Elected politicians have to aim for the short-term goal of getting re-elected. Money, and both monetary and fiscal policy, are based on collective hallucinatio

Elected politicians have to aim for the short-term goal of getting re-elected. Money, and both monetary and fiscal policy, are based on collective hallucinations that people rarely think clearly about. No politician wants to be seen idle, and killing projects makes enemies, so they make new projects and spend more money. As Bob Kerry once pointed out, sometimes it can be truly heroic to simply do nothing.