I've just started a blog to post my views on public policy. Frankly, you will see whatever strikes my fancy. I work in the area of public financial management and am fascinated by the process in which the public and their elected officials come to policy decisions. Often times I wonder about the drivers of decisions and how we get there. Will you get any deep insights from me? Probably not.
To utilize another’s statement with a modification - Money is the mother's milk of public policy. As you may remember from taking an introductory economics course, human desires are unlimited but resources are not. This leads to the idea of opportunity cost. This means if I have one dollar I can use it to buy a candy bar or a coke. If I buy one I give up the opportunity to consume the other. The idea is that we as rational economic men will choose whatever gives us the greatest satisfaction. The same decision goes on in public policy; scarce resources are allocated to different activities (programs) to provide satisfaction.
The question is how do we get there and what are the constraints?I hope we can look at this decision process together and come to a better understanding of it and how we can impact these decisions.
