What the democrats don't get

I just watched another democratic presidential candidate debate, and again found myself shouting at the TV in frustration and disgust. I don't like any of them. (Disclaimer: I am a libertarian. I have just as many rants about the republicans, and I will write about them later.)

1. Incentives matter.

If you want to change people's behavior, the most effective way to do that is with financial reward/punishment. Appealing to their conscience/guilt/higher self is ineffective. If you want blue apples, you can pass a law that mandates blue apples, but that won't get you any blue apples. You can tell people that blue apples are good for you and red apples cause cancer, but you still won't get any. However, if you put a $5 tax on non-blue apples, or a $5 subsidy on blue apples, you will soon have blue apples coming out of your ears.

Many democrats seem to think that people will conserve energy for the good of the environment, for the good of the country, etc. But that's ridiculous. People will conserve energy if it pays for them to, and right now energy is so cheap that there is often little incentive to conserve it. Mandating more fuel efficient cars, mandating electric cars, and forcing other conservation measures down peoples throats is absolutely the wrong approach. Taxing carbon emissions to raise the price of pollution and raise the price of oil will be far more effective.

2. Business don't pay taxes.

Most democrats seem to think that they can stick it to businesses without hurting the little guy. But guess what. Businesses will directly pass on any taxes to the consumer in the form of higher prices for goods and services. So taxing businesses only increases costs for consumers and makes our businesses less competitive with foreign ones.

3. The federal government should not be involved in either education or health care.

The constitution clearly delineates what the federal government is responsible for, and leaves the rest to the states. Education and health care are clearly, clearly state matters. If you want to change that, amend the constitution.

5. Competition is essential to efficiency and innovation.

Democrats frequently seem to have tremendous faith in government, and believe that it can be efficient and innovative. It cannot, because it has no competition. The private sector can do almost anything better, cheaper, and more creatively than government. Government will invariably be bloated, beaurocratic, costly, and ineffective, because it has no incentive to be otherwise. Therefore, it's better to leave as much as possible to the private sector. Defense is an obvious exception.

Just one example: the state of California spends about $11,000 per student per year for primary education, while private schools provide equal or better education for about $4500 per year. Public education costs nearly 3 times as much because most of the money goes to the massive beaurocracy. Private schools, by necessity, are leaner and more efficient, but are just as effective.

6. The wealthy already pay most of the taxes, and the middle class pay almost none.

Democrats always, always, always insinuate that the wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes, that they get unfair tax cuts, and that the middle class shoulder the burden. This table shows that that is simply not true. Study it for a minute and you will be shocked and amazed, as I first was.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/250.html (Table 1)

The top 10% of taxpayers pay 70% of the taxes! The top 50% pay 97% of the taxes!! The bottom 50% pay only 3%!!!

The wealthy pay a greater percentage of their income in taxes. This is not what the democrats want you to believe! Any tax cut will, by definition, go to the people who are paying the taxes, which are the wealthy. You cannot give tax cuts to the poor, because they do not pay any significant amount of taxes.

You can argue about whether this is as it should be or not, and you can argue that raising or lowering taxes on the wealthy is good or bad, but you cannot argue that the wealthy do not already pay the majority of taxes.

7. Spending more money (and raising taxes) is not the solution to every problem.

Tax and spend... how unimaginative. Hillary has said she has a million good ideas but America cannot afford them all. That's for damn sure! Spending money is fun and easy, and makes you popular. But with a little more effort and creativity, we can often find better ways to solve our problems. Typically, this means allowing or incentivising the private sector to solve them for us. Working smarter, not harder. Removing barriers and beaurocracy, not creating more.

8. The law of unintended consequences.

Lawmakers with the best intentions often try to regulate this or legislate that, but every government action has unintended consequences which are often worse than the problem they were trying to solve. Very often, it is better to let the market solve a problem than to try to legislate a solution which may not work as intended.

Case in point: corn ethanol subsidies slow the development of better, more efficient biofuels, and raise the cost of food. Rent control results in higher rents, not lower. Federal aid for college students raises the cost of tuition. Raising minimum wage increases unemployment. Urban planning results in increased traffic and congestion.

Government can often serve us best by leaving us alone.