How much does government cost?

• Author: Arunga, June
• Position: Soundbite - Richard Durana - Interview

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Richard Durana is the director of the Institute for Economic and Social Studies, a five-year-old pro-market think tank in the Slovak Republic. Durana's group studies a range of issues, from taxes to monetary policy to the health care system, with a particular interest in how services currently provided by the government could be delivered more efficiently by the private sector. To that end, it has launched "The Price of the State," an innovative Web-based project that offers comprehensive data on the cost of every government service, presented in a way that allows users to see how much each item costs each citizen.

In 2010 the project won a Templeton Freedom Award for Special Achievement by a Young Institute, an annual prize sponsored by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation that recognizes work at think tanks advancing the understanding of liberty. June Arunga interviewed Durana for reason.tv in November. For a video version of their conversation, go to reason. tv/video/show/richard-durana-interview.

Q: Why is it important to share this information with people who used to live under a communist regime?

A: Slovakia made quite a few successful economic reforms a couple of years ago, and as a result we were one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union for a couple of years. For instance, two years ago we grew over 10 percent. There were fiat tax reforms. We did reform of health care and the pension schemes.

Obviously we are a post-communist country, so there is no tradition of thinking about the size of the government. This is what we are trying to explain to people--that the services that people believe are for free are not for free, and taxpayers pay for those services.

Q: Tell us about the program.

A: The project is called "The Price of the State," and it started as a single website. You can see their government revenues. You can see their government expenditures. It has complete information on public finance in my country, and there are a few interactive features.

For instance, there's a feature called "Buy Your Own State." You can click on...