The Rhetoric and Reality of Redistribution
8th June 2014
Don Boudreaux muses on Gordon Tullock.
Note that Gordon does not say here that lying by politicians is unnecessary; he says that lying is insufficient. Lying must be accompanied by persuasive props on the political and governmental stages designed to dupe the audience into thinking that something noble (or at least in the self-interest of most members of the broad audience) is taking place – while, in fact, what is really taking place is something quite ignoble and almost surely at odds with the self-interest of most members of the broad audience.
Just as the London and Broadway stages, and as Hollywood movie sets, select for success those actors who can act most persuasively – those actors who can best convince audiences to believe in make-believe – the stage that is politics selects for success those politicians who can act most persuasively. The political process is biased against the success in politics of honest people – people who, if not incapable of lying and engaging in dupery, at least feel badly enough about doing so that their guilt at the prospect of performing such unethical shenanigans shows on their faces.