
     ametek!walton@CSVAX.CALTECH.EDU

  From: KFL@MX.LCS.MIT.EDU

  I think there is little point in arguing against statism by
  asserting that everything the government does gets screwed up.

Agreed.  The assertion implies that when there exists a government,
there exist screw-ups.  It seems to be a cope-out by implying that the
situation is hopeless.  I don't think it is.

  The majority of it does, but there are occasional successes, which
  are not surprising considering that trillions of dollars are spent.

It is even more surprising that there are successes without such a
high price tag.  Take for example Singapore.  A few years ago (I don't
have the latest information) its airline ranked among the top 3 in the
world---it was up there with Japan Airlines and Pan Am.  SIA
(Singapore International Airline) is also very profitable.  So is its
postal service.  It has a good educational system and its state
universities are among the best in the region (it also has a small
number of private universities).  They seem to have a good
accountability system e.g. they do act on "customer" complaints in
their postal and rent collection services.  They do punish incompetent
and corrupt government employees.  They have effective measures to
prevent police officers and other government officials from taking
petty bribes (this is still a problem in some countries in that
region).  Their government has developed and implemented very
successful economic plans (this is also true of countries like South
Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia).  The government has played a very
important and active role in making the economy grow at rapid rates.
In about 20 or so years, Singapore was transformed from a society that
was economically dependent on the presence of a huge British base to a
rapidly industrializing, middle-class society.  Their new economic
plan calls for moving into high tech (AI, biotech, agri-business,
wafer processing, etc) and there are also plans to encourage more
entrepreneurial participation in the economy.

I can also mention the highly successful school system of Iceland
(they have one of the highest if not the highest literacy rate in the
world) or at a local level, the public school systems of Massachusetts
towns like Lexington, Lincoln, or Weston.  One can also include the
successful school system of Marxist leaning countries like Tanzania
which has the highest literacy rate in Africa.  Or for that matter,
notice how statist countries like China have been able to solve the
problem of starvation a lot better than some less statist countries.

There seem to be two solutions for tackling the problem of government
incompetence---privatization and better accountability.  Privatization
is feasible only to an extent, there are still things that only the
government can do (e.g. maintaining the court system, national
defense).  Hence the second solution is always needed.

I do think that government can be made to do a better job (in those
things that only the government can do) if we adopt a good
accountability system at all levels of government.  I don't see why
market-based incentives should not be used inside the government to
make it more efficient.  Consider a government agency that is supposed
to show a profit e.g. the postal service.  If it is losing money, fire
the person at the top and all his/her closest aides.  If the agency
makes a profit, give them a reward.  Also allow the top guy to take
those actions (together with the responsibilities) that any CEO can
take e.g. accept whichever bids he/she thinks is the best, hire and
fire workers when he/she needs to, cut services when necessary, etc.
However not all government agencies have a such clear-cut performance
measure.  Other measures (I don't know what yet) will have to be
developed.

(-: However there is a danger of an efficient government, in the wrong
hands it can do bad things very efficiently.  So maybe we should keep
the government in the current incompetent state.  That will also keep
those who are into government bashing busy. :-)



Willie
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