Monday, February 27, 2006
Democrat means a better way?
Recently Virginia Governer Tim Kaine has been pushing the idea of "better governance" for the nation citing many cases where the outcome of an event has been less than mediocre. Iraq, Katrina and Oil were all subjects of attack for Kaine in his response to the State of The Union speech by President Bush. He even goes so far as to suggest that current action on these subjects is inefficient. However, what is confusing in his statements is the indiscernability regarding his position of framework from which he is working.
Suggesting that something isn't working is very easy to do. The hard part comes when trying to reallocate the resources in a pareto improvement. The thing that Governor Kaine doesn't seem to realize is that "Efficient" is not synonymous with "Popular." Lately it seems more to me that politicians of every shape and size are willing to criticize actions of the "other" party before recognizing that thier role from an economic efficiency framework is to correct market failures! Not voice opinion that has nothing to do with their role in government.
The partisan lines have more than been drawn in regard to the efficiency of the government. Republicans believe that the current allocation of resources is doing quite well, while democrats suggest otherwise. Political involvement in regard to the subject of dependence on foreign oil is not a discussion of efficiency, it is a discussion of political nature. Right now, and for some time to come, petroleum based products are a fully functional and market based choice. I just don't undestand how partisan politics has any place in the pareto-optimal allocation of resources for our nation.
Suggesting that something isn't working is very easy to do. The hard part comes when trying to reallocate the resources in a pareto improvement. The thing that Governor Kaine doesn't seem to realize is that "Efficient" is not synonymous with "Popular." Lately it seems more to me that politicians of every shape and size are willing to criticize actions of the "other" party before recognizing that thier role from an economic efficiency framework is to correct market failures! Not voice opinion that has nothing to do with their role in government.
The partisan lines have more than been drawn in regard to the efficiency of the government. Republicans believe that the current allocation of resources is doing quite well, while democrats suggest otherwise. Political involvement in regard to the subject of dependence on foreign oil is not a discussion of efficiency, it is a discussion of political nature. Right now, and for some time to come, petroleum based products are a fully functional and market based choice. I just don't undestand how partisan politics has any place in the pareto-optimal allocation of resources for our nation.
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I read the article you linked to, and while the news reported in this article was not the Governor's speech, I agree there was nothing in the article that gave the reader any idea of the Governor's normative view of the purpose of government.
Regarding our work over the remainder of the semester, there was certainly nothing in the article to suggest the Governor would define the purpose of government either from the normative perspective of economic efficiency, or from the perspective of individual liberty.
As far as we might tell from the news report on the Governor's speech he may well see the purpose of government quite like our public choice model of the supply of legislation. After all, as I read the news article there is not one proposed policy highlighted from the Governor's speech. This might lead us to suppose, assuming the model of the supply of legislation, that the Governor is simply saying my suppliers will be better, just let us know what you want and then get us elected. What do you think?
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Regarding our work over the remainder of the semester, there was certainly nothing in the article to suggest the Governor would define the purpose of government either from the normative perspective of economic efficiency, or from the perspective of individual liberty.
As far as we might tell from the news report on the Governor's speech he may well see the purpose of government quite like our public choice model of the supply of legislation. After all, as I read the news article there is not one proposed policy highlighted from the Governor's speech. This might lead us to suppose, assuming the model of the supply of legislation, that the Governor is simply saying my suppliers will be better, just let us know what you want and then get us elected. What do you think?
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