In describing a major driver of government growth in his classic 1981 book, The Economy In Mind, Warren Brookes made the basic point that when it comes to government bureaucracies, “what counts are not measureable results but rosters of employees.” While private businesses are properly lionized for doing the most with the least, in the governmental sphere prestige springs from size.
Which brings us to all the hysteria among the liberty minded about Amazon's now aborted deal to develop a large corporate campus in Long Island City, New York. Lefties of the socialist variety (you know their names, so they won't get more publicity here) were unsurprisingly frothing at the mouth at the $3 billion worth of tax abatements lavished on Amazon, but where it gets interesting is that the socialists found themselves allied with many libertarians on the matter.
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