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A comment on For a Better Economy, Add Commuter Rail?. Parent comment

Re:For a Better Economy, Add Commuter Rail? by praxulus on Saturday August 13, 2016 @08:58PM (#12283821)
When business competition goes awry, government steps in to correct the market failure. Who steps in when government competition goes awry?

Governments are not perfect substitutes for each other. Packing up and moving to another city is harder than changing almost any other consumer choice.

Government officials don't compete to make their citizens as happy as possible, they compete to make their voter base as happy as possible. If they can improve the lives of the majority of their voters by hurting non-voters or those who vote for someone else, they have every incentive to do so.

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Re:For a Better Economy, Add Commuter Rail? by StanislavPetrov on Saturday August 13, 2016 @09:21PM (#12283876)
>Government officials don't compete to make their citizens as happy as possible, they compete to make their voter base as happy as possible.

No, government officials compete to make their donors and patrons as happy as possible. A government functionary that stands to land a cushy 6 figure job in the private sector if he does what he is told while he is in government service usually does what he is told.

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