[ExI] If Politicians were Innocent and Honest

[Lee Corbin]

Stathis also wrote (in "[Exi]punishment")

 > If government action can make people poorer then different government
> action, whether that means increasing taxes and services or decreasing
> them, should be able to have the opposite effect, no?

I'll grant that government can *improve* things in only
very rare instances, and solely as a function of an
ambient economic atmosphere and current cultural height.

For example, in the early 1800s no one could finance the
Erie Canal because the beneficiaries suffered from the
free-rider problem. It repaid society enormously when
the state of New York (and IIRC the federal government)
made the project possible.

But for each such success,
there are many failures. Witness the disasterous cross-
continental railroad of the early 1860's. It's widely
ballyhooed, but it was a disaster. The corruption
financed by special interests totally sacrificed quality
for speed, cost the taxpayers millions, and gave the
railroad corporations immense riches (by way of land
grants) and power.

> Of course there would still be winners and losers.
 > Lucifer was an almost perfect being ruled perfectly
 > by a perfect being, but still he was dissatisfied.
 > And good for him!

Lucifer was a traitorous bastard who deserved to go to
hell. And if all those stories are to be believed, then
in addition, to this day he still causes mischief and
the corruption of souls. And if there is anything we
need less of, it's corruption!

Lee