Econiomist Milton Friedman, some 30 years ago, nailed the problem with The Obama Deal:
We need more like him.
Hattip: My buddy Karl.
UPDATE: What?? The White House agrees?
UPDATE 14MAR09: Via Instapundit, Ilya Somin over at The Volokh Conspiracy points out the utter hypocracy of the Administration's sudden embrace of Gordon Gekko. Read it all.
While Friedman is right in the power of greed as a motivator, I can think of three examples in which collective action, rather than individual action, advanced the economy dramatically.
ReplyDelete1. The Interstate Highway System, which was not individual initiative, but a military project. (Don't think Phil would necessarily care for that.)
2. The Internet, which was also a military project.
3. Milton Friedman's own education, in which he maximized his economic potential by accepting government money for education.
As an aside, I miss Phil Donahue. While I do not agree with him politically, he was able to ask the right questions and do so in a thoughtful way. (I'm trying to imagine a modern economist showing up on The View.)
Contrary to popular belief, the internet was *not* a military project.
ReplyDelete"the internet was *not* a military project."
ReplyDeleteAre you sure? Al Gore was in Vietnam for a few days...