ARRA: The seen and the unseen

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

What is seen:

450,000 government sector jobs "created or saved"

What is unseen:

1,000,000 private sector jobs forestalled


Read more in this Ohio State Study:

"The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Public Sector Jobs Saved, Private Sector Jobs Forestalled"

For the time challenged: NCPA highlights the study findings.

Bastiat's "That Which is Seen and That Which is Not Seen"

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1,968 New Regulatory Powers for HHS Secretary

The Center for Health Transformation has created a wall chart of the 1,968 new regulatory powers which the PPACA bestows upon the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Rule by regulation is rule by men. The more discretion given to regulatory agents, the further we move away from Rule by Law. This is one of the fatal flaws of central planning. Laws are too rigid and too slow to accomplish the tasks required for efficient use of resources--so attempts are made to provide flexibility by delegating decision-making power to regulatory agencies. But this very flexibility means arbitrary power in the hands of government bureaucrats--the exact opposite of Rule by Law. (Witness the more than 900 waivers already granted by Sec. Sebelius allowing a privileged few to escape some of the destructive consequences of the PPACA)

These facts alone are reason enough to repeal the law.

Natural Economic Experiments

In trying to make the case that economic freedom is the best way to end poverty while centralized planning of the economy by government fiat is a cause of poverty, the following "natural experiments" are frequently refereed to:

East vs. West Germany

North Vs. South Korea

China Vs. Taiwan and Hong Kong

Now there is a new one:

California vs. Texas

"California has become a cautionary tale of mismanagement of what by all rights should be the country’s most prosperous big state. Its poverty rate is at least two points above the national average; its unemployment rate nearly three points above the national average...Texas’ trajectory, however, looks quite the opposite. California was recently ranked by Chief Executive magazine as having the worst business climate in the nation, while Texas’ was considered the best. Both Democrats and Republicans in the Lone State State generally embrace the gospel of economic growth and limited public sector expenditure...Since 1998, California’s economy has not produced a single new net job, notes economist John Husing. Public employment has swelled, but private jobs have declined. Critically, as Texas grew its middle-income jobs by 16%, one of the highest rates in the nation, California, at 2.1% growth, ranked near the bottom. In the year ending September, Texas accounted for roughly half of all the new jobs created in the country."

Read more here.

A Tale of Two Postal Services

USPS: exclusive government-franchise, i.e. a monopoly

NZ: open competition for mail delivery since 1998, currently 25 different carriers

USPS: quarterly net loss of $3.5 billion--for an annual loss rate of $14 billion

NZ: expects a profit for 2010 of $72 million.

If it's true that the USPS is responsible for delivering "nearly half the world's mail"--does that mean that US citizens are subsidizing other countries mail delivery?

Read more about the power of private enterprise and competition here.

Wealth is not the problem.

Copenhagen Central Planners Fail at Planning

Environmentalists gathered to attend the global warming conference in Copenhagen, only to find out that the organization they are hoping will control the weather and plan for all our energy needs can't even properly organize their meeting.

The UN chose to hold what was billed as “the most important meeting in the history of the world” in a conference center that only holds fifteen thousand people. The environmental NGOs sent lists of delegates that added up to over thirty thousand. The UN looked at these two numbers and decided everything would work out fine...

On Tuesday, it was announced that only 1,000 NGO delegates would be allowed to attend on Thursday and Friday and that the method for choosing the lucky few would be announced later in the day. A notice was posted that said the decision would be made by 6 PM. At 6, another notice said come back at 7. At 7, we were told that NGO representatives would meet with Yvo De Boer, the head of the Secretariat, at 7:30 and to watch our e-mails for an announcement of when we would meet. At 7:45, we were told to assemble at 8 to find out which lucky thousand would be allowed to attend the last two days of the conference. At 8, the meeting with Mr. de Boer was still going on. So we sat and waited. Ditto 8:30. Ditto 9. At 9:35, our NGO representatives appeared...

Then the NGO representative told us that UN security had advised Mr. de Boer that no NGO delegates should be allowed to attend the last two days, when over one hundred prime ministers and presidents, including President Obama, would be in the building. But de Boer had insisted on the rights of “civil society” to be represented and had secured a compromise. Instead of a thousand passes for NGOs, there would be three hundred.

Thus the approximately thirty thousand NGO delegates who traveled from around the world to Copenhagen to attend COP-15 were limited to seven thousand on Tuesday and Wednesday and to three hundred for the last two days.

Perhaps some individuals who support efforts at a world-government takeover of energy production and use do so with good, although mistaken, intentions. However, it is difficult to understand how can anyone with even a modicum of honesty and historical knowledge can fail to understand the enormous hubris of such a central planning effort.


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