Read David Friedman’s latest blog post and the comments on it for his story about TSA. it turns out that there really is a noticeable difference between government workers in protected jobs and private firms hired to do the government’s dirty business.
UPDATE: For those who don’t know what commenter John David Galt is referring to re Amy Alkon, see here.
May 21 2012
Right-leaning people typically believe that (a) markets work, and (b) organic food is a scam. I definitely fit the profile. As a result, my every trip to the grocery store inspires cognitive dissonance. Organic food isn't merely on the shelves; it's growing by leaps and bounds. The organic indus...
May 20 2012
I watched most of the movie Paradise Road yesterday. I recommend it, by the way. It's about a large group of women who were captured in Singapore during World War II and taken prisoner by the Japanese government to the island of Sumatra. It's quite moving. The lead character, Adrienne Pargiter, played by Glenn Clos...
May 19 2012
Read David Friedman's latest blog post and the comments on it for his story about TSA. it turns out that there really is a noticeable difference between government workers in protected jobs and private firms hired to do the government's dirty business. UPDATE: For those who don't know what commenter John David Galt ...
READER COMMENTS
John David Galt
May 19 2012 at 7:10pm
Vandalism is nothing. Amy Alkon called them out for rape.
The real lesson here is the same as it is in all police states: we have no rights and will continue not to have any until we take them back.
So unless an unlikely civil war comes, we’ll all simply have to wait until the TSA picks on a police officer or soldier who’s willing to fight force with force and able to make it stick.
Joe Cushing
May 20 2012 at 9:36am
I wonder if it would be possible to get rid of the TSA without a revolution. It seems government agencies are impossible to close.
David R. Henderson
May 20 2012 at 9:57am
@Joe Cushing,
Not impossible but very difficult. The ICC and CAB are gone after economists systematically criticized them starting in the 1960s and increasingly in the 1970s. Many agencies were eliminated after WWII. I bet there were others.
Joe Cushing
May 20 2012 at 3:16pm
I didn’t know that. Thanks for the history lesson and a tiny glimmer of hope. I really think the future of American Exceptionalism depends on us eliminating agencies. If we become like Europe, then we won’t be exceptional. We are almost there already.
BZ
May 20 2012 at 8:02pm
Joe/Dr. Henderson:
I hate to rain on the parade, but the mention of the agencies eliminated after WWII (hurray!) made me immediately think of Dr. Higgs book on the ratchet effect. .. meaning the stuff they eliminate is always less than the stuff that hangs around until it is deemed an irreplaceable facet of American existence.
Just saying. 🙂
David R. Henderson
May 20 2012 at 8:57pm
@BZ and Joe,
One other that was eliminated for a few years: the Selective Service System.
Ted Levy
May 21 2012 at 3:04am
And yet at the same time there has been massive growth in government regulation, power, and prison population. So it’s hard to take these occasional victories as evidence of anything save occasional victories…
Joe Cushing
May 21 2012 at 6:45am
We once got rid of the central bank.
David R. Henderson
May 21 2012 at 8:42am
@Ted Levy,
And yet at the same time there has been massive growth in government regulation, power, and prison population. So it’s hard to take these occasional victories as evidence of anything save occasional victories…
They’re evidence of occasional victories, which means they’re evidence against Joe’s original statement.
@Joe,
Good one on the central bank. That was major. Also, I suspect there were a number of government agencies at the state level in the South before the Civil War that were eliminated when slavery was eliminated.
Matt C
May 21 2012 at 1:28pm
This is very distressing, especially the sexual abuse story (which rings true to me).
While it seems possible that TSA could get reined in, I certainly wouldn’t bet on it. If anything, this is the leading edge of worse behavior from other agencies.
This is bad. David, do you ever think about going back up north?
Comments are closed.