Economic Progress and the Role of Government

AllFinancialMatters quoting page 77 of Common Sense Economics:

1. Government promotes economic progress by protecting the rights of individuals and supplying goods that cannot be provided through markets.

2. Government is not a corrective device.

3. The costs of government are not only taxes.

4. Unless restrained by constitutional rules, special-interest groups will use the democratic political precess to fleece taxpayers and consumers.

5. Unless restrained by constitutional rules, legislators will run budget deficits and spend excessively.

6. Goverment slows economic progress when it becomes heavily involved in trying to help some people at the expense of others.

7. The costs of government income transfers are far greater than the net gain to the intended beneficiaries.

8. Central planning replaces markets with politics, which wastes resources and retards economic progress.

9. Competition is just as important in government as in markets.

10. Constitutional rules that bring the political process and sound economics into harmony will promote economic progress.