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Politics Promotes Myopia

In my latest column in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, I rehearse the important public-choice insight that the need to win the next election causes politicians’ time-horizons to be shorter than are the time horizons of owners of private property.  Put differently, politicians act even more short-termedly than you would act if a trusted physician told you that you have only one year left to live.  A slice:

One of the greatest economic misunderstandings is the myth that government officials are more attentive to the long run than are private entrepreneurs, investors and other owners of private property. Private property rights cause us to live for tomorrow, while the need to win political elections causes politicians to live only for today.

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