PREVIEW

Introducing Market Forces into "Public" Services The Collected Works of Arthur Seldon: Volume 4 (Book/ Paperback)

Product Overview

Introducing Market Forces into “Public” Services is the fourth volume in Liberty Fund’s The Collected Works of Arthur Seldon. It brings together six of Seldon’s most pivotal essays that discuss his alternative proposals for paying for “public” services rather than through coercive taxation. Specifically, Seldon focuses on the varied use of vouchers and the choices people have regarding purchasing or receiving such public services as health care and education. The recurring theme, as noted in Colin Robinson’s introduction, is that “non-market provision, financed by taxpayers, leads to a fatal disconnection between suppliers and consumers.”

Throughout this book, Seldon examines the options and obligations of the government as the “middle-man.” Seldon creates a compelling case that through a return to market principles, “efficiency in the provision of these services will improve, and, above all, people will regain the incentive to provide for themselves instead of relying on the state.” This volume is an invaluable resource for those embroiled in the public debate over such issues as education vouchers, managed health care, and overwhelming taxation.

The entire series includes:

Volume 1: The Virtues of Capitalism (September 2004)
Volume 2: The State Is Rolling Back (November 2004)
Volume 3: Everyman's Dictionary of Economics (January 2005)
Volume 4: Introducing Market Forces into "Public" Services (February 2005)
Volume 5: Government Failure and Over-Government (May 2005)
Volume 6: The Welfare State: Pensions, Health, and Education (October 2005)
Volume 7: The IEA, the LSE, and the Influence of Ideas (December 2005)



Table of Contents
Introduction by Colin Robinson ix

WHICH WAY TO WELFARE? 1

TAXATION AND WELFARE: A Report on Private Opinion and Public Policy 19
1. The Relation Between Opinion and Policy 21
2. Opinion on Changes in Taxation and Social Benefits 25
3. Knowledge of Taxation 33
4. Opinion on the Level of Taxation 37
5. Readiness to Pay Taxes in Terms of the Use Made of Tax Revenue 40
6. Preferences in the Form of Social Benefits 44
7. Reliability and Significance of the Findings 48
8. Implications for Policy 51
9. Social Policy in the 1970s 76
Select Bibliography 79

REMOVE THE FINANCING FLAW IN “PUBLIC” SERVICES 81

CHARGE 95
Acknowledgements 97
Part 1: Populism and Prices
1. Pundits, Politicians and People 101
2. Price: Barrier or Missing Link? 114
3. Private “Public” Services 133

Part 2: You Pays Your Taxes, But You Gets No Choice
4. Education: Paying for Consumer Power 151
5. Medical Care: Making the Payment Fit the Case 172
6. Homes: Ending the Rent-Tie 180
7. From Reading to Rubbish 185
8. From Roads to Deck Chairs 202
9. From Coal to Clean Air 219

Part 3: Objections Overruled
10. Socially Undesirable 231
11. Administratively Impracticable 261
12. Politically Impossible 272

APPENDIXES:
1. True and False Measures of Public Preferences 291
2. A Note on Further Readings 294
References 299

MICRO-ECONOMIC CONTROLS: Disciplining the State by Pricing 303

THE RIDDLE OF THE VOUCHER: An Inquiry into the Obstacles to Introducing
Choice and Competition in State Schools 319
Acknowledgements 321
A Political Sequence 323
Preamble: The Economics of Politics in 1986 325
I. A Summary Narrative, 1944–86 334
II. Official Objections, 1981, and Academic Refutations, 1982 340
Appendix 1 to Section II 357
Appendix 2 to Section II 365
III. Approaches to Practical Proposals, 1981–85 367
IV. Political Rejection, 1983: Independent Theories and Official Reasons 376
V. The Forces Ranged Against the Voucher 390
Appendix to Section V 400
VI. Prospects: State and Market 403
VII. Summary and Conclusions 415
Selected Readings 417

Index 419

About the Author(s)

Arthur Seldon was born Abraham Margolis in London in 1916. After his parents died in 1918, he was adopted by Eva and Mark Slaberdain and given the name Arthur Slaberdain. In 1939 he changed his name to Arthur Seldon. He was joint founder, with Ralph Harris, of the Institute of Economic Affairs, where he directed academic affairs for 30 years.