Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Freakin' A! I just started reading the book Freakonomics. It's that book by that economist who proved that the sharp, nation-wide decrease in crime in the mid 1990s was a result not of the strong economy but of Roe v. Wade. You see, because fewer low-income women were having unwanted babies, 20 years later, fewer unwanted children were growing up to become criminals.

So far I've only got through the Introduction, but I'm loving the book already. It has already confirmed something I have long believed -- that money doesn't buy political power. Money simply flows to political power.

Although rich people tend to do well in political contests, all the money in the world would could never buy a President Forbes or a President Perot. Political appeal is what's most important, and politicians with such appeal garner money the same way they garner votes.

The same is true for political issues, I believe. Politicians don't support school vouchers because such lobbyists pay them. Lobbyists pay only the politicians who already support school vouchers.

I'm not naive enough to believe that money has no influence in politics, but I think its influence has been vastly overstated. And when the solution is to drastically cut free expression, such as what the new Campaign Finance Reform law does, then people need to educate themselves about the true nature of politics and money.