The role of government

With regard to the proper role of government, the issue is not whether centralization is good or bad per se, or whether people would be happy with any amount of government service as long as it is provided well. There are some things that I would want government and only government to do, and there are some things I would not want it to do at all regardless of how well it is perceived at doing them.

I want government and only government to provide an army. Same with local police protection. I only want the government to investigate the cause of plane crashes, perform foreign espionage, and operate criminal courts. I do not want the government to run newspapers, churches or social organizations (implicating respectively freedom of the press, religion and association). I don’t want the government to be responsible for the details of airplane design, or fashion design for that matter. I don;t want the government to manage musical bands or comedy tours.

These preferences arise from consideration of how different types of incentives affect different institutions. Some institutions thrive with a profit motive, others are corrupted by it. Some institutions function well because of a sense of community that is missing from larger entities. The incentives that optimize the performance of government are different than those that do the same for private enterprise or charitable organizations. Sometimes this works in favor of the government doing stuff, sometimes it means the government should defer to better options.

As a general observation, by no means rigorously verified, government seem to be at its best with projects; defeating the nazis, going to the moon, building the interstate highway system, etc. and at its worst with the ongoing management of the mundane. Hence the familiar jokes about the DMV,, Amtrak and less funny jokes that are the Veterans Administration and the Indian Health Service.

The choice is not dichotomous between government and private industry. My own personal opinion is the the hospital system in this country was at its best when it was primarily a charitable enterprise, organized by religious orders and civic organizations, and it has not been improved by intervention of either government or profit-seeking institutions. I would not want to see the Boy Scouts listed on either the New York Stock Exchange or the Blue Pages of the phone book.

Government, private enterprise and charitable organizations are all necessary and beneficial. Each does some things better than the others; and there are certain things to which each is ill-suited.

Because diversity or something.