In this setting, compassionate politicians, bureaucrats, and pressure groups, endowed with government power, maximize their self interest as do buyers and sellers in the marketplace. Players in the political market enjoy the power to coerce their fellow citizens. Since he lacks the intensity of a member of a pressure group, the voter sees no benefit in raising an alarm. The poor are hurt because they do not organize as effectively as farmers, academics, and Social Security recipients. Politics being what it is, criticizing aid for families with dependent children is easier than denouncing aid for dependent textile workers.
Some economists are fond of invoking the idea of market failure to justify government intervention.
However, they assume that government or political markets are immune from failure. One reason is paternalism concerning the poor's supposed inability to spend money properly. Another factor is that politicians can target special interest groups with an increased demand for their products. Farm support for food stamps and the American Medical Association's advocacy of Medicare and Medicaid are good examples. Government, he says, should pursue a growing economy by lowering taxes, establishing school choice, legalizing drugs to end the violence that surrounds the illicit trade, and abolishing the minimum wage, the Davis-Bacon Act and occupational licensing.