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.
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.