Why governments' attempts to pick winners produce more losers than winners.





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PJ O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores, p.8

"Our founding fathers lacked the special literary skills with which modern writers on the subject of government are so richly endowed. When they wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, they found themselves more or less forced to come to the point. So clumsy of thought and pen were the Founders that even today, seven generations later, we can tell what they were talking about", Parliament of Whores

— PJ O'Rourke


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PJ O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores, p.5a

"Imagine if all of life were determined by majority rule. Every meal would be a pizza. Every pair of pants, even those in a Brooks Brothers suit, would be stone-washed denim. Celebrity diet and exercise books would be the only thing on the shelves at the library. And - since women are a majority of the population - we'd all be married to Mel Gibson", Parliament of Whores (1991)

— PJ O'Rourke


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PJ O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores, p.5

"Majority rule is a precious, sacred thing worth dying for. But - like other precious, sacred things, such as the home and family - it's not only worth dying for; it can make you wish you were dead", Parliament of Whores

— PJ O'Rourke


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PJ O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores, p.3-4

"Our government gets more than thugs in a protection racket demand, more even than discarded first wives of famous rich men receive in divorce court. Then this government, swollen and arrogant with pelf, goes butting into our business", Parliament of Whores

— PJ O'Rourke


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PJ O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores, p.3

"What is this oozing behemoth, this fibrous tumour, this monster of power and expense hatched from the simple human desire for civic order? How did an allegedly free people spawn a vast, rampant cuttlefish of dominion with its tentacles in every orifice of the body politic?" Parliament of Whores

— PJ O'Rourke


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PJ O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores (6)

"Everyone with any sense and experience in life would rather take is fellows one by one than in a crowd. Crowds are noisy, unreasonable and impatient. They can trample you easier than a single person can. And a crowd will never buy you lunch", Parliament of Whores, Preface

— PJ O'Rourke


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PJ O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores (5)

"A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them", Parliament of Whores, Preface

— PJ O'Rourke


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PJ O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores (4)

"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys", Parliament of Whores, Preface

— PJ O'Rourke


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PJ O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores (3)

"Politics are a lousy way for a free man to get things done. Politics are, like God's infinite mercy, a last resort", Parliament of Whores, Preface to the British Edition

— PJ O'Rourke


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PJ O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores (2)

"Politics are collective, and, like any collective activity, they are always tending towards brown-shirted goose steps on the one hand or red-flagged brain washes on the other", Parliament of Whores, Preface to the British Edition

— PJ O'Rourke


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Quotes

"When government does, occasionally, work, it works in an elitist fashion. That is, government is most easily manipulated by people who have money and power already. This is why government benefits usually go to people who don't need benefits from government. Government may make some environmental improvements, but these will be improvements for rich bird-watchers. And no one in government will remember that when poor people go bird-watching they do it at Kentucky Fried Chicken", All the trouble in the world (1994)

— P.J. O'Rourke



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