This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, April 20, 2011. I'm Caleb Brown.

Government is far larger than it should be. That from economist Richard Vetter.

He spoke at the Cato Institute April 7th and drew out some of the unseen costs of our current spending trajectory.

My favorite story is Paul Samuelson's 1985 textbook example that the Soviet planning system is a powerful engine for economic growth

25 years ago five years before the end, six years before the end of the Soviet Union.

Don't listen to economists too much. So let's talk

about philosophy. Confucius said around 500 years before the birth of Christ he talked about the golden mean which was also a

central theme in Aristotle's Nicomacian ethics which was written 2,361 years ago this year. So I think we ought to talk more

about Aristotle and economics and Aristotle talked about the golden mean and although I tremble to say this at the Cato Institute, I have

to be honest talking about economic history that there has never been a truly prosperous society without some form of government.

And at the very minimum, a set of rules or laws to govern human interaction.

Property rights need to be delineated.

And all of this requires some sort of enforcement.

Similarly, however, there's never been a nation that this is the Ron rule explained, except I don't call

it Ron because Ron pays him a buck for each time he uses.

Dick Army pays me five dollars for every time I use it.

So I call it the Army Curve.

Which is going to come up in a minute.

I don't even know.

Is there a device you push or?

I'm just gonna press the enter button.

Oh, okay.

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