{"id":35462,"date":"2016-08-16T01:00:02","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T05:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=35462"},"modified":"2016-08-06T10:48:52","modified_gmt":"2016-08-06T14:48:52","slug":"qotd-the-real-danger-of-expanding-the-power-of-the-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2016\/08\/16\/qotd-the-real-danger-of-expanding-the-power-of-the-state\/","title":{"rendered":"QotD: The real danger of expanding the power of the state"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>Every expansion of the state incites more people to compete \u2013 and to compete more intensely \u2013 to possess the power over others that that expansion brings. From each individual\u2019s perspective, it\u2019s better to be in the group that exercises power rather than in the groups against whom the power is exercised. Unlike competition in markets, competition for power wastes material resources and human time and energy (rent-seeking wastes); such competition is never win-win but, rather, win-lose. But also unlike competition in markets, competition for power results in the worst form of inequality \u2013 indeed, the only form of inequality that warrants legitimate concern \u2013 namely, inequality of power. Those with state power, regardless of how they acquire it, can command those without state power. Those with state power use force to override the choices of those without state power. Those with state power do the choosing; those without state power do the obeying.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike market-enabled differences in monetary incomes and wealth, this species of inequality \u2013 inequality of power \u2013 is inhumane and destructive, and it results from humans\u2019 most primitive impulses.<\/p>\n<p>Don Boudreaux, <a href=\"http:\/\/cafehayek.com\/2016\/07\/quotation-of-the-day-1785.html\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;Quotation of the Day\u2026&#8221;, <em>Caf\u00e9 Hayek<\/em><\/a>, 2016-07-25.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every expansion of the state incites more people to compete \u2013 and to compete more intensely \u2013 to possess the power over others that that expansion brings. From each individual\u2019s perspective, it\u2019s better to be in the group that exercises power rather than in the groups against whom the power is exercised. Unlike competition in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,41],"tags":[363,727,848],"class_list":["post-35462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-quotations","tag-corruption","tag-cronycapitalism","tag-rentseeking"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-9dY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35463,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35462\/revisions\/35463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}