Joe Klein?s latest TIME column has the requisite Bush-bashing (?a re-elected president whose policies seem misguided?), along with the complete absence of understanding of supply-side economics (which Klein labels ?demonstrably foolish?), but there is at least one nugget of wisdom:
One possible answer to the problem of passivity was choice: if parents were given the choice of which school their child could attend, for example, they might bestir themselves to take a more active role in their kids’ education. I first saw this principle at work in East Harlem in the early 1980s, where parents were offered an array of schools with different curriculums for their children. The results were mixed, but it was lovely to see beaten-down people taking action, taking control of at least one public aspect of their lives for the first time.
I became besotted with the notion of choice, which was another way of saying I became besotted with the idea of markets. If you gave people a choice, the best public products ? schools, job-training programs, health care services and, yes, retirement plans ? would rise to the top, and average folks would be empowered to become more active, and therefore better, citizens. I still think it’s a pretty good principle.
