The costs of rent seeking: A metaphysical problem

Abstract

It is well known that one of the reasons that Congressmen vote for such things as protective tariffs and the farm subsidy program is that they think it will attract votes. Economists are almost always opposed to these items because they think that they injure the voters. Technically speaking, what happens is that the voters specialize their vote, i.e., concentrate their entire preference function on one particular issue (or a few issues) which has considerable importance to them. Other voters, concentrating their voting decision on other special issues, ignore the well-being of the first voter.