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Clearly if you start from those very different positions you will end up at very different places. Not so. If you start at Sydney and I start in Melbourne and we both travel to Canberra, we are very likely to end up at the same place. Similarly, bringing it back to the issue of government vs the market, if an economist starts from a free market position but relaxes that position where she judges that market failure exceeds government failure, while another starts from a full government position by relaxes that position where she judges that government failure exceeds market failure, it is possible that they will end in a very similar position. My starting position is the status quo, with the level of market and government that it embodies, and I relax that position in favour of the market where I assess government failure to exceed market failure; and relax it in the other direction where I judge market failure to exceed government failure.
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