"Keynes himself was famously obsessed with affecting government policy. So he focused his brilliant intellect on the short-run rather than on the long-run; on the seen rather than on the unseen; on the superficial rather than on the foundational; on what is politically expedient today rather than on what is economically sound tomorrow." Don Boudreaux on John Maynard Keynes (the architect of today's public economic policy)...
"The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups." Henry Hazlitt (author of Economics in One Lesson) on how good economists view their craft...
"If there is a shutdown, 800,000 nonessential federal employees will be suspended. You know, maybe that's our budget problem right there. We have 800,000 nonessential federal employees." Jay Leno on the real problem!!
Leno nailed it, in a way. I would argue that our government has more than 800,000 non-essential employees.
ReplyDeleteToday, the department of agriculture has more employees than there are farmers.
Our federal government should employ only those workers necessary for the essential functions of government, i.e., law enforcement, military defense, and judicial review.
Everything else should be eliminated. Will it happen? Not a chance.