If Politicians’ Honesty Set the Standard for Others
By Robert Higgs • Friday April 13, 2012 6:37 PM PDT • 19 Comments
If engineers were no more honest than the typical politician, all of the bridges would fall down.
If accountants were no more honest than the typical politician, every firm would go bankrupt.
If merchants were no more honest than the typical politician, Paris would not get fed; nor would any other city.
If preachers were no more honest than the typical politician, everyone who took their sermons to heart would go straight to hell.
If physicians were no more honest than the typical politician, all of the patients would die.
If carpenters were no more honest than the typical politician, every house would collapse.
If spouses were no more honest than the typical politician, every marriage would be on the rocks.
If used car dealers were no more honest than the typical politician, no one would risk buying a used car.
If electricians were no more honest than the typical politician, we would all be electrocuted.
If soldiers were no more honest than the typical politician, both sides would lose every battle.
And so forth.
So, the questions naturally arise: Why does anyone place any confidence in anything a politician says? Why does anyone expect anything but deception and predation from these dishonest reprobates? Why does anyone seek social improvement or economic salvation from the programs these ne’er-do-wells devise and implement? Why, indeed, do people continue to tolerate politics at all? (This last question presupposes, of course, that those who wish to use the political process to commit a de facto crime—that is, an act that, if committed privately, would be seen as plainly criminal—will be entirely in favor of politics because using the government as their agent-perpetrator offers a way to legalize their crimes. My question pertains to the noncriminal element of the population.)
“My question pertains to the noncriminal element of the population.”
Therein lies the problem. The two of us just don’t have that much influence.
Tom E. Snyder | Apr 13, 2012 | Reply
I would like to see Robert Higgs be honest about where his lobby shop, er think tank gets its funding.
Invisible Backhand | Apr 14, 2012 | Reply
Because the politicians educate us to not know any better. The Federal Govt is contrasted with govts like the USSR, Nazi Germany, and brutal Roman Emperors
And people dont see the lasting effects of govt actions, just the big brief dramatic moments. They are blind to a century of inflation and 60 years of dangerous road building. They only see big events that come and go like WW2, in which its easy for schools to teach us that the govt rose to the occasion.
Kenneth Camp | Apr 14, 2012 | Reply
People place an irrational faith in politicians because they are the actors in the consoling myth by which we live; the dream that there might be some collective rational management of human affairs so as to overcome the perennial evils that beset the human condition. To admit the obvious truth about politicians, namely that they act purely from self interest, and only to benefit the client interest group constituencies they depend upon for re-election, would be to undermine this fantasy.
Thucydides | Apr 14, 2012 | Reply
We tolerate it because they are masters at diversion and we can’t see what they are doing. We see this in spades with the present diversion on the wealthy and the Buffet rule game that would have zip impact on the budget deficit. The real inequality is not economic inequality, it is power inequality where our political class can command my actions ranging from what I can eat to whether I can off myself before my body falls apart. No super rich person can dictate anything to me, he can just offer to trade an i-pad for my money which I may or may not do.
Who is a bigger threat to my interests and who can use force against my interests, the politically powerful or the very rich? Even a local city politician or high level government bureaucrat, with his limited power, is a greater threat to my interests than facebook billionaires or Bill Gates.
Dallas Weaver | Apr 14, 2012 | Reply
Robert Higg’s standard of honesty can’t even set an example for Robert Higg.
http://www.reddit.com/r/CafeHayek/comments/s9jm3/somehow_i_doubt_robert_higgs_will_ever_approve_my/
Invisible Backhand | Apr 14, 2012 | Reply
Most amongst the masses live in an irrational world of delusion and fantasy. And most like to be taken care of, even if by the worst scum of the Earth sleazebags, and even at their own detriment and enslavement.
And a lot of people are passive-aggressive, and prefer to hire others to commit their aggressions against people for them.
But at least there is one politician who sincerely promises to free non-violent prisoners from the prisons, especially for drug-related non-violent “offenses,” and who sincerely promises to close all foreign military bases, end wars of aggression and governmental interventionism, and end the federal government’s monopoly in money and banking, and repeal the police state policies of Bush/Obama.
I don’t know, as bad as it is, there are some moments in which I still have some hope.
Scott Lazarowitz | Apr 14, 2012 | Reply
I would add one more IF–If we abolished primaries we would have a good opportunity to return to politics with integrity and bipartisanship. The primary system is the cancer that is killing our democracy. It pushes all office holders to the extreme and/or allows for attacks from the extremes against any moderate.Just look at what they are doing to Richard Lugar in Indiana. I think that we have entirely too much democracy measured by too many open primaries. If we could get back to parties with meaning and purpose the electorate would have meaningful choices and be able to vote for moderates. I know that some think that the cure is greater democracy but that is what the primary system has given us and look at the result.
John Eley | Apr 15, 2012 | Reply
Politicians are predators. Predation is a part of human nature. That is, with no moral guidance, most of the human race is naturally political.
Randy | Apr 16, 2012 | Reply
Interestingly, after bringing up my comments somewhere else, someone who may or may not be Robert Higgs may or may not have gotten my comments approved after all.
Here’s the link, make of it what you will:
http://www.beaufortobserver.net/Articles-NEWS-and-COMMENTARY-c-2012-04-14-259810.112112-Reprobates.html
Back to the point, Robert Higgs owes us the honesty he demands of others. I would like to see Robert Higgs be honest about where his lobby shop, er think tank gets its funding.
Invisible Backhand | Apr 16, 2012 | Reply
Why does anyone expect anything but deception and predation from these dishonest reprobates?
The answer is always: because this time will be different. This person is different and can be trusted.
John Farrier | Apr 18, 2012 | Reply
Robert Higgs’s lament is like blaming the ventriloquist’s dummy for the personal insults of the ventriloquist.
There’s no doubting that you can’t trust what a politician says publicly to get elected, or to stay popular with voters. But you can bet that a big donor can trust what the politician and he agree to privately, as the benefactor hands over the fat check.
James Galbraith’s book, “Predator State,” lays out how our oligarchy has learned to use (abuse) the power of the state to fleece the taxpayer for the benefit of oligarchs. You see it on Wall Street, in major banks, in our “military-industrial-prison complex.”
Some of the biggest enablers of our corrupt system are those who champion allowing unlimited campaign donations in secret, since it’s a mark of the “freedom” we enjoy here in America.
So, sure, you and I can’t trust a word politicians say, but the oligarchs who put them in office certainly can.
There’s less irony than one might suppose that Robert Higgs and the Independent Institute want to keep it that way, in the name of freedom, of course and as per usual. And there’s also less irony than one might imagine in that Higgs et al will continue to express amazement at the thoroughgoing, pro-plutocratic corruption of the sock puppets in our political class.
GaryA | Apr 21, 2012 | Reply
I am puzzled why the source of anyone’s funding has anything at all to do with the content of their ideas and arguments. Certainly the link provided sheds no light on this. What is your evidence that Higgs is anything less than honest? You’ve heard of the ad hominem fallacy, right? (Attack the sayer, instead of attempting to refute what he says.)
John Kannarr | May 17, 2012 | Reply
Read the material that the Independent Institute publishes. Then decide if anything seems to determine policy in Washington D.C. I would say that the question of who funds them will be less important. If you watch Robert Higgs’s interview on C-SPAN, circa April 2009, he informs the journalist who generally funds the Independent Institute. I can tell you that some of the funding comes from the sale of their publications. I, for one, never saw these publications in college (for reasons obvious to me).
bill | May 21, 2012 | Reply