Fixing the country (by Russell Roberts):
This is the biggest fantasy of politics, that the country is broken or damaged and we just need to get a different contractor in charge of the project who knows more about how to do renovations. It is a dangerous metaphor and an inaccurate one. It ignores the fundamental insight of economics that there are no solutions only trade-offs. It presumes, impossibly, that we share goals as a people when in fact, virtually every government policy benefits one group at the expense of another.
The essence of political action is a compromise over who wins and who loses. The essence of politics is pretending that such actions benefit everyone. So we are told that it is necessary to bail out the auto industry not to benefit a small group of people but rather to save the Midwest or the country or the millions of jobs related to the auto industry or to preserve the industrial base in the name of national security. What is good for GM is usually not good for the nation. It’s good for GM.
