Liberals and Markets, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“With Adam Smith, we see bread on our table coming not from the benevolence of the baker but from his self-interest as filtered through the mechanism of the market. We see the government as an arena where rent-seeking is just as aggressive as in the market—except that the forces of competition are weaker for government-generated rents than for rents that can be temporarily captured in the market.”
The topic of rent-seeking is not discussed enough by Libertarians. Lobbying and electioneering are a problem created by too much government, not lack of regulation.
