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Date:
Fri Mar 31 17:19:05 2006
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From:
[log in to unmask] (Andrew Larkin)
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> 
>As a Canadian I feel somewhat alien to this discussion. And I would  
>imagine that most people in other countries would feel the same.  
>Political discourse in the United States has become so rhetorical, so  
>motivated by unstated goals that the carefull distinctions outlined below  
>are ignored, denied, etc. for political purposes that have nothing to do  
>with reasonable intellectual discussion that it is probably best to  
>ignore it. 
> 
>> > Dr. Schweitzer asks, "When did economists first equal government  
>> > intervention with the use of force?"    
>> >  
 
I feel even more alienated, I guess, since I am still in a quandary over 
the use of the term "intervention" for government activities in the economy. 
I have found that it is most useful to think of the government as 
integral to the economy rather than some sort of interloper.  Surely the 
government is both a producer and a consumer, indeed the largest, but the 
question is whether it should be.  There are many functions of government 
that an economy cannot do without.  To start the list, there is contract 
enforcement.  Others include police and defense, transportation infra- 
structure, education, monetary control, etc.  Government regulation is 
necessary in a capitalist economy because capitalist institutions require 
the firm to behave in an undesireable way, e.g. environmental externalities. 
Government regulation of labor-management relations, as in the National 
Labor Relations Act, provides the rules for workers and managers to function 
together in greater harmony, to get on with producing rather than fighting. 
The list is endless. 
 
Economists who see all government activities as coercion are basing their 
view on an extremely abstract theory if not plain ideology.  Useful theory  
sees government activity as essential to an advanced economy (although not  
all governmental behavior will be good). 
 
 
 
Andrew Larkin 
Department of Economics 
St. Cloud State University 
St. Cloud, Minnesota 56301 
 
612-255-2298   fax:  612-654-5198 
 
 

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