Car Thoughts

I am told by devoted followers of Milton Friedman that the government should not be in the business of providing services to its citizens (e.g. education, public sanitation, etc.) because government entities are not motivated to compete. This lack of competition apparently makes every single government bureaucracy inherently inefficient, and the solution is to leave these functions to a marketplace of ideas, where parties are allowed to compete and thus the best provider will eventually succeed.

These followers grasp onto the "competition fixes everything" idea and apply it to everything -- "xyz wouldn't be so fucked up if you made it a free market" -- but I don't think they're taking it far enough. [sarcasm alert] One of the biggest, hardest dilemmas every single human faces is which religion to believe in. After all, you only find out if your beliefs were well-founded after you're dead!

I say that if competition is such a powerful tool for finding the best party in a marketplace of ideas, we need to apply it directly to religious institutions. First off, get rid of all those tax breaks for churches and their associated charities. It just makes them lazy, and provides no incentive for competition in the "feeding and clothing the needy" marketplace. After we've removed those harmful market restrictions, we'll be able to tell which religion is telling the truth by how much money they raise. People will be able to sample the marketplace of religious ideas, select which dogmas they like best, contrast the benefit of those dogmas with the cost of putting money in the basket every week, and make an informed decision. Churches will be able to compete by either presenting better sermons, promising salvation, or changing their suggested donation based on current market conditions. Eventually, there will be a clear winner, and obviously that religion is the correct one!

But what to do about all the new heathens? [end of sarcasm]