Axiomatic
10-29-2016, 06:21 PM
"If there is a bill by which 100 people stand to gain $100million by depriving 100million people of $1 each, that bill has a 100% chance of becoming law."
I forgot where I heard that, but it shows a truth because each of the 100million people have only $1 worth of incentive to work or spend money to oppose it, while the 100 people each have up to $1,000,000 worth of incentive to work and spend to get it passed.
I'll post a good chunk of the article (https://bretigne.liberty.me/why-i-wont-be-voting-the-real-reason-libertarians-dont-matter/) because people don't read linked articles and this one is worth reading.
"
Yes, politicians running for office care about votes. But just as much as votes – indeed, as a critical means of securing votes – they care about money.
[...]
Here’s the thing to understand: The things libertarians want – freedom, less govt. interference in markets & in personal choices, non-interventionist foreign policy… there is no money in these things for politicians. [...]
In fact, it is just the opposite: Corporations have long been in the business of paying politicians to intervene in markets on their behalf, to erect barriers to competition and in some cases to squash a particular competitor. Competition is wonderful for society as a whole. But it’s not so great if you’re one of the ones doing the competing. It’s hard, and sometimes you lose. Sometimes, if you’re big enough, it’s just easier to send some money in the direction of the people who can discover antitrust violations in your competitor’s business practices.
Understand that behind the empty campaign promises, politicians have essentially two things to offer to the people who support them: 1. Power, in the form of regulatory and other control, over competitors and others who may get in the way of a particular entity remaining comfortably profitable; 2. Money. Not their own money of course – your money, and my money. Taken from us in taxes, and in the continual devaluation of the government-issued money we all use. Politicians can give money to their supporters in the form of contracts for things like military equipment and public works projects, or in less direct ways, like mandating that government schools all stock epinephrine injectors that meet the same very specific product requirements that your device happens to meet.
And the list goes on. What is not on this list is liberty. Why? Because nowhere in this game is there an advantage to selling liberty. This point was driven home to me a few years ago when I asked a California senator’s policy consultant if his boss would consider relaxing business restrictions as a way to help parents of children with special needs create the services they need. He practically laughed at me (https://bretigne.liberty.me/dog-eat-dog-statism-for-special-needs-families-youre-either-at-the-table-or-youre-on-the-menu/). There was nothing in it for his boss or his boss’ supporters in reducing the very control that he uses to buy support.
In theory, politicians could offer liberty to their supporters. They could offer to cut back regulations, to end military aggression. But who is going to pay them for that? Again these are things that would benefit everyone, all of society. But the game of politics is not about benefitting all of society. And the widely accepted belief that it is is perhaps the most dangerous lie ever crafted.
In order for a seeker of liberty to win at this game, that person would have to compete with the campaign donations and other inducements made by military contractors, major pharmaceutical companies, oil companies – but these are all entities that have been made rich by virtue of government interventions and direct largesse. How can a liberty seeker hope to offer the same level of financial inducements to politicians as these people, when they are not also on the receiving end of the government slush?
This is the real reason that libertarians “don’t matter” in the political sphere. It’s not because they don’t vote.It’s because they don’t participate in the real game of politics – the interest-driven game that can never reward a player who wishes to dismantle the very engine of that game. People win at the game of politics by buying and selling political power over other people’s lives and resources. A player who wants to reduce that power will not find themselves rewarded within that game – they will find themselves spat out of it.
That’s why the political beasts are laughing at us. It’s not because we don’t vote – it’s because we don’t steal. And for these people – for people who never even question the morality of using state violence to get what they want – that is the biggest joke in the world.
This is why I don’t believe that it makes sense for a libertarian to vote. Voting is simply not a realm in which liberty wins.
[...] I am not going to help to prop up the charade that “we” control our government, or that it represents “the people.” (What does that even mean? Which people? The ones who all disagree with each other?) Our government is owned by military contractors, pharmaceutical companies, and a host of other concerns that are all feeding from that government’s trough in one way or another.
