To: Amy J who wrote (17306 ) 2/14/2004 12:24:56 PM From: GraceZ Read Replies (1) | Respond to The problem with government sponsored jobs programs is that it is impossible for a bureaucracy to know where the new jobs will come from and where or how to apply the resources. Even very smart, close to the action people can't predict where technology will produce new jobs. Add in the way in which a bureaucracy goes about doing things (commission a study, debate the merits of various actions, compromise with minority opinions and then fund something a year later) and you have just a huge waste of time and resources.Road to Serfdom which explains why it is that free markets frequently lose out in a debate:It is tempting to believe that social evils arise from the activities of evil men and that if only good men (like ourselves, naturally) wielded power, all would be well. That view requires only emotion and self-praise----easy to come by and satisfying as well. To understand why it is that "good" men in positions of power will produce evil, while ordinary man without power but able to engage in voluntary cooperation with his neighbors will produce good, requires analysis and thought, subordinating the emotions to the rational faculty. Surely this is one answer to the perennial mystery of why collectivism , with its demonstrated record of producing tyranny and misery, is so widely regarded as superior to individualism, with its demonstrated record of producing freedom and plenty. The argument for collectivism is simple if false; it is an immediate emotional argument. And the emotional faculties are more highly developed in most men than the rational, paradoxically or especially even in those who regard themselves as intellectuals.
