Piticul şi coasa libertariană

Am o curiozitate: ce ar înţelege bocuţul nostru din textul de mai jos? Nu de altceva, dar în afară de talentele gospodăreşti, bune la munte, nu la Palatul Victoria, nu ne-a demonstrat nimic. Las' că nici cu libertarienii de salon nu mi-e ruşine! Şi are vreo doi pe post de consilieri economici, iar lucrul ăsta se vede: mergem din dezastru economic în dezastru economic, iar criza economico-financiară s-a transformat într-o criză a datoriilor interne şi externe. Dar e bine!

"Big or small government is not the critical criterion in economics.To the contrary, government’s management of change is what is critical. And government is a key and arguably the main agent of change.Without an active government, a nation cannot respond adequately to its times. If it does not respond to new conditions, both economic growth and the ability to retain a nation’s values will suffer. In the laboratory of the real world, the governments of rich nations have on balance been central to economic growth, and in the process have retained their citizens’ faith in their nations’ promise and social values. Does this mean government must be big?

The lesson is that pragmatic government should prevail over any categorical or typically ideological dismissal of the uses of government, including Bill Clinton’s. If what we think of as big government is necessary to manage change, and in a complex society it may well be, then we should pursue it actively and positively, and make it function well.

Today, an ideological antagonism toward government in the United States has deeply undermined the nation’s capacity to deal with its rapidly changing times.These changes include rising competition around the globe, a marked worsening in wage growth and widening of income distribution since the 1970s, the rapidly rising costs of health care, an aging population, and the need forever- more years of education.The two-worker family has become the nation’s norm. The possibilities for advanced transportation and better energy use due to technological innovation have excitingly expanded, as transportation and other infrastructures, including public water systems, are allowed to decay. Change also includes constantly evolving ideas in America about who should participate in the full rights and opportunities of the nation, an evolution in American society that at first excluded and then progressively welcomed to the fold all manner of immigrants— from the early Germans and Swedes to the Irish, Italians, and Jews and ultimately Latinos. Over time, women, African Americans, Native Americans, and gays were also welcomed. Our knowledge about what is required to lead a full life changes as well. We now know, for example, how important early education is to human development.We are much more aware of the most subtle abuses of race and gender. And we believe that old age can be productive."

Jeff Madrick, "The Case for Big Government", Princeton University Press, 2010. Jeff Madrick is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge magazine and senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis.