Market dirigisme is the name I give to a style of public policy I think we ought to use more. The idea is pretty simple. Governments form preferences over how the polity ought to be but currently is not. Often, what governments should do is to explicitly purchase the changes in behavior they desire from the general public....Interfluidity
Market dirigisme
Steve Randy Waldman
2 comments:
I can sort of see for vaccines but man- it might not be a good idea for the state to have a lottery prize for having a baby. Seems really problematic.
I can sort of see for vaccines but man- it might not be a good idea for the state to have a lottery prize for having a baby. Seems really problematic.
Agree.
In a money-based society, money-gain is an incentive and money-loss is a disincentive. That is to say, benefits are incentives and costs are disincentives. Since this is a social issue, it falls to the state. The state already uses costs and benefits for promoting and dissuading behavior.
The way to incentivize social reproduction together with individual reproduction is by increasing benefits and decreasing costs of childbearing and rearing. Subsidizing education, healthcare and providing child care are obvious ways to do this, as well as providing tax benefits and transfers.
The US states are largely involved in this, which is OK. But the funding should be provided mostly by the federal government, as well as other costs and benefits that are a federal responsibility.
Lotteries and other such gimmicks? Meh. There are traditional ways of doing this that are better suited to the situation.
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