A Classic Right Wing Stance

I've started subscribing to the feeds from Dale & Co, another right-of-centre website it seems. It's good fodder for why Jesus was not a right winger (and also home of a number who wouldn't bother with Jesus at all anyhow). Here's a great example of that: All taxpayer funding of charities must stop, apparently.

Because I have quite a bit to do, I'll just copy and paste in my rather snarky response in the comments rather than re-write it all out:

Erm, externalities?

I know right wingers tend to as much as possible deny these inconvenient things exist, but basic economic theory says that where there are externalities involved (costs or benefits incurred by agents without payment or compensation), then the privately optimal market outcome will differ from the socially optimal market outcome.

If the externality is positive (which is safe to assume if we're talking about charities), then the market will under provide.

Thus, charitable giving alone will not be sufficient, and there is an arguable role for the state in supporting them.

Of course, the nature of that role is up for debate. But the point is there is a simple and incontrovertible argument on basic economic grounds for some government support for charities, although I'm not going to deny that in practice that support was probably not optimally provided by the previous government. I'm yet to be persuaded though that this government understands basic economics, and so I doubt the new arrangement will be particularly good either.

To add what I think is necessary to that, given the name of this blog, there is of course the Christian angle. I don't think it can be Christian to blanket say taxpayers should not support charities given the reason outlined above - the market will under-provide many vitally important goods and services in society without some form of government assistance. Of course, that leaves the system open to abuse: Charities that governments like will get funding, ones they don't like won't. That, however, is not an argument against the provision of support in the first place, but an argument for better systems of support that are less open to political manipulation.

Equivalently of course, as I say in the final paragraph, I doubt the current system that is being dismantled was particularly effective either. There shouldn't be indiscriminate support for charities since its hard to say what the necessary support is by government to bring the social outcome nearer to the private one. But initiatives like Gift Aid (which allows charities to claim the income tax on whatever you donate) are the right kinds of policies since they augment the giving by private individuals. Equivalently here, Jesus was not a left winger either...