Letters to the Editor
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Government intervention - so what?
The underlying assumption of several of the responses to this article seems to be - government expenditure: bad - private sector expenditure: good.
The government expenditure of most advanced countries is around 40% of GDP (even in neo-liberal US it's over 30% and heading for 40% if government-subsidised wars in Iraq and Iran are the way of the future).
Is this a bad trend for modern economies? Given the evidence of the past 100 years probably not - it's more a sign that modern economies are too complex to be left solely to the market. Simple non-intervening government was okay for the victorians but citizens of the 21st century make greater service demands of their states.
Rather than face this fact the current US political discourse seems to demand that this obvious truth is ignored. The result? Instead of making a serious effort to re-tool government to meet greater 21st century public service demands, it is left to become distorted and ineffectual - with the end result that most citizens are getting a seriously bum deal from their tax dollar.