My comments on this blog address government policies one by one and claim that, in almost every case, the negatives outweigh the positives.
The consistency of this conclusion suggests one of two things: either I am the pig-headed, ideological, intellectually and morally bankrupt idiot that Mike Huben believes me to be; or, there are some general tendencies at work that explain why government interventions usually do more harm than good.
In a sequence of nine posts that will appear, somewhat irregularly, over the next few weeks while I am on vacation, I take an initial stab at the second possibility (sorry, Mike). Here is an overview:
1. Taxation and the Costs of Raising Funds
2. Mutually Beneficial Exchange
3. Altered Incentives and Unintended Consequences
4. Overexpansion of Government and the Difficulties of Cutting Back
5. Arbitrary Redistributions and Rent Seeking
6. Breeding Dishonesty and Disrespect for the Law
9. Thought Control