I agree that goverment funding things can be effective.
I have more of a problem with direct muddling like saving firm A or B, implementing ristrictions on trade, telling people what they can buy and what they cant buy. These things do not have to be discarded because of econmic reasing, these things have to be discard since the are plainly just goverment helping some people on the cost of others or just restring what people would want to do and are rational enougth to do.
I have some things I want to add to what you said. First and most importend is that you dont know what would have been devloped if people where taxed X% less instead of the goverment investing it. Second I think meassure what R&D is in a economy is very hard to say. Many thing just get evolutionarly better and that does not have to happen in R&D.
Third I would say that goverment funding universitys and things like that is something diffrent from a goverment burocracy. The universitys have other insentive to prudce good results, so do the comanys competing for grants. So I do think that goverment spending on reasearch is one of the best things goverments does.
> Third I would say that goverment funding universitys and things like that is something diffrent from a goverment burocracy.
Most of the size and scope of at least the federal government is things like this, not bureaucracy. The federal civilian payroll has held steady at 1.8-2.2 million since 1960, and payroll expenses account for less than 5% of the budget.
I have more of a problem with direct muddling like saving firm A or B, implementing ristrictions on trade, telling people what they can buy and what they cant buy. These things do not have to be discarded because of econmic reasing, these things have to be discard since the are plainly just goverment helping some people on the cost of others or just restring what people would want to do and are rational enougth to do.
I have some things I want to add to what you said. First and most importend is that you dont know what would have been devloped if people where taxed X% less instead of the goverment investing it. Second I think meassure what R&D is in a economy is very hard to say. Many thing just get evolutionarly better and that does not have to happen in R&D.
Third I would say that goverment funding universitys and things like that is something diffrent from a goverment burocracy. The universitys have other insentive to prudce good results, so do the comanys competing for grants. So I do think that goverment spending on reasearch is one of the best things goverments does.