Lice and Lobbies
The Fear-driven wish to force their betters to provide what nature cannot give them: guarantees. Irrational lobbies are the con man’s equivalent of the Self-made’s patent, copyright, and trademark. In such forms as subsidies and charters, they attempt to survive by transferring the burden of their instabilities to the rest of us. The State is just a group of men with one critical difference—the capacity to legislate—which means the right to initiate the use of force against others. When violence is allowed in industry, pull becomes the currency—the hottest commodity—and the easiest to lose control of.
The power to grant monopolies, bar competition, and dictate regulations—rational or not—forces businessmen into a struggle for legal advantages. Laws go to protect the highest bidder and leave our society’s moral efficiency for dead until enough of a public uproar is made. It is not the fault of businessmen per se; while some use political subversion to gain advantages, the rest must pay representatives to protect themselves from it, minimizing where they would prefer to invest—in scientific and commercial advancements. Such a power drives the good men out, then drives the very good out of those who remain.
If you wonder why nothing changes, it is because like-minded politicians make a business of it. Just as you choose raw materials for the composition of your products, your life and production is the value behind any deal they make. If a new check were added to the process, giving the people a direct vote on issues critical to them through the internet, the number of people corrupt men would have to bribe would be unlimited, and therefore impossible. Technology makes this system reform possible, and outrageous conduct in Washington makes it essential. Such a website network would limit the power of our representatives to take advantage as well. It should disclose all lobbies involved and have each senator provide details and their own viewpoints so their constituents can make well-informed decisions.