I suspect that when you say “by providing individuals with access to knowledge, resources and opportunities for self improvement” you mean government intervention with legislation to create this access?
How do you suggest this “access” be made available? What does this look like?
Thank you for your question. When I speak about providing individuals with access to knowledge, resources, and opportunities for self-improvement, I do not necessarily mean that government intervention is the only solution.
There are many ways in which access can be provided without relying solely on government intervention. For example, community organizations and non-profits can play a role in providing educational programs or job training initiatives. Private businesses can offer apprenticeships or internships to help individuals develop new skills.
In addition to these approaches, there may be cases where government intervention is necessary to ensure that everyone has equal access to basic necessities such as healthcare or education. However, it is important that any interventions are carefully designed and implemented so as not to create unintended consequences or disincentivize individual initiative.
Ultimately, creating greater equality of opportunity will require a multi-faceted approach involving various stakeholders from both the public and private sectors. By working together towards common goals of education and empowerment, we can help more people achieve their full potential regardless of their background or circumstances.
I believe we’re saying the similar things to varying degrees. I completely 100% agree that private sector, community based organizations and the like should be compelled to assist individuals develop their human capital. Human capital after all is what will rebuild a nation destroyed by war. What war cannot destroy is what is inside a persons mind. This is why international aid provided to countries doesn’t result in the same outcomes based upon who’s receiving the aid.
I simply don’t agree anymore that any entity, government or otherwise, should have any focus on creating “equality”. This is not to say that government should not ensure corruption, discrimination, and or outright violence be addressed with respect to allowing all humans to be able to have access to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Furthermore, I no longer believe based upon economics and historical empirical data that “creating greater equality of opportunity will require a multi-faceted approach…”
Government has a role that I believe needs to be redefined and set. That will in turn realign how people and society will empower themselves through developing the human capital necessary for them to advance.
Can you give a reason or example of why government would need to ensure equal access to healthcare or education? This is a topic that comes up in politics all the time. It’s an emotionally charged subject that can send a candidates run for office down a hole if not addressed with lofty, meaningless rhetoric. Usually this rhetoric is not based in any economic logic.
The challenge you present in your comment is that you cannot “carefully design and implement” a “solution” to basic necessities (healthcare education) without incremental trade offs. When you subsidize healthcare you don’t reduce cost. Prices and cost are two very different things. Prices are the result of cost, so the trade offs as you subsidize health care become less desirable healthcare. Same economic logic/realities apply to education.
Economics being the study of scarce resources and their alternative uses dictates that if left unobstructed a free market economy will apply resources where the their use is best or more efficiently utilized.
