>>>The objection is to those who make themselves feel righteous by "doing good "spending other people's money. <g>
>>
>>Righteous? Dang, they should feel responsible, and be hung by their spheres if they swindle it out.
>
>I don't think the problem is corruption on the part of the elected. I think there are well-meaning people whose primary concern is to think well of themselves, to think what good, compassionate, caring people they are. They really believe that by taking other peoples money and spending it on social programs that look like they should accomplish something they are proving what good people they are. They have little interest whether or not the solutions actually work and in fact don't really care much about the people they are trying to "help", as they have already accomplished their personal goals of knowing they are good people and not like those nasty people who don't care enough to throw other people's money at problems.

That's no better than charity. It's so easy to be generous with other people's money and feel important at that. The same spherical geometry theorem applies.