Comments (9)

• jurisnaturalist

  I drove for a limo company during the inauguration here in DC.
  The VIP's I escorted had tickets of a quality directly proportional to the contributions they made to politicians.
  One client was able to trade two close-up tickets for five farther back on bleachers because the clerk managing the tickets liked him and knew how much he had given.
  Tickets to balls and other events were just as much in high demand, and the political process was the primary means of allocation.
  

  Published: March 5, 2009 11:20 AM

• Robert Meyer

  I must state that this article is logical, hard-hitting and definitely well written.

  Published: March 5, 2009 12:16 PM

• lightofliberty

  This is another golden nugget at mises.org.

  Published: March 5, 2009 12:17 PM

• greg

  I have more of a problem with nuts that paid $40,000 for a ticket. Of course, I have a problem with those that pay $20,000 for a Super Bowl ticket or $10 to see Elton John.

  Published: March 5, 2009 12:25 PM

• Brodie

  Excellent article. What is infuriating to me is not the fact that the tickets were supposed to be free. It is the fact that they were not distributed randomly, by like a drawing or something, to U.S. citizens. Of course the point you make that the government made it illegal to re-sell them is also very infuriating.

  Published: March 5, 2009 12:41 PM

• Enjoy Every Sandwich

  I wouldn't have gone even if I had a free ticket. After all, my time has value, too. Worshipping politicians is not a good use of that time.

  Published: March 5, 2009 1:48 PM

• pbergn

  Somewhat trite...

  The author is trying to re-iterate an age-old truism that greed and self-interest is deeply enrooted in human nature (and there is nothing wrong with it per se)...

  Of course politicians should first think of their inner circle of friends and family and the lobbyists who support them. "Quid pro quo" is a law of Nature.

  The strange thing about the author's criticism of government handling the president's inauguration, is that he does not point out that Free Market Capitalism in itself is based on greed, and the same "quid pro quo" principle. All he is advocating for is to change the masters - replace the government officials with bankers and other members of private business elite.

  Since, as he is acknowledging it, the tickets as a resource are scarce, no matter WHO is in charge - the market, or the politicians - the result will be exactly the same for those lower down in the food chain - they will be left out one way or another, since they are not members of financial and political elite which comprise the ruling class...

  What amazes me is that this truth is so self-evident and eternal, and can be summarized in one phrase: "Many are called but few are chosen". And if you are not one of the "chosen" - you better know your place...

  Published: March 5, 2009 2:47 PM

• Franklin

  To "Enjoy...":
  Agreed, but sadly our kind comprises nary a percentage point or two. I was delivering a trade presentation recently and was preceded by an individual who took a few moments of the audience's time to share his pictures of the inauguration, the multi-hour wait in long lines, packed trains, marathon walks, he and his kids and kids' boyfriends, among the gazillions, walking, and queuing, and being searched, bundled up against the elements, in order to be just under a mile of the Presidential podium.
  The audience marvelled at the crowds in the photographs, nodding in fascination. This was, after all, "history."

  Unlike an ignored Elton John concert, I and you paid for that show.
  

  Published: March 5, 2009 4:52 PM

• Grandma P

  And now they want to "reform" health care. Scares me to death!!!

  Published: March 7, 2009 1:24 PM