Absolutely agree generally and specifically about Michael Lewis's writing. The "government should be run like a business" trope is not just misguided (different goals, businesses don't try to win World War 2 in Q1), but quite wrong on the facts. If you judge government, for example, as a VC (Scott Galloway and others have talked about this), it is stunningly successful even though it doesn't get a direct return. In my field (AI/Computer Science) government investment (Series A of a sort) led to the chip, the GUI, the Internet, Machine Learning....There is simply no other VC or even combination of them that can lay claim to such a stellar track record.
It's also absurd that business is filled with stunning efficiency and competence. There is plenty of evidence (see Stiglitz et.al.) that even markets aren't necessarily all that optimal, the religious doctrine around them notwithstanding.
Several things can be true. Government can be wasteful, fraudulent (but way less than people imagine) and overreaching, but it has also been stunningly inventive, competent and filled with people who do great and important work with integrity. Reagan was just wrong. The fantasy of unbridled individual animal spirits is worthy of a historical psychoanalytic study. Ultimately, it's just destructively naive.
Necessary. I am a former employee of the NEH, which is about to be or has been eviscerated. My colleagues there were superb, honest, highly educated professionals.
Insightful as always.
Absolutely agree generally and specifically about Michael Lewis's writing. The "government should be run like a business" trope is not just misguided (different goals, businesses don't try to win World War 2 in Q1), but quite wrong on the facts. If you judge government, for example, as a VC (Scott Galloway and others have talked about this), it is stunningly successful even though it doesn't get a direct return. In my field (AI/Computer Science) government investment (Series A of a sort) led to the chip, the GUI, the Internet, Machine Learning....There is simply no other VC or even combination of them that can lay claim to such a stellar track record.
It's also absurd that business is filled with stunning efficiency and competence. There is plenty of evidence (see Stiglitz et.al.) that even markets aren't necessarily all that optimal, the religious doctrine around them notwithstanding.
Several things can be true. Government can be wasteful, fraudulent (but way less than people imagine) and overreaching, but it has also been stunningly inventive, competent and filled with people who do great and important work with integrity. Reagan was just wrong. The fantasy of unbridled individual animal spirits is worthy of a historical psychoanalytic study. Ultimately, it's just destructively naive.
Necessary. I am a former employee of the NEH, which is about to be or has been eviscerated. My colleagues there were superb, honest, highly educated professionals.