“But politicians who talk about failed policies are just blowing smoke. Government policies succeed in doing exactly what they are supposed to do: channelling resources bilked from the general public to politically organized and influential interests groups.” ~ Robert Higgs
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Robert Tracinksi makes a similar point when he rails against 'The Law of Unintended Consequences" (excerpt below). That lets the proponents of the harmful policy off the hook too easily, and we should instead be talking about 'The Law of Intended Consequences'.
"The intended consequence of every statist scheme is to use the power of government to loot from one group of people for the benefit of another group. The purpose of government intervention in a free economy is always to use the power of government to thwart the plans and ambitions of private citizens in favor of the plans and ambitions of politicians and bureaucrats. Politicians can (and frequently do) make mistakes about who will really benefit and who will really suffer from their policies. But government regulation of the economy, whether though ethanol supports or some other scheme, is a corrupt endeavor from the very beginning, because there is no honest way to steal."
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