The quote—as in the context of the source—hasn’t much to do with perfect rationality or perfect market considerations. Supply and demand of policies undeniably influence policymaking regardless of the actors’ rationality, in a political environment like the US. Patri Friedman’s point was that if you support a policy that cuts against the grain of mainstream (libertarianism in his case) it is ineffective to engage in the usual lobbying behavior.
In a nutshell, it’s not that policies are already perfect, but that policies are already set by people other than you.
Oh, yeah, reading the context, that makes a bit more sense. Although people trying to get specific policies implemented is a very important part of our political ecosystem, he’s not satisfied with “incremental increases in freedom” and recognizes that agitation (and, more importantly, the U.S. democracy) is not going to give him radical changes. The impression that agitation flat out doesn’t work is just an emotional argument for the real ideas.
The quote—as in the context of the source—hasn’t much to do with perfect rationality or perfect market considerations. Supply and demand of policies undeniably influence policymaking regardless of the actors’ rationality, in a political environment like the US. Patri Friedman’s point was that if you support a policy that cuts against the grain of mainstream (libertarianism in his case) it is ineffective to engage in the usual lobbying behavior.
In a nutshell, it’s not that policies are already perfect, but that policies are already set by people other than you.
Oh, yeah, reading the context, that makes a bit more sense. Although people trying to get specific policies implemented is a very important part of our political ecosystem, he’s not satisfied with “incremental increases in freedom” and recognizes that agitation (and, more importantly, the U.S. democracy) is not going to give him radical changes. The impression that agitation flat out doesn’t work is just an emotional argument for the real ideas.