A follow-up post to the one on Bryan Caplan's assault on government: I think I may have confused what normal people mean by efficiency with what economists mean by efficiency- that is, an efficient decision is one whose benefits exceed both the opportunity and out-of-pocket costs. Caplan, I presume, means that government services let people consume irrationally. People don't have to pay for the service, so they consume more than they would otherwise. This is irrational, I guess.

Ezra Klein has an excellent post on the nature of long term fiscal health. Given this chart from a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report, Klein wonders why Social Security get so much attention. Or, as he puts it: Look at that gentle slope for Social Security! You could do that in Rockports! Mt. Medicare and Medicaid, by contrast, require climbing gear.

Doing a bit of research into mandatory spending, I came across this GAO document, which contains this bit: Among mandatory spending programs...the health area is especially important because the long-term fiscal challenge is largely a health care challenge. Contrary to public perceptions, health care is the biggest driver of the long-term fiscal challenge. This cannot be said enough: health care is the biggest driver of the long-term fiscal challenge.

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