Favoritism Over Priorities

A partial list of government priorities.

What is your list of things the local (city, county, state) government should do? How would you order it?

When I step back from being an anarcho-capitalist, I am willing to consider certain things the government might properly do—even if I expect they won’t do them properly. My willingness to consider items on this list, however, grows increasingly less acceptable as we work our way down it. Regardless, reasonable minds can disagree.

What I find not only unreasonable but actually contemptable is the willful insertion of certain items near or at the top of the list. In these cases it is obviously an act of cronyistic rent seeking at the expense of the common cause (and common purse). These are items for which perhaps no reasonable argument can be offered for their inclusion on the list at all much less being positioned high on the list.

This thought came to mind when I read this, which is just one example among so many within the domain of government-funded sports and entertainment venues.

As such, here is a cobbled together list of government priorities slightly edited for reality:

The arguments for such folly are always ephemeral platitudes like “imagine the economic impact”, “we have to be forward thinking”, “it will add so much to our city’s image and fame attracting good jobs and workers”, etc. Then they digress into “we have to do this to be competitive” and “this is an investment in our future” backed up with a flimsy, paid-for economic impact study put together by a hack who would get an failing grade if that research project were turned in as an assignment in a first-year graduate economics class.

As the great Thomas Sowell said, “The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.”