Magic Numbers in Politics: Part II by Thomas Sowell

Congress, by citing unsupported imperatives, is able to convince each other to act in the interest of the governed. In doing so, our freedoms are being eroded away bit by bit, and with the recent Congress, at a faster pace. We must, as Thomas Sowell states in his article, begin to weight these imperatives against their cost and effect. Think MPG and Government Health Care.

In real life, people weigh one thing against another. But in politics one declares one thing to be imperative, so the issue then becomes how we do it. In real life, all sorts of desirable things are not done, either because of other desirable things that would have to be sacrificed to do it or because of the dangers incurred in achieving the desired objective are worse than the problem we want to solve. Thomas Sowell :: Townhall.com, Magic Numbers in Politics: Part II