Symptoms

I heard an excellent Econtalk.org podcast this morning. Mike Munger put it something like this.

People want to get rid of the money and lobbying to influence politics. But that is the symptom, not the cause.

If we give away wealth, people will compete for that wealth. Giving away wealth brings money and corruption into politics. If you want to reduce the symptom, advocate eliminating the cause. Advocate that government stop giving wealth away.

I thought he boiled it down well. So I will belabor the point by creating a non-government analogy, in direct opposition to his concise wisdom.

If Walmart opens the door every Monday and gives everything in the store away, people will fight and scratch to obtain their weekly or monthly food and necessities and luxuries, resulting in injuries and deaths. Free market prices provide orderly competition and eliminate the fighting and scratching.