I Guess Elon Musk Doesn’t Remember Econ 101

In 1854, Abraham Lincoln, who would not be elected president for another six years, mused about the purpose of the government he would one day save. He concluded that “the legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do for themselves — in their separate and individual capacities.” In this, as in so many things, Lincoln saw to the heart of an issue that still plagues us. His insight tells us that many of the DOGE cutbacks, which are supposedly aimed at “waste, fraud, and abuse,” are slashing away at government’s core function: providing public goods.

Lincoln’s transformation of America went far beyond the Civil War. His administration also gave us the Homestead Act that allowed settlers to claim government land, created the American system of land-grant colleges and helped build the Transcontinental Railroad. Farmland, education and transportation are all economically valuable to the people who use them. So why did they need government support?