December 06, 2010 09:33 PM UTC

The Law of Diminishing Returns

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• by: Wrong Way Corrigan

When is enough enough?  When does the law of diminishing returns set in?  

Colorado is currently 48th in tax burden, with a state spending level to match.  If you are a believer in lower taxes and less government, when do diminishing returns set in?  When is government too small or taxes too low?  

Conversely, if you are a liberal or a progressive or whatever you are calling yourselves these days, when is government too big?  

The question becomes one of value.  Do you value the services offered by the government, and at what price.  I see Colorado as a Kia, dirt cheap, but reliability issues causing it to not be a great value.  On the other end of the spectrum, Mercedes sells an S-class for almost $100,000.  In essence, the car still justs acts as a means of transport, and, to me, lacks real value.  Honda is probably somewhere in the middle, maximizing the value, not the price nor the quality aspects of a car.  

Government can be the same way.  Do you think you get value from the services the state offers?  Do you think value could be improved by spending a little more, to get a better product, or are government services hopelessly damned to mediocrity, and therefore should always be at the lowest possible cost?  

Does Colorado reap more competitive advantage vis-à-vis other states by having the 48th lowest tax burden, or would having, say, the 40th lowest burden, but improved public services give us a greater competitive advantage?  

Sound off below!