Demonstrating that the market equilibrium is suboptimal is not sufficient to justify intervention; one must show the proposed government remedy will actually do better than doing nothing, assuming government is also imperfect and its intervention might be worse.

normativepending

Speaker

Robert Frank

Evidence Quote

“you've got to begin with the assumption that governments imperfect - and whatever intervention they mount might be worse than than doing nothing that's absolutely a valid point”

Source

Robert Frank on Competition, Government, and Darwin 09/12/2011— EconTalk
Created: 6/17/2026, 9:48:29 AM

My Notes

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