Para estrear 2011, excertos do artigo: Donald J. Boudreaux Why Honorable People Avoid Politics. Para ir apimentando o ambiente e dentro de 23 dias cumprirmos mais um ritual eleitoral perante o variadíssimo e prestigiado leque de alternativas disponíveis à ocupação da Presidência.
First and least importantly, describing politicians as public servants is inaccurate. Does anyone really believe that the typical politician seeks office, not to enjoy the fame and career opportunities afforded by elected office, but mainly to help the public? Call me cynical...
Second, politicians don’t beg for money; they sell a service namely, use of government’s coercive power to achieve for interest groups what these groups cannot or will not achieve peacefully on the market.
Politicians, however, don’t make their livings in the market. They are in the coercion business and, as such, are unaccustomed to the voluntary nature of peaceful market relationships. Their salaries are paid out of funds forcibly extracted from taxpayers, and their careers are spent drafting and debating prospective statutes that diminish the freedoms of innocent people.
Any class of people accustomed to issuing commands that are enforced with threats of coercion is a class of people who regard as degrading any need on their part to resort to persuasion rather than force as a means of getting what they want.
More likely, honorable people steer clear of politics for the following two reasons. The first is that honorable people have no taste for minding other people’s business or for living off of the fruits of other people’s earnings. Nor do honorable people enjoy the kinds of public attention given to politicians.
The second reason that honorable people avoid politics is that they could not stomach having to utter all that politicians must utter to win office. Judging from modern American practice, successful pursuit and maintenance of political office require the utterance of an unending stream of statements that are silly, vapid, or false. No honorable man or woman would say to an audience of millions “I feel your pain” or “I didn’t inhale” or any of the countless other lunacies that spew daily from the mouths of politicians of every party.
Honorable people avoid political careers not because of the need to raise funds. Rather, honorable people avoid politics because they are revolted by the prospect of behaving indecently.
Second, politicians don’t beg for money; they sell a service namely, use of government’s coercive power to achieve for interest groups what these groups cannot or will not achieve peacefully on the market.
Politicians, however, don’t make their livings in the market. They are in the coercion business and, as such, are unaccustomed to the voluntary nature of peaceful market relationships. Their salaries are paid out of funds forcibly extracted from taxpayers, and their careers are spent drafting and debating prospective statutes that diminish the freedoms of innocent people.
Any class of people accustomed to issuing commands that are enforced with threats of coercion is a class of people who regard as degrading any need on their part to resort to persuasion rather than force as a means of getting what they want.
More likely, honorable people steer clear of politics for the following two reasons. The first is that honorable people have no taste for minding other people’s business or for living off of the fruits of other people’s earnings. Nor do honorable people enjoy the kinds of public attention given to politicians.
The second reason that honorable people avoid politics is that they could not stomach having to utter all that politicians must utter to win office. Judging from modern American practice, successful pursuit and maintenance of political office require the utterance of an unending stream of statements that are silly, vapid, or false. No honorable man or woman would say to an audience of millions “I feel your pain” or “I didn’t inhale” or any of the countless other lunacies that spew daily from the mouths of politicians of every party.
Honorable people avoid political careers not because of the need to raise funds. Rather, honorable people avoid politics because they are revolted by the prospect of behaving indecently.
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