| The private sector doesn't just fund the public sector. It's a misconception to assume that this is a one way street. Every dollar that is spend in the public sector flows into the private economy as well. For instance, the wages paid to civil servants and employees in the public sector ultimately gets spend in private businesses: food, clothes, entertainment, housing and so on. Public investments in public infrastructure also create wealth in the private sector: public procurement is a prime example, public funding and grants are another example. The there's the creation of value through education (schools & universities), ensuring security (law enforcement & justice), mobility (roads & bridges), health (hospitals),... which create the affordances for private enterprises to become successful (no Silicon Valley without skilled/schooled workers, right?) Also, let's not forget that 'money' is above all a token of exchange that represents economic value, it's not the economic value proper. Government and the public sector aren't competing with the private sector: the primary goal is governing the distribution of wealth in society according to a prevailing economic framework or ideology, and managing the supply/volume of money in an economy is an important lever to do just that. > A lot of government employees (and contractors) just got paid to sit at home for 3-4 months during the pandemic if they worked in secure areas (can’t take classified information home). That’s a benefit that the private sector just can’t provide. No. But at the same time, unemployment benefits are in essence the public sector directly stepping in because the private sector runs out of liquidity. > We need hard work This is true. All of the above doesn't negate the work that happens in the private sector or private businesses. On the contrary. What we ought to remember is that value creation is equally, if note more, important as wealth creation. Put differently, there's no point in gazing at the trillions of dollars that get shifted around if the entire discussion becomes detached from any tangible value which gets created and consumed. Whether it's the bread of the sandwich you ate for lunch, or whether it's the leather in the shoes you're wearing. The thing that worries me more then discussing who gets an arbitrary amount of money and who doesn't, is supply chains, manufacturing, businesses,... all of that shuttering due to this health crisis. The one thing that truly drives people to the street and bloody riots is a scarcity of something as basic as wheat and bread. |