Making Sure our Government Manages our Money Responsibly

Perspective detail: Making Sure our Government Manages our Money Responsibly

Perspective 3: Remove Temptation: Change Behavior by Changing the Incentives

As things stand now, there are too many incentives to avoid making politically tough decisions or waste the nation’s finances on pet projects. If we remove the most corrupting influences and incentives from the political system, and create new incentives for responsible behavior, we can expect politicians to exercise better judgment in how they manage the nation’s finances.

Therefore, we should:

Therefore we should do things like:

Reform campaign finances. Elections are so expensive that candidates can’t help but become dependent on big donors. We should reform campaigns so politicians are less beholden to big campaign donors and therefore less tempted to do them favors by adding spending bills to keep them happy.

Tighten ethics and lobbying rules. There need to be severe penalties for politicians who abuse the system when they have a conflict of interest.

Create positive incentives. The public should reward politicians who manage the nation’s finances responsibly through their votes. Moreover, we should provide bonuses to government bureaucrats who improve efficiency and save the nation money by figuring out how to do more with less.

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