Good luck with that Jeremy, good luck with that

It's not unusual to find people arguing that the State should be given near fascist (in some cases, actually fascist) powers over the economy: but only if the right people are in charge. The right people being defined as those who would use those oppressive powers in only the manner that those proposing the powers desire. The usual answer to this is that that's not quite how democracy works. If you don't want your enemies (ideological or actual) to have such powers as the electoral cycle turns then you're really no business arguing that your folks would do just fine with them. Shuffling all the Social Justice Warriors off into the Bedlam they need to recover is admittedly appealing. Yet we do not recommend such precisely because such powers might be used against us, those who froth at the mouth over the joys of free markets and voluntary cooperation, in the fullness of that time and variance of who the public elects. Better that none have such powers, eh?

At which point we have this rather plaintive cry from Jeremy Warner (or perhaps the subeditor who wrote his headline), someone we usually rather agree with:

If the state must meddle, it should do it better

Given the pedigree of those who do go into politics and other forms of "public service" that meddling never will get better. The answer is therefore as we have long suggested. Yes, there really are things which need to be done and which only the State can do. Said State should limit itself to only those things covered by that intersection and refrain from doing things which can be done by the State but do not have to be done, and also avoiding those things which do need to be done but which will not be well done by the State.

Limiting government to what it must do seems suitable given the limited skills and talents of those who govern us.