Daily Planet's Tiny Dose Of Balance

I can usually rely on the Berkeley Daily Planet for a political viewpoint which is 100 percent Leftist.

An example of this is an article published in the commentary pages this week titled, "Capitalism: A Self-Devouring Beast." I'm not going to bother linking you to this article, for fear of encouraging more people to find it via search engines. But, suffice it to say that its content is every bit as idiotic as its title implies.

But every so often, the Daily Planet publishes a refreshingly rational commentary. This week, I was somewhat shocked to see an article penned by a student at UC Berkeley arguing in favor of restraining government spending.

Here is a link to the article. The author makes the point that the only way to stop politicians from spending the public's money poorly is to simply take the money away from them by lowering taxes.

While the author makes this point in reference to the state of California, it is equally applicable locally. Each time East Bay residents vote in favor of tax increases, all they are doing is encouraging a misallocation of resources by the government.

Because the government is inherently incapable of overcoming such obstacles as special interests and pet projects, it is better simply to cut off the money supply.

I have never really heard a liberal counterargument to this point that made much sense. Liberals generally will tell you how great it would be to see their programs funded.

But they have no response to the reality that the government has no capacity to accomplish what looks so useful and effective on paper.

Anyway, I encourage my readers to read the article in the Daily Planet.