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THE COST OF
GOOD GOVERNMENT
Is Good Government Free?
People in a liberal democracy are free, it is
true. But does that mean that good government is free? This assumption
is dangerous, because special interest groups who lobby legislators
and executives know that their form of “good” government, which
provides legislation that is favorable to their special interest
group, costs money.
It may be reasonable to conclude that law-making
that favors citizens over special interest groups may also cost
money. This is not a new concept. But PoliticalSheepdog.com raises
some new questions:
How much should you pay for good government to
be competitive with the private sector? (That is, how much are
we willing to pay for public policy to be the best it can be?)
How can the brightest and best minds be drawn
to public service as law innovators?
One way to recognize the importance of creating
a market for good public policy is the issue of competency of public
schools versus private schools. Citizens intuitively understand
that it costs money to run public schools. However, citizens also
desire schools that provide value for the money invested by parents
and taxpayers. After all, we already know that good schools are
possible, because we see them in the private sector.
Reward for the brightest and best thinkers in
free societies, under the sponsorship of PoliticalSheepdog.com,
would lead to the discovery of new ideas for laws to revitalize
our schools and other institutions. Without a major change, the
failure of public schools to measure up to the results of private
school will continue to hurt countless students as well as society
at large. The same is true of most of our social welfare institutions.
We all suffer when our social institutions are second- or third-rate.
To reduce the failures and suffering, we must be prepared to pay
for the innovation of effective, first-rate public policy.
PoliticalSheepdog.com also envisions a powerful
citizen lobby group working to help pass these innovative public
policies to reform our social institutions, such as our schools.
These citizen lobbyists will be paid for successfully influencing
legislators to support effective, efficient public policies.
Economists usually use “efficiency” as a measurement
of improving the social welfare. PoliticalSheepdog.com will develop
and support efficient public policy within a competitive environment
designed to ensure a fair market value for good public policy.
Citizen lobbying and monetary reward for social reformers should
be correctly seen as legitimate pay for the promotion of the national
and local good.
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The Elegance of Profit
To understand the PoliticalSheepdog.com solution, let us consider
markets. Not all products are equal in quality and utility. Some
products are worth much more than others.
For instance, a frying pan can be just another cookpot, or it
can be a specially crafted invention that cooks food better and
faster than other pans. We don’t mind paying for something that
gives us value.
From the producer’s point of view, it is not only fair, but
also informative, to be able to profit from a superior product.
Profits tell producers that they have produced a valuable product.
When an inventor can sell a good product and profit from it, there
is motivation to continue to deliver products that benefit consumers.
Using equality instead of profits as a standard of fairness
may be an important reason why Communism fails. When everyone is
rewarded the same, despite the value of their work, a market can
not produce excellence. Without profit as a market indicator, producers
do not know what to produce, and the economic system becomes inefficient.
Profit in a global economy is an elegant concept. Profit is
the combined effect of billions of other economic choices, and it
can be a reliable indicator that tells producers what to produce.
As a result, the standard of fairness in a market is not equality,
but the fair market value of a product. Economists call this standard
the “marginal revenue product.”
The fair market value of a product is the additional value that
an individual or product adds beyond the next best competing individual
or product. For frying pans, it is the difference people are willing
to pay for the quality pan that cooks faster and better versus the
ordinary pot.
Fair market value can be attributed to the development and support
of good public policy as well as to frying pans. PoliticalSheepdog.com
invites innovators and constituent citizens to invest in developing
and supporting effective, efficient, and possibly productive, public
policies with a fair market value return for their efforts.
To find the fair market value for constituents who support the
successful enactment of better laws (efficient public policy), PoliticalSheepdog.com
uses competitive auctions wherever appropriate.
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Creating a Market for Good
Public Policy Innovators
Rewarding innovators of creative new laws that save lives and
money with their fair market value is a new concept. It is built
on the concepts of the marginal revenue product, intellectual property
rights, and monopoly protection in a form similar to patents.
The fair value of an inventor is the value of his or her invention
for a period of time. To be fair, the period of time would be equal
to the length of time it would have taken the next best competing
inventors to develop a similar invention. In this way, inventors
compete only against inventors and researchers producing similar
products for a period after the initial monopoly period.
PoliticalSheepdog.com will create a market for limited competition
between competing public law innovators. The website will act as
the marketplace. As a result, this website will attempt to provide
a fair market value for those innovators, who create these good
laws (efficient public policies).
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Other Possible Markets
for Improvement
PoliticalSheepdog.com deals with efficient public policies.
Whenever a public policy can result in greater efficiency, then
PoliticalSheepdog.com can use the same concepts and technology to
address the related issues.
PoliticalSheepdog.com may also be able to address policies that
create more goods and services (productivity).
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The Cost of Bad Laws
Bad laws cost us our precious resources – our
health and our money. Poor public policies may even contribute
to the needless loss of lives.
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The Cost of Good Laws
Good public laws are not perfect, but they offer
us an improvement over laws that fail to adequately protect us from
corruption and waste. How much is it worth to discover and implement
new ways of dealing with such social problems as addiction, drug
trafficking, unemployment, and incarceration?
If citizens in free societies are not willing
to invest in good laws, they will instead pay dearly for ineffective,
inefficient laws – with their treasures and their lives. Let us
now count the cost and invest in democracy and in our future – our
children.
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PoliticalSheepdog.com:
NOW is the time…
Last revised: August 29, 2003
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