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Roth starts by asking whether government is inherently inefficient. Mason argues it has no incentive to be otherwise: promotion comes from empire-building rather than cost-cutting, and procurement rules that prevent quick outsourcing compound the problem. Alm agrees the system is badly designed but resists the framing that government workers are themselves to blame; most, he says, are as frustrated by bureaucracy as taxpayers are. A caller raises the perverse budget incentive that punishes departments for coming in under budget — a problem Mason illustrates from personal experience: as a territorial official he returned an $80,000 surplus and had his budget cut 30 percent the following year. The guests differ on scope. Mason would start by privatizing rubbish collection and outsourcing uncollected tax liens to private collection agencies, which he says work on commission in ways government cannot. Alm prefers identifying which components of a function government need not control, rather than wholesale transfer. On school vouchers, Mason sees market pressure as a spur to improvement in public schools; Alm worries that a voucher-driven system cannot serve the full breadth of a statewide democratic school system. The surviving recording ends about 30 minutes in.
Transcript
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