The reason there is an interventionist-welfare state is that there are individuals and groups in the society who want “other people’s money.” The political process is the mechanism that these individuals and groups use to get that money via regulation, protections, and redistribution.
“Following the money,” therefore, can be extemely useful to determining what is behind much of what government does. This is what I do in a new piece I’ve written entitled, “Obama Thanks His Friends: Government Spending and Union Support.”
I trace out the clear connection between the Obama Administration’s activist policies for bailouting out the auto industry, Federal funds for public schools, and “stimulus” spending to supposedly create jobs in infrastructure projects to the huge political campaign contributions that the Democrats have received over the elections cycles from the trade unions since 1990.
Often there is a clear logic to simply “follow of the money,” specially when those spending the money do so to buy friendly politicians in office hope to get even more of other people’s money.
