One of the disadvantages of a complex tax code is that a great deal of human mental effort is wasted trying to figure it out. If a person has ten productive hours a day, any time spent doing busywork is a direct reduction on the amount of time that can be spent doing something productive that might actually create wealth (which, for those so inclined, could be taxed). This is one reason why I was so impressed during my recent visit to Singapore: The government there makes everything easy for productive citizens. The border crossing takes seconds, taxes are simple, even renewing a driver’s license happens as fast or faster than anywhere else in the world. All of this frees up the productive citizen to go and get some real work done.

The problem is compounded when one looks at government support for scientific and academic research. Highly educated and intelligent people — following the grant money — pour their creative energies into stupid and senseless fields. Think of what they could have accomplished if they were not following the research priorities set by not-invented-here senior scientists or, worse, ignorant and corrupt members of the government.

Incentives work out to the same result. Electric and hybrid cars are a triumph of technological achievement. But given low fuel prices, they are — and will remain — uneconomic unless government diverts taxpayer dollars to create subsidies. So all those hard-working and creative engineers have been essentially wasting their talent, building the wrong things because Rep. Nancy Pelosi thought it would be quite nice if there were more hybrid vehicles.