A passage that is profound to me is at the very end of the chapter when Wheelan addresses the roles of the government as a whole. He chooses to shine the government in three different lights: 1) The thought that government has the potential to make everyone better off through the stimulation of the economy and 2) The thought that the government's involement constricts the economy, but it's still socially necessary and 3) The thought that the government's involvement in the economy is leading to our downfall.
The first point states that a big government is essential to maintain the markets and the maximum utility. Big governments provide public goods that are unable to be otherwise obtained. Although one could make the argument that the U.S. government is increasingly corrupt at that capacity, it also has attributes that smaller governments couldn't provide such as more spending on resources.
The second point states that some government policies may not be popular with the people, although these actions are in the people's best interest. Likewise, the popular demands of the people may not be the best course of action for the government. Examples of this is the debate over minimum wage, or whether lower tax rates would put more low-income earners to work at higher wages. These issues are especially tricky because people, depending on their socioeconomic backgrounds, are more or less willing to have a larger trade off between wealth and equality.
The last point states that the government as a whole is detrimental, and it drags the economy down with it. Examples of this include government programs that begin with bad intentions, and stem off into faulty policies and laws. Greedy and corrupt politicians are also a real problem within this thought process. The economy is built to sustain the wealthy politicians, therefore teeing the market up to implode on itself.
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