The Corner - National Review Online: "Don’t get me wrong. A company’s management’s duty is to its shareholders. Trying to cut these sort of deals is part of the job. The same ought not to be said of the politicians who, disgracefully, went along."
'via Blog this'
Is that right? Couldn't you say, a politicians duty is to get elected, and the politician is only cutting this deal because he believes it will get him reelected. It's part of his job.
So who's fault is it? Who is electing politicians that do such a poor job? Americans voters. So we should blame voters. It's voters' job to throw out politicians who hand out pork. But why do they elect these politicians? I can see three options: (1) they don't care, (2) they are on the take in some other form of pork, or (3) they are ignorant.
If they don't care, then what's the problem?
If they are also on the take, then maybe its rational to vote that way.
If they are ignorant, they are probably rationally ignorant. There is too much information out there--too many deals like this to keep track of everything that matters to a vote. They too are probably acting in accordance with their incentives.
Maybe the key here is the difference between "duty" and "incentive." Politicians and voters have supposed "duties" that are different from their incentives. Company management's duties and incentives are aligned -at least when it comes to getting pork.
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