On the radio, I often hear conservatives say that government doesn't create any wealth since it doesn't create a product. This may be an old version of economic thinking where wealth is seen as material things.
These days, a lot of wealth is services and knowledge. Government does provide a lot of needed services such as, for instance, police and fire protection. Other services, like city parks, libraries, schools, roads, airports and so forth are of value. They are usually provided by government.
In quite a few cases, private companies might do a better job providing services than government bureaucracies. Big corporations can be very bureaucratic also, however. Still using private companies as vendors for services is often a good idea. Private companies can often innovate and do a better, more efficient job that the government, but there still is the problem of the marketplace.
A lot of the valuable services that governments provide are not things that people are accustom to paying for. Public libraries, parks, schools police and so forth. It is conceivable that these things could be paid for by the private market, but it would be a rude awakening for many people. Toll roads, for instance.
It would take a while for people in this society to get used to that way of doing things.
Meanwhile we need to value the kinds of services that governments normally provide. Other things that are normally provided by private enterprise can continue.
One example of a product provided by private enterprise, here in the state of Washington, is marijuana. Since Washington State has legalized recreational marijuana, a new multi million dollar, taxable, private industry has been created.
Not that pot is necessarily a bad thing, but it's kind of ironic what works on the private market that steriotypical conservatives think of as about the only force creating value in our society.
My related Article in The Betty Pages.
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