# Problems Supposedly Requiring Government Action 

My colleague Deirdre McCloskey, back in 2018, listed over 100 economic and social problems that, through the ages, have been deemed as market imperfections, bad consequences of markets and challenges of limited government, or else failures of standard economics, that supposedly require corrective government action or at least different policies.

March 3, 2025 • Commentary 

By [Ryan Bourne](https://www.cato.org/people/ryan-bourne) 

This article appeared in [*The War on Prices*](https://ryanbourne.substack.com/p/problems-supposedly-requiring-government?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1038460&post_id=158105793&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1rx53s&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email) on March 1, 2025.

My colleague Deirdre McCloskey, back in 2018, listed over 100 economic and social problems that, through the ages, have been deemed as market imperfections, bad consequences of markets and challenges of limited government, or else failures of standard economics, that supposedly require corrective government action or at least different policies.

Many of the new additions have surfaced or grown in prominence since her paper was published.

I’ve trimmed and then added a bunch to her list below. Many of the new additions have surfaced or grown in prominence since her paper was published.

What are we missing?

I’d like to build out as complete a list as possible of these accusations. Please provide a reference for anything obscure! (Note: we are not saying all of these are always wrong, just looking to account for them…And undoubtedly there’s probably some overlap or double-counting for some of the below.)

1. overpopulation
2. land rentiers
3. excessive capital accumulation for the rich
4. the stationary state
5. greed
6. alienation
7. harmful consumption choices by the poor
8. poverty
9. alcoholism
10. insufficient protection of infant industries
11. eroding national economic distinctiveness
12. workers’ lacking bargaining power
13. racial mixing
14. women working
15. immigration of undesirables
16. wage race to the bottom
17. monopolies and trusts
18. capitalism leading to imperialism and exploitation
19. food and drug poisoning
20. ostentatious consumption
21. unemployment
22. insufficient coordination (rationalization movement)
23. rampant self-interest
24. business cycles
25. underinvestment in increasing-returns industries
26. production externalities
27. overinvestment abroad
28. under-consumption
29. monopolistic competition
30. principle-agent problems
31. market inefficiency requiring planning
32. markets being unnatural
33. secular stagnation
34. investment spillovers
35. unbalanced growth
36. capital insufficiency (particularly in developing countries)
37. sticky prices
38. prices set by corporate strategy, not profit max MR=MC
39. predatory pricing
40. insufficient competitors (Big is Bad) or harm from market power in vertical relationships
41. entrepreneurialism alien to some cultures
42. inequality from dual labor markets
43. cost-push inflation
44. capital-market imperfections
45. oligopoly
46. irrationality among peasants
47. cultural irrationality
48. human desires go beyond financial incentives
49. poverty traps and a cycle of poverty
50. the prisoner’s dilemma
51. public goods
52. insufficient property rights
53. incomplete contracts
54. overfishing
55. tragedy of the commons
56. resource depletion from overpopulation
57. transaction costs
58. public choice
59. regulatory capture
60. free riding
61. institutional sclerosis after long periods of peace
62. missing markets
63. informational asymmetries
64. unions as good monopolies needing state protection
65. third-world exploitation through trade
66. corrosive effects of advertising
67. public underinvestment
68. recessions without demand-management
69. false trades
70. imperfections = world of second best
71. middle-income traps
72. path dependency
73. chaos, unpredictability, and sudden shifts
74. undervaluing cooperatives and codetermination
75. need for international “competitiveness”
76. vulgar consumerism
77. consumption externalities and merit goods
78. overworking
79. menu costs
80. knowledge as a public good
81. behavioral irrationality
82. irrational entrepreneurs
83. hyperbolic discounting
84. too big to fail
85. environmental degradation and climate change
86. private discrimination and social discrimination
87. markets undervalue care workers
88. GDP a poor indicator (happiness econ)
89. unjust prices
90. profits a poor reflection of social good
91. excessive CEO pay
92. poverty pay deters automation
93. undervaluing the entrepreneurial state
94. enduring global poverty
95. neo-stagnationism/plucked low hanging fruit
96. income and wealth inequality
97. underemployment and hysteresis
98. savings glut
99. obesity and health epidemic
100. drug addiction
101. monopsony power
102. lack of “resilience” and “self-sufficiency” to supply-shocks
103. greedflation
104. price volatility
105. usury
106. price complexity (junk fees) & gouging
107. the pink tax/​gendered pricing
108. algorithmic price discrimination
109. short-termism and market myopia
110. tail-risks
111. speculative bubbles
112. crypto energy needs
113. “financialization”
114. trade deficits
115. loss of manufacturing harming innovation
116. racial wealth gaps
117. job insecurity and precarious work
118. work intensification and workplace surveillance
119. digital surveillance of consumers
120. over commercialization of human relationships
121. motherhood penalty
122. McDonaldization of culture/​cultural imperialism
123. overpackaging and waste
124. unequal healthcare access, food desserts, postcode/​zipcode “lotteries”
125. commodification of nature
126. two working parent trap
127. monetization of attention
128. atomization/”the phones”/social media harms
129. network effects & winner-takes-all markets
130. unequal pay for “work of equal value” and other disparities
131. weaponized supply chain interdependence/​free trade hurts national security
132. resource wars & conflict commodities
133. bullshit jobs
134. aesthetic decline
135. loss of “real” journalism
136. ideas harder to find
137. mass immigration harms
138. gentrification
139. biodiversity loss
140. oligarchic capture of democracy
141. fertility decline/​underpopulation
142. capitalism erodes virtue
143. feminization/HR-ification of workplaces
144. need for energy independence
145. corporate concentration
146. social immobility
147. share buybacks
148. tax avoidance/​offshore tax havens
149. gambling
150. stakeholderism/​DEI/​ESG
151. mental health crisis and loneliness
152. deepfakes, misinformation and disinformation
153. censorship via content moderation

##### About the Author 

[![Ryan Bourne](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/Ryan%20Bourne.jpg?itok=nv8-2r7d)](/people/ryan-bourne) 

##### [Ryan Bourne](/people/ryan-bourne)

R. Evan Scharf Chair for the Public Understanding of Economics, Cato Institute

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