The latest bit of corruption motivated this cartoon, but if I drew Immelt, Obama and some kind of revolving door between Washington and Wall Street (Wall Street being symbolic of business in general) and piles of cash then it would be a “dated” cartoon.

Truth is of course that this is just business as usual, not just in Washington, but it is the nature of power and those who seek it. My own laissez-faire views do not blind me to this fact but only strengthens my conviction that men in general cannot be trusted with too much power.

Those that find themselves on the Left by dint of their personal nature (as opposed to politicians) trust the government implicitly to regulate society for the greatest possible benefit of the population. Thus when confronted with any kind of individualist outlook they project their own belief systems on to that opposing view, and believe that those adhering to such beliefs must also trust implicitly in the “business man.” They love to cite instances of rent-seeking by Walmart or some other big corporation as evidence that capitalism as a whole is broken or otherwise corrupt. But of course men pursue money as water flows downhill; it flows around, under, or over obstacles without regard for the individual obstacle.

Russ Roberts said something one time in a podcast about (I’m paraphrasing) money flowing to power. So if we take power away from the state, or keep them from amassing too much power in the first place, then there will of course be less money flowing to Washington.