Randall O’Toole‘s latest book, The Best-Laid Plans: How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook, and Your Future argues that planners don’t know jack shit. I’ll agree with that. However, he’s got such a big bug up his ass about mass transit, that he completely ignores the fact that the highways were planned by the government too.
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Politics destroys everything good that the government might do. People get elected to “make a difference” and have a positive effect on their constituency. Central planning under the control of said politicians will inevitably favor pork and political agenda over what is right.
This is exacerbated when what should be local planning is done at the federal scale. The plans might sound good for the majority of America, but that usually means it’s the wrong approach for a minority. Most planning at the federal level is completely inappropriate.
Why do they keep doing it? Because nobody gets elected saying, “I don’t plan to change much once I’m in office,” even if that’s actually the best thing for the country.