Tim Worstall

Neil Harding

Something of a startling claim from Brighton’s finest:

It is a better environment and more resources into health and education. Only government can provide these things …

Only government can provide health care? Wow, that’ll surprise the French then who have an insurance based health care system, one rather better than our own Dear NHS. Only government can provide education? Ever heard of Eton? Only government can provide a better environment? As most environmental problems are Commons Tragedies that would have surprised Garrett Hardin, who delineated the problem. As he pointed out, there can be either governmental or private solutions to such things.

I don’t doubt that government can attempt to provide all of these things but to claim that only government can is palpably absurd. The only interesting question is whether governments, in attempting to provide them, do so better than alternative methods?

That is of course an empitical question. Is the French health care system better than hte NHS? Perhaps we should adopt their model then? Is Eton better than a bog standard comprehensive? Perhaps we should adopt the former model then? The Commons Tragedy that is fishing. Norway, Iceland and the Faroes seem to have solved it, we have not. We use a purely governmental system of quotas, they use a much more market based allocation of property ownership to the catch.

Hhm. Neil doesn’t seem to be winning the arguments over those empirical questions really, does he?

In

6 responses

  1. Geoff Har Avatar
    Geoff Har

    “The funny thing about rationing during the Second World War was that the poorest benefited the most, society became much more equitable and people were (ironically in a time of war) at their most healthiest and happiest for generations. It was the backs to the wall, ‘we are all in this together’ spirit that brought us through. The rich knew they couldn’t afford the inefficiencies of social inequities and bloody minded squabbling over resources in a time of such immediate and threatening a crisis as the war against the Nazis. It is that spirit we need to engender in the crisis we are facing over climate change.”
    And there speaks the beating heart of Labour supporters everywhere; Bring Back Rationing.

    Reply
  2. Bob B Avatar
    Bob B

    On New Labour’s astounding contributions to improving healthcare after over nine years in government, try this:
    http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article1993603.ece
    As for education:
    According to this bar chart in The Economist, Britain is especially well-endowed with low-skilled young people compared with most other major European economies:
    http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7843638
    “One third of employers have to give their staff remedial lessons in basic English and maths, a survey suggests. Managers said staff needed to be able to use correct spelling and grammar and should be competent in simple mental arithmetic without a calculator. One in five employers said non-graduate recruits of all ages struggled with literacy or numeracy, the Confederation of British Industry poll found.”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5263812.stm
    “Last year, a report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) revealed that Britain came seventh from bottom in a league table of staying-on rates for 19 countries. Only Mexico and Turkey had significantly lower rates of participation for this age group. Italy, New Zealand, Portugal and Slovakia have marginally lower rates.”
    http://education.guardian.co.uk/gcses/story/0,16086,1555547,00.html
    As Milton Friedman used to say, it’s not the intentions of politicians that matter, it’s the consequences that follow their policy decisions.

    Reply
  3. Devil's Kitchen Avatar
    Devil’s Kitchen

    Tim, Tim, Tim; you have to remember that Eton is entirely populated with slack-jawed, Yah ninnies with a severe underbite, whose parents have inherited their wealth from families who, quite literally, ground the poor into the dust with the collusion of the evil Tories.
    How you can’t understand that, I’ll never know…
    DK

    Reply
  4. The Remittance Man Avatar
    The Remittance Man

    DK,
    Because he didn’t go there of course.
    I was wondering how long Neil would remain quiet after the poundinghe got from the massed ranks of the blogosphere over his support of ID cards and the right of Plod to confiscate any unexplained cash he might find in our pockets.
    Obviously the pressure induced in his mind by being one of the only members of the Tony Blair Fan Club still active must be getting to him.
    Oh, well. If work gets too onerous I might toddle over to Brighton tommorrow and see what comments his latest dimwittery inspires. I know it’s taking cheap shots, but one’s got to get ones fun were ever one can these days.

    Reply
  5. Bob B Avatar
    Bob B

    “Ever heard of Eton?”
    What’s so special about Eton?
    Three local, maintained but selective schools, one of them just down the road, got better A-Level results than Eton last year:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4626134.stm
    There’s not much of a case for sending children to fee-paying schools as far as I can tell – and most parents seem to agree as only about 7 per cent of school pupils attend non-maintained schools. Besides:
    “The UK’s most expensive private schools are producing pupils who achieve the worst grades at university, according to research. An eight-year study of graduates’ results by researchers at the University of Warwick suggests that the more parents pay in school fees, the less chance their children have of getting a good degree.”
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/2552523.stm
    The big objection to New Labour’s education policies is the terrible yoof legacy Blair will leave:
    Today’s Independent on Sunday makes issue over the horrendous fact that drug use in Britain – which is mostly among young people – has doubled over the last seven years.
    “The British are Western Europe’s biggest binge drinkers, a new study has revealed. According to market analysts Datamonitor, drinkers in Britain consume 6.3 units of alcohol – equivalent of 2.2 pints of lager – each time they visit the pub.”
    http://www.999today.com/health/news/story/3014.html
    “THE death rate among young drivers has doubled in the past five years, prompting demands for greater restrictions on those who have recently passed their tests. The steady improvement in road safety across the general population is masking a sharp increase in the number of drivers aged under 20 having fatal crashes, despite a tougher driving test.”
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3223-2116254,00.html
    “The teenage pregnancy rate in Britain is the highest in Western Europe and dealing with the consequences costs taxpayers an estimated £63million a year.”
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=416077&in_page_id=1879&in_a_source=
    Instead of addressing these burgeoning domestic problems at home, Blair obviously prefers the alluring glamour of international tripping distributing taxpayers’ money like confetti wherever he goes.

    Reply
  6. HJHJ Avatar
    HJHJ

    Bob B,
    Surveys show that most people would send their children to independent schools if they had the money (or if the government were to give them back the money it spends on their state schooling.
    Eton not an academically selective school. You should compare it with non-selective state schools.
    As for the degrees, this survey doesn’t take into account the dffiiculty of the degree courses or the standards of the university. Students from independent schols tend to do more demanding courses at better universities and there is no evidence that they do worse than state school pupils at these universities.

    Reply

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