This is, though writ small, the basic politico-economic problem that afflicts all detailed plans for the management of the economy and society. It kills all such plans, from the new paternalistic Right of Oren Cass through to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Marxist Left. Those in the political center, the government, the political class, and even the bureaucracy just never have the information necessary to be able to make such plans. Here, we think there are 30 million people unemployed and at least 5 million, but probably closer to 10 million of them, are on the lam. That’s just not a valid base of evidence upon which to make plans about stimulating the economy to reduce unemployment.
Therefore, the best we can do is set basic and simple rules — rules of law, of property, and so on. For we never do have enough valid information to be able to do anything else. They even gave Friedrich Hayek the Nobel Prize for pointing this out. It’s just science, and we all always follow the science, right?
Pessimistic but true.
But you could say the same about weather forecasting. Those wizzo computers have not delivered the promised accuracy but they have delivered some improvement.
The objective is control. There is no requirement that it be beneficial.
I visualize society as an engine and government as a monkey with a sack of spanners.