On the merits of bribery.

(and not just the kind you pay on the side of the highway in a 3rd world country)

If I owned or ran a company in a big, capital intensive, heavily regulated industry, I’d bribe politicians and regulators. I’d do it a lot. As much as I could. I’d go out of my way to commit the crime of bribery.

You’d be insane not to.

Oh, and I’d lobby the heck out of Congress. I’d build a palace on K Street and invite all the politicians and regulators to wild, expensive, lavish parties all the time. Members of the media too. I’d hire prostitutes for them and try to get pictures of them in compromising situations.

Again, you’d be insane not to.

Imagine being the head of a big company, having capital investments in the billions, operating on razor-thin margins. You have hundreds or thousands of employees. You and your enterprise have plans going into the future for several decades.

You’ve got all this at stake, and some twits in the government can decide on a whim to completely ruin you?

“Oh, cool car company you’ve got there! And look at you! Nice oil and gas business! Thing is, we’re thinking of mandating 100% electric cars throughout the country next week.”

Of course you’d bribe them. You’d do anything in your power to make sure that those people were completely wrapped around your finger.

It would be fiduciarily irresponsible not to.

It can be frustrating watching all the blatant cronyism in Washington DC, all the corruption between business and government (and media) that has the effect of screwing the taxpayer and customer.

But what else should we expect when we give a monopoly government all this power?

Even if you “got in the game” of trying to influence regulators for noble purposes, just to keep them off your back, say. How long could you last before you started using your influence for offensive, rather than defensive, purposes?

Everybody else is. You’d be insane not to do so yourself.

So when you shake your head at all the blatant corruption and bribery in our system (which detractors hilariously call the “free market”), just remember that it’s inevitable.

Corruption was literally designed into the system.

That’s why the Founders of this country tried to give us a very small, very restricted government. That’s why I argue that the proper political system for humans is no monopolistic government at all.

But until we wake up and demand to be freed from this current leviathan, expect more bribes and cronyism and public/private, fascistic awfulness.

You’d be insane not to.

Naturally,

Adam

PS: Consider learning all the good, solid historical and philosophical reasons why we should shrink the government by gifting yourself the education you probably wished they had given you in school. It’s called Liberty Classroom by the great Tom Woods. Check it out!