What about people who have more wealth? They can buy votes and rig the system in their favor!
Question 41 in Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded
This question is from Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded, available in paperback, PDF, and Kindle.
It is true that wealthy political donors can obtain ready access to elected policymakers in a way that other people cannot. This is true despite complicated campaign finance laws and limitations on how and when money may be donated. Taxing wealthy people more cannot change that—they will still have plenty of things that others want.
Even where campaign contributions are not at issue, lobbyists often get their way for another, seemingly benign reason: lobbyists are usually experts in their policy areas. Politicians learn to rely on lobbyists to efficiently explain complex legal and policy issues to them. It should be unsurprising when the “students” later reach the same policy positions as their “teachers.”
Lord Acton, a 19th century English historian, famously said that “power tends to corrupt.” The libertarian solution is to rely more on markets and to rely less on political policymaking. Markets are ultimately controlled by consumer preference and the realities of business. Though individuals make mistakes sometimes, when they are engaged in market activities the personal consequences of failure naturally motivate them to exercise great care.
Economists sometimes refer to a problem called “moral hazard.” Moral hazard exists when a decision maker has an incentive to increase risk because they are not directly impacted by the consequences of that risk. For example, many libertarians are concerned that banks engage in riskier conduct because of the prospect of government bailouts. The decisions politicians make are chiefly about other people’s resources, not their own. Private entrepreneurs and investors are financially accountable for their actions in a way that politicians never are.
Christians know that perverting justice, especially for money, is an abomination to God (Deut 16:18–20). Politicizing and bureaucratizing justice does not promote equality before the law. In fact, political and bureaucratic incentives can facilitate further injustice. We know this from economic theory. We also know it from scripture (Eccl 5:8–9).