From Douthat:
If consolidation creates a crisis, the answer is further consolidation. If economic centralization has unintended consequences, then you need political centralization to clean up the mess. If a government conspicuously fails to prevent a terrorist attack or a real estate bubble, then obviously it needs to be given more powers to prevent the next one, or the one after that.
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Monday ~ May 17th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Agustin
I agree.
Another example: every year thousands and thousands of homes burn to the ground, and every year fire departments around the continent demand more money, more resources. To them I say: if you have conspicuously failed to prevent all these houses from burning down, then the last thing you need is to be given more powers to prevent the next one, or the one after that.
Ahem.
Tuesday ~ May 18th, 2010 at 8:15 am
Adam Ozimek
Very clever! But I suspect that if the fire department was actually causing fires in the same way centralization and consolidation were causing problems you’d start questioning whether more of them was a good idea.
Tuesday ~ May 18th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
Agustin
Thanks
I read the whole article and I didn’t see an argument for the position that centralization and consolidation were causing these problems. Rhetoric, yes, but a proper argument, no.
What’s the connection between centrazlization/consolidation and terrorist attacks? Or with the financial meltdowns (USA & Europe)?
Tuesday ~ May 18th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Jim
Schools fail our children and the answer is more more money for teachers. Wall Street fails the economy and the answer is less money for the executives. Go figure…
Tuesday ~ May 18th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Agustin
I may not live in the same country as you, but isn’t it possible that part of the reason why your schools fail your children, that their teachers are underfunded?
Are the teachers asking for salary increases? Or are they asking for fewer students in their classrooms, or more money for textbooks, etc.?
Also, I really don’t think the situation that teachers face is the same as that faced by Wall Street executives. It is possible that the solution to one problem may not work for the other one. (FWIW, I don’t think the answer to the problems on Wall Street are to lower executives’ salaries, either. Probably best to look to smarter regulation of the industry for this situation.)
Tuesday ~ October 26th, 2010 at 11:15 am
TequilaKid
I think this argument is very germane to the Headstart program funded by the government to make ghetto kids brighter by helping them engage in meaningful play. Headstart is a failure, everyone acknowledges that. But what do you expect if the governesses (or whatever you call them) at Headstart creches earn only $20 thousand a year? Of course they are people without any education, culture or interest in reality.
If every prisoner serving a life sentence were executed instead of rotting in prison, the government would save enough money on maintenance to double the salaries of many thousdands of Headstart mistresses (or whatever you call them).
Tuesday ~ May 18th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Centrality and Complication « It Don't Mean Much, These Seats are Cheap
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