Theft at the Public Till
Due to no fault of their own, an exogenous event over which they had no control has harmed them. A natural disaster had just overwhelmed them. A mindless bureaucracy was about to deprive them of life, liberty, or property. In short, bad things are happening to good people, and there ought to be a law against it. Government help was urgently needed. To oppose such help is evil incarnate.” “Even in principle, the line between public-spiritedness and pursuit of private gain is subjective. One person’s public spirited crusader for envi- ronmental sanity or entrepreneurial freedom is another’s job-destroying Luddite or selfish tycoon. Garment workers’ unions long defended federal regulations forbidding people from doing commercial sewing at home. You could say they were fighting to prevent a resurgence of exploitative sweat- shops, or that they were trying to throw their nonunion competition out of work. Take your pick.” “Indeed, idealistic activists can be much more expensive than cynical opportunists. A man who wants to take your car just for the money can often be warded off by an alarm, which may make the effort not worth the trouble. But the man who believes he is entitled to your car can be much more persistent. ‘Dammit,’ he thinks, ‘that’s my car, and no bastard is going to keep it from me.’” “The merely greedy give up when they stop seeing dollar signs, but the outraged don’t stop lobbying or suing till they get their rights. In fact, someone who is morally outraged is easily capable of spending more than $10,000 to get your $10,000 car: even if he suffers a financial loss, he makes his point and makes you miserable. He might even destroy the car if he fails to get it; better to ruin the car than allow you to enjoy it.” “A tapeworm doesn’t hate you and isn’t out to get you. It is just try- ing to get what it thinks is its fair share. Similarly, the investors in the transfer-seeking economy aren’t out to wreck the economy. They are just trying to get what they think is their fair share.” “Or, rather, we are just trying to get our fair share. If you seek or receive any sort of benefit from Washington (or the state capitals), you are in on the game. It is safe to say, indeed, that every American is implicated in
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