“Free markets are flawed because humans are selfish and irrational, so therefore we need to give more power and money to politicians and bureaucrats, who somehow are all selfless and brilliant ???

I can’t believe how often I see this line of thought used by statists who visit this sub and criticize us.

They give all kind of criticisms of free markets and how the state is better served to solve some problems, as if the people controlling the state aren’t humans just like the rest of us, as if they don’t care about their own interests, as if they’re all omniscient experts who are knowledgeable about everything and always make the best decisions.

No, the fact that politicians are elected by voters and don’t need to make a profit doesn’t make a substantial difference, it doesn’t render politicians into virtuous human beings who care about nothing but the common good and always do what’s best for others. You have to be incredibly naive to believe that.

First, politicians do seek profits as well, just look at recent corruption scandals like Eric Adams and Bob Menendez. Government corruption is very common worldwide, even in longtime democratic countries like Brazil and India. So even if politicians don’t need to chase profits, they still do.

Politicians, furthermore , only care about reelected, and that doesn’t always entail doing what’s right, because voters are often irrational too. So when voters support bad policies, politicians will so as well. Look at social security or agricultural subsidies for example, they are very inefficient spending programs criticized by tons of economists, but politicians don’t dare to touch them even if they know they are bad policies. Countries like France and Italy are getting bankrupted by their pension systems but they still refuse to reform. The CAP is literally corrupt yet the EU spends a third of its budget on it.

Politicians aren’t any better people than their voters. They are voted in by them, they represent them after all. In fact, politicians are often worse than their voters, because politics isn’t for the average person; it attracts a specific type of person, someone who is power hungry, narcissistic, controlling and sometimes idealistic and ideological. People like Lenin and Mao are extreme examples of this.

Regular people also wouldn’t want to weather the heat and pressure that comes with politics, you have to be willing to pay a very high price if you want to endure that. Only a certain type of people are that way. Many smart and good people don’t enter politics for these reasons. That’s also why politicians can’t be expected to do what’s in their constituents’ best interests.

If you’re a leftist who still disagrees with me, then just go and take a look at your representatives (if you even know who they are). Can you honestly see them and think to yourself: “wow, these people are wise and virtuous and I’m confident they’ll do what’s best for me”? Seriously?

When I look at my representatives, both on the local and national level, I see a lot of clowns and people with no clue about economics. Not all of them, but a significant amount. Google “Geert Wilders” for an example, he’s a far right populist who’s been in parliament for decades, his party has no members but him and he got a quarter of all votes and won the election.

The point of all this is: the fact that humans are flawed doesn’t mean free markets are bad and it doesn’t mean giving more power to politicians will lead to better outcomes. At least under free markets you can choose not to interact with people you don’t like, whereas politicians can make stupid decisions over you no matter what you want.