The Dispersed Public

Bernie is the start point for a revolution. Win or lose, his impact on politics will be profound, something the establishment fears without question. Obviously, yours truly wants him to win but more importantly, the more one reads about his record and approach to running and governing, the more one comes away with the fact that something's afoot, in a good way. :)

Stigler, in his “Theory of Economic Regulation” (1972), explained that regulation, which is presumably put in place to protect the public, will eventually be acquired, or “captured,” by the very companies, industries, or their trade unions that are supposed to be “regulated.”

Olson and Stigler predicted that special interest groups carry the day because they can organize and lobby. They can do this because they can raise a significant amount of resources to push their agenda. These predictions turned out to be very accurate most of the time. The best way to see that is in the vast and growing amount of money being spent by special interest groups on lobbying and campaign contributions, as well as the rents extracted in many industries that get de facto protection from competition The dispersed public was not relevant to this game.

Until 2016. For the first time in recent history, we have a politician who is able to raise serious, big money—the kind of money that can finance a big campaign—from the dispersed public.

Maybe real change can happen before it's too late.  One can only hope.

Happy Spring everyone. :)