Sunday, October 10, 2010

Govt Led Initiatives vs Free Market

With the bursting of the Youth Olympics Games budget by close to 3 times, i don't have a favorable view of how bureaucrats spend $$. Having work in govt related sector before, i'm amazed that the allocated budget has to be spent before end of financial year or else won't get same or bigger budget next year. No wonder govt keeps getting bigger & bigger & rising taxes!

However the other view is that the private sector can't do everything. Take for example the research into atomic bomb & subsequent nuclear energy & the invention of internet which started off as a US Defense initiative. Also the race to put a man on the moon & subsequent satellite related technology resulting from it - all govt led spending initiatives.

We can also see how free market resulted in the recent worst financial crisis since the Great Depression & how Sengkang hawker centre operated by koptiam become a ghost town due to ridiculous prices.

Mixture of both is preferable though is not easy to find the right balance. Prolonged initiatives on extreme is unsustainable.

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