Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Complexity and government

In recent weeks I have noticed some people on the left citing a rising complexity in everyday life as a justification for more interventionist government. Boiled down, the argument is essentially an oblique way of saying that people are too stupid or ill-informed to make the best decisions regarding their own life. Indeed, the stupidity and baseness of man is a precept of left wing thought, for if you believe people are smart and generous enough to conduct themselves of their own free will the justification for big government is severely undermined.

In any case let us assume for the sake of argument that the world is indeed more complex than ever before. Upon closer examination this actually would seem to make the case for less, not greater government.

The notion that government is the answer to a more complex world presupposes that bureaucrats have a better grasp on how to handle these complexities than ordinary citizens. While it is true that the bureaucrat may be more attuned than another individual, it is highly dubious that he is more gifted than the collective knowledge of the marketplace.

Moving beyond the theoretical, just think about how much government struggles to handle relatively basic tasks such as security and infrastructure provision. What reason is there to think that it would demonstrate a higher aptitude in dealing with more complex issues? Are government rules and regulation synonymous with efficiency and foresight?

Indeed, if one thinks about complexity one also sees that the marketplace provides solutions to deal with it. Take cars for example. They are FAR more complex than 80 years ago. Yet are they easier or more difficult to operate? Automatic transmission at the time was unknown, as were other conveniences such as window wipers. Furthermore, consumers really don't need to understand how such mechanisms work. After all, plenty of private organizations use experts to rate and evaluate cars and report their findings to the public to help them better judge which cars to purchase.

The answer to complexity is less government, not more.

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