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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (426915)	7/14/2003 4:38:19 PM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

I don't see Buddy arguing we don't need courts. Or any other institutions authorized in the Constitution. And I need to remind you that we need to make distincions between government on the Federal Level and Local governments.

To: Neocon who wrote (426915)	7/14/2003 5:09:57 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

"Adam Smith argued that government was more reliable than the market in providing infrastructure." >>> In terms of the 'public commons', then yes indeed. That is one of the classicly identified shortcomings of a Capitalist economy... when everyone can use a resource at no cost (grazing sheep on the public commons... industries dumping pollution into the public waterways, etc.), that resource becomes over-allocated and degraded. >>> Government DOES have a valid and necessary role in providing for certain infrastructure needs, the common defense, nation-wide rule of law, etc. "In any case, how ever it were ideologically pigeonholed, my only point is that government activity often has a productive side that helps to increase GDP." >>> Yes, government spending can have a stimulative effect in the economy... but that effect is LESS, dollar for dollar, than the stimulus one gets if those same dollars are spent by the private sector. >>> For example, by one commonly accepted rule-of-thumb, spending on the military by the government will have a 'multiplier effect' of 3 in the overall economy... i.e., each dollar spent will produce three more dollars in economic spending. >>> While, that same dollar spent by the private sector will produce a multiplier effect of 7, 8, 9, or more.