The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible - Bastiat Institute

60 Chapter 11 • Power Sale
No matter how
offi cials are selected,
they are only human
beings and they have
no rights or claims
that are higher than
those of any other
human beings.
Extract from
Jonathan’s Guiding
Principles
The polls are places
where you stand in
line for a chance
to decide who will
spend your money.
Anonymous
is the employee and you are the employer. The
ironic thing is that once you have hired him, he
is considered superior to you. This higher status
will be enforced in subtle ways: you are obliged
to pull over in order to allow his motor cavalcade
to pass; you will be required to address him as Sir
/ Mr Minister / Mr Secretary. After the election,
will he remember anything about you?
Once established in his position he will
have the power to increase his own salary and
privileges without your permission, and you will
be expected to pay. Without your permission
or approval he will be able to hire more staff
whose salaries you will be forced to pay. So
governments grow and grow, their expenses
grow and grow, and your taxes grow and grow
to pay for it all.
Knowing that your taxes go towards all
of this, you might wonder if you would be
better off by keeping your money rather than
paying for such a large government. What if
government was cut back? Would industry really
collapse without the “guidance” of a Minister of
Sport, another Minister for Art and Culture, still
others for Science and Technology, Agriculture,
Forestry, Minerals, and so on?
It would be useless to ask the politician if
he is necessary to the life of society. He is
sure to answer in a way that will preserve his
lucrative position of privilege. For the one thing
that is constant in politics is this: mainstream
politicians always offer solutions that increase,
rather than diminish, their own power.
Background
Boss Tweed was the kingpin in the Tammany
Hall organization of New York City during its
most corrupt period in the 19th century.
Logrolling (the trading of votes and favours
to get a law passed) and pork barrel spending