Comments on: Is “politician” just another service industry job? http://barrdear.com/john/2009/05/31/is-politician-just-another-service-industry-job/ Thoughts about economics, politics and life in general Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:54:29 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Would You Like Subsidiarity With That? « Conflated Automatons http://barrdear.com/john/2009/05/31/is-politician-just-another-service-industry-job/comment-page-1/#comment-1867 Would You Like Subsidiarity With That? « Conflated Automatons Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:22:20 +0000 http://barrdear.com/john/?p=541#comment-1867 [...] You Like Subsidiarity With That? By conflatedautomatons As it happens, the question of whether politics is a service industry once came up at the family dinner table, a number of years ago. I remember it because, on airing, [...] [...] You Like Subsidiarity With That? By conflatedautomatons As it happens, the question of whether politics is a service industry once came up at the family dinner table, a number of years ago. I remember it because, on airing, [...]

]]> By: Gimpei http://barrdear.com/john/2009/05/31/is-politician-just-another-service-industry-job/comment-page-1/#comment-1855 Gimpei Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:59:03 +0000 http://barrdear.com/john/?p=541#comment-1855 Two comments: 1) Direct democracy is a terrible idea. Look at California. Interest groups will pay large amounts of money to get people to vote for bad laws and lawmakers won't resist since the advertising campaign will generate lots of public support. 2) Here's an argument why ethics matter more for a politician than a surgeon. If you die at the hands of a surgeon, nobody cares but you and your friends/family. But if a politician uses public money, everyone cares a little bit, and their whining adds up through the magic of aggregation. Two comments:

1) Direct democracy is a terrible idea. Look at California. Interest groups will pay large amounts of money to get people to vote for bad laws and lawmakers won’t resist since the advertising campaign will generate lots of public support.

2) Here’s an argument why ethics matter more for a politician than a surgeon. If you die at the hands of a surgeon, nobody cares but you and your friends/family. But if a politician uses public money, everyone cares a little bit, and their whining adds up through the magic of aggregation.

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