Not always.
Anyone that has read Atlas Shrugged or something like it already knew this, but it does seem counter-intuitive. As the short article linked to above (also read the comments) points out, businesses can seek favor from the government just like any other group. Many businesses and business owners support free market principles but some will seek unwarranted benefits from the government. Any special benefits these businesses get distorts the market and usually leads to some inefficiency which taxpayers pay for. Public choice economics tells us that since the benefits of such policies are concentrated in a relatively small group (some business owners vs. everyone else), that group (some business owners) will advocate heavily for such policies while the costs of the policy are spread around to everyone else.
(HT Cafe Hayek)
What do you propose as a way to combat this power concentration issue?
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