GOVERNMENT PLANS AND MARKET OUTCOMES:
WHAT DO WE KNOW FOR SURE ?

We know for sure that they're different. Markets don't plan-- they happen. Some say at this moment the market has failed the American middle class as miserably as if it had joined al-Qaeda to work for the Taliban.

Yet it is said to be the middle class majority view that "we don't want government to pick winners and losers-- only the market knows how to do that".

It is also said, "government intervention in free market operations is bound to make market failures worse." Government plans are viewed, in all matters but WW II, exploring the moon and ARPA's contribution to the Internet, as poison or hara-kiri.

But, what we know for sure is that both government plans and market outcomes can be perfect or lousy.

We also know that you can't ask the market to be first to visit the moon. And, by analogy, we can't ask the market to be first to take America on a voyage to wartime full employment to accomplish peacetime goals.

That should be the end of it.

Stop the nonsense. Government is what we've got-- and it's government we must use-- if we want: the cleanest energy on earth-- fully independent of foreign markets; the best schools at every level (from the cradle to the grave); the healthiest families possible who can't pay their bills; infrastructure and transportation systems second to none; and jobs and fair incomes for every American who doesn' t belong in jail, under the care of a doctor, or on his way to Australia or space enough to be alone.