The Limits of Federal Policy

The following appeared in the New York Times and on Lou Dobbs.com:


Brooks: The Limits of Policy

May-04-2010

Many of us believe the policies of our federal government determine our outcomes in life. But as NY Times columnist David Brooks suggests, there are limits to public policy and politics.



It's entirely counter-intuitive, but as Brooks points out, the "influence of politics and policy is usually swamped by the influence of culture, ethnicity, psychology and a dozen other factors." And he lays out the case for why we should all calm down when it comes to politics and policy. Brooks begins:



"Roughly a century ago, many Swedes immigrated to America. They've done very well here. Only about 6.7 percent of Swedish-Americans live in poverty. Also a century ago, many Swedes decided to remain in Sweden. They've done well there, too. When two economists calculated Swedish poverty rates according to the American standard, they found that 6.7 percent of the Swedes in Sweden were living in poverty.



"In other words, you had two groups with similar historical backgrounds living in entirely different political systems, and the poverty outcomes were the same.



"A similar pattern applies to health care. In 1950, Swedes lived an average of 2.6 years longer than Americans. Over the next half-century, Sweden and the U.S. diverged politically. Sweden built a large welfare state with a national health service, while the U.S. did not. The result? There was basically no change in the life expectancy gap. Swedes now live 2.7 years longer.



"Again, huge policy differences. Not huge outcome differences.



"This is not to say that policy choices are meaningless. But we should be realistic about them."