The only winning strategy is not to play the game…

How is it that America legislative politics have gotten so out of touch, so out of hand– so out of whack?  It’s no secret that lobbying has contorted the system.  Here, from UC Berkeley Post-Doc Fellow David Zetland, a wonderfully elegant explanation of how…

He demonstrates the “all-pay auction,” in which every bidder must pay his/her final bid, regardless of whether or not it wins.

 

Given the “all-pay auction” character of the donation-for-consideration system in Congress, politicians, the beneficiaries of the accumulated bidding for their favors, make out like…  er, bandits.  But citizens– and for that matter, the lobbying interests?  Not so much.

As Zetland observes (alluding to the 1980s classic War Games), the only winning strategy is not to play the game.

At the risk of sounding like the proverbial broken record, check out Change Congress.