cj,
Sure. But, look at New Zealand. By 1984 their economy was in shambles, they owed huge sums to the IMF and their prospects were dim.
I have read a lot about New Zealand in late 80s, so I am familiar with the story (but not read much lately).
They made a plan with an eye to the future, privatized those things that made sense and were long term viable, floated their dollar, removed the system of controls and tariffs and totally revamped their tax system. And much of their success is a result of careful planning and being pragmatic. Not everything turned out as expected, but because they weren't driven by ideology ("private industry is always more efficient than government") they avoided a lot of the traps that other countries who tried to privatize based on ideology.
The chances of non-ideological approach to reform in the US taking place is exactly zero. As far as privatization, there is not really a whole lot that is not private. Education is the only really big one that needs privatization, but it is a holy cow - a rotting holy cow that can't be touched precisely because ideology.
But as far as environmental issues, I remember when Reagan put some people in positions responsible for regulation, and these people tried to introduce a cost benefit analysis of environmental regulations - meaning going after most harmful, and cheapest to address problems, and moving down from there to less harmful and more expensive problems. Of cource the whole concept was attacked by enviro-nazis.
I am not sure things have changed a whole lot since then, which gives me little hope for anything positive coming out of Washington.
Joe |
