Bootleggers and Baptists

by Don Boudreaux on February 15, 2009

in Politics

George Will's latest Newsweek column is wise and wonderful — not least because it mentions Russ and our good friend Bruce Yandle.

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{ 4 comments }

save_the_rustbelt February 15, 2009 at 9:50 am

The really bad news…

One of the largest health care reform bills in history was passed within the stimulus without a minutes discussion or debate.

Someday the lefties will have to answer for the mess.

vidyohs February 15, 2009 at 12:18 pm

George, Ben, Thomas, John, Patrick, Samuel, where are you guys now that we need you so badly.

maximus February 15, 2009 at 4:27 pm

"Someday the lefties will have to answer for the mess"

Maybe in the same way the French aristocrats did.

William Bruce February 15, 2009 at 5:12 pm

"Someday the lefties will have to answer for the mess."

– doubtful, otherwise such measures would rarely be passed in the first place.

That is the beauty of our political system (and really, all modern, bureaucratic systems): the role of accountability, and therefore incentives, is so distorted and defanged that any contextual use of the concept is a grotesque, albeit profoundly ironic, joke.

It really should not be necessary to broach such a subject at Cafe Hayek, where this is more or less an intellectual given.

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