In Which Daniel Mitchell Demonstrates the Difficulty of Having a Rational Conversation with Cato Institute Employees

Matthew Yglesias:

Matthew Yglesias » Communism is Bad, Policy is Discontinuous: Daniel Mitchell... post[s] the... chart which he deems “a good illustration of the human cost of excessive government.” I think this mostly illustrates the difficulty of having a rational conversation with Cato Institute employees about economic policy in the developed world. Cuba is poor, but it’s much richer than Somalia. Is Somalia’s poor performance an illustration of the human costs of inadequate taxation? Or maybe we can act like reasonable people and note that these illustrations of the cost of Communist dictatorship and anarchy have little bearing on the optimal location on the Korea-Sweden axis of mixed economies?

Why oh why can't we have better think tanks?