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I agree with most of what you say. But consider again those cases where an individual legislator "puts his own interest first". In those cases, our system of go
by qqq 18y ago
I agree with most of what you say. But consider again those cases where an individual legislator "puts his own interest first". In those cases, our system of government put officials in a situation where they have a conflict of interest. That is a flaw in our system of Government and should not be blamed on the malice of any individual. Whatever you do in a conflict of interest there was no single, clear path to follow, so no one can blame you too much, and if you choose the wrong path it's an understandable mistake.
If you don't want people to use power, don't give them power. It's not, individually, their fault.
I do not wish to defend out and out corruption, but that's relatively uncommon compared to simple conflicts of interest. Most people are selfish, and there's nothing wrong with that, and what's going wrong is asking them to make terrible choices between themselves and others.
- mattmaroon 18y agoTotally. Our lawmakers are given an incentive system that often puts their interests in direct opposition to ours. People over time will trend toward their own interests. It's not so much that we cannot give them power (or want not to) as that we must do so while aligning their interests with ours. One example (and I'm not sure I support this) would be to force all campaigns to be government funded. Find every possible reason why lobbyists give money and stop it.
- qqq 18y agoThe more of a free market, and small government, we have, the less there is for lobbyists to buy, and the less decisions for politicians to make. Moving in that direction will at least lessen the problem. :) That's kind of what I mean about power. For example, if there are people in charge of the economy -- with power over it -- that's a problem and people will want to pay them to use the power to their benefit. But there needn't be anyone with power of that sort.