Government Corrupts

Earned power, the kind you get by figuring out what others want and giving it to them, all through voluntary interaction, tends toward virtue. Earned power is a pleasure all around. When people are benefited without stealing from or coercing anyone, the sum total of good in the world increases. People actually want to reward those who make them feel good, so we're talking about a virtuous cycle here .

And yet, earning power virtuously this way can be a lot of work, and in a world where unearned power is everywhere on display it can seem a fools game. Why should you be content to work when, not only is someone you know living off a government check, but TV images portray the wielders of unearned power as better than the rest.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that almost all politicians and many business owners and managers have been working hand in glove for so long that the line between earned and unearned power has vanished for the bigger players whose favored, manipulative relationship with government places their gains squarely in the unearned-reward category.

No one knows anymore how to get business and government out of the same bed. Almost no one can imagine a world without this vice. Worse yet, most of those who think that something is wrong with the way businesses benefit from their relationship with politicians simply want government to regulate businesses into submission.

Few understand that this business/government partnership is a symptom, not of corruption, but of government itself, and that it will develop under any system of government. It can't be solved as long as government exists.

Successful businesses are dynamic, opportunistic, nimble and single minded while all government can do is coerce, steal and redistribute the loot. Government is a complacent occupation force, jealous at all times and brutal when confronted, whose preferred condition is inertia, while successful businesses thrive on challenge. Fundamentally wedded to force and fraud, government will always be at a competitive disadvantage vis a vis business, which must seek to influence it.

Regulation that is not managed by the business it regulates is too dangerous for them to ignore. Therefore, where government and business mix it is inevitable that the regulated will seek to become the regulator.

For business, standing aside only encourages others to determine their future without them even being at the bargaining table. Therefore, when government regulations or contracts choose winners and losers, every business with the reasourses to do so will be sucked into the game of influence buying. The key to success becomes getting one of the 435 Congressmen or 100 Senators to favor you. No other course is rational.

Wal Mart is an example of a large business that attempted to operate legally with minimal lobbying. Finding that its competitors and other enemies were not of the same mind, Wal Mart was ultimately forced to engage lobbyists and fund politicians as a counter measure. Government simply sucks businesses into its orbit, whether or not they want to go there.

Government is the problem - not this government or that one, but government itself.