Don Boudreaux on Public Choice

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2010

⏱️ 69 minutes

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Summary

Don Boudreaux of George Mason University talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about public choice: the application of economics to the political process. Boudreaux argues that political competition is a blunt instrument that works less effectively than economic competition. One reason for this bluntness is the voting process itself--where intensity does not matter, only whether a voter prefers one candidate to the other. A second reason is that political outcomes tend to be one-size-fits-all, which often leads to dissatisfaction. Boudreaux defends the morality of not voting, while Roberts, who does vote from time to time, concedes that one's vote is almost always irrelevant in determining the outcome.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:12.5	I'm your host Russ Roberts of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover
0:17.3	Institution.
0:18.7	Our website is econtalk.org, where you can subscribe, find other episodes, comment on this podcast,
0:25.8	and find links to other information related to today's conversation.
0:29.9	Our email address is mailadicontalk.org, we'd love to hear from you.
0:38.7	Today is March 2nd, 2010, and my guest today is Don Boudreau of George Mason University.
0:44.0	Don, welcome back to Econ Talk.
0:45.8	Always good to be here.
0:47.4	Our topic for today is public choice, the application of economics to political science and the
0:52.7	political process, and I want to start us off with a story that you or the cause of in
1:00.2	a couple of podcasts back with Garrett Jones.
1:02.5	I referenced a letter you wrote, a letter to the editor on the death of John Murther.
1:07.8	I want to reprise that, my reaction to that, and let you chime in.
1:11.3	I also want to mention some of the reactions we got from listeners.
1:16.4	John Murther passed away a couple of weeks ago, and he was lauded on the front page of
1:22.6	the Washington Post in his obituary as the king of pork that he had done a very good job
1:28.7	bringing goodies back to his home district, his constituents, and you wrote, and I thought
1:36.8	a clever and thoughtful point that if a person went around the country breaking into other
1:43.2	people's houses stealing their money, taking their cars, burglaring houses, and breaking
1:50.4	into bags, and then came back and distributed the proceeds to one's buddies in one's home
1:57.8	town.
	...

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