The Failure of Government Programs

If there is one entity that fails to learn consistently, it's government.

The crux of national policy for most if not all western governments over the past century has been to improve equality among their citizens (aka "voter base...").

Yet almost without fail... (pun intended...) - the result has been the exact opposite.

Paul Ormerod, in his terrific analysis of failure across all segments of government and industry, Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics , provides some telling statistics on the progress - or lack thereof - of government policies worldwide:

The role of the government and direct involvement in the economy has grown considerably in every western country from 1950 to 2000

In 2000, Subsidies for the poor, welfare, tax breaks etc accounted for almost 20% of EU countries' national income

Even in the uber-capitalistic US of A approximately 10% were spent on such items

Overall, in the EU gov't spending accounted for as much as 48% of national income - 36% in the US

Yet equality in western nations is on the decline!

In other words, billions and trillions of dollars are being spent on programs that are failing.

Does it look like western governments are drawing the necessary conclusions from such failures? Are they LEARNING? Not that anyone can tell, as widely accepted economic equality indices such as the Gini coefficient continue to increase.