Democracy: Worse Than I Thought
6th January 2012
Bryan Caplan despairs.
The main problem with democracy, I keep arguing, is that harmful policies reliably win by popular demand. But there are exceptions. Take Obamacare. It appears to be genuinely unpopular. But not only did Obama pass it; it’s now very likely that his Republican opponent will be Mitt Romney, who brought the prototype of Obamacare to Massachusetts.
For once a majority of the public wants to repeal a genuinely unpopular harmful policy. And what options does American democracy give them? A choice between the Obamacare’s Jesus and Obamacare’s John the Baptist. What gives?
Welcome to my world.