Also by buying off or convincing those who think they have concentrated benefits that they are wrong and should stand down, as even they get more benefit from ending the diffuse costs.
This really doesn’t seem like a good way to get politics done. Is this even legal? And if it is, do you really think it makes the government better to have people effectively bribing politicians?
Those benefitting are usually not politicians, they’re commercial interests who make money from the status quo. They will oppose efforts that cause them to lose money even if the change is a net good overall, but you can quiet them down by giving them a bunch of money. Typically doing so is still a net good, because the cost of buying off the opposition is (usually) less than the value gained by the rest of society.
Perhaps the verb “buy off” is not the best one here, but I’m not sure what else you’d use. If you’re morally offended by the idea of offering payments to lessen the sting for people who suffer a concrete downside from your policies then, uh, don’t go into politics I guess.
This sentence refers to interest groups, not to politicians or officials. It refers to unions, who want bargaining power, and union members, who want stable jobs and good pay. Or to businesses with a captive market, like American shipbuilders and dredge operators.
These groups think they are getting a payoff from status quo, and it is one they want to keep. The solution is therefore to match the payoff under the new proposal, or persuade them (of the truth that) they are not actually getting the payoff they think.
This really doesn’t seem like a good way to get politics done. Is this even legal? And if it is, do you really think it makes the government better to have people effectively bribing politicians?
Those benefitting are usually not politicians, they’re commercial interests who make money from the status quo. They will oppose efforts that cause them to lose money even if the change is a net good overall, but you can quiet them down by giving them a bunch of money. Typically doing so is still a net good, because the cost of buying off the opposition is (usually) less than the value gained by the rest of society.
Perhaps the verb “buy off” is not the best one here, but I’m not sure what else you’d use. If you’re morally offended by the idea of offering payments to lessen the sting for people who suffer a concrete downside from your policies then, uh, don’t go into politics I guess.
This sentence refers to interest groups, not to politicians or officials. It refers to unions, who want bargaining power, and union members, who want stable jobs and good pay. Or to businesses with a captive market, like American shipbuilders and dredge operators.
These groups think they are getting a payoff from status quo, and it is one they want to keep. The solution is therefore to match the payoff under the new proposal, or persuade them (of the truth that) they are not actually getting the payoff they think.