THEY MEANT WELL [, the socialists.]

When governments get involved in projects that can be done by private enterprise, the results are almost certain to be bad. Even if they hit upon a potentially worthwhile venture, they will approach it in a very inefficient manner. Politicians and bureaucrats are not spending their own money and do not stand to lose if they are wrong.

In "They Meant Well," D. R. Myddelton, a Cranfield University professor, examines government project disasters in Great Britain. Both Conservative and Labor governments presided over those fiascos, writes Myddelton, and the results range from almost comical to utterly tragic:

• A grand 30 year experiment in socialized nuclear energy beginning in 1955 cost taxpayers around $63 billion, until Margret Thatcher moved power generation out of being a government monopoly and into the world of free market completion
• About $17.9 billion was lost on the development a supersonic jet that no private airlines would buy.
• Most recently the disappointing Millennium Dome project netted the government a loss of 1.9 billion from 1994 to 2000. [snip]

The common thread among these projects is that the politicians overestimated benefits, underestimated costs, did not know when to stop, and stuck the public with a big tab...

[the yellow book philosophy: if you can find it in the yellow pages, government should stay out.]

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