Touché

This post is not exactly economics in a strict sense, but Don Boudreaux’s latest column in Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, On the Nature of Politics, is so discerning in its opinions that I can’t help myself from blogging on it.

“Call me cynical but I doubt that most politicians who promise to solve (real and imaginary) problems by passing statutes truly believe their own rhetoric. They might not disbelieve what they say, but I'm convinced that politicians don't ponder the complexities of reality deeply enough to convince themselves of the truth of what they proclaim. They say what they say and promise what they promise chiefly as a means of ascending to power and glory.

I suspect that people self-select into politics because they have an unusually large lust for being in the limelight and an unusually small concern for the ethics of the actions they must take to get there. And because enough voters stand ready to blame their own (real and imaginary) misfortunes on the evil doings of "the rich" or "the corporate elite" (Elanor: or, in Malaysia, the “economically greedy ethnic group”?), unprincipled power-seekers are eager to ride this ignorance into office.”

So fellow Malaysians, remember this the next time our esteemed leaders brandish their strong rhetoric (and their choice physical weapon) and wage war against imaginary threats. We are wiser than to be treated as such.

Elanor

Donald J. Boudreaux is the chairman of the Economics Department in George Mason University Fairfax, Virginia. He blogs at Café Hayek.