The Institute (協会)

Anthony, don't you mean "Obama/Clinton/McCain fans"? It seems that all three are fans of big government, with the differences being which big government programs to spend my money on.

public choice = making my life less stressful...except that I now just get frustrated when people think that the government is going to "fix" things.

Anthony, you note that you "would rather give the $2 million dollars to well-run charities" than to the government that is "full of corrupt, fraudulent, untrustworthy, unaccountable, truth-suppressing, unrepentant, morally bankrupt, nonfollowers of the Truth." Having a view into both Federal Government and the nonprofit sector at executive levels, I'll remind you that both are subject to the same types of corruption and perhaps with equal frequency. See, e.g.,

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/us/29fraud.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Perhaps, one might argue, since neither sector is driven by a profit motive neither has incentive to introduce controls and oversight. Of course, recent events in the for-profit world would suggest otherwise. Rather, it seems to me that this is endemic to people. How then does one introduce oversight to address the fallen condition of all people? Might it be...government?

I would tend to agree with Matthew.

I don't have much reason to believe that any of the candidates have any real serious priorities for making the government drastically smaller or spend significantly less money.

Nor do I think that any candidate will necessarily have the power as president to prevent the congressional pork-barreling that has been going on since the 1800s.

Interestingly, I read the following quote today:

"We know that government cannot solve all of our problems, and we don't expect it to. We don't want our tax dollars wasted on programs that don't work or perks for special interests that don't work for us. We understand that we cannot stop every job from going overseas or build a wall around our economy, and we know that we shouldn't," -Barack Obama

Easy as it may be to brush aside, this sure doesn't sound like someone who really believe that big government can save the world.

...funny thing: in my smart bookmarks in firefox, it cuts off the end of the title, so I see:

"hey obama/clinton fans: government blows..."

I think that about sums it up...though, with matthew, I'll include mccain, and maybe make it:

"hey government fans: government blows..."

ryan...are you not cynical enough/realistic enough to realize that politicians are in the business of getting elected, and nothing else? also...of course he doesn't want tax dollars wasted on programs that don't work. The very problem is that he thinks he knows of programs that will work. That is the issue; that arrogance that anyone can think they have governmental solutions/programs that can be effective.

jason; i'd be interested in what recent events in the for-profit world you're referring to...

shawn,

Thanks for the lesson in politics 101. If you had read my whole comment you'd probably have noticed that I didn't express much faith in any of the candidates bringing much in the way of positive changes in government size or spending, or of the government fixing societal problems.

The bottom line is that, as you affirmed, all of the candidates think that they know how to best direct the government and the war machine to make the world a better place, and we all know they will come up with a lot more empty promises than follow through or results.

Jason makes a good point; there is chicanery in the private sector, too. The difference that is significant, however, is that when the private sector does something like this, I'm free to stop supporting them.

Not so with government. Unless, of course, we use government funds to support private charities. Can you tell what side of the argument I'm on in that case?

It's lazy to lump all the candidates together on this one. McCain has a track record of being fiscally conservative. He even espouses the strange idea that cutting taxes must go hand-in-hand with decreased spending. Read here.

...I did read your comment, dude...you're still listening to what he's saying, so I'm baffled. Seemed like you're saying "well, all politicians are this way...but maybe this one's different."

Yeah, I'd be open to putting McCain in the group too. Good point.

Jason, yeah, you're right. I know that. That's why I intentionally put the qualifier "WELL RUN"

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have." - Thomas Jefferson

its scary how much we expect politicians to do the right thing. i am actually pretty surprised at how frustrated i felt after reading that article. this is pretty upsetting.

...probably because i just paid my taxes two days ago...

Expecting the President (or a presidential candidate) to have accountability or oversight on what are effectively corporate credit cards is a bit ridiculous. Do you think Bill Gates knows who is charging what to Microsoft's corporate credit cards? Personally, I hope the President has bigger fish to fry than this.

This is not a government program per se (ie Welfare, Social Security, etc), just a system of charging expenses. Like any other expense system, there will be fraud. The less oversight, the more fraud. pretty simple.

Also, $2 million out of a $2.5 TRILLION budget isn't exactly out of line. The GAO investigation into this matter probably cost more than that. Perspective, people....

Wow, $13,500 dinner. Deplorable. Jesus, return.

Didn't you get the memo Anthony, the government is our friend and caretaker? They will solve all of our problems. Why begrudge them for rewarding themselves for all their good work?

Shawn, I don't find it impossible to believe that the government actively does goo in our lives through the political system. My proof is simply look at nations whose governments don't do anything and then looking at the situation of the people in that country. E.g. Papua New Guinea.