Re: Government intervention

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Are you saying that the U.S. resembles a typical third world country?
Interesting thought.

>
> Critiques of rent-seeking are of course very fashionable these days. I'm
> struck by the fact, however, that in countries with highly
> professionalized civil services - Japan, Germany, France, and even
> Britain come to mind - governments often do behave in fairly honorable
> competent fashions. In a country like the U.S., which pays civil servants
> badly and treats them like shit, their performance leaves more to be
> desired. Interestingly, the agencies the U.S. elite does care about - the
> Foreign Service, the SEC, the Federal Reserve - do seem to perform
> considerably better than those it despises (e.g., the welfare dept.).
>
> Perhaps rent-seeking needs a context.
>
> Doug

--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 916-898-5321
E-Mail michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx