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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ManyMoose who wrote (161594)	3/23/2006 12:23:33 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793964

More importantly, it's the old democratic problem of concentrated benefits and diffuse costs: <Environmental lobbyists have way more power than their numbers would indicate because they are persistent and loud.> Most rabid groups can get political support, aka taxpayer money, aka OPM [other people's money] in democratic systems because they care a LOT about the issue and will vote accordingly. Other people are usually indifferent. The environmentalists [other groups] squeal and whine and threaten to vote for somebody else if they don't get their way and some money and some jobs and conventions and other perks. Normal humans consider the matter, see a tiny increase in their taxes and don't care one way or the other, so their votes aren't influenced by the policy or the tax effect. Politicians buy off as many as they can. Eventually, the whole thing collapses in a heap, and after economic carnage, something happens. It's a self-balancing system because like any parasite, bludgers can only exist AFTER the producer has produced OPM to be sucked. As the load goes more and more onto the producers, they eventually start to notice their taxes are higher than their own special interests, especially as politicians are so greedy and the amount paid out in bribes is a lot less than the money taken in by taxation and other government fees. It's financial entropy and in any system, entropy is waste and inefficiency. So, like any squeaky wheel which is supporting the politicians, the environmental lobbyists get a lot of OPM-oil. Mqurice