Why Good Politics is Bad Economics

The day when voters choose politicians. Politicians never admit the harm they caused by legislation, taxes, rules, regulations and all the other actions. It's always the talk of how allegedly they help the people. All their past supposedly favors to the people are mentioned. On top of that fear is used. Politicians warn people about other political parties. Politicians sell themselves like whores and promise many favors to the voters if elected. Of course, they cannot please all the voters. What they mean is we are going to steal money from the majority to satisfy certain groups or individuals within the voting population through all kinds of government programs.

Tariffs are an example of such favors. They generate additional costs to producers and consumers, yet somehow it is better if voters pay higher prices for goods or services. They harm the majority while are benefiting only a fraction of the population. I don't attack Donald Trump as I don't see him worse than Obama or Clintons. Anyway, how are we winning the trade war with China? The trade deficit is much higher today than in the past when Trump was elected. I don't even mention the budget deficit which goes through the ceiling and roof to space. I guess we will need the space force mentioned by Donald Trump to find both of these deficits.

Why such policies as tariffs and numerous others are politically popular if at the end the consumer is required to pay more for goods and services. Economic science is prone to errors as individuals chase their interests. Selfish interests make people believe in a version of economics good for him/her but bad for the overall population. Food stamps might be good for one group of people and damaging to other groups. The same rules apply to tariffs, minimum wage, public schools, social security, agriculture subsidy, banks bailouts, wall street bailouts, general motors bailout and thousands of other government activities. It is ridiculous what you can get people to believe with lobbying campaigns, and it can happen only with the help of politicians and government. People have some economic interests equal with those of other people. Additionally, certain groups have interests antagonistic to the rest of the population. Of course, many economists associated with certain groups praise policies desired by their supporters. Politicians usually say their actions are beneficial to everyone. The job of an economist is to consider whether policies attain the ends marketed by those who favor it. The truth is that most of the actions of politicians harm nearly everyone and benefit only a few. You do not want to believe me? You don't need to listen to me. You can listen to Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman, or Friedrich von Hayek.

What is the solution and what is good economics? How can we all poor, rich, or middle-class have a higher standard of living? The answer is the free market economy, but we will write more about it in our future articles.