Government and markets: they work together

The New York Times editorial, The Less-Than-Generous State, on August 16, 2007 is one that people should read in its entirety.  Here's an excerpt.

The United States has long had one of the most meager tax takes in the industrial world. America’s social spending — on programs ranging from Medicare and Social Security to food stamps — is almost the stingiest among industrial nations. Among the 30 industrialized countries grouped in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, only four — Turkey, Mexico, South Korea and Ireland — spend less on social programs as a share of their economy.

Long a moral outrage, this tightfisted approach to public needs is becoming an economic handicap. Shortchanging public health impairs America’s competitiveness. If the United Statesis to reap the rewards of globalization, the government must provide a much more robust safety net — to ensure public support for an open economy and protect vulnerable workers.

This is part of the message of democratic egalitarianism that I have been preaching.  Iin the long run, the mantra that "government is bad" and "private markets can handle anything" has to give way to a reasoned and balanced approach.  Private markets are particularly good at some endeavors (and shouldn't need any government subsidy to make a profit).  Providing food for the table is one of those (though you wouldn't know it from the government largesse that gets handed out to huge agribusiness producers and to no-till government "farmers" every year).  Government is particularly good at some endeavors--providing safety nets for workers, rules for importers, and decent schools for poor neighborhoods are examples (though the "government is bad" mentality has made it hard for the schools to survive, since good schools requires good money, and that means redistributing from rich areas to poor ones).  The fact is, markets need stable, non-corrupt, working governments, and governments need stable, non-corrupt, working markets.  And both need a good tax system that raises revenues to support the programs that government needs to run in order to have the economic system--markets and government--work properly.