Political scientist Jeffrey Friedman and law professor Ilya Somin say that since voters are largely ignorant, that is an argument for keeping government simple. Government, they say, should stick to a few basic tasks. That way, rationally ignorant voters can keep track of their government by simply catching a few bits of the news between reruns of How I Met Your Mother.
a. What might such a government look like? In particular, what policies and programs are too complicated for today’s voters to easily monitor? Just consider the U.S. federal government in your answer.
b. Which current government programs and policies are fairly easy for modern voters to monitor? What programs do you think that you and your family have a good handle on?
c. Can you think of easy replacements for the too-complex programs in part a? For instance, cutting one check per farmer and posting the amount on a website might be easier to monitor than the hundreds of farm subsidies and low-interest farm loans that exist today.