re limiting govt was re employment was re why not concentrate in article apr rigel tamu edu gmw rigel tamu edu mr grinch writes in article apr isc br isc br com steveh thor isc br com steve hendricks writes on a case by case basis the cost benefit ratio of government regulation is obviously worthwhile the libertarian agenda however does not call for this assessment it assumes that the costs of regulation of any kind always outweigh its benefits this approach avoids all sorts of difficult analysis but it strikes many of the rest of us as dogmatic to say the least i assume you mean that analyzing the cost benefit ratio of government regulation on a case by case basis is worthwhile let me suggest that this is not an option regulators regulate it s what they do i m not sure why you don t consider it an option no one suggests that such analysis should be left to regulators in fact the re inventing government movement provides just such a cost benefit approach to the analysis of public spending libertarians would do well to learn more about it it might be possible to pass an amendment which would prevent any liscensing laws from being valid assuming you could convince people that it would overall be a good idea eliminating the liscensing laws which serve no good purpose the vast majority of them while maintaining the worthwhile ones assuming there are any is not feasible sorry but it strikes me that it is the only feasible approach what is not feasible is a wholesale attack on all government regulation and licensing that treats cutting hair and practicing medicine as equivalent tasks i have no objection to an analysis of medical care education national defense or local police that suggests a free market can provide a more effective efficient means of accomplishing social objectives than is provided through statist approaches with some notable exceptions however i do not see such nitty gritty worthwhile analysis being carried out by self professed libertarians jsh i note that the above examples tend to be among the few government areas likely to win some approval among libertarians anyway actually the only areas of public spending above that strike me as generating substantial support among libertarians are police and defense it is an interesting aside that as committed as libertarians claim to be to a principle of non coercion the only areas of public spending that they frequently support involve hiring people with guns hmmm the most objectionable government expenditures are entitlements which also are the biggest certain individuals will suggest that these should be considered defense on the grounds that they are a sort of danegeld to would be revolutionaries but i personally don t feel we have much to fear from an alliance of geezers and unwed mothers maybe i ve led too sheltered a life perhaps you have may i suggest that you consider that revolutionaries frequently generate support by acting as protectors of geezers mothers and children governments that ignore such people on the grounds that we don t have much to fear from them do so at their own peril jsh mr grinch steve hendricks domain steveh thor isc br com one thing about data it sure does cut uucp uunet isc br thor steveh the bulls t r hofferbert ma bell
