John Stossel on the 'Parasite Economy'
How you helped pay for Stossel's beach house
We all complain about businesses we don't like, but because business is voluntary, every merchant must offer us something we want in order to get our money. That's not true for politicians and their businessman cronies. They get to use government force to grab our money. In his new book, The Libertarian Mind, Cato Institute Vice President David Boaz call this the "parasite economy."
The parasite economy creates a culture where businesses conclude that the best way to prosper is not by producing superior goods, but by lobbying. But it's not just companies that get dragged in, writes John Stossel. He has been a parasite himself, when it comes to government flood insurance and payouts. It was wrong, he writes, but it's tough, because government keeps making offers. Government handouts make parasites out of many of us.