Federalism and the Trial and Error Aspect of Markets and Government Policy

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In a country this big, almost no national program is going to have much of a chance of working. I'd get rid of the subsidies that government provides for health care through both explicit programs like Medicare and Medicaid. The left says we make it more efficient by centralizing it and subjecting it to expert control. The right says we make It more efficient by allowing it to be run on the ground between buyers and sellers.

Yuval Levin, author of The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left, talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas of Burke and Paine and their influence on the evolution of political philosophy. Levin outlines the differing approaches of the two thinkers to liberty, authority, and how reform and change should take place. Other topics discussed include Hayek's view of tradition, Cartesian rationalism, the moral high ground in politics, and how the "right and left" division of American politics finds its roots in the debates of these thinkers from the 1700s.