Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Yes, I Am Still A No Particular Orderist

I really don't care much about "efficiency" in government, because government (by which I mean political government, not all group decision-making) is bad and I prefer inefficient badness to efficient badness.

What I want to see is the elimination of government (by which I mean political government, not voluntary group decision-making), or at the very least reductions in its size, scope, and power.

As a Rothbardianish no particular orderist, I am, on principle, not worried about the sequence in which reductions take place.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't have preferences if I was put in charge of a sequential/piecemeal, rather than simultaneous/across the board set of such reductions. In that case, I'd probably schedule de-funding the DoD's budget for aircraft carriers and the Border Patrol's operations budget before, say, eliminating taxpayer-provided school lunches and interstate highway maintenance.

The problem with such preferences is that in the environment of political government, none of those things end up getting eliminated because each has a supporting lobby that's willing to let the other supporting lobbies keep their pet projects as long as it gets to keep its pet project. So we get a ratchet effect, with everything always moving in the same direction.

If DOGE et al. manage to actually reduce the size, scope, and power (not to mention financial cost) of government, rather than just nixing a few of the less adroit special interest demands in favor of lavishing more love on other special interest demands, I'll be glad.

Personally, I think the best way to go about it would be for Congress to just announce that every federal department is going to take a 10% budget haircut next year, with further across the board cuts in subsequent years. But I don't expect that to happen any more than I expect DOGE et al. to really accomplish much.