Broken Guvmint

I saw a recent poll which found that most people trust their state and local governments more than the federal government. I don't know if people were thinking of different states than the ones they live in. This article from the Tribune today is only a minor indication of how bad the Utah state government is. Yeh, let's repeal the 17th amendment to give them more power. I don't know much about other states but I hear that New York is not functioning and we all know what a mess California is in (I agree with Fareed Zakaria that it is pertly due to citizen amendments...too much democracy). What state government functions well? Let's have the nominations.

And we know how local governments function. They are great if you are a developer.

And here is an article from the NY Times on how public pension funds are taking bigger risks to make up for "lost time." How stupid can you be? Many of our public pension funds are grossly underfunded. Roger Lowenstein had a good book about this called While America Aged. These funds are mostly underfunded because of promises made to public employees that pushed difficulties into the future. Public employees should have the same pension most of us do...a 401(k).

David Brooks has a good column on the health care bill today. The democrats are admirable in supporting health care reform, but I have to now say that this bill should probably just go away. Previously, I gave most of the blame to the Senate, but the House bill was worse. I liked the Wyden-Bennett approach because if favored creating incentives in the marketplace for cost reduction and it would have given us all choices of what coverage we wanted instead relying on our employer's choice...if we have an employer and don't have pre-existing conditions, etc. But single payer would also be a tremendous improvement over what we have now.

And here is a wonderful article on improving education, another government program. It embraces the novel idea of how to help teachers become better at teaching. Hello. Unfortunely, it seems to me that teachers' unions are the biggest impediment to change. Why do K-12 teachers get tenure anyway? More bad promises to public employees.

Ezra Klein has a couple good articles on the filibuster today. Apparently, it stems from changes in the Senate rules proposed by Aaron Burr in his farewell address after he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel. They didn't realize what they had done. It became much more important after the Civil War. Southern legislators used it to prohibit progress for blacks. Excuse me, but who wants to justify slavery today? The worst compromise made in getting a Constitution, although there were many others. Please note that the majority of people in 1787 did not want a federal constitution.

And here is a link to a conference called Make Markets Be Markets. I have not reviewed this but it looks like the presentations are short. It has some good people, such as Simon Johnson and Joseph Stiglitz.

It is very fashionable to criticize the federal government today. And maybe that is a good thing. The democrats didn't seem to realize that citizens didn't want business as usual anymore. It's true that republicans have used the reconciliation process many times and that many legislators, including Orrin Hatch, are lying through their teeth when they talk about the history of reconciliation. But citizens don't like the process that produces 1000 page bills. If you have ever tried to read an Omnibus Budget bill, you will notice that everything but the kitchen sink is in there, i.e. particular favors for certain legislators to benefit certain interests.

But maybe I am making the mistake of being nostalgic for a time that never was, something that people do all the time. This appears to be a very old failing, dating at least back to the Bible and the story of the fall of Adam and Eve.

On the other hand, many problems seem to have obvious solutions. The way to keep the Social Security trust fund solvent is to raise taxes or increase the full retirement age. Or both. The way to reduce the federal deficit is to raise taxes or cut spending. Or both. The way to improve education is to make teaching better.

On the other other hand, the way to cut medical costs is difficult to determine. Halting global warming seems an impossible task for governments. We shouldn't really pretend that we have great knowledge about climate change...but it seems pretty clear the human activities are causing warming...which will be harmful to many. And the experts still disagree on what caused the financial crisis. Capitalism involves relentless innovation. Something our species has managed to do over and above evolution. There isn't an obvious government solution to these problems. It doesn't mean than nothing can be done, but what does get done may be worse than doing nothing.

Hasn't democratic government always been this way? Involving messy disagreements between competing views? Obviously, many people disagree with my characterizations. As Winston Churchill said, "democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others." I am assuming he means representative democracy. Can you imagine what would happen if government policy was made based on the daily whims of we citizens? That is a truly scary thought.