Addressing an audience in a mostly-filled Bailey Hall this afternoon, Governor Pataki spoke words of optimism about the future of the United States economy and preached a pragmatic approach to solving our current economic problems. Before praising the resilience of American character and the great character of American government, Pataki joked that he was glad to be back in Tompkins county, even though this was the one county that repeatedly voted against him during all of his gubernatorial races. He also recalled a humorous incident in which a man told him that he regretted Pataki’s decision to pay for a prostitute.
The Governor stressed that recovery would come soon, and that there will be many new opportunities in the American manufacturing industry as well as the “green energy” industry. To get out of this crisis, we need to have a pragmatic approach that proposes real solutions to real problems instead of simply confining policies to anachronistic ideological frameworks.
One of the most salient themes of his talk was the idea of using government power to provide incentives for efficient market outcomes. Pataki said that what was need is not big government, not passive government, but effective government.
Most of the time I would consider this last point to be empty rhetoric, but Pataki gave great examples of what he meant by ‘effective’ government: 1) New legislation to allow for inter-state voltage transits (easier to get “green” energy from its production site to major cities). 2) Incentivize the production of hybrid vehicles. 3) Government funding of research and innovation that is matched by private funds.
Overall, I believe his amalgam approach to markets/government intervention is one that has the potential of finding a lot of support in the future.
I really enjoyed the lecture given by him, although it was a bit short and didn’t get into too much detail about anything. He definitely represents a more common sense approach to governance that was similar to points Mike Huckabee made in his speech at Bailey Hall last Spring, and which I believe is the future of the GOP (or it should be).