Why governments' attempts to pick winners produce more losers than winners.
Oliver Heald, the Shadow Constitutional Affairs Secretary, uncovered through a Parliamentary Question (PQ) that John Prescott has spent almost £650 on replacing a sign on his door from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) by one saying the Deputy Prime Minister's Office (DPMO). Mr Prescott no longer has thousands of staff working for him, but "only" 18 and a budget of £2m a year for his important duties. The DPMO counter-attack was that it cost them £140 to answer Mr Heald's PQ. It cannot be that bad to spend some money on the things they are supposed to do? Instead they are more willing to splash out on those all important signs and business cards.
"The capitalist system of production is an economic democracy in which every penny gives a right to vote. The consumers are the sovereign people. The capitalists, the entrepreneurs, and the farmers are the people's mandatories. If they do not obey, if they fail to produce, at the lowest possible cost, what the consumers are asking for, they lose their office. Their task is service to the consumer. Profit and loss are the instruments by means of which the consumers keep a tight rein on all business activities", Bureaucracy (1945)