Chesterton's Fence and Our Nation's Economy

It's March, 2025, and I've been thinking a lot about Chesterton's Fence lately. You might remember the story. Two people come upon a fence in the middle of a road. The first says he has no idea why anyone would bother building a fence there and decides he wants to tear it down. The second reasons that, if someone took the time and resources to build that fence, there was a purpose. “Learn why it was built,” she says, “and then maybe I’ll let you tear it down.”

Trump and Musk are clearly in Camp #1. They are dedicating no time to considering what programs they are dismantling and which people they are firing and how those programs are actually benefitting rather than harming the Federal budget’s bottom line. It’s slash and burn. If we want a healthy economy, a healthy population, and a more controlled budget and narrower deficit, history proves over and over again that that is best done by supporting the citizens and the communities’ infrastructures; not by destroying the very frameworks meant to keep those communities stable and secure.

The slashing of National Parks’ budgets is only one example. First Order Thinking says, Oooh, big line item! Let’s cut it! Second Order Thinking looks at the consequences of the consequences. National Parks pour considerably more money into the economy than they collect from the Federal budget. Entire communities count on those tourism dollars – shops and restaurants and hotels… Firing a few dozen Federal workers from a National Park can result in devastation to hundreds of businesses.

Slashing the Department of Education works the same way, even though we might have to zoom in a bit more closely. Support your education system, and you end up with a work force able to compete with other countries. You end up with fewer incarcerations and fewer families needing Federal assistance down the road. Students and school staff are less stressed resulting in healthier learning environments with better learning happening. Families are less stretched financially meaning more productive workers and more income pouring into their community’s economy.

Truth is, I don’t think about much of this when I run to support programs as foundational as the parks or our education systems. I think in terms of people and safety and health and families and opportunities. I think about the legacies of our parks and our museums and libraries and universities. But it’s not a bad idea to remind ourselves that these were each built with very real purposes, and those purposes are benefitting our nation’s economy in very real, tangible ways.