Yglesias on govt spending

Matt Yglesias distills the liberal viewpoint on domestic spending quite nicely here. He notes that, on the whole, Americans are generally well-stocked with the products of the private-sector- dvd players, cellphones, cars, large houses, and that even the less well-off live lives that are well-appointed compared to most of the rest of the world. However, when you look at areas in which Americans are less well off, it turns out that most of these are areas where the private sector has a limited role compared to the government:

We have a smaller proportion of our population graduating from college than do some other countries, and we're making no progress. Relatedly, our K-12 education system could perform better. Our intercity passenger rail offerings are much worse than they could be, and none of our non-NYC metro areas have really top-notch mass transit offerings. We have substantially more violent crime than do other countries or historical periods in the United States. The level of prenatal health care our pregnant women are receiving is substandard, as is the physical fitness of our children. Public libraries are generally worse than they were a generation ago. America's streets and sidewalks are, in general, not especially clean or well-maintained. And though our highways are plentiful, they're not well-maintained either.

I think that this makes a lot of sense, and that it's preferable to use the marginal stimulus dollar on these collective issues rather than giving it back to me to spend on going out to dinner or upgrading my television.

The problem, politically, of course is that many people in fact value upgrading their TV over increasing inter-city rail. I think a lot of the right-wing stink being raised over the (imaginary) $8 billion in the stimulus plan for an LA to Vegas rail line is not really over Harry Reid's alleged perfidy, or the "boondoggle of Hollywood celebrities taking the train to Sin City," but really that a lot of conservatives don't ever take trains anywhere and think that it's stupid to use their money to have to pay for trains anywhere.