Escape From Pianosa

Listening to Bryan Caplan talk about his new book The Myth of the Rational Voter, I realized that I’ve been too hard on politicians. Yes, they do awful and stupid things all the time but that’s what they have to do to stay employed.

As spineless as they may be, they move in the direction of the voters, and often the voters demand ridiculous policies. So just as I don’t fault a business for responding to the market and producing silly products, I shouldn’t fault politicians for responding to voters who demand (literally) poor policy.*

The funny thing is that voters demand bad economic policies and then punish politicians for poor economic results. For example, they demand higher tariffs but get angry when less trade leads to less growth and less wealth and less employment. Not that they connect the dots. Anyway, it’s a tough life being a politician.

*Caveat: people who demand bad products waste their own money. People who demand bad policies invariably waste my money, so I feel that I have the right to thumb my nose at their ‘inferior preferences.’