And I would posit that government makes far fewer mal investments. Their decisions are far more vetted, front page of the newspaper, public meetings, massive hand wringing on even minor issues. I personally make a dozen private sector P&L decisions every day. By my own estimate 10-15% are brain dead wrong and cost very real money.
10 to 15% would probably be a great record for the government. Sure government programs do get more media attention and publicity (not always, but on a whole there is no doubt of the extra attention), but more political attention, and in particular more attention from rent seekers and those looking to get their piece, isn't necessarily a force to improve policy. When you make your decisions, you know it can affect your bottom line, and you have some idea of how it can effect it. And if you screw up badly enough you won't get to make as many of those decisions any more. Voters are often rationally ignorant, and when they do know, when they do see some information the publicity brings out, its often about how government is going to give money to some group. If they are in that group, or even if they like that group, they are likely to support it, whether it actually does any good, often never enters in to the picture. And if the result clearly is screwed up, well then they just need more power and money to "fix it". |
