When speaking about the difference between the private sector?and the government, I?sometimes emphasize that mistakes and errors are inevitable, and that the propensity to screw up may be just as prevalent in the private sector as it is in the public sector.
I actually think the government is more likely to screw up, for reasons outlined here, here, and here, but let?s bend over backwards to be fair and assume similar levels of mistakes.
The key difference between capitalism and government, though, is the feedback mechanism.
Private firms that make errors are quickly penalized.?They lose customers, which means?they lose profits. Or perhaps they even fail and go out of business (remember, capitalism without bankruptcy is like religion without hell).
This tends to concentrate the mind. Executives work harder, shareholders and bondholders focus more on promoting good corporate governance. All of which benefits the rest of us in our roles as workers and consumers.
But mistakes in the public sector rarely lead to negative feedback. Indeed, agencies and departments that make mistakes sometimes get rewarded with even bigger budgets. This means the rest of us are doubly victimized because we are taxpayers and we?have to rely on certain government services.
Citing the Federal Reserve as an example, Thomas Sowell?explains how this process works. He starts with a look at the Fed?s recent failures and asks some basic questions about why we should reward the central bank with more power.
The recent release of the Federal Reserve Board?s transcripts of its deliberations back in 2007 shows that their economic prophecies were way off. How much faith should we put in their prophecies today ? or the policies based on those prophecies?
Here?s another example.
mark zuckerberg maurice jones drew Yash Chopra George McGovern braxton miller braxton miller Whitney Heichel
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.