Let’s go ahead and solve this: there is nothing In any situation, there is someone, somewhere, who has at least some idea of what else they could do with an extra dollar or two. The fact that we have to give up something because of limited resources means that in their eyes, the problem is simply that the world does not provide “enough money” for any of the efforts we deem important.
There’s a subtle social danger here: it’s easy to think that our social problems are caused not because we face inevitable trade-offs, but because bad people in the world have the wrong values, and are blocking progress towards justice, prosperity, and equality, perhaps for financial reasons.
You’ve probably heard that tasks tend to expand to fill the time allotted to them. The same is true for budgets and spending: projects expand to fill the resources allotted to them, and at that point it’s easy to say, “I wish we had more resources.”
We see this a lot in public policy: Bad roads? We need more funding. Bad schools? We need more funding. Disease? We need more funding. But there are some problems. Roads and schools are everytime People are everytime Become healthier. Blaming problems on insufficient funding means a stubborn refusal to acknowledge that trade-offs exist and are inevitable. When someone says they have “insufficient funding,” what they really mean is, “If only I had a little more money, I could do a little more of the things I think are important.”
The problem is threefold. First, people can always do something if they have a little money, even if it’s just saving money for a future disaster. Second, funds for one thing can’t be used for another. We don’t have infinite resources, so we have to make hard choices about when to say “yes” and when to say “no.”noThird, even if they have raised enough money, or at least enough money to win a particular cause, they usually do not disband. Moving on to another exercise because We are busy trying to find the chaff in the steadily growing wheat pile..
A former colleague of mine used to say, “The older you get, the better you are.” It’s easy and tempting to think that there was a golden age when we did things right. But there are a few things wrong with this way of thinking. First, it’s completely wrong to think that we’ve neglected things like education. Adjusted for inflation, spending on K-12 education was 280% higher in 2020 than in 1960.The idea that education is being “defunded” is simply false. Second, the Golden Age can be deceptively motivated by politicians. It’s easy to spend lavishly on public services and put off unnoticeable things like maintenance when you’re spending future generations’ money and know that by the time the bill arrives, you’ll be moving on. By the time the bill arrives, you’ll be well along in your career and it’ll be some other fool paying the bill.
The problem should not be blamed on “lack of funds.” there is nothing If people could think of something else to do with their next dollar, then this project would be “well” funded, and people would be able to think of something else to do with their next dollar.
Art Carden is a professor of economics and a health care real estate trust fellow at Samford University.
