Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the influence of legislation on commerce and suggests that those who make the laws can be exploited.
P. J. O'Rourke's quote reflects the idea that when the government intervenes in markets through legislation, there is a risk of corruption as legislators may prioritize their personal gain over public interest. The assertion underscores the potential for ethical compromise in politics, implying that the very individuals responsible for creating fair market conditions may themselves become commodities, thus compromising the integrity of the system.
Themes
LegislationPoliticsCorruptionCommerceEthics
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on campaign finance reform, this quote could illustrate the issue of buying influence in politics.
More from P. J. O'Rourke
All quotes βAlways read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Predicting innovation is something of a self-canceling exercise: the most probable innovations are probably the least innovative.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
I spend my days kneeling in the muck of language, feeling around for gooey verbs, nouns, and modifiers that I can squash together to make a blob of a sentence that bears some likeness to reason and sense.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
The idea of a news broadcast once was to find someone with information and broadcast it. The idea now is to find someone with ignorance and spread it around.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
Similar quotes
Walks. The body advances, while the mind flutters around it like a bird.
Jules RenardRead
Violence can succeed, as Americans know well from the conquest of the national territory. But at terrible cost. It can also provoke violence in response, and often does.
Noam ChomskyRead
Hell is not fire and brimstone, not a place where you are punished for lying or cheating or stealing. Hell is wanting to be something and somewhere different from where you are.
Stephen LevineRead
Strange to say, the luminous world is the invisible world; the luminous world is that which we do not see. Our eyes of flesh see only night.
Victor HugoRead
He spent six hours examining things, trying to find a difference from their appearance on the previous day in the hope of discovering in them some change that would reveal the passage of time.
Gabriel Garcia MarquezRead
And if you can't shape your life the way you want, at least try as much as you can not to degrade it.
C.P. CavafyRead