Megan McArdle talks about free markets vs. government planning in the context of public education:
One thing that strikes me about the arguments I've been having with voucher opponents is just how little they seem to understand how markets work. Markets don't work because they get it right the first time; they succeed because if at first they don't succeed, they try, try again.
A public school, by and large, cannot fail. If it screws up, no matter how badly, we will continue pouring money into it. This is particularly true because most of the employees of most systems can't fail either. They can be atrocious at their jobs, but provided that they are not actually molesting the students, it's nearly impossible to get rid of them.
Failure, to put it bluntly, works. Failure is nature's way of telling you "Hey, that doesn't work!" The American economy is vastly strengthened by the fact that companies are allowed to fail -- and also by the fact that our crazy culture encourages us to try things that don't work.
Read the whole thing.
By the way, Megan has been nominated for a "Webby" award. If they had a "Tallest Female Blogger" category, she'd be a shoo-in at 6-foot-2.
-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times
