Originally published at RealClearMarkets.
As soon as the internet came along, we started hearing about misinformation. Social media compounded this. It’s ironic how much concern we hear from the powers-that-be, since they peddle as much of it as anyone.
A recent example, put forth by a San Antonio city councilman during budget deliberations, is the notion that “individual gain and wealth” is mutually exclusive of what “provides the most public and collective good.” It’s quite the contrary actually.
One word heard several times during the discussions was “invest.” Politicians talk ad nauseum about “investing” in health, “investing” in education, “investing” in infrastructure, etc.
That word however, implies someone using their own resources, or those voluntarily entrusted to them, for the successful production and sale of a good or service. If that isn’t realized, those resources, the business and related jobs are lost.
Government operates with no such discipline.
Consequently, there’s less motivation to be effective, nevermind efficient. Look at the state of public education. Pharmaceuticals are arguably promoted more than healthy living. And San Antonians for one have a close-up view of the sorry state of roads.
Not only does the aforementioned lack of incentives hamstring government from the very start, but taxing productive citizens in the most complicated, excessive ways makes it worse.
When income is taxed for example, work is discouraged. The more it’s taxed, the less we can save. That’s too bad, because these are the acts that fuel prosperity.
These seeds for real investment open new, or expand existing businesses. They create jobs, both on-site, and at suppliers, retailers, wholesalers, etc. When public bodies siphon off earnings via property-, capital gains-, dividend-, estate taxes, the “collective” is less prosperous.
Instead, these deadened dollars get rerouted through a bureaucracy that didn’t put in the sweat and the risk to earn them. Superior products and services brought to market voluntarily are swapped out for the exact opposite. It doesn’t have to be this way.
When the tax load is minimal, easy to navigate, and applied in the least-worst way (on consumption), and the regulatory burden is lightened, freer citizens produce more. Even if they spend more time and money on leisure, additional economic opportunity is created there as well.
All this results in more tax revenue flowing into government. Politicians would be awash in it! (This is not to be construed as an endorsement of the inevitable, profligate spending, a topic for another day.)
This is not some hokey political theory, but rather reality backed-up by historical evidence.
If politicos possessed more humility, and less uninterrupted faith in their ability to do good with taxpayer dollars, the true, few public goods that fall within government’s scope might stand a better chance of succeeding. Citizens would be better served as they pursue their respective goals.
Misinformation has plagued us long before the internet.
Generations of Americans have been led to believe that FDR helped get us through the Great Depression. More recently the tale has been spun that the Great Recession was caused by unregulated capitalism. Etc. etc.
The sooner a machete is taken to this thicket of distorted narratives, the better off society will be.