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Warren Meyer helps answer our dear technocrats’ question:

In an idealized Platonic technocratic world that many Lefists still insist on believing we actually live in, trustworthy and knowledgeable agents of the state would work up such a list and we could fund it, happy we have made a good financial decision.  But we don’t live in that world, as I wrote in the comments

The reason this does not fly has to do with politician’s incentives and trust.  In short, Democrats had their chance to do exactly this.  Two years ago, nearly a trillion dollars of such stimulus was approved and sold to the American people as just this sort of infrastructure spending.

But it was no such thing.  Most of the money went to state and local governments as transfer and stabilization payments to keep unionized government workers, who are reliable Democratic voters, employed.  Congress and the Administration knew that the majority of the public would have been leery about spending it this way, so it was sold as “infrastructure” despite the fact that less than 10%, by my count, could reasonably be called this.

Read the the whole thing.

2 Responses to “Why Oh Why Doesn’t Our Technocratic Planning Attract Skeptics?”

  1. Harry says:

    Today in my doctor’s office I read a piece quoting the Council of Economic advisors, dated early July, saying that 2.5 million jobs were created by the stimulus. They cited “mainstream” figures for the Keynesean multiplier as evidence for the jobs created.

    Now, some might argue that this all goes back to Aristotle and Plato, and reasoning a priori, or a posteriori. Aristotle taught us the difference between the two.

    Mr Meyer hits the nail.

  2. Rod says:

    CAIRO (August 31, 2011 BC) —

    Dr. Isis Abrahamson, Rameses the Great’s chairman of the council economic and spiritual advisor, announced today that according to the sacred writings on the wall of Rameses I’s sarcophagus chamber, over 2.5 million Israelites’ jobs were saved or created as a result of infrastructure spending ordered by the Great Pharoah.

    “Work on the Great Rameses’ Pyramid has finally begun after three years of planning and zoning clearance by authorities at every level of government,” said Abrahamson, the brother-in-law of Joseph the Overseer.

    “This is all in accordance with His Excellency Joseph’s seven year plan,” said Abrahamson. “We should have the pyramid complete in 40 years, well in advance of the date when The Great Pharoah will make his journey to the underworld.”

    In a related development, The Great Pharoah’s Department of Agriculture announced today that the straw harvest was worse than analysts had expected. “The Israelites will just have to make bricks without straw,” said Barack Osiris, community organizer for the Israelites.

    In other business news, the price of silver went up two talents in August, making the price of freedom from servitude now 40 pieces of silver.

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