The Perfect Is the Enemy of the Good

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I think this question of the catchphrase is the perfect is the enemy of the good. And so those people who have a utopian goal, I will call it a perfect goal that is no public schools. Those people never count as any movement within the public school system. Any policy that maintains it and they would argue perhaps correctly that by considering those other goals, we will never get to a good outcome. That's your claim about why we don't get nice things. It may be that my side has constantly exceeded the moral high ground.

Is the perfect really the enemy of the good? Or is it the other way around? In 2008, Duke University economist Michael Munger ran for governor and proposed increasing school choice through vouchers for the state's poorest counties. But some lovers of liberty argued that it's better to fight for eliminating public schools instead of trying to improve them. Munger realized his fellow free-marketers come in two flavors: directionalists--who take our political realities as given and try to move outcomes closer to the ideal--and destinationists--who want no compromises with what they see as the perfect outcome. Listen as Munger talks to EconTalk's Russ Roberts about two different strategies for achieving political goals. Along the way, they discuss rent control, the minimum wage, and why free-market policies are so rare.