Andrew Sullivan questions the wisdom of using the format of Apple’s recent Mac campaign to promote government over the free market. The ad:
I guess the Center for American Progress thinks it’s being hip with this ad, but I’m too busy focusing on the propaganda, as if the argument for smaller government centers around a selfish desire to screw over as many people as possible if it can earn any extra profit. Right.
But the government is a force for good. It is wise. Need proof? From the Center for American Progress’ front page, a story on farm subsidies:
Many of these subsidies distort prices, encourage overproduction, and leave small farmers in some of the world’s poorest countries unable to compete in agriculture—a critical sector of the global economy for sustainable development and poverty reduction.
The supposedly benevolent government is creating this through its power to pick winners and losers. It’s irrational to think the answer is to make the government more encompassing in the belief that more money and more power will somehow make it more honest and less destructive. Picking small winners is still picking winners.