Spending Other People's Money

When we earn money ourselves or raise it for charity we are very careful how its spent because we remember the hard work which went into acquiring it. One of the great challenges with public spending is that those spending it are not connected to those providing it so they tend to treat it rather more casually than they would do their own.

This isn't to say that all public spending is bad. There are some local projects which are better funded through taxes than through voluntary donations but we need to remember that public spending, because of its detachment from the struggle to acquire the money, is likley to be less economical and efficient than doing things ourselves through private and voluntary effort.