Alex Harford wrote:

> My thoughts are this:
> 
> - is there anything that the government can be trusted to do?

I don't think that there is anything any institution (private or public)
can be trusted to do. They all need diligent supervision.

> - many people would argue that running the military, ie national defense
> is one of them.  

In my opinion, anything where a decent competitive situation is not
possible is a candidate. That's mostly infrastructure and things we agree
that everybody should have minimum access to, and of course the use of
violence (which is by definition a government monopoly).

Some of these can be "privatized", but that's in general not a real
privatization; it's either a spotty, marginal thing (like toll roads) or
it's something that's highly regulated and (supposedly) controlled by the
government (like energy and telecom infrastructure). 

(FWIW, I basically agree with you on health care. And I'd apply similar
thoughts to education.)

Gerhard

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