Today’s Democratic ranks swell with people armed with plans and blueprints for using government to overhaul or re-engineer large swaths of the economy. These plans, all born of hubris, are fun to discuss, and the blueprints are exciting to ponder. Yet this sort of policy innovation is not tested by market competition. Government imposes these schemes on citizens, and no politician or bureaucrat — unlike a private entrepreneur — has a personal financial stake in getting things right.
If a President Sanders’ plan for making college more affordable fails, his personal wealth won’t decline. Indeed, he’ll still likely receive plaudits for his good intentions. Ditto for a President Buttigieg’s blueprint for increasing the affordability of health care. The people who will bear the costs of these interventions if they fail are ordinary Americans.
Rationality from my brilliant GMU Econ colleague Bryan Caplan.
The proposed crackdown fits nicely with the nationalist agenda, which is focused—as nationalists tend to be—on purity.
