Thursday, May 16, 2013

How would you spend a billion federal dollars?

Bryan Caplan asks - what do you think?

I've got a few thoughts (some predictable I'm sure). No time to get into them now. They might change depending on whether we're restricting ourselves to a current depression or not.

6 comments:

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  2. Not so easy, as it is so little money these days. I would want it to have immediate impact, and be a long term investment, as well. How about per capita education grants to the states?

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    Replies
    1. Now having looked at the Caplan questions:

      1) The most efficient way to spend Federal dollars is to burn them. ;)

      2) Utility for the gov't or society? Get real. OTOH, if you appeal to something like utility, say, Bernoulli's moral value of money, then give it away to the poorest. Maximize the minimum net worth.

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  3. Given what we've learned about pollution recently, implementing some cleanup in response to that might do good.

    Doing some joint ventures with North Dakota to help them get their infrastructure and such to match their growing population.

    Endow a fund that spends 5% of the endowment per year on prizes for solving specific scientific problems.

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  4. Give out allotments of 10 million dollars each to ten randomly selected persons who are currently between the ages of eighteen and thirty (citizenship isn't a factor). That would be ten million recipients. Laissez les bons temps rouler! ;)

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  5. Give the money to DARPA and ask them to try to cure drug addiction.

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