RE: The long and short of it

[Cordell . Arthur]

What government could/should do is to support the discussion of alternate scenarios of where the economy/society is and where it could be going and what are costs/tradeoffs of doing something/nothing.   arthur -----Original Message----- From: Tom Walker [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 12:37 PM To: Cordell, Arthur: ECOM; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: The long and short of it The great weakness of the left, IMHO, is that they habitually think in terms of "the government should do this... the government should do that..." as if any government ever would do what it should even if it could. One is better off to start with the assumption that the government WON'T do something that it would be "a good idea" for it to do. This doesn't mean abandoning making policy demands or suggestions. What it means is using such proposals for the purpose of bringing an issue to the attention of a larger public audience, rather than expecting consummation from the state. Arthur Cordell wrote,   Will add one more thing.  I heard Reich speak before he was in government.  Sounded like he knew what was going on in the economy.  Could have been an FWer.  Maybe being in government demonstrates to the individual all the things that can't be done.  Kind of like an intellectual lobotomy.