Here’s one of my favorite lines from Thomas Sowell: ?Economists may say that there is no such thing as a free lunch, but politicians get elected by promising free lunches.?
Does this mean politicians are evil? No. Some are evil. Most simply respond to the incentives they face when seeking election.
And Business Week?s report about the latest news from Britain?s national election campaign will do little to dissuade politicians from their standard free-lunch-promising ways:
How the Tories squandered their advantage is a matter of debate. Just about everyone agrees that the party’s pronouncements on the economy, which shrank 4.8% in 2009, have played a big role. The Conservatives have been brutally frank on the need to rein in the budget deficit, projected at 12.6% of gross domestic product for this fiscal year. George Osborne, the party’s choice for Chancellor of the Exchequer, wants an emergency budget within 50 days of the Tories’ taking power that will freeze public sector pay, cut the cost of central government by 33% over five years, and boost the qualifying age for a pension. Whoever wins the election, he said on Feb. 25, “will have to be tougher than Margaret Thatcher.”
If this sort of veracity can kill the British Conservatives? election chances, it?s no wonder most politicians would rather blow smoke.
