So says
Gail Collins:
As to the banks — and the automakers — so far our problem has
been too little faith in government rather than too much. We
got into this mess by presuming that the private sector was
inherently smarter than pointy-headed bureaucrats. But over and
over during the past eight years, from Iraq to
prescription-drug pricing, we’ve seen that the private sector
is frequently both dumber and less efficient than government.
Collins manages to name the most government heavy "private"
sector items imaginable. Private contractors in Iraq? Government
spending without the oversight. Drug research? Heavily government
subsidized.
The point Collins misses is that the market may have just as many
inefficiencies as government, but when private enterprises *are*
inefficient, they fail. Then smarter competitors learn a lesson
and have a success. Government isn't allowed to fail, because it
is a monopoly. This means more failures, rather than more
learning. It gets worse when government bails out failing
industries. The auto industry, the airlines, healthcare, all of
these have been insulated from market pressure to the point that
the "market" is completely distorted.
It's not about "pointy-headed bureaucrats" versus the
profit-seeking businessman. It's about government getting in the
way of innovation.
Anyway, dear commenters, let's have a little competition. The
first person to nail what's wrong with this next sentence gets a
free March issue:
The private sector got us into the savings and loan crisis
during the ’80s, and who got us out of it? Was it … the
government?
