In theory the government will give people the policies that they vote for.Are those polices likely to be good ones from the economist's point of view?There are good reasons to answer "no" to that question. Read the information below and help me figure out whether the government is part of the solution or part of the problem. Thanks!

There are too many variations on anti-market bias to list them all. Probably the most common error of this sort is to equate market payments with transfers, ignoring their incentive properties. (A transfer, in economic jargon, is a no-strings-attached movement of wealth from one person to another.) All that matters, then, is how much you empathize with the transfer's recipient compared to the transfer's provider. People tend, for example, to see profits as a gift to the rich. So unless you perversely pity the rich more than the poor, limiting profits seems like common sense.

Anti-market biases lead people to misunderstand and reject even policies they should, given their preferences for end results, support. For example, the Princeton economist Alan Blinder blames opposition to tradable pollution permits on anti-market bias. Why let people "pay to pollute," when we can force them to cease and desist?

In a market economy, price signals automatically steer society's scarce resources to the uses people value most, and at minimum cost. This is Adam Smith's famous Invisible Hand. But sometimes markets aren't competitive, or they generate effects such as congestion or pollution that are not accounted for in the price system. These "market failures" potentially justify government intervention.We are not short of serious societal problems. Some are even potentially amenable to sensible government solutions. But sensible, let alone cost-conscious and target-effective, government solutions are in much shorter real-world supply than many people suppose. The administration and Congress that convene in Januaryas well as the American people they representmust recalibrate government to perform just its necessary functions, affordably and effectively