Speaking of Fascism...

The Daily Scaife publishes an op-ed attacking American democracy:

But citizens have no incentives to make mature decisions in the voting booth.

First, voters are typically asked to decide how to spend other people's money. Just as children have no trouble spending mom's and dad's money, voters have no trouble voting for pet projects to be financed mostly by others.

Second, no single vote decides an election's outcome. So regardless how a voter votes -- regardless how unrealistic or even destructive a voter's wish might be -- the fact that no vote is decisive means that no individual voter incurs any material cost of voting in whatever way strikes his fancy.

As I've written in these pages before, citizens in voting booths are like children on Sen. Santa's knee. Enter the voting booth and vote for the candidate promising the greatest amount of wizardry. Because your vote isn't decisive, you suffer no personal repercussions of casting your ballot to express all sorts of fantasies. Of course, every other voter is in an identical position.

Thus, democratic elections encourage voters to behave irresponsibly, just as sitting on Santa's knee encourages children to rattle off long wish lists of toys. But unlike shopping-mall Santas, voting booths tally up voters' dream-world requests and pass them on to government. Politicians try in vain to satisfy these unsatisfiable requests.

Compare democratic voting with private decision-making. Perhaps a car buyer dreams of owning a car that gets 150 mpg, packs herds of horsepower and is safe as a tank. Automakers will supply such cars to buyers willing to pay the price. But because such cars must be paid for by each individual buyer, no buyer indulges these costly fantasies. Each buyer settles for a less fanciful car because each buyer prefers to save the extra money it would cost to buy the fantasy automobile.

Such rational weighing of costs and benefits is the mark of maturity. Pathetically, democratic voting encourages too many otherwise mature adults to behave like spoiled brats propped on Santa's knee.

So there it is.

I suppose I should be happy that one of these people is admitting what the right truly believes: American citizens can't be trusted to make the right decision. The implication is, of course, that a select few should be given (or should they simply take?) the power to make decisions for us.

A republic or a monarchy?


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