Contrast

While visiting Samizdata to see the matching portraits of Obama and Che, I spotted an item by Jonathan Pearce that is emblematic of the public/private contrast.  His best line:

{...] I find the comprehensive recall of the cars to be a pretty good example, in fact, of how private businesses with a huge brand-name investment have to act when their products have a problem. Can you imagine, say, a government department doing such a massive "recall" of a failed policy?

As someone who believes that error is near the core of most human activity, this seems to me like it ought to be one of the more compelling arguments against government activity.  WHEN (not if) the policies fail, the government incentives to fix them are very low, as compared to private industry.  WHEN private business fails, they are strongly inclined to fix it.