policy principles

Following up on our earlier post discussing the need for a small, simple set of policy principles that every new policy must meet, our second proposed principle relates to economic inequality: No policy shall be adopted that increases income inequality or wealth inequality. Measuring economic inequality In discussing economic inequality, one must always be clear about both the type of inequality and the measure of that inequality. Common types of economic inequality include pre-tax income inequality, post-tax income inequality, wealth…

Following up on our earlier post discussing the need for a small, simple set of policy principles that every new policy must meet, our first proposed principle relates to government debt: Except to address an emergency, no policy shall be adopted that increases the ratio of the national debt held by the public (which we refer to as “public debt”) to GDP. Causes of the current debt In 2001, the federal government had a budget surplus of $127 billion, had…

Since the 1960s, policy professionals have used policy analysis criteria to analyze proposed public policies. Those criteria have evolved over time and there is still not a universally agreed list. Kraft and Furlong provide a fairly typical list of the following eight criteria: effectiveness, efficiency, equity, liberty/freedom, political feasibility, social acceptability, administrative feasibility, and technical feasibility. It has become increasingly apparent that these criteria, while helpful, are not sufficient to protect us from bad policies. In particular, there is no…