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I'll bite. Why is it any of the government's business what or how much I throw away?
I understand that the Constitution is worth little more than a roll of toilet paper these days, but we could at least pretend it has some bearing on government...
Contrary to what you hear from the media, or possibly in your high school civics class, government cannot do a single thing for the economy. Government produces nothing but bureaucracy, and there is precious little demand for that. It's not like people would head down to the grocery store to stock up on red tape or anything. If government operated with no overhead costs, i.e., no civil servant payroll, no buildings, no supplies, etc., they could still, at best, only decide which businesses or people will benefit at the expense of others. Economically speaking, the only function they serve is shifting money from one place to another.
No, government cannot help the economy, no matter what they do. Not even with well-intentioned Keynsian-style "pump priming". They have no accelerator pedal -- their only control over the economy is how hard they apply the brakes. It is not a question of how the government can help the economy, but how to best minimize the damage they do.
And as any economist would agree, (until you start citing specifics, like "the rich" or "the poor") the best way to foster capital growth and productivity increases is to take less from the people or businesses that are actually producing things, and let them invest in capital improvements.
[ 04-16-2003, 09:02 AM: Message edited by: Thorfinn ]
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