[693] in libertarians
Laissez Faire Book News: PUBLIC POLICY AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Whitten)
Tue Feb 14 18:15:05 1995
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 1995 18:09:58 -0500 (EST)
From: Chris Whitten <lfb@panix.com>
Apparently-To: <libertarians@mit.edu>
How dismantling the welfare state
would improve your quality of life
PUBLIC POLICY AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE
Market Incentives Versus Government Planning
by Randall G. Holcombe
[Greenwood Press, 1995]
(reviewed by Jim Powell)
For more than a century, most writers claimed government
intervention is needed to protect your quality of life--assure
good health care, a cleaner environment, nicer neighborhoods,
safer products and so on. Now economist Holcombe boldly
demonstrates why your quality of life can be improved only if
government intervention is swept away. He is straightforward and
appealing--reminds me of plainspoken Henry Hazlitt.
Holcombe shows why government intervention triggers serious
quality of life problems. For example, he exposes the sham of
government health care regulation. He tells how bureaucrats
restrict the number of doctors (thereby propping up doctors'
fees) yet fail to monitor the quality of health care after
doctors are licensed--private malpractice insurance companies are
the real watchdogs. While the Food and Drug Administration aims
to keep bad pharmaceuticals off the market, Holcombe tells how
millions have suffered and often died because it keeps good
pharmaceuticals off the market, too.
Moreover, Holcombe's analysis demonstrates why government
intervention is responsible for escalating health care costs. He
recommends ending it, restoring individual responsibility for
health care and liberating health care markets.
He denounces government intervention for degrading our
environment. He tells how bureaucrats discourage the development
of cleaner technologies, promote the destruction of endangered
species and the ravaging of government-owned wilderness.
Holcombe explains why drug prohibition is primarily
responsible for America's catastrophic crime epidemic, perhaps
the biggest complaint people have about the quality of life. He
tells why drug prohibition will never succeed in banishing drugs,
how it corrupts police, how it devastates inner cities and harms
millions of innocent people who have nothing to do with drugs.
Holcombe examines case after case to show how competitive
pressures drive private companies to improve your quality of
life, while government regulations undermine it everywhere.
Holcombe explains how free markets help reduce housing costs
and improve housing quality. Wherever housing markets are free,
he affirms, there's plenty of it. Unrestricted private landlords
have the means and motivation to maintain their rental
properties. Holcombe shows how much-criticized "urban sprawl"
cuts pollution. In addition, he continues, it reduces commuting
time, so people can spend more time with their families. He
explains how such problems as traffic congestion reflect the
chronic failure of government roads and land use restrictions.
He tells how government intervention makes good housing
harder to find and more costly. He talks about a
politically-popular law which provokes housing shortages it's the
main reason why almost two-thirds of New York City housing is
over 60 years old! Holcombe explains how zoning laws as well as
building codes needlessly add to the cost of housing. For
example, one union-inspired building code regulation mandates the
use of costly plumbing materials even though cheaper,
easier-to-install and perfectly safe alternatives are available.
As for neighborhood nuisances, Holcombe shows convincingly how
they are resolved without zoning laws.
Product quality? Holcombe tells how brand names make it easy
for customers to find products when they're good, avoid them when
they're bad. To minimize risk exposure, insurance companies
insist on tougher standards than the federal government's for jet
airplane pilots. Holcombe cites two intriguing examples of
private regulation: Best Western, an association which handles
motel room reservations and verifies the quality of participating
independent motels; and Underwriters Laboratories, a firm testing
electrical equipment. It's hard to sell electrical equipment
without the UL seal.
Evidence is overwhelming, Holcombe shows, that the welfare
state is a drag on your quality of life. Things tend to get
better only when you are free, private property is secure and
markets can flourish.
"People have an incentive to preserve [private property] for
people they do not know, or who are not even born yet, because
those people will pay the current owner more for a more valuable
resource... The same is not true in politics. While some people
might altruistically think of future generations when they engage
in political activity, they derive no personal benefit from doing
so. The unborn are actually represented better in markets than
they are in politics." --Randall Holcombe in
*Public Policy and the Quality of Life*
Book No. PO6230 (hardcover) 180p. publisher's price $55.00
LAISSEZ FAIRE PRICE ONLY $29.95
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Chris
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