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Townhall...
Sports Versus Politics
by Thomas Sowell
Aug 07, 2012
It has long seemed to me that there is far more rationality in sports,
and in commentaries on sports, than there is in politics and in
commentaries on politics. What has puzzled me is why this is so, when
what happens in politics has far more serious effects on people’s lives.
To take one common example, there are many people who believe that if
the market fails, the government should step in. But, if Robinson Cano
strikes out, does anyone suggest that the Yankees should send in a
pinch hitter for him on his next time at bat?
Everyone understands that a pinch hitter can also strike out, and is
less likely than Cano to get a hit or a home run. But the very
possibility that the government can fail when it steps in to substitute
for a failing market seldom occurs to many people. Even among some
economists, “market failure” is a magic phrase that implies a need for
government intervention.
We could argue about the empirical evidence as to when government
pinch-hitting is better or worse. But there is seldom even an argument
at all in some quarters, where government intervention follows market
failure as the night follows the day.
Milton Friedman once pointed out, “A system established largely to
prevent bank panics produced the most severe banking panic in American
history.” Many other examples could be cited where government
intervention made a bad situation worse.
But most discussions of the role of government never even reach the
point of looking for empirical evidence. Today, for example, there is
much gnashing of teeth in the media because Democrats and Republicans
can’t seem to get together to create a bipartisan plan for government
intervention to solve our current economic problems.
Those who cry out that the government should “do something” never even
ask for data on what has actually happened when the government did
something, compared to what actually happened when the government did
nothing. That could be a very enlightening trip through the archives.
Read the rest of the article at Townhall
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