[...]
"
I forgot where I heard that, but it shows a truth because each of the 100million people have only $1 worth of incentive to work or spend money to oppose it, while the 100 people each have up to $1,000,000 worth of incentive to work and spend to get it passed.
I'll post a good chunk of the article (https://bretigne.liberty.me/why-i-wont-be-voting-the-real-reason-libertarians-dont-matter/) because people don't read linked articles and this one is worth reading.
"
Yes, politicians running for office care about votes. But just as much as votes – indeed, as a critical means of securing votes – they care about money.
[...]
Here’s the thing to understand: The things libertarians want – freedom, less govt. interference in markets & in personal choices, non-interventionist foreign policy… there is no money in these things for politicians. [...]
In fact, it is just the opposite: Corporations have long been in the business of paying politicians to intervene in markets on their behalf, to erect barriers to competition and in some cases to squash a particular competitor. Competition is wonderful for society as a whole. But it’s not so great if you’re one of the ones doing the competing. It’s hard, and sometimes you lose. Sometimes, if you’re big enough, it’s just easier to send some money in the direction of the people who can discover antitrust violations in your competitor’s business practices.
Understand that behind the empty campaign promises, politicians have essentially two things to offer to the people who support them: 1. Power, in the form of regulatory and other control, over competitors and others who may get in the way of a particular entity remaining comfortably profitable; 2. Money. Not their own money of course – your money, and my money. Taken from us in taxes, and in the continual devaluation of the government-issued money we all use. Politicians can give money to their supporters in the form of contracts for things like military equipment and public works projects, or in less direct ways, like mandating that government schools all stock epinephrine injectors that meet the same very specific product requirements that your device happens to meet.
And the list goes on. What is not on this list is liberty. Why? Because nowhere in this game is there an advantage to selling liberty. This point was driven home to me a few years ago when I asked a California senator’s policy consultant if his boss would consider relaxing business restrictions as a way to help parents of children with special needs create the services they need. He practically laughed at me (https://bretigne.liberty.me/dog-eat-dog-statism-for-special-needs-families-youre-either-at-the-table-or-youre-on-the-menu/). There was nothing in it for his boss or his boss’ supporters in reducing the very control that he uses to buy support.
In theory, politicians could offer liberty to their supporters. They could offer to cut back regulations, to end military aggression. But who is going to pay them for that? Again these are things that would benefit everyone, all of society. But the game of politics is not about benefitting all of society. And the widely accepted belief that it is is perhaps the most dangerous lie ever crafted.
In order for a seeker of liberty to win at this game, that person would have to compete with the campaign donations and other inducements made by military contractors, major pharmaceutical companies, oil companies – but these are all entities that have been made rich by virtue of government interventions and direct largesse. How can a liberty seeker hope to offer the same level of financial inducements to politicians as these people, when they are not also on the receiving end of the government slush?
This is the real reason that libertarians “don’t matter” in the political sphere. It’s not because they don’t vote.It’s because they don’t participate in the real game of politics – the interest-driven game that can never reward a player who wishes to dismantle the very engine of that game. People win at the game of politics by buying and selling political power over other people’s lives and resources. A player who wants to reduce that power will not find themselves rewarded within that game – they will find themselves spat out of it.
That’s why the political beasts are laughing at us. It’s not because we don’t vote – it’s because we don’t steal. And for these people – for people who never even question the morality of using state violence to get what they want – that is the biggest joke in the world.
This is why I don’t believe that it makes sense for a libertarian to vote. Voting is simply not a realm in which liberty wins.
[...] I am not going to help to prop up the charade that “we” control our government, or that it represents “the people.” (What does that even mean? Which people? The ones who all disagree with each other?) Our government is owned by military contractors, pharmaceutical companies, and a host of other concerns that are all feeding from that government’s trough in one way or another.
[...]
"