The cost of politicians

Martin Hutchinson has an excellent essay up on Asia Times Online - The cost of politicians:

...One of the great ironies of the American Revolution is that the colonists, who rebelled against British-imposed taxes lower than those of the mother country, were in reality living in the lowest tax polity in the history of civilized mankind. Needless to say, once the United States had achieved independence, the taxation on its people was never as low again, even though for the country's first century and a half most US governments pursued admirably frugal policies.

....Finally the third area, economically counterproductive decisions made in pursuit of non-economic goals. Try World War I for a start, on the parts of both Britain and the United States. Neither had anything to gain economically or even politically from participation in the war, yet in both cases political blundering in pursuit of no well-established principle caused untold economic as well as personal harm. Similarly, the 2003 invasion of Iraq had no clear economic justification - if it was undertaken to keep oil prices down, then why are they running at four times their level when the operation was undertaken?

...The solutions are difficult, but the problem is there and appears to be getting worse. The number of lobbyists in Washington has doubled since 2000 and the annual number of Congressional spending earmarks has multiplied by 10 since 1994. As we turn our jaded attention once again to the political process and the selection of a government for 2009-13, it is worth remembering: There must be a better way."