Lessons from the Global Laboratory of Economic Experimentation: Selected Essays

Since I’m first and foremost a public finance economist, I’ll share

one of my favorite tactics when debating fiscal policy. I’ll oftentimes

share a table showing a list of nations that have achieved very good

results by restraining the growth of government spending. I’ll show how

the burden of government spending declined as a share of economic

output and I’ll show how budget deficits also shrank as a share of GDP.

I’ll then ask my colleague from the other side to please share a list of

nations that got good results by raising taxes. Unsurprisingly, the usual

response is either untrue claims or hemming and hawing.

When seeking to educate and convince a non-ideological audience

that they should favor economic freedom, I’ve learned that there’s

no substitute for this kind of real-world evidence. Most people think of

themselves as being practical. My daily columns are designed to reach

these people. If I can reach their minds, maybe their hearts will follow.

-- From the Introduction